Blood That Flows
by Nanya
Summary: In Mid-Childan Year 0050, a powerful sorceress found herself lost on Non-Adminstered World 97. Fifteen years later, her daughter is about to discover her mother's legacy and her own destiny. Rated M for the StrikerS arc.
1. Season One:  Prologue

Blood That Flows

Prologue

Disclaimer: I own nothing, nothing at all.

So, I started this little crossover due to some ideas given to me on TFF. It wasn't meant to go beyond this one short. It's grown into a rather long fic.

* * *

Looking at her house as she came home, Nanoha wondered how she was going to explain why she took off suddenly. Well, that and the ferret in her hands. She doubted she was going to have to bring up magic. With the way her mother always commented on the way television shows made magic look so fake, she didn't want to know what her mother would do if she said she could use magic.

So, when her mother opened the door after her brother and sister interrogated her a bit, she gulped. Her mother's eyes seemed to glint slightly, before she smiled and patted Nanoha on the head. "Welcome home, Nanoha. And who's this little guy?" She looked at the ferret that was in Miyuki's hands, before petting him gently. "He's rather cute."

Nanoha smiled softly. Well, at least things didn't seem to be too bad. "He's the ferret I was telling you about earlier, mother."

"He's so cute!" Miyuki gushed over the little ferret. "Can we keep him, mom?"

"Now, now..." The older woman crossed her arms and closed her eyes. "He may be someone's pet, we can't just keep him for no reason at all."

"The vet he was staying at was blown up?" Nanoha chuckled as her mother nodded at that.

"That's acceptable. So, for now, we'll keep the little guy." She smiled at her youngest daughter. "But you need to take good care of him, Nanoha."

"I will! I promise!" She nodded to her mother and smiled.

"Good, come on, let's go inside and relax, it is getting late."

The next morning...

Nanoha stretched as she woke up. "Nnnngh... Morning, Yuuno."

"Morning, Nanoha." The ferret said to her. "Your mother's nice."

Nanoha nodded. "Uh huh. She's nice, and pretty and..."

"A mage." Yuuno finished, causing Nanoha to spin and look at him as if he was crazy. "I could feel it, she's very powerful."

"Nyahahahahaha... You're kidding, Yuuno. My mom's not a mage."

"Yes she is, Nanoha." The ferret nodded at her. "I thought it was weird that you had such strong power, but if your mom is that strong, it makes a lot of sense."

"My mom's just a normal woman, though she's really good with cutting things with that large knife of hers." Nanoha giggled and stuck her tongue out as she rubbed the back of her head. "But, powerful magic? Come on, Yuuno, you're pulling my leg."

Yuuno sighed softly, even as he explained how to use telepathy to Nanoha, he wondered why her mother hadn't explained magic to her yet.

* * *

"Dear?" Shiro looked at his wife, who looked up from cutting vegetables. "...I wish you wouldn't use that blade of yours so much."

She shrugged at that. "The kids think it's just a large knife, they don't know it's the dagger that I used to use to carve up bandits with. So, what's the problem?"

"How come you didn't say anything to Nanoha last night?"

She shook her head. "No... I don't think doing that would be for the best right now. Her heritage is waking up now. I'll let her grow into it a bit before explaining things to her."

Shiro sighed, it made sense to him, but still, he wanted to talk to Nanoha about what she was going through. "I imagine she probably has a lot of questions." His wife giggled at him. "What?"

"Oh, that look on your face." She practically purred as she put her dagger down and walked up to him. "It reminds me why I fell for you when I first got here."

He chuckled at her and stared into her eyes. "Can you drop the glamor?" He didn't mind his wife's blue eyes, but he wanted to see her real color again.

She closed her eyes and waved her hand by her face lazily. When she opened them, they had changed color from blue in both eyes to her right eye being red and her left eye being gold. "I don't really like this... It reminds me too much of how I got like this."

Shiro shrugged at that. "Hey, I'm not complaining. Besides, if it wasn't for you, I doubt I'd be here right now."

She sighed as he hugged her. Leaning her head against his chest, she just listened to his heartbeat. "I know. Doesn't make it any easier." She then looked up at him. "Besides," she grinned saucily at him, "if the worst thing Nanoha has to deal with is a thing that can blow up a clinic, then I'm not going to worry."

"Don't say that, you'll jinx it."

She shuddered and hoped that wasn't the case.

* * *

Blinking as she saw the ferret her daughter kept as a pet, though she was certain that it was something more than that by now, she wondered why he was here. She had come by due to an odd sensation she had felt, and she thought that her children wouldn't mind a ride home. Unless Shinobu managed to convince Kyouya with some of her cooking.

"Kyu! Kyu!" The ferret tried to get her attention as it ran around her legs before running back the way it came.

Sighing, she followed the thing, before gasping as she came across her daughter's downed form. "Nanoha!" After making sure that her daughter was alive, she sighed and shook her head. "You silly girl, what happened to you?" She had felt the magic distortions, but at the time it hadn't occurred to her to do much about it.

Yuuno blinked as she turned to look at him. "Kyu?"

"Alright you, you're going to explain what happened to me."

"Kyu?" He tilted his head. Better to act like a ferret than let his true nature get revealed.

That went out a moment later when Nanoha's mother held up a hand and a ball of pure flames materialized in it as she narrowed her eyes at him. "I can make these pretty small, I'm sure that I can burn only most of your body."

"I'll talk! I'll talk!" When the flames dissipated, he let out a sigh. "I was right though! You are a mage."

She grimaced slightly. "Sorceress, not mage, close though."

"Why didn't you tell Nanoha that you could do magic?"

She shook her head and concentrated, a white light appearing in her hands as she worked on healing her daughter's body. "It isn't something that everyone has. Even those of us born to parents of magic users aren't guaranteed to be able to use magic." She smirked slightly. "An old friend of mine probably had more potential than I did for using magic, but his memory was so bad that he could never remember any chants for the spells."

"But, what about..?"

"As for why I never told her, ferret, it's simple." She gave him a serious look that had him frozen in place. "There was never a need for her to know about magic. She didn't need to know that she had a lot of potential in magic, there's no dragons, or demons, or other things running around that would require her to use powerful magic, so I never told her about her heritage, nor did I teach her anything."

Yuuno looked at the woman as she sighed heavily. "But now?"

"I wish I had."

"Hey, it's okay. Nanoha's a fast learner, you could..."

The woman shook her head. "That's enough, now, explain what happened here and why my daughter was injured in the trees behind her friend's house."

After hearing the explanation, she sighed. "A rival, huh? Please tell me that she doesn't have an annoying laughter that chills you to the bones."

"Uh... No." Yuuno looked confused, wondering why she'd ask that. "Are you going to tell Nanoha that you can do magic?"

"Not yet." She shook her head. "Not until we go on our family vacation." She smiled at him and suddenly Yuuno felt very nervous. "Far less of a chance I'll accidentally kill someone with my magic."

Yuuno's jaw hit the ground, she wasn't serious, was she?

"You probably don't believe me, huh?" She smiled at him as she indicated her golden eye. "Trust me, using my magic isn't the safest thing in the world." She blinked as she put the glamour back up, her eyes turning blue again.

"I'll... Take your word for it." Yuuno stuttered a bit as Nanoha groaned and woke up.

"Mom?" Nanoha blinked at her. "What are you doing here?"

She shrugged at Nanoha. "Just happened to be in the neighborhood, honey."

"Oh..." Nanoha blinked, wondering how she was going to explain everything.

A few days later...

"So, did they go to sleep, Falin?"

"Yes, Mrs. Takamachi." The maid nodded to her as she smiled softly.

"Good." She smiled as Falin yawned lightly. "Why don't you go to bed too, Falin?"

"What about you, Mrs. Takamachi?" The maid blinked as she smiled softly.

"It's okay. Just get some sleep, I'm going to be up for a little bit, so don't worry." When Falin nodded, she sat in her chair and looked at Shiro, who was sighing softly. "She needs to know, dear."

"I know." Shiro sighed softly. "Are you sure though?"

"She needs to learn somehow, right?" He nodded at her. "Don't worry, I'm not going to teach her anything dangerous," she rolled her eyes as he snorted at her, "I've mellowed out a lot in the years, Shiro, it won't be like what happened in China."

"I know." He smiled at her and kissed her on the lips gently. "I'm more worried about Nanoha though."

"Go to bed." She rolled her eyes as she pulled a black cloak around her body. "We'll be fine."

"Maybe I should be more worried about the landscape?" Shiro muttered as he pulled away from her.

Laughing and rolling her eyes, she slapped him on his butt and shooed him off. "Don't worry about it." She smirked as he promised her later.

Schooling her features, she turned to the door as she saw her daughter try and slip out the side door. "I guess Yuuno told you, hmm?"

"Ack!" Nanoha spun around and gasped as she looked at her mother. "I thought everyone went to sleep."

"They did." She smiled softly. "Walk with me, you too, Yuuno."

"Kyu!" The ferret bounded up on top of Nanoha's shoulder as the young girl followed her mother away from the building.

When her mother stopped in a clearing, Nanoha gulped slightly, she could feel it, a Jewel Seed was nearby. "Mother?"

The woman turned to her and gripped at the front of her cloak. "I need to show you something, Nanoha."

Nanoha's eyes widened, a pulse ran through her. "Ngh.. I'm sorry, mother, but there's something I have to take care of." She turned and ran, mentally apologizing for running out on her mother like that.

Sighing, the older woman shook her head. "Well..." She chuckled to herself. "Might as well see what it's all about." Dropping the glamor around her eyes, she took off after her daughter and the ferret, albeit from a distance. After all, if her daughter didn't need help, she didn't want Nanoha to think she was in danger.

* * *

'Pink...' She groaned while looking at her daughter fight that blond-haired girl. 'My daughter's magic is pink.' There had to be some sort of cosmic coincidence for this, there just had to be. Her left eye pulsed slightly and she grumbled. 'Sure do have a sense of humor, huh, Lady?'

Still, as she sat by a nearby rock, she could see her daughter's power, potential and strength, which was good, however, the lack of skill and any real spells was a problem though. Sighing softly, she waited until the duel came to an end. "Well, guess it's better this way." She chuckled to herself as she dropped her cloak and stepped out.

* * *

Fate Testarossa was about to claim her prize when the area lit up. Looking up, her eyes widened as several flaming projectiles were launched at her. Flying back, she idly noted that the girl in white had managed to get away from the attack as well. "Who?" She looked around, before stopping as she saw a woman with red hair, a red and yellow outfit wearing a cape and holding some sort of dagger, looking at her and smirking.

"M...Mom? What are you doing here?"

"Oh, I just happened to be in the neighborhood, honey. Now, why don't you let your old woman show you how a real magic battle should be fought?"

'At least that explains why she has so much magic.' Fate thought to herself as she floated in the air. Regardless...

**"Photon Lancer."**

"Mom! Look out!" Nanoha yelled, her eyes wide as Fate's magical projectiles were launched at her mother. Surprisingly enough, her mother did nothing but smirk at them as she raised a hand up. "What?" Nanoha stared in shock as the attacks bounced off of an invisible barrier that sprung up.

"Those attacks weren't bad, little girl, but I've known insane third rate sorcerers who could do better than that."

"Grr... Why you!" That familiar growled and ran up to Nanoha's mother, trying to punch her in the head. Her eyes widened as the redheaded woman ducked under the attack, grabbed her arm and pushed her body up, driving her head into the familiar's gut, before she was slammed to the ground. "Nnngh."

"Why don't you try that again, wolfgirl?" The woman said in a bored tone of voice. "This time, I'll make sure not to dodge it."

Rolling to her feet, the wolf growled at her. "Why you!"

"Arf, wait." The blond girl called out softly, watching, in a lot of shock, as the woman grabbed Arf's fist with ease, before squeezing it and bringing her familiar to her knees with a cry of pain.

"Please, is that the limits of your strength?" The woman twisted Arf's arm, causing her to cry out in pain as pressure was put on her hand and arm. "Girl, I used to have to fight trolls and ogres, and let me tell you something, the little bit of strength you have is nothing compared to them." Using her free hand, the woman tapped her chin. "Then again, my husband did teach me a lot of hand-to-hand after I met him." Suddenly she grabbed her dagger and swung it out, the blade of her weapon meeting the axe blade of Fate's weapon. "So, you're the one who hurt my daughter, huh?"

"Who, ngh..." Fate grimaced, her arms were shaking from the strength she was putting into her attack, but the other woman wasn't budging. "Who are you?"

"Who am I, you ask?" The woman smirked as she looked at Fate with her red and golden eyes. "My name is Lina Takamachi. But I used to be known as Lina Inverse."

* * *

So, there you go. Lina Inverse is Nanoha Takamachi's mother. MWAHAHAHAHAHA!

Canon is going to be LOTS of fun this time around!


	2. Season One:  Chapter One

Blood That Flows

Chapter One

Disclaimer: I own nothing, nothing at all.

* * *

It was a tense stand-off, or rather, it would have been tense if a redheaded woman with mis-matching eyes holding off a blonde-haired, red-eyed girl with an axe with a dagger in one hand and a redheaded wolf girl with her other hand wasn't so preposterous that it bordered on hilarious.

"Now, are we going to be a good little girl and calm down and talk, or am I going to have to teach you a lesson about fighting your betters?" Lina Takamachi grinned at Fate, who flew backwards, a magic circle appeared under her as she charged up several magic attacks.

"Mother!" Nanoha called out as Lina let go of Arf before kicking her away.

"Nanoha, be a dear and keep that mutt out of this." Lina turned away from them as she focused on Fate. "Well then, how about we have a nice little... Bomb Di Wind!"

Fate's eyes widened as a MASSIVE hurricane force wind crashed into her body with enough force to send her flying, literally, hundreds of feet away, even with her barrier up, she couldn't keep herself from being blown back from the force.

Lina sighed. She didn't need to use the names for the attacks anymore, not since that fight all those years ago. 'Lady, are you really so fickle?' She twitched as her left eye throbbed softly. 'I guess you are.'

"Fate!" Arf yelled from her position under pink and green binds. "Let me go!" Arf growled at Yuuno and Nanoha, both of whom where rather stunned from that one attack.

"Stop your worrying." Lina rolled her eyes at the wolf girl. "She'll be fine, maybe a little shaken up and she might need a change of underwear, but she's just fine." Lina then tapped her chin in thought. "Well, unless she crashes through a few trees, ends up tangled in vines and finally crashes into a bee hive."

"Uh..."

"What?" Lina looked at the three children looking at her as if she was crazy. "Have you never had to deal with bee stings when those guys are pissed?" She shuddered at the memories. "Not as bad as the time my sister left me out in the rain covered in slugs, but still pretty bad." She jumped away as several lightning strikes hit where she had been moments before. "Huh, looks like she recovered pretty fast." Lina looked up to see a panting Fate looking down at her. Shaking her head, Lina wondered if it was in her blood to have her family attacked by people who were crazy.

Fate wasn't surprised as the woman flew up to look her in the eyes. "I won't let..."

"Let what? Let me get away with attacking you? Let me interfere with you attacking my daughter?" Lina raised an eyebrow as a sphere of fire appeared in the palm of her hand. "Or let me win?"

Fate flew back as the fireball was tossed at her at high speed. She blinked as the woman smirked at her before looking up and gasping as the fireball twist and turn in mid air before coming back down at her. Throwing her shield up, she grunted as it crashed with impressive force, the explosion, heat and power that happened from that was just as impressive. Miraculously, her barrier held and left her winded from the effort. "I...Impossible."

"I suggest that you stop." She turned to look at the woman, who was holding two more spheres of deadly fire in her hands. "If I was sixteen, you'd have a very good chance, heck, you might be able to beat me with some luck, but," Lina disappeared and reappeared in front of Fate, her knife at the blonde girl's neck, "I've gotten more experience since then, and due to certain events, kiddo, there's not much you can do."

Fate gulped slightly, before blinking as the woman smiled at her and put her dagger away. "...What?"

"What's going to happen is that we're going to set down, go back to the hotel where we're staying and talk about everything."

Something about the way her eyes glinted and the grin on her face had Fate nodding in haste as the two of them floated to the ground.

"FATE!" Arf yelled as the binds were released. She ran to the little blonde and hugged her before glaring at Lina. "You..."

"Shut up." Lina scoffed at the familiar. "Nanoha, honey..."

"Yes?"

Lina smiled at her and the ferret. "I hope you two learned something from that, I'm going to train the hell out of you in magic after this."

The way they gulped was music to her ears.

* * *

Shiro looked up as he saw his wife, his daughter, the ferret, a blonde girl and a redheaded young woman all walk into the room. "Welcome back, Lina, Nanoha, Yuuno. And who are these two lovely ladies?"

Despite the weirdness of the situation, Nanoha giggled as both Fate and Arf spluttered at the question.

"Meet Fate Testarossa and her familiar Arf. Why are you still up, dear?" Lina sighed as he shrugged at her question.

"Hard to sleep when two of the three most important women in my life aren't nearby. Now..." Shiro smiled as he placed several cups of warm tea around the table. "Why don't we sit down and enjoy some tea?"

After the small group sat around the table, though Lina made sure to sit near Fate and Arf, everything descended into quiet for a bit, before Lina cleared her throat. "One thing that's been bothering me... Yuuno..."

"Yes?" The ferret blinked at her as she smiled at him.

"You're not a Mazoku are you?"

"A... What?" Yuuno blinked as Lina sighed softly.

"Never mind." She shook her head and looked at Fate, who was looking down at her lap quietly. "Now, Fate, tell me just why you and my daughter are fighting."

Fate looked at her surprised. "Hasn't she told you?"

Lina took a sip of her tea before answering that. "Well, I guess it's over these magical trinkets that are floating around, but I'd like to hear your side of things." Lina had lost count over how many fights had happened simply because both sides didn't have all information on hand. Lina knew, however, that there was always a time and place to with-hold information from people. A small fight between two magic users wasn't one of those times.

Fate looked down and sighed softly, how could she just tell them everything? They wouldn't understand, she needed them. As soon as she got them for her mother, everything would be perfect, she'd stop being mad all the time, she'd go back to the way things were.

"Alright, if you don't want to talk, then I guess I'll have to make some guesses here." Lina cleared her throat for a moment. "Feel free to tell me if I'm right or wrong here. You, Fate Testarossa, are gathering the Jewel Seeds, not for yourself, but for someone else. Why? You don't know, you were never told, you just know that they're important and are doing it for that person, likely someone you look up to and adore, likely a family member that's close to you. However, recently, things have changed and something bad happened, even so, you're still trying your hardest to set things right with this person. Since I'm not feeling any anger from you, I'm guessing that you still care a lot for them." Lina let out a breath she didn't know she had. "Well? Am I right?"

"...How..?" Fate asked softly, her eyes wide as she looked at the woman, who fell over in shock.

"Wagh! I was just joking! I never expected to be right!" She sighed and shook her head. "Really, I was just comparing your situation to the situation of an old friend of mine. His grandfather, or was it great-grandfather?" She shrugged, it wasn't important. "Did something pretty bad to him, mutating his body into something far different than it was before. However, even so, the guy still loved his grandfather. It wasn't until he found out that it was an experiment for his grandfather to regain the usage of his eyes that my friend got upset. Heck, before that, he had gone so far as to track down a powerful magical artifact for his grandfather before turning on him." Lina stopped for a moment. "Then again, it's been a long time, my memories of it are a little fuzzy." She giggled and stuck her tongue out.

"...Now I see where you get your silliness from, Nanoha." Yuuno spoke to Nanoha telepathically as he sweat-dropped.

"Anyway..." Shiro spoke up, catching Fate and Arf's attention. "I can imagine that while you want these..."

"Jewel Seeds, dad." Nanoha supplied for him, causing him to smile at her.

"Jewel Seeds, I can imagine that they aren't safe. After all, if you're willing to hurt Nanoha for them, they must be of some value." Seeing the blonde fidget slightly, he shook his head. "Are you worried that we'll punish you?"

Fate flinched slightly, it was barely noticeable, Nanoha and Yuuno didn't catch it, Arf almost missed it, but to Shiro and Lina, both of whom had a lifetime of reading body language, that said a lot.

"We won't harm you, Miss Testarossa." Shiro smiled at her softly. "My wife here has stated that if you want to fight Nanoha for these things, that's fine, but..." He looked at Lina, who shook her head and chuckled slightly.

"As far as I can tell, these things are pretty dangerous, right?" Seeing Yuuno nod, she smirked at the children. "Well then, from now on, the two of you are forbidden to fight." Seeing the stunned looks on all of the children's faces, Lina leaned back against her chair slightly. "Let me explain something to you children. These things are dangerous, you want them badly, that's fine, but if they're as unstable as I've been feeling then I don't want you fighting over them until they're all sealed up." She then smirked in a way that had Fate and Nanoha flinching for some unknown reason. "After all, I'd rather not wake up one morning and find out that something like a Dragon Slave went off in the middle of the city, reducing it to rubble and killing millions of people who were asleep."

"A... What?"

Lina sighed as she saw the looks of confusion on the children's faces. "Dragon Slave, you know, strong as a tactical nuclear weapon?" Seeing the blank, though slightly fearful, looks on their faces had Lina groaning slightly. "It was easier when I was a kid. Just throw a Dragon Slave at a mountain and turn it to rubble and prove a point. Why'd I have to grow up, get married and have a kid like this?" She looked at Shiro, before sighing and smiling. "Oh yeah, I fell in love, that's why."

Fate wasn't sure what to think about this woman, she seemed unstable at times, but at other times, she seemed really dangerous, and still for all of that, she seemed to have a great amount of love for her family. 'Why?' She asked herself, her chest hurting as she looked at them. Why couldn't she have this with her mother? That's all she wanted. Was it so wrong?

"Well, I think we've all been up long enough." Lina changed the subject, getting a blink from everyone. "Nanoha, you and Yuuno better get back into that room and get some sleep."

"But..."

"Go, Nanoha." Lina smiled at her. "I promise, nothing bad will happen, okay?"

"Um, okay..." Nanoha got up from the table and quietly made her way into the room and closed the door behind her.

"As for you, Fate..." Lina narrowed her eyes at the blonde girl, who gulped slightly. "Do you want to stay for breakfast in the morning?" She finished with a large grin, causing Fate to balk slightly and Arf to face-fault loudly. "Doesn't that hurt?"

"But, I, um..."

Lina sighed at the girl's stuttering. "Look, Fate, I don't really care why you're fighting Nanoha for these things. But I would rather the two of you stopped fighting each other for them until they're all sealed away." She then smiled at her gently, getting a blush from the girl. "Besides, you don't seem like a bad girl to me." Hell, the more Lina spent around Fate, the more she was reminded of Zelgadis for some odd reason. "Listen, Fate, Arf, if you two need help in the future, don't be afraid to ask me for some help." She then winked at them. "Just don't ask for help fighting Nanoha, okay?"

"Um..." She nodded slightly at the older woman, unsure as to what to say.

"Good!" Lina grinned at her. "So, tonight, you and Arf are going to sleep here, eat breakfast and then you can go back to where you live."

"But..."

"What kind of person would I be if I didn't put you two up for the night?" Getting flustered as Lina pushed Fate to her room, the small blonde wondered what happened as she found herself quickly stripped and changed into a large shirt, well, large for her body at any rate.

"Um..."

Lina shook her head. "I don't doubt you have a place that you can stay, Fate." She smiled as she unrolled a sleeping bag for the blonde as Shiro and Arf walked into the room. Arf was both confused and amused by what she was seeing. "But if there's one thing I know, it's that a good night's sleep and some food really makes everything better in the morning."

Fate tried to resist, to complain about how she was being treated, but for some reason, it was pretty hard. It got even harder when Fate when Lina grinned like a cat at her. 'Linith...' She thought to herself as she was put into the sleeping bag.

"Now then..." Lina smirked as she saw Arf, in her wolf form, lay down next to Fate. "If I wake up and see you two gone in the morning, I'll go out and hunt you two down the next time a Jewel Seed activates." After Shiro crawled into bed with her, she turned off the lights. "Sleep well."

"But... I never said that I would stay the night..." Fate said softly, but was ignored by Lina and Shiro. Even Arf couldn't say much to it.

Still, for some reason, Fate found herself falling asleep shortly after the lights went out.

Chapter 1 end

* * *

Poor Fate, she really can't compete with Lina's more dominant personality, can she?


	3. Season One: Chapter Two

Blood That Flows

Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I own nothing. If you come after me, L-Sama will hit you with her shovel.

Note: Just a warning, there will be information that doesn't seem to appear in the anime in this chapter. I'll tell you, right now, that I pull information from the Slayers anime and the novels. So, there will be things that weren't in the anime that were in the novels.

I pull a LOT of information from the Slayers novels.

* * *

"Now! Lina Inverse!" The blue-haired child-looking Mazoku grinned at her. "Cast the Giga Slave! Or perhaps..." He looked at the pillars that contained her friends. "You'd rather I destroy them?"

"I get it." Lina muttered, though she wanted to scream at him to shut up.

"Oh, and don't even THINK about using that Ragna Blade of yours on me like you did on Gaav." Hellmaster Phibrizzo waggled a finger at her. "I'll just jump away again. That thing hurts you know."

"Fine!" She screamed, she stopped caring about it. "I don't care anymore, Phibrizzo." The Demons Blood Talismans glowed as she called forth the power of the four Ma-Oh that existed, begging for the power that could defeat Phibrizzo.

_"Darkness beyond blackest pitch_  
_Deeper than the deepest night_  
_Lord of Darkness who shines gold as the Sea of chaos_  
_I call Upon thee and swear myself to thee._  
_I stand ready to bear the strength you give me._  
_Let the fools who stand before me be destroyed_  
_By the power you and I possess!"_

Hellmaster started laughing. "Yes! This is what I want! Yes!"

_"GIGA!"_

Lina's eyes widened as she coughed up blood. 'What?' The spell had completed, what, what happened?

"Before you finally meet your end, Miss Inverse, you should know that what you ate this morning... That food... Was actually a part of me." He started laughing more as the Giga Slave went out of control. "Yes! Consume the world! Destroy everything!"

**"Is that what you want?"**

Hellmaster stopped laughing as he looked at Lina Inverse. "What the? Who are you?" That wasn't Lina Inverse. The presence was too strong, the power too great, not to mention the golden hair and eyes, as well as the black and gold lightning that crackled around her. A moment later he was lifted up by an unseen force, before being flung at the wall behind him. After landing, he scrambled and tried to phase through the wall behind him, but failed as an unseen force, far more powerful than even him, pulled him back in front of her.

**"I am the one who is Darker Than Blackest Pitch."** She walked forward, causing him to run back until he fell over and crashed against the wall behind him. **"I am Deeper Than The Deepest Night. I am The Sea Of Chaos, The source of all Chaos. That is how you describe me. I am..." **A black ball appeared in her hand.** "The Lord of Nightmares."**

"It... It can't be!" Phibrizzo, in all of his thousands of years, had never felt fear such as what he was feeling from himself at that moment. "The Giga Slave! That spell! I thought it only drew power from you! How can you be here?" It made no sense, all spells worked that way! They drew upon power from something so that it could be used. The Giga Slave didn't? It wasn't a spell? But HER?

**"My Mind is my Power. My Power is my Mind. When uncorrupted by other elements, my Mind becomes my Purest Power."**

Standing up, Phibrizzo started laughing maniacally before jumping back and talking about plans and how everything had been detailed out before slamming his fists down on the ground and destroying the area around him. "Everything's destroyed... Everything." Curling up into a ball, he started mumbling something, she honestly could care less. "No, wait... Destruction. That's what all Mazoku wish for!" He looked up and grinned, slightly disturbed, his body starting to fall apart due to the sheer power she was putting out. "That's what... You created us for, isn't it, mother?"

She watched as he revealed his true form to her. It looked something like a giant tea kettle, but to anyone who saw it, it was the most terrifying thing ever.

Except to her, the one who existed before reality. To her, he was nothing more than a petulant child throwing a temper tantrum. When he attacked her, she decided to end it. **"In this Place,"** the look of terror on his face as the attack failed was amusing. She wondered how many people had that same look when facing him in the past, **"My Mind is the _only _Power."**

**"GWWAAAAHHHHHHHHH!" **Hellmaster Phibrizzo let out a soul-wrenching scream as she destroyed his Astral Body, letting his physical body to flop around on the ground. Dispassionately, she held a hand out, breaking his body and turning it into nothingness. Looking around, she watched as everything he created started crumbling and falling apart, before turning.

"Wait! Lina!" She heard someone, he sounded familiar to the person she was possessing. Turning, she saw a man with long blond hair look at her. "Where are you..."

**"I am not the one you know as Lina Inverse."**

"No, she's not." A new voice spoke up and she turned to see another Mazoku, though this one stopped and bowed respectively to her. "She is the Lord of Nightmares, the mother of all things and the creator of the Shinzoku and Mazoku."

"Xellos!" The blond man yelled at him. "What happened to Lina then?"

**"She cared not for what happened to her, as long as you,"** she pointed at Gourry, **"Lived. She summoned me and lost her life to Hellmaster Phibrizzo."**

As she turned around, she briefly heard someone running up to her. "You can't just leave! You can't just take Lina away from us!" That blond man again.

**"Bringing back someone from the dead, had she not been trying to summon me, would have been impossible."**

"Then take my life instead!" He yelled at her, spreading his arms wide.

"Mr. Gourry!" A short woman behind him gasped as she looked at him.

The Lord of Nightmares said nothing more as she closed her eyes a black ball consuming her. **"She gave everything, now I shall take her with me."**

"No!" Gourry ran after her, jumping into the ball as it consumed them.

**"I see, your devotion to her is this strong."**

* * *

Lina gasped as she woke up, her left eye throbbed in pain. "Nnngh... Been awhile since I had that dream." If she could ever figure out a way to get back home, the first thing she was going to do was find Xellos and shove a Dragon Slave up his rear-end. Sitting up, she looked down and sighed as she saw that Fate wasn't there anymore. Arf was still there, but Fate wasn't.

Getting up and putting a robe around her body, she walked out of the room and blinked as she saw Fate, in her black outfit, sitting by the open door and looking at the moon. "You're up early."

Fate turned to her and nodded. "I could say the same about you."

Lina nodded at her. "Want some tea or coffee? I'm not going to be getting back to sleep anytime soon."

"...Why?" Fate asked softly, catching Lina's attention. "Why are you so nice to me? Why aren't you mad at me for fighting your daughter? Why does she care?" It made no sense to Fate, that girl, Nanoha, she had everything that Fate wanted. Was she going to rub it in her face when all was said and done?

"Just because you're fighting her doesn't mean that you're a bad person, Fate. One of my best friends when I was younger was an enemy of mine at first, all because he wanted something I had, but I refused to give it to him." She smiled softly, that had been a rather... Interesting time in her life. "You don't have the feel of anger and hate to you, just... Emptiness and sadness."

Fate turned away from her as she put some coffee on. Her eyes closed and her body trembled as she thought about her own mother. Would she have cared if something happened? Fate wasn't sure.

She practically jumped as she felt a hand on her shoulder, turning, she saw the gentle smile on Lina's face, that gentle smile, those eyes, they might have been mis-matched in color but...

Lina blinked as Fate turned and hugged her, pressing her face against her body and shuddering as she started sobbing. Going quiet, she just rubbed the girl's back and let her cry. She didn't know what was going on in the girl's life, but sometimes, all that was needed was someone to cry against.

* * *

A little while later...

"You're not going to stop us from fighting?" Fate asked almost an hour after her small break-down had ended. Her face was washed and cleaned up, so no one other than Lina would know what happened.

After swallowing the coffee, Lina nodded at her. "If you want to fight Nanoha, that's fine, but just make sure that those Jewel Seeds are sealed up first, okay?" When Fate nodded, Lina smiled at her and ruffled her hair, getting a blush from the small girl. "I don't care if you fight her magically, the two of you could use some experience, but I was serious about not fighting until those Jewel Seeds were dealt with."

Fate sighed and looked at her lap. "...I need them."

Sighing, Lina wondered what she needed them for, but kept quiet. "Very well, Fate. Just ask yourself if it's worth it. Is whatever you're dealing with now worth the trouble?" Fate nodded, albeit slightly and Lina sighed softly. "Fate, it's okay to believe in someone, we all need to believe in someone, but it's not worth it if it causes nothing but misery in the end." Standing up, Lina took her glass to the sink as Fate sat there and thought about it. "But, if you think it is, I won't stop you." She looked back and smiled softly as Fate nodded at her. "But, like I said before, if you need help, don't be afraid to ask."

Fate nodded and looked as Arf came into the area. "Um..."

"I'd rather you two stick around for breakfast," Lina sighed as Fate squirmed, "but go ahead."

Fate bowed to her as she and Arf left the hotel room and disappeared into the early morning sky.

Sitting there for awhile as she looked at their retreating forms, Lina blinked as she felt arms wrap around her body.

"Must have been hard to let them go without getting all the information." She hear Shiro's voice as he kissed her on the cheek.

Sighing and leaning into his embrace, Lina shook her head slightly. "Not as hard you think it was." She would have preferred knowing what was going on, but Fate didn't seem like a bad girl, so Lina wasn't too concerned with what she was going to do next. "I'd be more concerned if she was more like me when I was younger."

Shiro chuckled at that. "It could be worse. Nanoha could be just like you."

Lina smirked at that. "Don't worry about that, when we get back, I'm going to spend every morning drilling Nanoha and that ferret."

Shiro sweat-dropped as his wife got a gleam in her eyes. "Um, dear, I don't know if they'd survive..."

"Oh, don't worry, I'm not going to teach them black or chaos magic." Lina rolled her eyes. "Just some elemental stuff, white magic, you know, the basics."

Shiro chuckled at that. "Hmm... We have a couple of hours before everyone wakes up." There was a glint in her eyes that told him that she was thinking the same thing as he was.

"Why, Shiro Takamachi, you're not thinking of taking me to bed, tying me down and doing all sorts of naughty things to my poor defenseless body, now are you?"

Smirking at her, he picked her up and carried her into their bedroom. "And how will you stop me?"

"Oh no! The vile man is going to defile a helpless maiden, whatever shall I do?" Shiro chuckled as he closed the door behind them.

* * *

A few days later...

"Your mother's crazy." Yuuno, now in his human form, panted. It hadn't taken Lina long to figure out that he had been able to shape-shift.

"Don't... Remind... Me..." Nanoha wheezed out between gasps of air.

Lina shook her head as she looked at them. "Come on, it's not _that_ hard. Just climb to the top of these steps while carrying those water buckets on your backs." Really, she had made Amelia do worse, this wasn't anything too bad. "You kids have no stamina." She shook her head again.

"Why... This... Shrine?" Yuuno asked as he and Nanoha finally got to the top of the steps.

"Well, for one, it's not really a shrine, but more like a large open area and two, well..." Lina pointed down behind them and the two kids blanched slightly. "It's also a good three stories straight up, less likely people will bother us while I teach you two magic." She turned and walked to the center of the open area. "So, let's begin." She smiled as they nodded at her.

Later...

Lina looked at Yuuno, who was drawing something in the dirt. "What are you doing?"

"Ack!" He jumped and looked at her. "Um, sorry, I'm just having some trouble doing any of the spells you've taught me." She nodded at that, knowing that he and Nanoha were both having some trouble with it. Anything more difficult to do than a simple barrier was pretty difficult, then again, considering that she couldn't use any of their spells very easily, it made a lot of sense to her. "But, I was thinking, and, that recovery spell you taught me is a lot like my own healing spells and I was just thinking about how the energies worked and I think I've got something."

"Oh?" This was interesting, to say the least.

Yuuno nodded. "Yeah! All magic is pretty similar, even if the styles are completely different. It's just changing how you gather energy and what matrixes you put it through that can determine if you can use a technique or not. I mean, any attack spell Nanoha knows can be done by someone else of a completely different style, it just needs to be modified to fit the user's preference and style of magic, so..."

Lina watched, interested as a green circle appeared under his feet. "I can't use the magic the same way you do, but if I do it like this..." A green wave of healing energies washed over the three of them and Lina blinked a few times before looking at Nanoha, who was standing straighter than before. "Um... I don't think that was recovery."

"No, it was, just a bit different." Lina chuckled softly. "Keep practicing it though, you'll get better at it." Smiling, she ruffled his hair and he blushed softly before she turned to Nanoha and grinned at her daughter. "Hey, Nanoha, I have an idea here."

"Mom?" She blinked as Lina asked for Raising Heart again. "Sure, but you said that you couldn't use it for much."

"Maybe I can't..." Lina chuckled softly. "But I think I know a few spells that will help you out." As she held it up in the air, Lina grinned a bit. "Let's see how this thing handles a Val Flare."

Seeing the shot of pure fire launch from the tip of Raising Heart, Nanoha grinned as if she had found a buffet that would let her eat all the food she wanted. She blinked as Lina tossed it back to her. "Mom?"

"Figure out how to modify that so you can use it more effectively, Nanoha, and I'll teach you some other spells."

Moving out of the way, Lina went over to Yuuno and showed him a few more spells that she knew. What surprised her was that he took to all her white magic fairly easily. The Black Magic she knew wasn't usable in this world, she didn't know Holy Magic, so that just left elemental and White Magic. Oh well, these kids didn't need those overly destructive spells anyway.

Maybe after things settled down, she would show them a spell she had come up with in the past fifteen years, but until things with Fate had calmed down, she didn't want Nanoha knowing it and accidentally using it.

After all, it would give her daughter a bad nickname if she used it too soon or in the wrong places.

* * *

Well, there you go, that's how Lina got to Nanoha's world.

Don't complain about the Giga Slave incantation. I changed it slightly to more accurately reflect what Lina did in the series. Really, I could have used her "Thou who is darker than blackest pitch" thing.

If you're wondering… Ma-Oh means supreme Mazoku Lord of the world. AKA Shabranigdo, Dark Star, Death Fog and Chaotic Blue.

Oh, for those who don't know, don't worry, Gourry didn't die, he was ejected from the Sea of Chaos right back to where he was before. The anime set it up pretty well.


	4. Season One: Chapter Three

Blood That Flows

Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Note: I know that some people are going to say that Nanoha-style magic is superior, or Slayers-style magic shouldn't be as good as it is. I'm going to say, just sit down and let me flesh the story out.

* * *

Miyuki pouted as she looked at the boy laying on the floor near Nanoha, both kids looked as if death had swam over them. "Mom! No fair! Yuuno's not very fun in the bath like this!" She sweat-dropped at her mother's look. "I meant him as a ferret, mom! He's cute and splashes around, it's fun."

"Uh huh..." Lina said with a flat look. "Yuuno, you _were_ a gentleman, weren't you?"

"Uh huh." The boy nodded tiredly. "Always looked away."

"Good boy!" Lina grinned at hearing that. "Because if you weren't, I'd have to work you even harder." She laughed as both Nanoha and Yuuno groaned loudly. "Oh, come on, that Mono Volt barely had any power behind it."

"Still shocking that you'd use it." Nanoha mumbled, her hair was all frizzy from that spell.

Lina laughed at her daughter. "Nice play on words, but anyway, you should get used to it."

Nanoha mumbled something about wanting to eat and Miyuki giggled at her. "Not funny, sis."

"I can't help it, your Nano-fro is all frizzy."

"Stop watching those American shows, Miyuki." Lina shook her head. "They'll rot your brains." She was actually grateful that her family was taking the news that she and Nanoha had magic so well, though, in retrospect, she probably should have guessed the only comment would be that they wanted to know sooner.

"So, mom..." Miyuki let out a slow grin. "When can we get magic swords?"

"As soon as the Sword of Light shows up, which I doubt will happen any time soon." Though, that might have been interesting. Lina did remember something about there being more than just the Sword of Light, but those had been rumors, nothing concrete. "Then again, even if it shows up, you're not getting it." She didn't want to risk if the rumors that the Sword of Light drained its user of their intelligence being real after all.

"Aww..." Miyuki pouted at hearing that.

"If you have time to complain, you and Kyouya can spar in the dojo." Lina chuckled as she went about making breakfast for everyone.

"I think I'll go practice anyway." Miyuki chuckled as she slipped out. "Oh, mom..."

"Yes?" Lina looked at her oldest daughter, blinking. "What is it?"

"That knife of yours... Does it ever get dull?"

Lina grinned and closed her eyes. "Now that... Is a secret." She waggled a finger at Miyuki, who sweat-dropped, before Lina broke down in a fit of laughter. "Oh man, I've wanted to do that for years."

Miyuki sighed and shook her head. Sometimes she wondered about her mother.

After getting the table set up, Lina looked at Nanoha, who had rolled over and fallen asleep next to Yuuno. "...So cute." She smiled and pulled out a camera, before snapping a few photos. "Alright, you two." She shook them until they looked at her blearily. "Breakfast." She bit back a laugh as they woke up in an instant and practically teleported over to the table. Seeing her redheaded daughter and her blond friend practically drooled over the thought of food brought back memories. Oh well, Yuuno was a lot more intelligent and Nanoha a lot less destructive and temperamental than the two people she was remembering.

Idly, she wondered how her friends had been doing in the past fifteen years.

* * *

A few days later...

Blinking as the door was knocked on, Lina looked at the calendar, before shrugging. "Wonder who that is." It was almost time to make supper for her family, and she knew that Nanoha and Yuuno were going to be hungry, the poor kids had an appetite that resembled hers when she was younger. Kyouya, Shiro and Miyuki were lucky that they didn't burn through so many calories by using magic, but the younger two could still eat a lot. "Yes?" She blinked as she opened the door and saw a woman, a rather beautiful woman with green hair, in some sort of outfit, standing there and smiling at her. "Hello?"

"Mom!" She blinked as she saw Nanoha pop her head up. "This is Miss Lindy Harlaown and her son, Chrono." She indicated a boy with blue hair and a uniform as well.

Lina raised an eyebrow as she looked at her daughter and Yuuno, who was in ferret form on her shoulder. "So... Did you accidentally destroy an American military ship?" Why else would someone who looked like they were from the military bother showing up?

Nanoha turned to Lindy and smiled at her. "See?"

"I guess you were right." Lindy smiled softly at her. "May we come in?"

Lina smiled and nodded. "Sure, I was just about to start making supper."

After getting tea for her guests, Lina sat down on the couch next to her daughter and Yuuno while looking at Lindy and Chrono. "So, Nanoha, why did you bring some guests over?" Not that she was complaining, she was just curious.

"Well, um... They saw me and Fate-chan and..."

"Ah." Lina nodded at her. "That's fine." She then looked at Yuuno. "Why are you a ferret again?"

He gulped and jumped off of Nanoha's shoulder, turning back to normal. "Sorry, it's just easier to explain a ferret on her shoulder than a boy coming out of her house."

"I guess." Lina turned to Lindy and Chrono. "Let me guess, you had this really complex story you were going to tell me to keep me from being worried about her, right?"

"Well, yes." Lindy chuckled softly, at least this made things somewhat easier. "Mrs. Takamachi, I am Admiral Lindy Harlaown of the Time-Space Administration Bureau and this is my son, Enforcer Chrono Harlaown."

Nodding, Lina turned to Nanoha again. "Like I said before, did you destroy a ship or something?"

Nanoha shook her head. "Nah uh. Fate-chan and I were fighting after the Jewel Seed got sealed up and I was trying that spell you taught me and..." She blushed as she looked at Chrono, who was rubbing his arms and for the first time, Lina noticed that he had bandages on them. "Um, the Val Flare slipped a little. It didn't make anything explode, it just gave really bad burns."

Lina laughed at both that and the way that Chrono blanched from hearing that. "Well, that's pretty good. I guess I should have started you on simpler fireballs and the like." Seeing Nanoha pout, she smirked slightly. "Still, for only a few days worth of training, that's really good."

"_You_ taught her that spell?" Chrono gasped as he looked at the woman, who grinned at him. "But..."

"It's not that hard." Lina rolled her eyes. "Just a fairly strong fire spell. It's not like I tried teaching her the Blast Bomb." She cleared her throat. "Anyway, Yuuno, why don't you try working that recovery spell I taught you? Nanoha, pay attention, it should help you figure out how to modify the spells I taught you." Seeing them nod, she turned her attention to Lindy. "I take it that you're here because of those Jewel Seeds?"

Lindy nodded, privately she was a little worried that someone from this world was such a powerful mage and hadn't been noticed until now. Mostly because if she was hostile or destructive, it would be pretty bad for everyone on the planet. Still, at least she didn't need to think up a cover story. "Yes. These Lost Logia, the Jewel Seeds, are dangerous things. We're not exactly sure how dangerous, but if enough of them get together, the dimensions themselves could be at risk."

Lina nodded at her. "I figured as much. That's why I told both Fate and Nanoha to only fight after the Jewel Seed was sealed up."

"Wait, you knew about them fighting?" Chrono spoke up and got a frown from Yuuno in the process. "You talked to that girl?"

Lina rolled her eyes. "Yes, I knew about them fighting and yes, I talked to that girl. What kind of mother would I be if I didn't know my own daughter's actions?"

Lindy giggled slightly. "I hope you don't mind, but we could use your daughter's help in getting the rest of the Jewel Seeds. Considering that she has experience with Miss Fate and she's a native here, I do hope you don't mind..."

"Nah, it'll be good for her." Lina smiled softly. "Though, I do have one stipulation."

Lindy blinked a few times at that. "...What?"

"I want to see the ship!"

Lindy nearly fell over at the sparkling look in Lina's eyes. "Wh, what?"

"What?" Lina shrugged at her. "You're an Admiral of some "Bureau". Considering that I've never heard of anything like that on Earth, that means that you're likely from some other world, and I want to see what the ship of an Admiral who uses magic looks like."

"Um... Sure." Lindy blinked as Lina smiled with her eyes closed and clapped her hands together.

"Excellent. We'll go after supper. You two will stay for dinner... Won't you?"

There was something about the way she said it that had Lindy on edge. "Um, sorry, I do have to keep my crew under control." She bowed slightly. "However, we do have Miss Nanoha's phone number, we can call her later and let you come see the ship then."

"Ah, okay then." Lina smiled as she stood up, along with Lindy and Chrono, who was looking at his arms in wonder. "We'll see you two around, don't be a stranger now."

As he watched Lina escort Lindy and Chrono out the door, Yuuno turned to Nanoha and whispered softly. "Your mom can be scary."

Nanoha nodded and whispered back. "Yeah, but she's so cool!"

"Yeah." Yuuno nodded as Lina looked at them and grinned, saying it was time to make supper and asking if they wanted to help. The two practically teleported, without using magic, into the kitchen to help out, causing Lina to giggle at their antics.

* * *

"Mother?" Chrono looked at Lindy as the two walked away from that house.

"Yes?" Lindy looked at him as they turned a corner and waited for Amy to transport them back to the ship.

"I'm not sure if I trust her." Chrono generally wasn't one to make a snap decision like this, but something about that Lina woman had all his senses on edge.

Lindy nodded, she was nervous around the redhead herself, something about her was unsettling. She could feel magic around the other woman, but it was weird, sometimes it felt like it was going to swallow her whole, and sometimes it felt like it would protect her from any harm. It felt dark and violent, and at times it felt light and life-like.

And that had just been what she had felt from being near the woman for five minutes. She couldn't imagine what it was like for anyone who was around her for more than that amount of time.

How the heck did those children put up with such a maddening sensation all the time? Lindy wasn't sure, but she knew that if she was around that woman for too long, she might need to retire early.

* * *

Elsewhere…

Looking out of her window, Fate sighed softly. She should have returned to her mother, she should have. But ever since her talk with that woman, she just couldn't, not yet. She didn't hate her mother, but she didn't think she should return back to her mother until she had more Jewel Seeds to show for it. Surely her mother would forgive her tardiness if she showed up with more than just a couple seeds. She was sure of it.

So, why did she feel so empty when she thought about her own mother? Why did thoughts of her mother leave her wanting something more?

* * *

Arisa looked at Nanoha as the two of them and Suzuka walked from school. It was only a half day, so the three of them were planning on just relaxing for the afternoon. "You okay, Nanoha?" Her redheaded, well, closer to auburn haired, friend had been tired lately, not to mention her appetite had picked up in the last few days. The blonde-haired girl had _never_ seen anyone eat so much in her life, but Nanoha had said that she was taking up some of her family's arts and was incredibly active, so she ate a lot more to compensate for how much energy she burned.

"Yeah..." Nanoha rubbed the back of her head. "It takes a lot of energy to practice my family's arts."

"Sounds rough." Suzuka patted Nanoha on the back, getting a chuckle from her friend.

"Not really, it's a lot of fun, I just wish I wasn't hungry all the time though." Nanoha pouted while her friends laughed. She was either hungry or tired these days due to how much energy magic used up at once, it was almost annoying. Her mother said that she'd get used to it soon enough and be able to deal with it, but since she was so young and her body growing, she needed even more food and sleep than she would if she was just practicing kendo.

"Well, just don't eat so much that you swell up like a balloon." Arisa smirked at her. "Otherwise you'll never end up getting anyone to like you."

"Why you!" Nanoha pounced on Arisa, eliciting a yelp from the girl as Suzuka shook her head in amusement. Oh well, it was nice seeing Nanoha so energetic.

* * *

Looking at the boy as he helped her around the pastry shop, Lina couldn't help but notice how unsteady his steps were. "Junko!" She yelled at one of her employees. "Cover for me for a little bit, okay?"

"Sure thing, boss!" Lina smiled as she guided Yuuno to the back and had him sit down where she could look him in the eyes. His gaze was a little unfocused and he looked like he was about to fall over.

"You okay?" Lina frowned as he shook his head. "What's wrong?"

"I don't know... It's... I feel like something is going to eat me whole, but at the same time, keep me safe and it's making my head hurt..." Yuuno groaned, causing Lina to sigh. She had only taken him to the pastry shop today so that he wouldn't be bored.

"Alright, I think I know what's wrong." Casting a quick recovery spell on Yuuno, he blinked as she dropped her glamour on her eyes.

"Um, what?" He was startled by the sudden appearance of her gold and red eyes.

"I think I have an idea, Yuuno." Lina smiled at him softly. "You're feeling the Chaos magic that's a part of me."

"Chaos magic..?" He blinked in confusion as she nodded.

"Yes." She indicated her golden eye. "I used to have two red eyes, but I was exposed to an incredibly dense and powerful source of Chaos magic about fifteen or so years ago. I was lucky that I survived it." She shook her head, sighing softly. "My eye color was the least of my worries. My own magic was far different than I recalled it being before I was exposed to so much at once."

Yuuno nodded, that didn't sound good at all. "Um, how come Nanoha isn't affected by it?" The only reason that he hadn't noticed until recently was because of how tired he had been.

Lina shrugged at that question. "I don't know. Likely it's because she was born after I was affected by the magic, so, she's unaffected by it, simply because we're family."

Nodding, the boy thought that made sense.

"Or the Chaos magic will drive her insane and cause her to go on a violent rampage, killing thousands of people before she calms down." Lina shrugged, it _was_ a possiblity, though, very unlikely. Blinking as she heard a soft thud, she looked down and saw Yuuno twitching on the ground. "Was it something I said?"

* * *

I'm going to say this, right now.

The first season that I'm doing here is going to lay the ground work for the rest of the story.

Hopefully it doesn't bore you too much.


	5. Season One: Chapter Four

Blood That Flows

Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I own most nothing, except what's new.

* * *

Lindy sighed as she thought about the last week. Ever since they had gotten to Earth, they had just let Nanoha and Yuuno deal with the Jewel Seeds and Fate. Interestingly enough, whenever they caught a glimpse of Nanoha or Fate together, the two didn't even bother fighting each other for the Jewel Seeds like she thought they would.

"I guess that's one good thing about this." Lindy said to herself, sighing softly.

"I still don't know about letting them have free reign on this matter." Chrono shook his head, but he trusted his mother's judgment. "Anyway, Amy, have you found anything out?"

The short haired girl turned to him and nodded. "Yeah. I've got all sorts of data on Precia Testarossa, not that much on her daughter, but considering what I found, it's not surprising." Sighing, she turned to Lindy. "Admiral, are you going to allow that woman on this ship?"

"Well, I don't really see the harm, if she just wants to see it." Though, Lindy wasn't sure _why_ the woman wanted to look at the ship, but she didn't see any harm in doing so.

* * *

Lina nodded as she saw Yuuno and Nanoha both finally complete some basic spells. Though she wasn't surprised, both of them were incredibly intelligent, made teaching them magic a lot easier. Hell, the most complicated things she had taught them had been Val Flare to her daughter and some of the more potent healing spells she knew to Yuuno.

Still, for a couple of kids, it was pretty impressive over-all. "So, how many more of those Jewel Seeds are left?"

Nanoha shook her head and looked at Yuuno. "I think there's, what? Six?"

Yuuno nodded. "Yeah, the Bureau thinks that they're in the ocean. Between us and Fate, they haven't had a chance to really activate." Though he was pretty sure if Lina hadn't been running them ragged, they probably would have gotten all of them by now. Or maybe not, Lina had been drilling them on various tactics on dealing with a superior opponent, both in power and skill.

Lina nodded and sighed softly. "Wish I had more time to teach you two some better magic." She then shrugged. "Still, between what you've learned from me and what your device knows, Nanoha, you should be okay against that Fate girl."

"Actually, I've got some ideas with your magic, mom." Nanoha smiled as Raising Heart shifted to shooting mode. "It's a little weird, but..."

**"Divine..."** Raising Heart intoned as Nanoha pointed to the sky. **"Flame..."**

Lina and Yuuno both blinked as Nanoha's magic circle appeared under her. "Nanoha, what..."

**"Buster!"**

Lina and Yuuno both flinched slightly from the gout of flame that erupted from the tip of Raising Heart. Even thought it wasn't pointed at them, they could still feel the heat eminating from the staff.

"Wow, I never taught her that." Lina muttered, covering her eyes.

"Nanoha, what was that?" Yuuno gasped after the spell abated. It was pretty hard to breathe there for a bit, almost like the oxygen around them was being sucked away.

"Well, Raising Heart told me that mom's Val Flare and her Divine Buster combined could be a really powerful attack, so we worked on calculations all week and came up with this."

As Nanoha and Yuuno both got excited over the thought of that, Lina frowned slightly. 'That was no Val Flare in strength, that was closer to a Rune Flare, or even a Vice Flare.' The thought was slightly worrisome, since those were two of the strongest fire spells around, only the Blast Bomb was worse, and no human could cast that without magic amplification.

Still, the two were more mature than she was at their age, so she wasn't going to worry about it too much. "Nanoha."

"Yeah, mom?" Her daughter blinked at her and she smiled softly.

"Never cast that in enclosed quarters, okay? You might accidentally kill everyone around you."

Nanoha nodded, she really didn't intend to cast this in close quarters anyway.

* * *

Fate sighed as she looked out into the ocean. "We only have six Jewel Seeds..." What she was planning on doing was stupid, insane and a little bit crazy. At this point, she didn't really care. "Mother..." She whispered to herself. All she wanted was her mother's love again. Closing her eyes, she thought back to the past week. While it wasn't easy with the Bureau there, she managed to still get up to six Jewel Seeds. Opening her eyes, a scene of that girl in white and her mother flashed before her eyes. "Nngh..." Why did such a scene leave her feeling so cold inside?

Oh well, she was going to deal with the Jewel Seeds, get back her mother's love and then figure out what she wanted in life.

She was sure of it.

* * *

Lina blinked as she finished up shop for the day. There was a pretty large spike of magical power just outside of the city. She idly wondered just what it was that could cause such a power spike. It was larger than anything that she had felt in years.

Despite the fact that she wanted to look into it, her first priority at the moment was to finish cleaning up the shop and closing down for the night.

"Mother always said, unless the whole world is doomed in this moment, you should never leave your business unattended." Lina muttered to herself, smirking lightly. Idly, she wondered just what her friends would say about her actually settling down a bit and opening up a bakery.

"Knowing them, they'd freak out." Oh well, it was a trait that ran in the family, her father had been a traveling mercenary, her mother was a sorceress and they ran a grocery store now. "Maybe they retired?" She shook her head. "Nah, Luna would never take over that business." Besides, it had only been fifteen years, she was sure her parents hadn't quit business yet.

Lina sighed as she felt the magic hang there for a bit longer before finally abating. As much as she had wanted to go take care of it herself, well, she had to trust her daughter, otherwise the girl would never be able to deal with threats that came up on her own later.

Shiro blinked as he walked into the room, it wasn't often he saw his wife banging her head on the counter. "What's wrong?"

"Gah! I just realized how much like my sister I really am!" Lina screamed in horror and looked at Shiro with teary eyes. "Please tell me that I'm not a horrible person that likes to torment her family just so that they grow as a person."

Mentally laughing, Shiro hugged Lina tightly. "You aren't. I'm sure that you have a very good reason for doing whatever your doing with Nanoha."

Sighing as she leaned her head against his chest, Lina nodded and hugged him back. "I think so... I felt a major source of magic flare up a bit ago. It didn't feel malicious... Not like that last time, so I just thought to let Nanoha deal with it."

Shiro nodded at her. "It's okay." He smiled softly. "Besides, it's good for her, to get such experiences now rather than when she's fourteen and acting like an airhead."

Lina rolled her eyes, pulled back and lightly punched Shiro in the chest. "I told you what I thought about magic girl animes and how stupid the characters were." Seriously, was it that hard to find a female magic girl anime character that wasn't a whiny crybaby?

"I know, you prefer mecha." Shiro chuckled as Lina crossed her arms.

"Hmph! Those guys all have the right idea! If you never give up and go forth with courage, even 1% can become 100%." It was, after all, how she beat that shard of Shabranigdo that time.

"Next you'll be saying you can pierce the heavens."

"Nah!" Lina laughed along with Shiro. "I can make a blade that can shatter them though."

Shiro stopped laughing and blinked a few times. "Oh yeah... Forgot about that."

* * *

Next chapter will be more action-oriented, I promise you.


	6. Season One: Chapter Five

Blood That Flows

Chapter 5

This disclaimer was befriended with extreme prejudice.

And now, Fate vs Nanoha

* * *

Fate looked at the nine Jewel Seeds she had in her possession. "Not enough." Her mother wasn't going to be happy with this.

"Fate..." Arf looked at her, causing the small blond to blink in surprise. "Do we need to do this? Do we really need this?" As smart as Fate was, she was being an idiot. "Why don't we run away?"

Fate smiled softly at her familiar. Such a good girl. "It's okay. You'll see." She just needed to find a way to... "Arf?"

"Yes?"

"Get in contact with that woman..." Fate closed her eyes as she thought about it. "Her daughter... I want to face her."

Arf blinked but nodded, wondering just what Fate had in mind.

* * *

"A challenge?" Nanoha blinked as she talked to the girl on the phone. "Um, sure, I don't mind." Honestly, it was more than she had thought that she'd get from the other girl.

_"Good. I'll see you at the beach where the Bureau interrupted us the first time in an hour."_

Nanoha blinked a few times as she looked at her phone after Fate hung up. "Mom, Yuuno-kun, I need to go somewhere, wanna help?"

* * *

Arf, in her wolf form, looked up as Nanoha, Yuuno and Lina came into the area. She tensed upon seeing Lina, but the redhead just smirked at her. "Fate, they're here."

The blond girl walked out from behind a large rock, pointing her device at Nanoha, her eyes were soft, but determined. "I want to face you, a one-on-one fight to the finish, winner gets all the Jewel Seeds."

Nanoha nodded as she called up her Barrier Jacket and both girls floated into the air.

Lina shook her head. "Kids..." She let loose a sigh. Oh well, she hadn't been much different when she was younger, who was she to judge?

* * *

Nanoha looked at Fate.

Fate looked at Nanoha.

It seemed like that was all that they were doing to those just watching with their eyes and no other senses.

To those looking with magical power, the two were crackling with magical energy that was barely being held back and on a hair trigger.

**"Photon Lancer."** Four yellow balls appeared around Fate's body.

Nanoha's eyes widened for a moment. "Raising Heart..."

**"Alright."** Her device swapped to shooting mode as she pointed the tip at Fate.

"Fire!" Fate yelled, her four spheres launching at Nanoha at high speeds. They were fast, strong, and powerful.

"Divine Flame Buster!" Nanoha yelled, a pink circle appearing under her as a shearing white-hot jet of magical fire blasted from the tip, engulfing the shots, making them detonate prematurely, before crashing against a shield that Fate hasitly threw up at the last moment.

On the ground, everyone had to flinch away and cover their eyes from the bright light that lit up the sky. It was like a second sun was in the sky.

'Wow, and people said I had a knack for overkill.' Lina chuckled to herself as the attack abated.

Fate lowered her arm and the shield as the attack finally ended. "What?" She trembled slightly, panting slightly, that had been a lot of effort to stop that attack, but even so, the heat was incredible, almost as if she was in a blast furnace. Heck, she could feel the heat on her skin directly.

...So why did she feel a draft? And why was that other girl blushing and looking away?

"Um, Fate-chan... Look down..." Nanoha pointed and Fate blinked, doing just that.

"Eeek!" Fate blushed and threw her hands over her now naked body as the remnants of her clothes turned to ash and faded away.

On the ground, Yuuno had to turn away, his face bright red. "I thought Barrier Jackets were stronger than that."

Lina rolled her eyes at him. "Probably, but something hot enough to be felt from fifty feet away is probably hot enough to turn clothes to ash." She then giggled while Fate used that moment to reform her Barrier Jacket. "Plus it's funny."

Yuuno would have said something about how Fate's hair and skin should have burned up before her clothing did, but he figured that it was just because Fate or Bardiche regulated more defensive magic to keeping her basically safe, well, other than her dignity. If he was a pervert, he would have enjoyed the sight of Fate naked in front of him, as short as it was.

Fate was blushing and trembling slightly in anger. "...You did that on purpose."

"Um, not really." Nanoha sweat-dropped heavily, before throwing up a shield as several lightning bolts crashed against it. "Sorry!"

**"Scythe Form."**

Nanoha's eyes widened as Fate materialized right in front of her, her scythe smashing into Nanoha's barrier, causing it to crackle. Grimacing and with one eye closed, Nanoha looked at Fate as a pink circle appeared under her feet. "Sorry, that won't work."

**"Axel Bolt."**

Fate's eyes widened as she was covered in pink lightning, sending her flying away with a loud crackle.

Nanoha smiled. "Good job, Raising Heart." It was just a Mono Volt that she had mixed into her own barriers if someone got close. She giggled at the way Fate's hair was all poofy now. "Sorry."

Fate closed her eyes as a yellow magic circle appeared under her feet. "Thunder... Rage!"

Nanoha's eyes widened as a smaller circle appeared in front of Fate before she punched her device through it, causing a powerful magic strike was launched, crashing into her barrier, before exploding and kicking up dust, though how that was possible, the girl wasn't sure. When the dust cleared, Nanoha gasped as she saw several golden orbs around her.

"Fire!" Fate yelled her command out.

Nanoha closed her eyes and tapped the red gem of Raising Heart. "Digger..." She flew backwards towards the ocean, a line of lightning crackling from the sphere to her finger tip. "BOLT!" She snapped her hand forward, the lightning crackling forward and around the bolts, causing them to detonate prematurely.

Fate grimaced, and from the way that the girl in white was going, it didn't look like she was going to stop anytime soon. "What is she?"

In truth, Nanoha felt a major headache while she was doing these spells. It wasn't that it was hard, it was the fact that she was running more massive calculations faster than she should have been able to. Even with Raising Heart there helping her out, she could feel her mind getting a bit foggy. She wished that she had more time to work on these spells than she had.

* * *

Lina frowned slightly. "...She's going to lose."

"Who? Nanoha or Fate?"

"Yes." Lina nodded, not answering Yuuno's question.

The boy looked at her in confusion before looking back up. From what he had seen, Nanoha was in the driver's seat.

...

So why did he feel like Nanoha was going to lose at the current way things were going?

* * *

Fate grimaced as she dodged more Divine Shooters, before finally being forced to block them. After they crashed into her barrier, she saw that Nanoha had more volleys ready. "Not this time... Photon Lancer!"

**"Fire."**

Several yellow bolts raced out, colliding with Nanoha's pink shots, causing them to detonate and create smoke between the two of them.

Nanoha grimaced as she felt her arms and legs get pulled to the sides as binds wrapped around her arms.

* * *

"Lightning binds?" Arf gasped as she saw what was going on. "This isn't good!"

"Nanoha!" Yuuno looked like he was about to do something when he felt Lina's hand on his shoulder. "But..."

"This is her fight." Lina smiled softly. "Let's just trust her, okay?"

The two were silent, but they nodded before turning back to the fight.

* * *

"Photon Lancer... Full Power." Fate grimaced slightly, this was straining her magic to its limits, but she would do it, and win. "Fire!"

She watched, panting slightly as her full attack strength closed in before exploding. "Got her." She closed her eyes and tried to catch her breath. She made a mental note to get more training when this was over, she was burning through too much magic at once.

"Divine... Buster!"

Fate looked up, gasping as Nanoha fired a powerful energy beam.

**"Defensor."** Bardiche spoke up as Fate threw up her hand and a golden barrier blocked the shot, but like with the Flame Buster before, the effects were causing her clothes to tear and shred.

Grunting from exertion and grimacing as she was being slowly pushed back, Fate wondered just what Nanoha had done to get so good in such a short amount of time. After the attack ended, Fate panted heavily, before blinking as she was bound up.

"This is the end, Fate..." Nanoha said softly. "Raising Heart taught me this variation of Divine Buster... It glows with an awesome power! Full Power! **STARLIGHT BREAKER**!"

Everyone, even those on the ship off the planet, stared wide-eyed at the new attack as Nanoha fired down, blasting through Fate and causing a small tidal wave to be created in the process.

Lina chuckled after the attack ended. 'Definitely my little girl.' It might have been interesting to test that against a Dragon Slave, but she didn't think that the landscape around them would survive.

* * *

...

What? I can't enjoy G-Gundam references?

Anyway, yes, I know, didn't deviate from canon that much, outside of some new moves, and it _wasn't_ exactly the hows and whys they fought in canon. You know what? If you wanna see the canon that badly, rewatch Season 1.


	7. Season One: Chapter Six

Blood That Flows

Chapter 6

The match-up you've been waiting for!

Lina vs Precia

Standard Disclaimers apply. 

* * *

Fate looked at Nanoha tiredly after being pulled out of the ocean. "You won..."

"Yeah..." Nanoha nodded. "If I didn't finish the fight then, I would have lost."

Fate blinked as Nanoha grimaced slightly. "What happened?"

"Eh heh... Felt like my head was going to explode... Not used to some of mom's spells yet."

Fate nodded and looked down to see Arf, Yuuno and Lina looking up at her. "...Would she be willing to train me?" She nodded as Nanoha let go and handed her device back to her.

"I think so." Nanoha nodded to her, smiling softly.

**"Put out."** Nine Jewel Seeds appeared around Bardiche and Fate.

* * *

Lindy sighed, she wasn't too happy about how things ended up, even if it worked out for the best.

"Mother? What should we do?" Chrono asked her as he turned to look at her.

"Well, we need to talk to miss Testarossa anyway, get into contact with them. Hopefully she'll be willing to hand over her Jewel Seeds without incident." If that was the case, then Fate would be allowed to go on her way without incident. Well, mostly without incident, there was what she did over the ocean, but she was certain that it wouldn't be too bad, since nothing happened as a result.

"Captain!" Amy called out, gasping as a powerful lightning strike blasted Fate, stunning her, another one smashed into the beach below before the Jewel Seeds started to float away on their own.

"Track them, Amy."

"Already on it, ma'am." Amy's hands flew over the controls. "We'll get her!"

Lindy nodded and turned to the rest of her crew. "The rest of you, get those five up here."

"Five?" Chrono turned to Lindy, who nodded. "Even her?"

"Yes."

* * *

"Huh, doesn't look like Star Wars at all." Lina commented as she walked with the kids. She had wondered why they put handcuffs on Fate so quickly after she got there, but she wasn't going to say anything. If the charge was legitimate, there wasn't much to do. It wasn't like they were trying to arrest Fate on the crime of being herself after all.

"...Why do I have a feeling that if I hadn't come here, that would have happened to me eventually?" She mumbled to herself as they continued to walk before they were greeted at the bridge by the captain.

_"Your mother's weird."_ Arf, Yuuno and Fate said to Nanoha at the same time.

Nanoha, for her part, blinked in confusion. _"She's just mom, she's always been like this."_ Why did people think she was weird when she did things like this?

The door opened and they saw Lindy and Chrono looking at a screen where several people in uniforms and staffs were facing a dark haired woman on a throne.

_"Nanoha, can you get Miss Fate out of here? I'd rather she not see her mother get arrested."_

Nanoha nodded at her. "Come on, Fate-chan, let me show you the room they let me stay in."

Lina ignored that and looked at the screen. Her eyes widened slightly as a little blond girl in a tube appeared on the screen. "What the hell?"

"You were nothing more than a replacement for Alicia..." Precia continued to say to them. "So I'll let you go!"

"Stop it!" Nanoha called out while Fate trembled in her arms.

"You want to know something, Fate?" Precia practically rasped out. "All this time... That you wanted my love... I _hated_ you."

Fate's eyes widened, before she gave up and fainted, her body giving out on her as she slumped to the ground.

On the screen, Precia started laughing maniacally, the Jewel Seeds floated around her. "I'll use these Jewel Seeds... And I'll get to Al Hazard! Then I can undo all the mistakes that I made."

Lina frowned, before grimacing and clutching at her left eye. "No... you FOOL!" She screamed before disappearing in a black and gold flash.

"Where did...?" Yuuno started to say, before gasping. "How'd she get there?"

"What?" Chrono gasped as he looked at the screen, where Lina was in front of Precia.

* * *

Precia looked at the short redhead in front of her. "Who are you?"

"Lina Takamachi." The redhead smirked at her softly. "So, all this, throwing away your child, for what? To break the world into pieces? Is that what you want?"

Precia snarled and swung her staff before firing a magic blast at the woman, who casually blocked it with contemptuous ease. "Al Hazard! None of this matters if I can get to Al Hazard!"

"And this Al Hazard will let you..." Lina shrugged as she looked at the girl in the tube. "Bring her back, huh?"

"Yes! All the lost magic in the world! All the forbidden magics! They're all in Al Hazard!"

Lina rolled her eyes. "I knew something like that, it was guarded by Gold Dragons. So, you're going to destroy the world to undo mistakes? Have you thought about where this place is?"

Precia snarled at her as the Jewel Seeds spun around her wildly. "It exists between the dimensions! When I cause a dimensional tremor, I'll fall in with Alicia into Al Hazard."

Lina yawned as several golems appeared around her. She snapped her fingers, destroying all of them with several Mega Brand spells. "Do you even know what's there?" Lina pointed to a crack and the blue light the appeared. "Do you even KNOW what will happen if you fall in?" Lina started walking towards Precia, who fell to her knees and coughed up blood. "I bet you have no clue, do you?"

"Then... If you know so much, explain it for all of us!"

Lina looked at Precia with lidded eyes. "All that awaits you... Is judgment by the creator. What you opened is nothing more than a crack to the Sea of Chaos!"

* * *

"What did she say!" Lindy gasped, her eyes wide. "Sea of Chaos?" There were old rumors and legends of a power, of a being that existed only in a chaotic sea of power. "Impossible!"

Chrono had been prepared to run and get over to the Garden of Time, but he didn't move since Lina had teleported over there freely. "What is she talking about..?"

* * *

"You lie..." Precia growled at her. "You lie! The Sea of Chaos! It doesn't exist!" she raved, letting loose a stream of her potent lightning magic.

Lina, calling upon her experience as an high class adventurer, quickly stepped to the side, avoiding the first volley completely. She then rushed toward the dark haired, and at this point, quite mad mage, alternatively dodging or using her own Shamanism to counter the deadly bolt of energies by intercepting them with the occasional boulders until she was right next to Precia.

"It does!" Lina grabbed Precia and lifted her up. "The Sea of Chaos! You know what that is? The Lord of Nightmares, the creator of all! The Sea of Chaos is her mind! She is the Sea of Chaos!" Lina then tossed her onto her back. "I should just let you go. The Lady isn't evil, nor is she good, she might let you go." Lina snorted and held her hands in front of her, cupping them as if she was holding a ball. "But I'm not one to let you go. You're going to live, and face judgment for what you did to your daughter, to Fate."

Precia stood up and was about to do something when she felt herself unable to move. She looked down and saw a knife in her shadow.

"Shadow Snap. That should keep you still..." Lina smirked as a blue ball appeared in her cupped hands. "Now, here's a spell I've developed in the past fifteen years. If we were back where I'm from, I'd use a Dragon Slave, but..." She chuckled, her eyes glowing red and gold and terrifying Precia as she looked. "This spell, is equal to a Dragon Slave in all aspects."

A black magi-rune appeared under Lina as black and white lightning crackled around her while she chanted her spell, a powerful new trump card, one she hadn't used since she had created it.

_"Master of the Dark Sky, you who dwell upon the Azure Abyss._  
_Oh, ruler of the paths of Life and Death._  
_May the souls of those that oppose us be swept_  
_upon the maelstrom of thy wrath!_  
_Let the fools who stand before me be destroyed, by the power you and I possess."_ Lina REALLY wished that she had thought up _something_ more original for the last part, but the gods and ma-oh seemed to like that last part for some reason.

"What are you..?" Precia gasped as Lina looked behind her.

"Nanoha! Pay attention, this is the kind of spells that I used when I was younger!"

_"Nemesis Breaker!"_

* * *

"Ma'am! We're getting a SS reading coming from that woman!"

"What?" Lindy looked at the screen as Lina chanted. "What kind of spell is this?"

_"Nemesis Breaker!"_

Lindy stared, her eyes wide as Lina fired a giant blue fireball straight down. "What's going on?"

There was a _massive_ blue explosion, engulfing the Garden of Time.

"MOTHER!" Nanoha yelled, tears falling down her face.

"What?" Lina asked, causing Nanoha to spin around and gasp as both Precia and the girl in the tube appeared with her. "I had everything under control." She rolled her eyes but smiled as Nanoha hugged her tightly. "Hey, I'm okay. Casting a spell like that, I have a barrier when I cast my stronger spells." She blinked as everyone stared at her stupidly. "What? Doesn't everyone have a barrier around them when they call forth power from Chaotic Blue?"

* * *

Well, as she is for the fic, Lina's a _touch _of a Game Breaker. Then again, considering how she was in canon, is it any surprise?

Before anyone complains about me giving Lina a straight-up SS ranking, remember, Hayate, in canon, has spells very similar to Lina (massive wide-area attacks) and she's ranked SS. Even so, most mages in Nanoha seem to have trouble knocking a building over and Lina regularly destroys villages for fun and profit. I mean, first episode of Slayers, she kills a Dragon and the village was nuked as a _side-effect _and afterthought. Lina just shrugged it off when the village chief got mad at her. "Can't make an omelet without breaking a few eggs."

If Precia wasn't sick, it would have been a more fair and fun fight between them.


	8. Season One: Season End

Blood That Flows

Season One End

I own nothing at all.

Nothing at all.

Nothing at all.

Shut up, Flanders.

Okily dokily.

This chapter will be longer than the previous chapters. But, hey, end of the season!

* * *

"So, what's going to happen to all of them?" Nanoha asked Chrono as the two of them, Yuuno and Lina were in the ship's cafeteria.

Chrono shrugged at her. "Well, we need to take them back to Mid-Childa with us to stand trial."

"You're going to put Fate in prison, huh?" Lina asked as she drank some water, getting a gasp from Nanoha and Yuuno. "She's a criminal by your laws, she showed no remorse nor regret for what she did, and she's likely to not testify against Precia, so, by the law, you don't have much of a choice."

Chrono winced mentally at that and practically flinched when Nanoha glared at him. "Look, she won't talk to anyone, if I can't get a statement from her, I won't have much of a choice. She's not helping herself."

"Excuse me." Lina stood up and walked out of the room, causing the kids to blink, before they got up and followed her. For some reason, whenever Lina did something, things went completely crazy and out of control.

But that was always so much fun!

* * *

Precia looked up from her bed in the medical bay. "What are you doing here?" She was under several seals and guards, all keeping her from using magic as they had her hooked up to various life-support machines.

Lina ignored her and looked at the girl in the tube. "...I'm surprised that they let you have her here..." She touched the tube softly before looking at the ship's doctor, who had just walked in. "Tell me, does this girl have any brain activity?"

The doctor shook his head. "No, why do you ask?"

"I mean, is there any chance for this girl to have any brain activity?"

"Um, maybe..."

"Good, find out if there is, I got somewhere else to be." Lina walked out, before stopping at the door and turning to Precia. "This isn't for you, woman, you're still going to pay for what you did, this is because I don't like sitting around doing nothing when I can try something."

* * *

"You can't..." The guard blinked as Lina smiled at him softly. "I'm sorry, but you aren't allowed to see her."

"I understand, you're just doing your job, it just wouldn't be right if you let anyone in to see her." Lina nodded at him, causing him to relax. "However, considering that if I wanted to, I could just blow the wall down and take her, her familiar, Nanoha and Yuuno with me back to Earth and there's no way you can stop me, do you want to let me in freely or do you want me to leave, come up with a plan and sneak back here and steal her away and make her a member of my family and thus no longer subject to the laws of your land?"

"She would..."

"Listen, I don't like threatening people who are just doing their jobs, so, if you just look the other way for... Let's say five minutes, I'll get what I want and you won't have any problem, hmm?"

Gulping, he shook his head. "N...No, ma'am, I can't let you..." He closed his eyes and slumped to the ground as Lina sighed. Sleeping spells weren't her forte, but they made it _so_ easy to go and kill certain assassins who nearly ruined her husband's life.

Fate blinked as her door opened. Her eyes widened as Lina walked in and waved at her and Arf. "What are...?"

"I heard you aren't going to testify against your mother." Lina sighed as Fate looked away. "You remind me so much of Zelgadis it's not funny, girl."

Fate tensed and blinked as Lina picked her up and sat down where she had been a moment ago. "What?" As Lina rubbed her back, she trembled softly.

"You never felt this, huh?" Lina whispered softly and Fate shook her head silently. "Hmm... Well, Zelgadis was a friend of mine... He and I were once enemies and fought against each other. He was a great swordsman and spell-caster, and a reliable friend. If my life was in danger, he was one of the people I trusted to save me." She smiled softly as the girl relaxed in her embrace softly. "There was a man, his name was Rezo, the Red Priest and one of the great sages of the world. That man, born blind, traveled the world, studying magic for ways to cure his blindness. Along the way, he became known as a great healer who could cure any disease, even bring light to those that were born blind, but despite his talent in magic, he could not open his own eyes. He eventually, in the years he lived, became desperate for a cure, so much so that he turned his own grandson, or was it great-grandson, I forget, anyway, he turned Zelgadis into a chimera of a human, golem and demon, before he eventually found a mystical stone that would increase his magic many fold and finally allow him to open his eyes."

"...What happened?" Fate asked softly as she rested her head on Lina's chest.

"I got the stone before anyone." Lina chuckled softly. "Zelgadis wanted it to stop Rezo. Rezo wanted it to cure his blindness and I was just unlucky enough to be caught in the middle. Rezo eventually threatened to turn every village to stone if I did not give him what he wanted."

Lina smiled to herself as she heard Chrono, Nanoha and Yuuno all gasp as they heard that. The girl in her arms tensed, but she just rubbed the girl's back and tried to get her to calm down. In the corner of her eye, she saw Arf, in her wolf form, looking at her curiously.

"So, I went with my traveling companions at the time. After a bit of trickery, Rezo got the stone and used it. Doing so, he managed to open his eyes. But we found out that the reason he couldn't open his eyes... Was because he was acting as a seal for a fragment of the most powerful evil creature in the world."

That... had not been a fun fight, Lina didn't like thinking about how close she came to losing her life in that fight. "In the end, two people who had traveled with us had died to this creature, and Zelgadis, myself and a friend of mine, Gourry, faced off against him a day later. Nothing we used worked on him. No magic that any human could use could even affect the guy. Magic weapons, spells, even my favorite Dragon Slave was useless against him."

"How did you beat him?" Fate asked, her voice still soft.

Lina sighed softly. "I used a forbidden spell, the Giga Slave, calling the Lord of Nightmares from the Sea of Chaos into the world. It was the only way to beat him. But if I had screwed up, the whole world could have been destroyed. I got lucky."

"...Oh..."

"Listen, Fate..." Lina smiled softly at her. "Do you really not want to testify against your mother?"

"I... I have nowhere else to go." Fate whimpered softly, her body trembling softly.

"You asked if I would teach you magic, right?" When Fate nodded, Lina smiled. "Then why not come back with me? It wouldn't be too hard to get you an extra room in my house." Hell, she was tempted to get an extra room built so that Yuuno wouldn't have to sleep in Nanoha's room anymore if he didn't want to. Besides, if she was going to teach some kids, she was going to have them live with her family, darn it!

"You mean it?"

Lina nodded as Fate looked up, the little girl's eyes sparkling in wonder. "Yeah... I wouldn't mind it if you wanted to live with me."

Fate hugged Lina tightly, burying her face in the redhead's chest. "Thank you."

Lina smiled at that. "No problem."

* * *

"I really wish you'd at least let me know what you were going to do before you did it." Lindy sighed softly before shaking her head. "Still, thank you. None of us were getting through to her."

Lina shrugged, it wasn't a big deal to her. "Alright, you wouldn't have asked me to the big table room unless you needed something from me. I'm guessing that you listened in on my conversation with Fate and have more than a few questions for me." She chuckled at the embarrassed look on Lindy's face. "I have some questions of my own, so, how about a back and forth?"

"I ask one, you answer, then you ask and I answer?" When Lina nodded, she sighed. "As long as it's nothing to sensitive or restricted."

"Fine." Lina nodded at her. "You first then."

"I need to know... What is the Sea of Chaos? The Lord of Nightmares? And this Giga Slave..."

"That's three questions." Lina smirked at her. "But all three have the same answer. The Sea of Chaos that exists between the dimensions, it's the Lord of Nightmares. The Giga Slave? That's also the Lord of Nightmares. The Lord of Nightmares herself? She's the one who created everything. Mother of Mazoku and Gods."

"But..."

"Ah ah ah!" Lina waggled a finger at her. "My turn." When Lindy sighed, she chuckled softly. "So, about Fate... Are you going to take her with you?"

"We'll need to." Lindy nodded at the question. "She needs to testify, and current laws prohibit her from testifying over the phone." Lina nodded at her. "Mrs. Takamachi, when you were talking to Fate, you called the Giga Slave a forbidden spell that could destroy the world. Why would you use it?"

"Didn't have a choice." Lina shook her head. "A demonic entity known as a Ma-oh had been released from his seal and threatened the whole world." She paused, before laughing at that. "Sorry, but I never really did fight him for noble reasons like you might think. I just didn't want to die, because there was so much food I hadn't eaten, spells I hadn't learned, bandits I didn't crush." Seeing Lindy's look, she chuckled. "I was known as the Bandit Killer when I was younger, and I had a bit of an ego to me." Not that she didn't deserve both the nickname and the ego, but looking back, Lina wondered how the hell her friends put up with her. "What about that woman?"

"We need to put her on trial for setting everything up on Earth." Lindy sighed. "She might not have caused the Jewel Seeds to fall to Earth, but if she hadn't ordered Miss Fate to collect them, none of us would be here right now. Miss Fate won't have to face any penalties, since all she did was collect them." Well, Fate and Arf _had_ attacked her son, but she was certain that Chrono wasn't going to really bother with bringing that up at trial. "This... Ma-oh, what was its name and are there more?"

"I'd almost call that two questions," Lina chuckled at her serious look, "but his name was Ruby-Eye Shabranigdo, one of the four Ma-Oh in direct opposition to the four Dragon Gods. The other Ma-Ohs that exist are Dark Star, Death Fog," Lina knew that Lindy probably wasn't going to like the next name that popped up, but oh well, "and Chaotic Blue."

"WHAT?" Lindy gasped, her eyes wide, for reasons unknown to her, Lina looked totally calm. "You said you called upon the power of Chaotic Blue to do that Nemesis Breaker. But, doing that could..."

"Just destroy what I ask it to destroy." Lina shrugged at Lindy's look. "Despite its name, Black Magic isn't evil, even if the source is. At its core, Black Magic is just magic that's highly destructive and can affect both the physical and astral plane of reality at the same time." Well, it was more effective in fighting Gods than Mazoku, but she didn't have access to Holy Magic, so nothing could be done about that. Lina blinked and tapped her chin. "Huh... I don't think I have anymore questions..."

"I have two more then." Lindy sighed, man, this was going to be a pain in the ass to explain to her superiors. "You said to Fate that the Giga Slave can destroy the world... How?"

"Not like you think." Lina chuckled softly. "It certainly CAN destroy the world if it's miscast. But there's no guarantee. Unlike other spells that call upon the power of something, either from spirits, gods, Mazoku, demons, or your own power, the Giga Slave is a spell that calls the Lord of Nightmares INTO your world." Seeing Lindy's eyes widen, she nodded at that. "Yeah, calling the creator of everything into your world isn't the safest thing to do. If the spell is screwed up... Then the world's at her mercy. She could destroy it, leave it alone, or change everything so that mice are in charge and humans are vermin to be exterminated."

"And you would risk that, why?"

"Like I said to Fate, if I didn't use it, Shabranigdo _would_ have destroyed the world. Guaranteed destruction of the world or possible destruction of the world? Either way, neither's a good option, but I'd rather risk everything on the chance that the world would survive rather than the fact that the world would have been destroyed." Though, a part of Lina wondered just why Hellmaster never bothered showing up when Ruby-Eyes had been freed from his seal. It would have been simple for Hellmaster to have killed her, Gourry and Zelgadis back then and use that fragment of Shabranigdo to free the Demon King of the North, find other fragments and destroy the world.

"I see..." Lindy nodded and sighed. Well, this wasn't going to be good to tell her superiors. "Have you used the Giga Slave lately?"

"Not since I was sixteen. I don't plan on ever using it again if I can help it. The spell will die with me, I doubt any manuscripts that have any information on it exist anymore, the Dragons aren't going to let anyone near the Claire Bible anytime soon."

Lindy nodded at that. "Thank you."

Lina smiled at her. "Good, now, if you'll excuse me, I need to check on something."

Watching her leave, Lindy sighed, wondering how someone could act so mature one moment and so crazy the next.

* * *

"So..." Lindy sighed as she looked at the conference call she was making with her superiors. "That's the full situation here."

"If she is that dangerous, what's your recommendation?" A colonel, one she didn't recognize off the top of her head, spoke up, though he looked like he wanted to do something stupid and dangerous.

"If I may..." An older, cultured voice spoke up. "I say we do nothing to her."

"What?"

"I'm inclined to agree with Admiral Graham."

"Thank you, Admiral Leti." Graham nodded at her. "She'd not an enemy of the Bureau, and if she's that strong and her daughter is that strong, I would rather not have them be enemies, but rather allies."

"I doubt I could recruit her." Lindy shook her head. "If we had found her when she was younger, maybe, but now? No, she has a family that she's responsible for on Earth. Her daughter, we might be able to recruit, but that's up to her, as you all know." Lindy chuckled to herself. "It's much better to have people neutral to us than against us, don't you agree?"

"Very well." The colonel grumbled. "But if she does anything against the Bureau, it's on your heads." His screen turned off and the others on the screen rolled their eyes before turning them off.

"Actually, Admiral Lindy..." Graham smiled at her softly. "I was planning on returning to Earth in a few months, perhaps you could introduce me to this Lina Takamachi then?"

"What makes you think I'm coming back here?" Lindy asked with a raised eyebrow.

Graham chuckled at the question. "You said it yourself, that woman is interested in Miss Fate, and who knows what other spells she has up her sleeves."

Considering that Nanoha and Yuuno had managed to combine Lina's magic style with the Mid-Childan style, it made Lindy curious if Chrono could learn something from Lina as well. "Alright." Plus if they could get her to use most of her spells through an Intelligent Device, they might be able to start a new magic style that could give the Bureau mages a powerful boost in combat.

* * *

"Ah, Mrs. Takamachi." The ship's doctor nodded to her and Yuuno. "About your earlier question... There's some brain activity, but only if I stimulate it..."

"So, she's not completely dead then..." Lina muttered and looked at Yuuno. "Go for it."

"You sure?" He blinked when she nodded at him.

"Yeah, get Nanoha to meet you there, you might need Raising Heart for this." She smiled as he nodded and ran off.

"Um, just what's going on?" The doctor blinked as Lina smiled at him softly.

"Let's just say... There might be a way to save her..." Lina shrugged at the doctor's look. "Whether or not it works, I can't say. It might work, it might not. We'll find out soon enough."

She idly wondered why she was even bothering, she could have just blown up the Garden of Time and gone home. Why was this so important to her?

* * *

"Yuuno-kun!" Nanoha blinked as she met him by the room. "What did you need?"

Yuuno blushed as she looked at him curiously. "Um, I need Raising Heart... That girl in the tube, your mother thinks that she can be saved."

"Oh." Nanoha's eyes widened slightly as she called Raising Heart into its staff form. "Raising Heart, please help Yuuno-kun out."

**"Alright."**

Yuuno nodded as he took Raising Heart into his hands and walked into the room. He ignored the way Precia looked at him as a green circle appeared under his feet. "Let's go."

Taking a deep breath, he recalled the chant that Lina had taught him, the energy matrixes, and with Raising Heart's help he began to chant while doing the calculations in his head for the conversion.

_"Blessed, humble hand of God,_  
_life and breath of Mother Earth,_  
_I pray thee come before me,_  
_show your great compassion to this person and deliver them back to us!_  
_Resurrection!"_

The whole room glowed with a bright light, so bright that everyone had to close their eyes, even as the light covered everyone. For some reason, all of them felt better, a lot better, well, except for Yuuno, who was about to pass out from exhaustion from holding the spell for only twenty seconds.

* * *

As she opened the door, Lina had to shield her eyes from the white light. 'Amazing. If he lived on my home world, he'd be heralded as the next great sage.' To go from just basic healing spells to being able to use Resurrection in just over a week, even if he had to leave the majority of the heavy lifting to Raising Heart, she had never heard of anyone learning that fast, aside from herself, of course. His ability to soak up magical theory had to be just as good as her own.

When the light faded, Yuuno slumped to the ground, Raising Heart falling from his fingers as Nanoha grabbed him to keep him from hurting himself.

Lina shook her head and looked at the jar. 'Now's the moment of truth.' She thought to herself.

Still, she wondered why she even cared. She should have just took Nanoha home and let these people sort it out themselves.

But no matter what she tried, something kept stopping her.

* * *

Precia blinked as she felt the spell wash over her body. 'What the?' She gasped, her eyes wide as the pain that her body had been wracked with for years suddenly disappear.

She waited for the coughs to come, for the pain and blood to flood her throat and lungs and escape her body.

She never noticed Lina walking into room, never noticed Yuuno pass out, his hair gone white from the excessive use of magic, and she never noticed when Yuuno, Nanoha and Lina left the room. No, the only thing she noticed was that she was feeling better, and that her thoughts were clear for the first time in years.

Again, the bitterness that she felt for most of her life came to the forefront.

But, for once, it was directed at herself.

* * *

"I guess, in the end, she was gone for too long." Lina sighed as she watched Yuuno eat like she used to. "Sorry that you tried in vain." Oh well, sometimes things just didn't work out in the end.

Yuuno shook his head and gulped down the food. "No, that's fine. Better to try and fail than not try and never know, right?"

Nanoha giggled and nodded. "Yeah! That's something mom kept teaching me when I was younger all the time!"

"Be that as it may..." Lina cleared her throat. "Nanoha, it's time we head back home."

"Aww!" Nanoha pouted at that. "What about you, Yuuno-kun? You're welcome to come back with us."

Yuuno shook his head. "Nah, I wanna head back to Mid-childa for a bit. I think Fate could use a friend, you know?"

"Aww!" Nanoha pouted and crossed her arms. "Everyone's leaving at the same time."

Lina chuckled at that. "When I was a teenager, Nanoha, my friends and I went our separate ways all the time. We'll see them again."

Yuuno nodded. "Yeah!" He smiled at Nanoha. "Oh, Nanoha, you can keep Raising Heart."

"Eh?" Nanoha looked at the gem in her hands. "You sure?"

"Yeah, she seems to like you more." Yuuno chuckled softly before blinking as Lina dropped a notebook in front of him. "Eh?"

"Some basic Shamanistic, barrier and healing spells." Lina waved her hand at him, smiling. "When you get a chance, come back with Fate, I wanna see how you two have grown."

Yuuno rubbed the back of his head. Sure, they were basic spells, but he didn't mind, he could figure out how to perfect the hybrid of her style and Mid-Childan style. "Alright."

"Actually..." The trio turned to Chrono, was looking at them with an eye closed. "As much as a pain in the rear this has been, someone wants to say something." He jerked a thumb to the door behind him, where Fate walked in, looking embarrassed.

"Fate-chan?" Nanoha blinked as the girl walked up to them and smiled softly.

"Thank you... All of you." Fate smiled at them while blushing. "Um... When the trial is done... Can I come back?"

Lina smiled at her. "Yeah." She looked at Chrono, who was looking away. "Just try not to break any laws, huh?"

Fate blushed and nodded. "I'll do my best."

Nanoha blinked, she just realized something. "Fate-chan, your hair..."

"Um..." She held up her black hair ties. "Chrono said that if I wanted you to remember me... I should give you something... This is all I have..."

Nanoha's eyes lit up. "Hold on!" She undid her hair ties and let her hair down, Fate and Chrono were rather surprised how long Nanoha's hair was when it wasn't tied up, Yuuno thought it was weird that she would let her hair down. "Here. You can have mine. Then you can remember me too."

"Thank you." Fate blushed as the two of them traded hair ribbons.

Lina chuckled. "Come on, Nanoha, I'm sure that your father's worried sick for us by now."

Nanoha nodded and smiled, before giving Fate a quick hug, causing the girl to stiffen and blush, before she let go and ran over to Yuuno and gave him a quick hug as well. "I'll see you two later, I promise that I'll keep working and get stronger!"

"But only after your homework's done."

"Ahhhh!" Nanoha's eyes went blank. "That's right! I have a test tomorrow!" She grabbed her head as she started to panic. "I gotta study or I'll fail!"

The others in the room laughed as Lina grabbed her and had her move towards the teleporter.

"And don't worry." Chrono said to them as they stepped on. "We'll bring her back. It might be a few months, but these two will be back on Earth before you know it."

Lina nodded at him. "We look forward to it."

Nanoha smiled and waved at the people on the bridge, surprisingly Amy and Lindy both had shown up, along with a few of the crew members. She didn't remember all of their names, though she recognized them. In the front, Yuuno, Arf and Fate all smiled at her as she was teleported down to the surface. "Mother..."

"Yeah?" Lina raised an eyebrow as the two walked back to their home.

"I want to get as strong as I can."

Lina chuckled, she could respect that. "You better put in hard work and guts, Nanoha. For you are to learn from the Undefeated Sorceress of the East!" She took a pose, her left foot sticking out, her left arm angling down while her right hand was next to her head and her right leg was bent slightly. Really, she couldn't help it, she had been working on her Master Asia victory pose for years now!

Nanoha clenched her fist, her eyes practically lighting themselves on fire. "YEAH!"

The two stopped posing, before laughing and walking back to their home.

It was going to be interesting, the next time they saw Yuuno and Fate.

End

* * *

I was thinking of bringing Alicia back to life here, but, as someone said, that wouldn't add anything to the story as it is.

Sorry for those who wanted her to come back.


	9. A's Start

Blood That Flows

A's Start

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Warning: The following chapter may cause you to dislike the fic if you start here. I guarantee there's reasons for everything.

* * *

Sighing as she knocked over the Bureau mages, the short redhead gripped the book in her arm. She hated this, but she needed to do this. "Book of Darkness."

**"Absorption."** The book called out in a female voice as the Linker Cores of the two mages were brought up and absorbed into the book. When they got low enough, she closed the book and turned and left.

"Barely three pages between them." She grumbled at the small amount of mana these mages had. Oh well, they had a lead on a rather strong source. If things went well, they'd probably have at least ten pages filled.

There was no way in hell she'd dare for more.

(-)

Nanoha panted as she gripped Raising Heart and took a stance in the park, before casting another spell, several pink bolts flew from around her straight ahead. Across from her, her mother smirked as she threw up another barrier, causing the attack to bounce harmlessly in front of her. "Good enough for today."

Nanoha panted and slumped to her knees. "Ugh... Why couldn't Miyuki-nee spar with me today?"

Lina laughed at her. "Your sister's a bit busy, that's all. Besides, don't you want to surprise Fate and Yuuno when they get here?"

Nanoha's eyes lit up at that. "Yeah!" The thought of seeing her friends again, after six months, was rather appealing to the little redhead.

"Come on!" Lina chuckled at her sweat-drenched daughter. "Let's get cleaned up for breakfast and get you off to school."

Nanoha cheered and called Raising Heart to its jewel form.

Chuckling, Lina followed her. She was feeling a touch hungry herself. Oh well, nothing an extra large breakfast wouldn't fix, and she knew that Nanoha would eat a ton herself.

Looking up into the sky, Lina shivered slightly as a cool breeze ran across their bodies. "Hey, Nanoha, we're going to have to stop training out here for winter."

"Awww..." Nanoha pouted, but understood. If it was going to be this cold, they could easily get sick from the sweat and the cold air.

Lina looked into the sky again and took a deep breath. "I hope these peaceful days can just last forever." She said softly, though she knew that might not happen.

(-)

Later that night...

"I can feel it..." She muttered to her wolf companion. "A powerful magic user is here, somewhere, Zafira."

The wolf, Zafira, nodded. "I've felt it too." He turned his back to the redhead. "Vita, I'll check over this way, call for help if you need it."

"Ha! A Belkan Knight, needing help against one opponent? Don't make me laugh, Zafira." Vita smirked at him. "I'll catch this one by surprise and get the Linker Core and be back before anyone worries." Part of that was bravado, she would admit, but she wasn't worried. She was certain that no one had the experience needed to take on a Belkan Knight. And even if they did, they wouldn't be able to keep up with them for very long.

After all, who in this world had the experience, skill and knowledge to fend off opponents who specialized in magical close combat anyway?

(-)

"ACHOO!"

"You okay, Lina?"

"Just fine, Shiro. Now, where were we?"

"I think, just about here."

"Eeek! Mmm! Naughty."

"You like it though."

(-)

Looking around on the roof of some businesses downtown, Nanoha looked around for the source of her discomfort. "Seriously, who goes around throwing up fields like this?" Nanoha grumbled, before a warning from Raising Heart warned her to an incoming attack. Looking to her side, she threw up a barrier as a metal ball crashed into it. "What?" She didn't get time to contemplate the attack as a redheaded girl in a red dress swung some sort of hammer at her. Raising her free hand, she grimaced as the hammer connected with her barrier with more force that it should have had.

"Raising Heart, please."

**"Alright. Axel Bolt."**

The hammer girl's eyes widened as she was covered in electrical energy and forced away from Nanoha with a scream as she was forced out of the air and onto the roof, where she rolled away before spinning to her feet. "Okay, didn't expect that one." So the girl could convert electricity easily, huh? Made for an interesting opponent at least.

Nanoha's eyes widened as the girl seemed to disappear. She felt the hairs on her neck stand up and she dropped to her knees as the hammer passed right where her head had been a moment ago. "Diem Wind!"

"Huh?" Her opponent was blown away, quite literally, by surprise as the attack connected, sending her tumbling through the air.

"Raising Heart!"

**"Alright. Standby, Drive Ignition."**

Nanoha grit her teeth and threw her hand to the side. "Lyrical, Magical! Nanoha Takamachi, let's go!"

**"Set up!"**

Her opponent shook her head and saw that the girl had finally stopped messing around and called up her staff and Barrier Jacket. Narrowing her eyes, she rubbed her knuckles across her lips. "Damn, didn't know she was that good."

**"Divine."**

Nanoha flew off the roof and started circling her opponent. "Why are you attacking me?"

"You don't need to know, just lay down and be still!" She growled out as she held a ball in her hand.

**"Flame."**

Nanoha narrowed her eyes. "If you won't tell me, then I guess I'll have to beat you first."

"Ha! You can try!" The hammer girl laughed at her and held her weapon up, ready to strike the ball. "Graf Eisen!"

**"Jawol!"**

**"Buster!"**

The girl was startled by the word, when she finally noticed that the staff had been in a shooting mode before a white hot gout of fire erupted from the tip.

"What? Dual elements?" She gasped, even as she threw up a barrier with all her might, her ball falling to the ground harmlessly. Gritting her teeth, she grunted as she was pushed back, the heat from the attack melting the snow on the ground and turning it into steam even as the entire downtown area was lit up like the mid-day sun.

"GO!" Nanoha yelled loudly and put more effort into the attack, before focusing a pink ball in front of her and snapping it forward, where it crashed into the girl's shield and exploded, knocking her onto her back in mid-air.

"Huh?" The girl blinked before grabbing her head and pulling her hand away to find that she had nothing but ashes in her hair. "...my hat..." The rest of her outfit was just as worn, but that hat... Hayate had fixed that hat up just special for her! Glaring at the girl, even as tears leaked out of her eyes, she screamed angrily and stopped holding back like she had promised to do before. "HOW DARE YOU! **GRAF EISEN! CARTRIDGE LOAD!"**

**"JAWOL!"**

Nanoha blinked as the device snapped up and down, then it changed shapes and the girl rocketed forward, far faster than she had moments before. "Ack!" Throwing up her barrier quickly proved futile as the girl's spike broke through the barrier, slammed into and right through Raising Heart, leaving the shaft mostly destroyed. The girl then spun around again and slammed the pointy end of her hammer RIGHT into Nanoha's ribs. Nanoha's eyes widened and a couple drops of blood slipped out of her wide-open mouth as she was thrown violently into a nearby building, crashing through the wall and ending up at the water dispenser.

Groaning, Nanoha shifted slightly, even as the water poured from the broken dispenser over her head and body. She couldn't even see properly, just darkness and water. "Nnngh..."

Taking a deep breath, the other girl strolled towards her. "Don't go around destroying people's hats."

Nanoha tried to move, but found that doing so sent waves of pain through her body. Her back hurt, her ribs were likely broken, Raising Heart was trashed and this girl looked like she was going to kill her. "Mom... Dad... Oneechan, Oniichan... Yuuno-kun, Fate-chan... Someone..." She whimpered as the girl stopped just in front of her.

"Tck... This is why I don't like picking on kids, they don't know how to handle a serious fight." Oh well, she'd just call Shamal to make sure that the girl survived getting her Linker Core stolen. The last thing they needed was someone dead because of this. "Just sit still..." Her eyes widened as she jumped back from several icy spikes that crashed through the ground, trying to get her. "What the?"

The ice spikes shattered, revealing two blonds, a boy and a girl, the girl was pointing an axe-like device at her while the boy's hands were glowing a soft blue. "Damn, reinforcements? Who the hell are you punks?"

"Her friends!" The girl in black took a stance in front of her. "Yuuno! Protect Nanoha, I'm going to deal with her."

The boy nodded. "No problem, Fate."

"Tsk." The girl spit to the side before flying back. "I'd like to see you try!" As soon as she was out of the building, she was kicked in the butt, sending her up and bouncing off of the outer wall of the building. "What the?"

Glaring up at her was a redheaded woman with wolf ears and a tail. "A guardian beast?" Just where the hell were these people coming from?

(-)

"We should get to the roof." Yuuno said as Fate nodded, the two of them didn't know how long Arf could hold off the crazy redhead, but they had to get Nanoha somewhere safe.

"Nnngh... Fate-chan... Yuuno-kun... You two came for me." Nanoha smiled, even as pieces of Raising Heart rested on her body.

"Shh!" Yuuno tried to quiet her as they got to the roof and Fate took off. "Arf's here with us. We'll save you and send that girl back wherever she came from."

Nanoha nodded as Yuuno went to work with healing her.

(-)

"Alright, who are you?" Fate asked after she got the girl in some binds on the girl's arms and legs. The girl snorted at her and glared. "Very well, I guess." Her eyes widened as Arf and Bardiche shouted a warning to her that came a moment too late as a pink-haired woman with a sword flashed up and slammed her weapon, a sword, against Bardiche, knocking her back, before she sliced down with that weapon, slicing through Bardiche's shaft, before kicking her down and out of the air.

"Fate!" Arf yelled, before yelling as she was kicked in the small of the back, sending her away. "Arrgh!"

"Signum!" The bound girl gasped before looking away. She didn't want her leader to see her like this. "I could have handled it."

"Of course you could have, Vita." Signum nodded at her. "Zafira, keep that one busy." The male nodded and raced after Arf. "But, Vita, think about our master. If you were hurt, she would be upset." She looked at the outfit before sighing softly.

Vita looked away, blushing. She didn't like the fact that her outfit was in tatters. "Hayate's not going to be happy about this." Signum turned away after she broke Vita from the binds. "Still, this fight is three-on-three... And there's no way..."

"A Belkan Knight can lose in a one-on-one fight!" Vita finished for her as the two took off.

(-)

Yuuno looked up at the sky, before grimacing. "Nanoha, you okay?"

The girl nodded before blinking as a green barrier popped up around her. "Yuuno-kun?"

"Just stay in there." Yuuno smiled at her. "That barrier will keep anything out as long as you're in it, and it will keep healing you. Fate needs help." She nodded as he ran off and flew straight into the fray.

"Yuuno-kun, Fate-chan, Arf-san..." Nanoha mumbled softly as she watched the fight unfold.

She just hoped that they would all be okay.

(-)

Vita growled as Graf Eisen bounced off of the blond boy's shield again. "Damn you!"

"Freeze!" The boy clapped his hands together, before spreading them apart. Several icy daggers appeared in front of him. "GO!"

"Damn, that was you!" Vita yelped as they all crashed into her barrier, creating a frozen disk. "Ha!" She smirked as the ice fell down from her barrier. "Is that all you..." She trailed off as several more icicles appeared around her as the boy flew down. "Damn!"

"Blocking only helps if you can keep the other guy from firing at you!" She heard his voice before the spears launched at her. She threw up several smaller barriers around her and smirked as all the attacks were blocked.

"HA! Take that you OOOF!" Vita's eyes widened as that ice puck smashed into her gut, bending her over, before it broke and she went flying back. "Oww! What the hell was that for?" She rubbed her gut even as she struggled to regain control of her flight. Seeing the angry look on the blond boy, she actually gulped despite herself.

"You broke my friend's ribs!" He yelled and snapped forth several more ice spikes.

"What is up with everyone knowing elemental attacks?" Vita mumbled to herself even as she threw up more barriers to avoid his various ice attacks. "Alright! You wanna play! Let's play!" She looked at Graf Eisen. "EISEN!"

**"JAWOL!"** Her device yelled as it snapped her last Cartridge up and got much larger. **"Gigant Form!"**

Vita smirked as his eyes widened. "Hate to waste this on you, but, I don't have time to waste playing with you!" He was far too nimble of an opponent to risk the full size, not until he was down, but she could still hit him with it as long as she kept it from getting too large.

"NNNGH!" The boy grunted as it slammed into a green barrier, sending him skidding back along the air.

"Damn, what is he made of?" Vita asked herself as she couldn't feel any give to the barrier at all, this was her strongest attack and he was LAUGHING at her! "I'll show you!" Putting forth more effort, she was pleased to see that he was pushed out of the air. The pleasantness didn't last long as she saw that his barrier never broke. "Damn, must be more tired than I thought..." She grimaced as she looked at her hands. "...No way." She had at least two broken bones from that. "...Who ARE these people?"

(-)

Watching the fight, Nanoha looked at the barrier. For some reason, she couldn't contact anyone else. "Raising Heart... We need to destroy the barrier."

**"Alright. Starlight Breaker, Barrier Piercing."**

"Can you do it, Raising Heart?" She asked, her body felt like crap, her device was in pieces, she felt bad for asking her device to do this too.

**"I can be shot, my master."**

Nanoha smiled at that. "Thank you." Taking two steps out of the barrier, she pointed straight up. _"Everyone, I'm going to fire a Starlight Breaker and get us out of here. I need ten seconds though."_

_"Right!"_ She heard Arf, Fate and Yuuno all say to her at once. "Ready, Rasing Heart?"

**"Count 10. Count 9. Count 8. Count 7. Count 6. Count 5. Count 4. Count 3. Count 3. Count 3. Count 3."**

"Raising Heart." Nanoha gasped. "If it's too hard."

**"I can be shot. Count 2. Count 1."**

Nanoha's eyes widened as she felt something she had never felt before. Looking down, she saw a hand sticking out of her chest. "...That's not normal..." She gasped as the hand was pulled back, before pushed through again, this time, it was latched onto something small, glowing and round. "What?" Briefly, she heard something say something about downloading or absorbing, she wasn't sure. All she knew was that she felt a LOT of pain as the ball started to shrink, and shrink. Her mind went blank even as Raising Heart slipped from her numb fingers. 'What... Is that...'

_Destroy... Enemies... Protect..._

(-)

Shamal sighed, she hated doing this, but at least it would be done and they could get out of there.

(-)

Signum closed her eyes as she heard the target let out a small whimper. "It's done." She ignored the way that the blonde girl in front of her glared. She just needed to keep her away from what Shamal was doing and everything would be fine.

(-)

Yuuno and Arf glared at the girl in tattered clothing and the male wolf creature as they blocked their way.

"Just a moment longer, then you can just..."

**"ARRRRRRRRRRRGH!"** A blood curdling scream interrupted the battlefield and everyone looked at Nanoha, who was screaming, her eyes open wide.

"What the?" Vita gasped, this wasn't normal. This wasn't normal at all!

(-)

Gasping awake, her left eye glowing brightly, Lina looked outside. "Oh no..." She trembled and got dressed quickly. "Nanoha!"

"What's wrong?" Shiro got to his feet, pants on his body just as Lina opened the windows. "Lina? What about Nanoha?"

His wife turned to him with a look of dread on her face. "What I feared most has come true."

(-)

Nanoha screamed, her body, mind and soul were on fire. Her magic circle appeared under her, but it wasn't pink this time, it was a bright gold color, black lightning crackled out from it and surrounded her even as her red hair turned a bright golden color. The white of her eyes turned pitch black and the blue in her eyes turned gold.

(-)

Shamal stared, this wasn't normal, not at all. She trembled as the girl turned to her and grinned before pointing at her. The Knight of the Lake screamed as black and gold lightning covered her body, zapping her and the Book from all angles, causing soul-shearing pain to run through her. It felt like something was ripping her apart slowly and deliberately.

(-)

Nanoha turned away from the source of immediate pain as it ended, before looking straight at Vita. **"So... You wanted to hurt me..."** Her voice was distorted and sending shivers down the spines of EVERYONE on the battle field.

Nanoha snapped her fingers and pointed at Vita. The grin on her face became more disturbed as a pillar of fire erupted from the ground, engulfing the girl for a moment before it abated. Hearing the screams and seeing her fall to the ground in a spray of blood from her body was just music to her ears and eyes.

She looked at the other two. **"Which of you two... Shall be the next to go?"**

(-)

Vita screamed, her whole body, inside and out was on fire, her arms, legs, face, neck, belly, chest, back and even her ass were bleeding even as she fell to the ground. As she crashed into a car, she rolled on the ground, through snow banks in a futile attempt to stop the pain. "HURTS! STOP!" She screamed, even as the snow covered her, it didn't stop the fiery hot pain from continuing to engulf her.

What kind of monster _was_ that creature? What kind of creature could do something like this so easily?

(-)

Signum dodged like a woman possessed; those black spheres were no joke. She had tried to block one with her attacks, only to find that anything she used was quickly swallowed up by the spheres, and even her barriers didn't help, even if they slowed the attacks down long enough for her to escape. "Zafira! Get to Shamal and Vita!"

She had only taken her eyes off of her opponent for a moment, only a moment, but that was all that was needed for a black sphere to clip her leg, sending shock waves of pain, unlike anything she had ever felt before, rushing through her body. Looking up, she saw a large black sphere heading towards her. Closing her eyes, she waited for the end, she wasn't a coward, but she wished that she could see Hayate again. She gasped as she felt someone grab her arm and pull her out of the way. "You?" She blinked at the blonde girl.

The girl, Testarossa, she believed, shook her head. "Nanoha's not a killer, something unusual happened to her, get the others and get out of here."

Signum was about to say something, when her leg started burning hot. "Nnngh. Right."

(-)

**"Where's the last one? Little dog, little dog... You need a spanking."** Nanoha turned and grinned as she saw him try to grab the one that had hurt her the most, only to get covered in the same lightning that had got her. **"Burn! Burn in unholy hellfire!"** She held up a black ball that started crackling with fire, before throwing her hands up, the ball moving above her head. **"Now, take this!"**

_"Holy wind, which flows gently across the land,_  
_let all things be filled with your pure breath._  
_Van Rail!"_

Nanoha's eyes widened as her legs and arms, including her attack were covered in ice. Turning her head, she saw Yuuno panting. **"You would defend them? After what they did... Then..."** A gold pillar engulfed her, shattering the ice and sending waves of icy vapor across the sky. **"You shall go too!"**

Yuuno's eyes widened, he didn't think that she'd turn on him. "NANOHA! SNAP OUT OF IT!" He screamed even as she charged up a black and gold ball in her hands.

"Yuuno!" Fate screamed as she raced towards him, she wasn't going to make it, nothing could stop this tragedy from continuing.

Suddenly the barrier shattered like glass, and before anyone could react, the trembling, out of control chaotic energies were stopped.

Fate looked and saw Nanoha passed out and a panting Lina's fist in her belly. "What are you waiting for?" Lina yelled at her, Arf and Yuuno. "Get down here!" She then turned to see Signum grabbing a still screaming and rolling Vita on the ground. "You, get out of here!" She wanted to punish them, she did, but if that Chaos took over again, she needed to make sure that she was nearby to keep her daughter from destroying the Earth.

She'd deal with them at a later date, this was more important.

* * *

Well, Lina _did_ make that comment that the Chaos in Nanoha would cause her to go crazy. Though she was kidding at the time.


	10. A's the Second

Blood That Flows

A's the second

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

* * *

"Well, well..." She smirked to herself as she saw the older woman stop the source of delicious, delicious chaos. "Just who are you?" The little girl could create such chaotic energy, it was incredible, but the older woman. Chaotic energy poured out of her like a continuous stream. Granted, it was more directed and much more... _Refined_ than the younger girl's, but that just spoke levels of experience to her. "Well, whatever." She snorted as the two chaos sources and those other magic users disappeared in a flash of light. "Mid, huh?" She shook her head, though that blonde girl pissed her off for some reason.

Snorting, she disappeared, searching out those constructs. "I wonder what's going to happen to them..."

(-)

Signum panted as she, Vita, Zafira, Shamal and the book ended up in some alley way in a different city. Maybe. She wasn't sure. Signum groaned and fell to her knees, before giving up and falling face-down, her whole body was in nothing but pain.

She couldn't even hear anymore, though she was certain that Shamal, Vita and Zafira were all in as much pain as she was, probably more in the case of Shamal and Vita. 'Hayate... I'm sorry, I wish we didn't disobey you.'

"Well, well..." The person that had watched the other group leave in the teleportation walked up to the fallen group. "So, I wonder..." She reached towards the Book of Darkness, but stopped as golden lightning crackled over its surface. "Even you, huh?" She shrugged before black energy spun around her body. "Well, whatever, I look forward to seeing what will happen to you... I wonder, will you become an abomination? An out-of-control monster? Something from nightmares?" Or maybe nothing would happen, but she doubted that.

That kind of power was called Chaos for a reason.

(-)

Looking out at the world of Mid-Childa, he snorted. "Worthless... Completely worthless..." He then smirked at the thought of letting certain groups know about some of the Lost Logias that existed just under people's noses. "The fear would certainly be amusing."

Leaning back in his chair, he wondered when he got so complacent. "What brings you here?" Then again, things _had_ settled down in the past 65 or so years. Maybe he could go and stir up some trouble on some administered worlds and see if some civil wars would come from it. Oh well, it was just so boring since the old wars ended.

"Master... It seems that the Book of Darkness has resurfaced."

He snorted, that wasn't anything special. "That accursed thing?" Oh well, the little "gift" that he left in it so long ago had kept it from being a problem for him.

Humans on the other hand? Well, it was a major problem for them. Then again, they were so fragile and didn't live that long.

"Yes, but something interesting has appeared."

Blinking, he spun in his hair to face his underling. "Explain."

"A little girl that released a rather large amount of Chaos magic and nearly killed the guardians of the book. But that wasn't as important as what happened next." When her master raised an eyebrow, she smirked nastily at him, her red eyes practically glowing in glee. "An older woman, with just as much Chaos, but far more refined than that brat showed up and stopped her rampage. The fear, the destructive capacities... It was so _lovely_."

Seeing her shiver in delight, he shook his head. "You are still young... If you had been here when I made Al Hazard fall, and during the Belkan wars... You would know true delight." But still... "Chaos? You mean... Chaos from _Her_?"

"Yes! Golden glow, black energy, the utter delight as the world shook and shuddered just from the energy being released. It was _glorious_!"

He thought about this and leaned back before doing something that would terrify anyone who saw it.

He grinned in anticipation.

(-)

How long was she out? "What happened?" She asked as she lifted her head out of the snow. "NNGH!" Her eyes widened as her body throbbed and flash of memory hit her.

That girl, glowing gold upon the night, before snapping her hands and engulfing her in hellfire.

Grabbing her mouth she hunched over, before vomiting what little contents there was in her stomach. "Oh gods..."

"My head..." She heard Zafira grumble. "Vita!" He was by her side, rubbing her back as she expelled her stomach contents. "...Vita, your body..."

"What?" She looked down at herself, before blushing slightly as she was mostly naked, having just some rags over her chest and crotch, hell, her butt was completely bare at this point! "What about my body?" It wasn't the first time that she had been naked around the other Wolkenritter. It wasn't anything new for any of them, they had all been in various states of undress around each other many times over the years.

"...You're not bleeding..." He then patted himself down and frowned. "Weird... I don't feel anymore pain." He looked at Signum and Shamal before walking to Signum and helping her to her feet. "How about you?"

"Ugh... Feels like my head was put into a blender, but otherwise, okay." She had some trouble getting to her feet, but otherwise, she was okay. "Shamal!"

The blonde woman gasped as she got to her knees. "Ugh... I feel sick."

Vita growled as she picked up the book and thumbed through it. "The book looks like it's okay." She blinked a couple of times. "Huh, that girl had a lot more pages than I thought."

"Really?" Signum looked over Vita's shoulder. Her eyes widened slightly. "Fifty?"

Vita smirked slightly but looked down at herself and grimaced at the state she was in. "Ugh... Okay, we need to double check our targets in the future. I don't think we need a repeat of tonight." Vita blinked and turned the page. "Huh, guess it was just over fifty pages." She shrugged and closed the book. "Anyway, let's get back to Hayate before she worries." She blinked as the others stared at her. "What?"

"Your outfit?"

"Oh." Vita blinked and concentrated as a breeze kicked up and blew off the rest of her armor, leaving her naked. She sighed as her street clothes reformed around her, before her eyes widened. "Where's Graf Eisen?"

"Here." Signum held the hammer-shaped pendant out to her. "I picked it up when I grabbed you."

"Thank you." Vita took it before grimacing at the feel of her body. "Ugh, can't wait to get home, I need a shower."

Shamal nodded as she took the book from Vita's hands. "Yeah." She twitched slightly, her body still felt tingly, and not in a good way. Opening the book, she just wanted to see how many pages had been filled for herself. She scratched her head, there was almost fifty-one pages taken from that girl, before shrugging and closing the book. They were all pretty exhausted anyway, it was pretty easy to lose track of a couple pages here or there.

(-)

"Now, explain to me what it was that my daughter and her friends faced out there." Lina asked Chrono as the two of them, Fate, Arf, Lindy and Yuuno were in the medical bay.

The boy sighed as a video screen appeared in front of him. "Those four, they're the Guardians of a tome known as the Book of Darkness. They call themselves the Wolkenritter."

"Not the first time you've gone against them, huh?" Lina sighed as Chrono shook his head. "Alright, what do you know?"

"There's four of them, they attack powerful opponents, collecting the Linker Cores of their defeated opponents and use that to fill the Book of Darkness."

Lina rubbed her forehead. "Okay, I suppose that's true, but you'll need to slow down a bit and explain what the heck a Linker Core is, how it fills that book and anything about them..."

"Sorry, I just thought you'd want a quick explanation." Chrono shrugged as the video screen turned to a picture of the Book. "Let's start with this. It's name is the Book of Darkness. The Wolkenritter are programs created by the book to protect it and the current master."

"Current master?" Lina raised an eyebrow. "What? It keeps choosing new masters?"

"When the current master dies or the book is destroyed, it instantly reincarnates and chooses a new master. The Wolkenritter are charged with not only protection, but power gathering."

"So, what's a Linker Core then?" Lina rolled her eyes at his stunned look. "Never heard of it before."

"Simplest terms is that it's a magical organ where all our magical power is stored and drawn from." Yuuno took over for Chrono. "Any spells that we know, it's basically like a magical brain located in the chest." He blinked as Lina frowned heavily.

"You say that they use this... Linker Core to fill the book?"

Chrono nodded as a few more images appeared. "If too much is taken from a Linker Core, magic, potential and knowledge... The victim can die easily."

Lina closed her eyes. "So... If the book got its hands on a powerful magic user, the master would have full access to that person's spells?"

"Yes."

Lina bit back a few... Colorful curse words. "Well, that's just... _wonderful_..." She sighed as Yuuno asked her what she meant. "I mean, I can't fight against these four."

"What?"

Lina raised an eyebrow as everyone looked at her aghast. "You seriously want me to defend my position, huh?" She turned and looked at Nanoha, who was still out cold on the bed. "Think about it... I'm in my thirties, I have my family to think about... And if the book's master had access to my spells?" She turned to them, her eyes glinting dangerously. "Imagine if the master had access to the Nemesis Breaker, or any of my other spells. And my knowledge..." The last thing she wanted was something that could steal magic getting access to her Chaos spells. The Ragna Blade was bad enough, but the Giga Slave? That was just asking for trouble.

Lina smiled to herself as everyone in the room shuddered as they imagined the destruction. "Look, I'll be on hand if you want advice or any tips. If you want me to blow them up from a distance, I can do that, but I'm not going to go fight them up close and personal."

Chrono nodded, he could see that. "Very well, as for the Wolkenritter themselves..."

(-)

Slipping out of a portal, she looked around and smirked to herself. Her blonde hair swayed in the wind. "Well, master..." Chuckling, she casually zapped an intersection so that all the lights were green and laughed as all the cars crashed into each other, killing a few people, angering others, and causing general problems. "Meh, minor, but I do love how people get so riled up over little things."

Looking around, her eyes focused on sight that no mere human could ever see. "So, where are you, book?" She wasn't going to touch the thing, not even if she had a few Brass or Brow Demons doing the touching for her. Keeping tabs on it though, that was more important.

Plus she wondered how they would feel about the Bureau getting some "anonymous" help knowing where the Wolkenritter were at all times. Grinning, she found her target and took off through the air. She could have just faded to the Astral Plane easily enough, but the feel of wind, it was interesting. Probably a left over from what she was before.

"Too bad I never got to see the wars." Then again, existing for just over a quarter century wasn't a great way to know about the old wars.

She then grinned. "Maybe I can ask master about how he killed the last Saint Kaiser sometime?" That would be fun.

She frowned as she touched down on a rooftop near the edge of the business district. "...What was I doing again?" It took her a moment before she remembered and took off again. "Heh heh, prepare yourselves, little Wolkenritter, as the Priest of Darkness, you'll soon find out why you should fear the things that go bump in the night."

She started laughing, before stopping as she felt a source of despair. Turning, she dropped down into an alley before she chuckled as she saw a mugging happening. "Fear and despair from one is okay, but both..." Her voice took on a deeper and darker tone as she faded into the shadows.

The man grinned as he pinned the girl against the wall of the alley. "Don't worry, no one's coming to save you."

She was about to scream in fear, when a growling noise was heard. Both of them turned and paled in sheer fright as they saw the largest black wolf that either of them had ever seen was standing in front of the alley way.

They both screamed and ran as the wolf barked at them before running after them. As they got out of the alley, more people saw the wolf and started running in fear.

It probably didn't help that there was several wolves heard as the single wolf chased after anyone who was close.

After a few minutes of making the area clear out, and making sure to take bites out of random people's arms, legs and rears at times, the wolf ducked into an alley and disappeared.

On a rooftop several blocks away, the blond reappeared out of the shadows, before falling to the rooftop and rolling around in laughter. "Oh, you humans are so much _FUN_!"

Oh well, fun time was over. "Back to work." She giggled and took off to her original target. Quick peek in, "tag" the book, then leave and see what kind of chaos she could cause for everyone involved.

Fear, anger, despair, jealousy, all of these were flavors of food for her.

* * *

Who is this mysterious woman? Who is her master? What happened to the Wolkenritter?

Find out the answers to these questions in future chapters of Blood That Flows


	11. A's the Third

A's the Third

Disclaimer is the same as before.

WARNING! WARNING!

The following chapter is VERY, VERY dark! Events that you are about to read are very unpleasant and I apologize in advance.

* * *

"Master..." He turned to her as she materialized in his office again. "It is done. We'll be able to keep tabs on them at all times."

Chuckling, he called up a screen, well, several screens and saw the entire Yagami household. "Quite interesting... Such... compassion for them." He shook his head and smirked as he saw the redhead get out of bed. "Let's see..." A small fleck of magic and...

_"OW!"_ The redhead yelped as she tripped over the rug that got tangled up under her feet and caused her to go head first into a chair.

"Good." He laughed at that. "So, anyway..." He narrowed his eyes at her. "Why'd you come back? Those sources of Chaos, find them!"

"I will, but, master... I want to know... You killed Olivie Segbert... What was it like?"

He sighed and leaned back in his chair. "She was considered the strongest in the wars. No one could touch her. So, naturally, I put it into people's heads that she was going to take over their countries. A few well-placed assassinations, shifting the blame and people are so _willing_ to go to war." He closed his eyes as he thought back to that last moment.

(-)

Olivie sat on her throne, sighing softly. "I'm sorry, Klaus, I wish things had been different."

"Too bad."

Olivie's eyes widened as she saw a man wearing a simple blue tunic, brown pants and boots. His hair reached to just his shoulders as he looked at her in amusement. "Who are you?"

"Me?" He chuckled at her. "Oh, you won't need to know my name, lovely Kaiser... Just know that I'm your executioner." He bowed politely at her. "But, I guess I can give you my title... I'm known as Death Bringer." He then shrugged at her look. "No, seriously, that's my title. I got it from my lord for ending Al Hazard."

Olivie had heard enough, a Belkan triangle appeared under her and she used one of her most powerful attacks, one that not even Klaus could ignore.

She gasped as nothing came out. "What?"

"Oh please." Death Bringer rolled his eyes at her. "A spell of that level? I don't even need to use shields to block it. I can shut off your magic with a thought little girl." He chuckled at the way she glared at him. "Oh yes, get angry. I just love the scowl of anger on your pretty face. Maybe I'll turn you into a servant when I'm done here." He chuckled as her fist connected with his body, before she fell through him and onto the floor. "Yes... I could use you... In _so_ many ways."

She spat on the floor and rounded on him, her red and green eyes glaring at him as she tried spell after spell on him, all of them failing before they even left her fingertips. "I would never become your servant."

He sighed before snapping his fingers, Olivie's mage circle turned black as tendrils reached up and wrapped themselves around her arms and legs, spreading them as she was lifted off her feet unwillingly. "Now, why do you have to be that way?" He asked her, chuckling as she glared. "If you had just accepted my offer, I could have granted you immortality..." He shrugged. "Oh well."

Olivie's eyes widened as she saw his hand touch her on the belly. "What?"

"Ah... I see... Your time with that Klaus person... You do have a child on the way." He chuckled at the way her eyes widened. "Oh well..." His face took on a sinister look as his hand glowed black with power.

Olivie threw her head back and screamed as he forced his hand into her abdomen, before moving it around a few times, and pulling it out, leaving her body feeling like it was bathed in lava.

"Such a young life..." He shrugged at her as she stopped screaming and started panting glaring at him. "Oh my my... Such hatred... Such lovely hatred... Are you mad that I snuffed out your child's life?" He gently caressed her face. "Don't be... you're next."

She gasped as his hand reached into her chest, between her breasts, before pulling out a large white orb. 'What..?' She couldn't even get words to form, her body felt cold, very cold.

He grinned at her, chuckling heavily. "Your soul, girl... Your soul... It shall... Be quite tasty..."

Olivie screamed as he took a bite out of it, literally, leaving her to tremble in pain.

"Yes! HAHAHAHAHAHA! The pain! MORE! MUST HAVE _MORE_ OF IT!" He laughed and slammed his hand into her chest, this time, making sure to rip through her armor and skin, before grabbing her heart and squeezing. "Such a weakness! You humans have such... Pathetic lives!" He looked at her soul, before taking another bite out of it and laughed as she writhed in pain, flopping helplessly in the grasp of those tendrils. "Just like a fish... If I squeeze too hard on your heart, you'll die and I won't get to finish my meal." Not that he needed the soul, but he found it was... Such a way to draw out the pain and helplessness that humans had when they were outmatched. Plus the beauty of the fear on her face... "If I was human, I'd say you were incredibly beautiful. But... I'm not." He shrugged and ripped her heart out, before dropping her to the ground. "Pitiful." He snorted as what was left of her soul disappeared from his hand before he threw her still beating heart on her face. "Sleep well... Saint Kaiser Olivie Segbert."

(-)

She shuddered as she heard that story again. "So... Awesome!" Hell, if she was human, she'd be so turned on at that moment that she would need to do something to get off.

He chuckled at her. "Yes, I do do my best work when I personally intervene, don't I?"

"Master Death Bringer, what shall I do to them?"

"Whatever you want." His grin was contagious. "But don't kill them, not yet... Killing them is only reserved for after their torment has been drawn out."

"Of course!" She smirked and disappeared in a flash of black.

Left alone, he turned back to the city of Cranagan, before running a finger over the plane of glass in front of him. "Soon, my master... Soon I shall be able to free you from where you slumber. And then this section of the staff... Shall be ours to play with."

He started laughing maniacally. Somedays, it paid to be a lord under the Ma-Oh.

(-)

"Are you sure you're okay, Vita-chan?" Hayate asked worriedly as she fussed over Vita's face. "You look like you really got hurt."

Vita was blushing as Hayate touched her face. "I'm fine, really, Hayate." She grabbed the other girl's hands and smiled for her master. "I've taken worse before." Like last night.

Hearing that, Hayate seemed to tear up before lunging forward and hugging the little knight.

"Hayate?"

"As long as I'm here, you'll never have to face that again."

Vita smiled and hugged Hayate. "As long as we're with you, master, everything will be alright."

After a few moments, Hayate smiled and pulled back from Vita. "So, let's have breakfast now."

Vita nodded and helped Hayate get back into her chair properly. "Yeah, then we can go for a walk."

Hayate smiled and turned to look at the wolf in the room. "Zafira, want to come with us?" Her smile increased as he nodded. "Yay!"

"I would come with, but the head instructor at the dojo is sick." Signum spoke up. "I'm going to be a bit busy there."

"And we're getting a little low on some sauces." Shamal said after rummaging through the cabinets. "Though I suppose we could walk with Hayate until we split off."

"Of course." Signum nodded calmly. A family outing sounded like something they all needed after that horrible nightmare last night. _"Shamal, are you going to hold onto the book?"_

_"Yes. It'll be safer if one of us has it for now."_

_"Alright."_ Signum mentally nodded to Shamal.

(-)

"Yuuno-kun, I'm sorry." Nanoha looked down at her bed in embarrassment. "I can't believe I almost attacked you."

Yuuno rubbed the back of his head. "Hey, I'm okay. You didn't attack me, so there's nothing to worry about."

"But still..."

"Actually, your mom was talking about giving you something as soon as Raising Heart got fixed." Yuuno smiled at her, trying to change the subject. "She said that it should help you control that power until you get used to it."

Nanoha blinked, wondering what her mother had in mind.

(-)

Hours later...

"Ah, here you are." Nanoha blinked as she saw her mother walk into the cafeteria. "And eating the ship out of food, I see." Lina laughed as her daughter blushed heavily. "Hey, it's okay, I was worse when I was younger." She cleared her throat and pulled out a square container before setting it in front of her daughter. "Anyway, this is for you."

"A box?" Chrono asked as he looked at it. Granted, it was a pretty box, but he didn't "OW!" He rubbed his head as he rubbed the spot where Lina had slapped him with a slipper. "I was joking!"

Lina snorted. "Your humor sucks, kid." She turned to Nanoha and opened the box. "It's what's in the box that matters." She sighed and revealed four round gems.

"What... Are these?" Nanoha asked as she picked one up. "...It's pretty."

"Demon's Blood Talismans." Lina chuckled as Nanoha nearly dropped it in shock. "Despite the name, I don't think they have actual blood inside of them."

"So... What am I supposed to do with them?" Nanoha blinked a few times. It felt like there was a powerful aura surrounding them.

"Wear them." Lina smiled at her daughter. "Despite the name, they're actually magical amplifiers."

"Really?" Yuuno picked one of the talismans up. "Hey! This one's got some sort of symbol in it."

Lina nodded. "Each of these things represent a different Ma-Oh that exists. Ruby-Eye, Dark Star, Death Fog and Chaotic Blue."

"Oh. So... They make magic stronger?" Nanoha frowned softly. "Wouldn't that be dangerous?"

Lina chuckled softly. "Well, there's a reason why I'm giving them to you. They not only enhance magical power, but they'll help you focus and control your power."

Nanoha flinched. "So I don't..." Her eyes watered up as she remembered what she almost did to her friends.

"Hey, it's okay, Nanoha." Lina knelt down to look Nanoha in the eyes. "No one got hurt, so, don't cry, otherwise I'll bring in some baby pictures and show them to Fate and Yuuno." She grinned as Nanoha blanched at that. "Good. I'll teach you how to use these things later, okay."

Nanoha nodded at that as they put the talismans back into the box.

* * *

Oh dear, Nanoha now has the Demon's Blood Talismans. Yeek!

Okay, I know that a LOT of you are probably a mite bit angry for what Death Bringer did to Olivie. But, let me explain.

If you ever read the Slayers novels, you'll note that what he did to her is NOT unlike what Hellmaster Phibrizzo did to Lina and Co. In fact, any high ranking Mazoku, such as a General or a Priest (never mind a lord) has the ability to _cancel_ magic freely. Most of them need to chant a spell to do so, but the strongest lords, such as Hellmaster, don't need to chant anything, they can simply THINK the spell out of existence if they want to. Granted, that only works up to a certain level. Yes, even the Dragon Slave can be canceled by high ranking Mazoku. And by canceled, I don't mean, hit a barrier and go away, I mean, the spell doesn't even go off!

Just a little trivia for how powerful Hellmaster is... The guy rebuilt Sairagg, destroyed Flagoon, the Blessed Blade and the remnants of Zanafar, brought back all the people who had died to Copi-Rezo, unleashed the full power of the Sword of Light, left part of himself laying around as food that Lina and Co. ate, killed Gaav stupidly easy, was surprised by Amelia's Ra Tilt (not the fact that she could cast it, the fact that she hit him with it was surprising, he wasn't expecting that), ripped open a portal to Dark Star's universe to throw the Sword of Light back, while maintaining a barrier that blocked out EVERYTHING except Mazoku and really powerful humans, and it took TWO Giga Slaves to kill him.

Yes, that's right, TWO Giga Slaves in the novels. The first one was the version Lina used on Shabranigdo, the incomplete version. He got hit with it, stood up and went "suppressing that spell REALLY hurt!" She THEN cast the complete version on him, but, in the novels, he had a piece of himself inside of her (the food she ate) and made her heart explode. He just didn't expect L-Sama to smack around her naughty child after all.


	12. A's the Fourth

A's the Fourth

Standard Disclaimer is here.

* * *

Several days later...

"So BORING!" She groaned as she looked at the Wolkenritter. They had taken a few days off and hadn't done anything. She supposed their recent scare was still fresh on their minds. "Damn, might need to do something about this." She smirked as she saw Signum and Vita leave the house. "Now..." She pulled up a screen and chuckled as they talked about going to the market to get some fruit for a snack for their master. "I wonder..." She pulled up another screen before chuckling. "Oh well..." Leaving a small message to the Bureau mages, she couldn't wait to have them fight again.

And if that little Chaos generator was there, well, she was certain that they'd feel nothing but fear, and that would be good.

(-)

Vita laughed at something that Signum said, before her laughter trailed off and the world got discolored. "What the hell?"

"Mage entrapment?" Signum narrowed her eyes. The two looked at each other and called up their devices and armor before taking to the sky. Around them were several Bureau mages. "Feh..." It wouldn't be hard for her to take down this group by herself, even Zafira could handle most of these guys by himself.

Vita smirked as she looked at the Bureau mages. "You know, we should do improv." She mentally laughed at the way the Bureau mages all looked at her blankly. "We're a couple of drunken sailors and you're a bunch of baby seals... And GO!"

The attack was swift, brutal and totally efficient. In the end, the Bureau mages were all on rooftops, groaning in pain while the two Wolkenritter were looking fresh as a daisy.

"Ha! I love that joke!" Vita was doubled over in laughter.

Signum had a small smile on her face. "You probably shouldn't watch that version of the show though, you really have no idea what was going on."

"Eh, who cares? It's funny." Vita shrugged, before her eyes widened as a pink bolt passed right between her and Signum. Turning, she stared in shock as she saw the blonde girl from the other day and the redhead staring up at her and Signum, looking determined. "This won't end well." She and Signum both tentatively floated backwards, worried that the girl would go out of control again.

Down below, Nanoha saw the nervous look and sighed softly. "Sorry..." She mumbled, but gripped Raising Heart. The device had just gotten repaired, and it had some sort of new upgrades to it. She couldn't wait to test it out. She looked at the Bureau mages and sighed softly, why the heck did it take them so long to get down here? 'Oh, right, there was something making teleporation difficult.' She mentally groused.

"Nanoha..." Fate smiled at her, gripping Bardiche with her hand. She looked at the box at Nanoha's feet. "You going to wear them?"

Nanoha nodded. "Yeah." She smiled as she tapped the box open with her feet and concentrated, the Demon's Blood Talismans floating up in front of her.

"How did you learn that?" Fate blinked as Nanoha giggled softly.

"Just levitation, mom taught it to me."

The blond nodded. "Bardiche..."

"Raising Heart..."

"Set up!"

**"Standby Ready."** The two devices called out in tandem, and Nanoha and Fate gasped as new power flooded them. After Amy told them to call them by their new names, the two were engulfed in a warm sensation as their Barrier Jackets formed around them and their devices took on a slightly new shape, Bardiche gained a revolver-like cylinder chamber while Raising Heart gained a gunner clip under its shaft. Nanoha's outfit completed itself when the talismans attached themselves to Nanoha's wrists, one to her waist and one on her chest bow.

"Are those... Cartridge chambers?" Vita grumbled as she looked at the devices.

Signum narrowed her eyes, that wasn't what worried her too much. "That girl has some sort of new ornaments, be careful, Vita."

"Of course." Vita might have been nervous, but she was STILL a Belkan Knight!

Besides, it helped that the other redhead wasn't glowing gold this time.

Nanoha took a deep breath, recalling her mother's words to her.

_"Those talismans will give your spells a tremendous boost and make it easier to cast your own spells. Make sure to cancel your amplification spell every so often, or you'll be more vulnerable than you would have been without it."_

Nanoha took a deep breath and nodded as she heard Raising Heart's request. "Alright, Raising Heart, let's do this! Cartridge Load!"

**"Load Cartridge."**

**"Sir."**

Fate nodded. "You too, Bardiche, Cartridge Load now."

**"Get set."**

Nanoha closed her eyes before gripping Raising Heart tightly. "Let's go, Raising Heart, Fate-chan." She smiled as she turned and saw Yuuno and Arf there. "Leave this fight to us."

"Don't worry." Arf grinned at her. "We'll just interfere if that big guy jumps into the fight."

Nanoha nodded as she and Fate took off into the air to fight against Signum and Vita.

(-)

As she watched the fight, she growled, with the new enhancements, the two little girls were pretty equal to the Wolkenritter, at least at first glance. "They're holding back!" She hissed, growling. She wanted blood! She wanted pain! She wanted to sense fear from all of them! Why the hell wasn't anyone doing anything special?

Oh, sure, seeing the attacks that were used was interesting, but at the rate things were going, the Wolkenritter would withdraw. "Booooooring!"

She narrowed her eyes and smirked as her red eyes flashed. "Well, if I can't get what I want from them, then I'll do it myself!" She was about to move when she looked at the blond girl, who apparently had the tall pinkette on the ropes. "Hmm... Best not to spoil the surprise yet..." She thought for a moment before smirking, her outfit changing slightly, going from black to a deep blue color, her hair turning bright blue and her eyes becoming brighter in color. "Good enough!" She laughed and stood straight up before closing her eyes. What she was going to do was simple enough, it was just that she was going to call forth so much at once. When a black-tinted yellow circle appeared under her feet, she snorted. "I hate these little hold-overs." Unlike her master, she had once been human, there was always something that kept popping up to remind her of that fact.

Oh well, the spell was complete. "Heh heh... HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" She crossed her arms, her palms open, before swinging wide. "GO! Devour them all!"

Several black portals appeared around the battle field, she wondered just how much pain and suffering these minor demons could inflict.

(-)

Yuuno was the first to notice, since he wasn't busy fighting. His eyes widened as he saw creatures of various shapes and sizes, all... Insectoid in appearance, appear and start flying. _"EVERYONE LOOK OUT!"_ He mentally screamed, even as he started firing various ice spells at the creatures.

The other six stopped in their attacks as the creatures converged onto them. They were all black in color and had various claws and blades.

"What the hell?" Vita yelled as she blocked one of the creatures before smashing another one in the head. "You did this! Didn't you?"

"No!" Nanoha yelled as she blasted through a few of them with an Axel Shooter. "Why would I do this? If I wanted to get an unfair advantage, I would have had Yuuno-kun fight with me."

Vita snorted as she took another one down. "That kid? He's useless in a real fight."

"YOU TAKE THAT BACK!" Nanoha yelled as she spun and fired a Divine Buster that missed Vita's body by inches, but did take out another demon that was trying to gore Vita from behind.

"Ack!" Vita yelped as her eyes seemed to glow in power. "Fine! He's not totally useless." Besides, the kid did have better defenses than anyone she had ever met before, she was sure of it.

"Fireball!" She heard said kid's voice as a group of the creatures were caught up in a large explosion. "Come on!" They turned to him. "We have to get closer together, otherwise we'll be torn apart easily!"

_"Hey! I see someone with blue hair!"_ They heard Arf's voice. _"She's doing this! We gotta take her out!"_

(-)

Signum grimaced as she sliced another demon in half. "These things are... Annoying."

"Harken Saber!" Fate yelled, her flying scythe blade sliced through another demon. "I agree." The two floated until they were back to back. At least close together, they could defend better.

Signum wouldn't admit it, but she was grateful that the other girl was behind her. "We will have to resume our fight later." When they heard Arf's warning, they turned to look and saw a woman, in a deep blue outfit, pants, short boots, a coat with long tails on the back with no gloves on her hands, standing there looking at them and smirking. She had long blue hair that was hanging loosely down her back in waves, her eyes were a bright red color, and if Signum had to guess, the woman was only slightly shorter than she was, though she had an impressive-sized set of breasts.

Blinking, the pinkette felt like slapping herself and probably would have if she didn't have to deal with some more demon-like creatures that showed up. Hayate's obsession with breasts was... Quite distracting at times. Doubly so when it seemed to catch onto her and the others at random moments.

(-)

"Damn! Vita growled, even as she yelled at Yuuno and Nanoha to get behind her. "GIGANTO... STRIIIKE!" She yelled and swung her far larger weapon around, smashing several of the demons around and turning most of them into paste in the process. "Ugh... At this rate..."

Yuuno was panting pretty hard, he could have kept fighting offensively, but he decided that Nanoha and Vita needed cover defenses and fire more. "If anyone's got an idea, I'd love to hear it!"

Nanoha closed her eyes. "I got one... I'll fire a path straight for that woman, if we all get there, we can beat her and make her get these things to go away."

"If you've got a plan, do it then!"

Nanoha nodded and closed her eyes. "Raising Heart... This is hard, I need your help."

**"Alright."**

Nanoha nodded at her device before her magic circle appeared under her feet and she took a deep breath.

_"Lord of Darkness of the Four Worlds._  
_On thy bonds, I do swear._  
_Grant me all power you possess."_

As the talismans lit up brightly, Nanoha felt a surge of raw power flow through her. "Incredible..." She breathed. "Raising Heart! Full Power!"

**"Alright. Load Cartridge."**

"Divine..." Nanoha groaned as a HUGE pink ball, at least four times her in both width and height formed at the tip. "Um..."

_"Everyone get ready to run!"_ Yuuno and Vita yelled at the same time to the rest of the fighters on the battlefield.

"Thank you." Nanoha smiled as Vita and Yuuno both got right behind her. "BUSTER!"

(-)

"What is she doing?" The blue-haired woman asked as she had her arms crossed under her breasts. "Wait, magic amplification AND cartridges?" Okay, that was impressive, but... "That idiot, is she TRYING to kill herself?" She was certain that was the last thing her master wanted at that moment.

"BUSTER!"

Her eyes widened as the big pink ball turned into a _gigantic_ beam attack that was wider than a freaking bus! "Shit! Anything in that would be vaporized!" Well, except for her and her master, but still, that was _damn_ impressive.

(-)

"NNNGH!" Nanoha groaned. "I can't... I can't move it!" Her body was in pain, screaming at her to stop. She just couldn't though. She couldn't. She needed to... She needed to do this, to stop these creatures so that they could get the woman to stop what she was... "Yuuno-kun?" She blinked as she felt his hands on hers. When a second pair of hands grabbed hers, she looked at Vita. "You too, Vita-chan?"

Vita grimaced. "Look, we might be opponents, but these things are evil, let's trash them before the spell runs out!"

Nanoha nodded and together, the three of them started to rotate the attack, spinning in a long, slow arc that gradually picked up speed.

Even though they were directing it, the three doing it closed their eyes, worried about the loss of equilibrium.

"Whee!"

The three of them couldn't help but notice how much fun it was to spin around and around like they were doing though.

(-)

"Shee... All those demons, gone." She sighed as the attack finally subsided. "Damn, I was hoping for some blood from all of you." She chuckled as she saw Signum, Fate, Arf and Zafira in front of her, glaring down at her. "Oooh! So scary..." She smirked at them. "Not."

A snap of her fingers and the four of them exploded in front of her, well, their clothes did at any rate, they were fine, if a bit drafty. "Damn, held back a little too much." She chuckled as the two beasts just shifted to wolf forms while the other two reformed their clothes in an instant. "Ah well..." She held up her hand and grabbed Bardiche before it could strike her and smirked at Fate, who's eyes were wide in shock, before slamming her down onto the rooftop. "Pathetic." She chuckled as Signum sliced into her back. "Is that all?" She became immaterial and flowed around the weapon, reappearing on the other side of Fate, where she stomped on the girl's belly hard enough to make Fate cough up a smidgen of blood. She was about to stomp on Fate again when a sphere of fire crashed into her back. Turning, she smirked at the trio that was floating in the air. "Really, little boy, if you're going to use fire, you better make sure that you don't... Get burned!" She laughed as a pillar of fire engulfed him a moment later. "Anyway..."

"Divine Buster!"

She rolled her eyes at that. "Oh please, as if Mid or Belkan magic can actually, GAHHHH!" She screamed as the attack hit her in the gut, driving her back. "...A... A Holy effect!" She glared at Nanoha, who was charging up another attack. "Not this time you don't."

"Divine BUSTER!" Nanoha yelled, but gasped as nothing happened. "What?"

The woman chuckled, even as the magical damage done to her was healing up. "Interesting... Your device has Holy Magic properties, huh? You're going to be... So much fun!" She started to laugh before the barrier around them shattered. "Hmm... I guess it's time to go then." She shrugged as she faded away. "Just remember this, everyone, as strong as I am, my master is far more powerful. I wonder how you'll do against him."

Everyone shuddered as she started to laugh at their misfortune.

* * *

What? Didn't you see that coming?


	13. A's the Fifth

A's the Fifth

Standard Disclaimer is here.

* * *

Lindy sighed as she saw Nanoha in the cafeteria, eating even more than she had last time. "I take it this happens a lot?" She chuckled as Nanoha blushed heavily. "Don't worry about it. Your mother explained that her magic burns a lot of calories up and leaves you starving after words."

She looked at Fate and Yuuno. "So, after the woman disappeared, you let them go?" She was pleased as they flinched from the question.

"Nanoha passed out after the woman disappeared and we thought it was more important to keep her safe than try to keep them from leaving. They took off right after that." Yuuno said, flinching more as Lindy gave him such a look.

"Ugh, and now we have some sort of new enemy to deal with on top of the Book of Darkness." Lindy rubbed her temples. "Considering what I saw, this doesn't seem promising."

Nanoha shook her head. "And she said that she had a master that was even stronger than her." She went back to eating as Lindy thought about the problem at hand.

"Those Knights... And now a mystery woman and her master..." Lindy felt like the whole world was against her at that moment. "And what kind of person can survive getting sliced like that? And cancel spells from being cast?" This... This was worrisome.

(-)

"Are you sure that you're okay?" Shamal asked the others.

"Yes." Signum nodded at her. At the very least, none of them were hurt. It was late at night and Hayate had gone to bed and was currently using Vita as a large teddy bear, or at least, that's what the rest of them assumed. Signum, Shamal and Zafira were sitting around in the living room talking about the current situation.

"To think that there's someone like that around..." Zafira muttered softly. "She might fill a lot of pages up."

"Agreed." Signum nodded as she opened the Book of Darkness and began leafing through it. "She might be a bit..." Blinking, the pink-haired knight trailed off as she looked at the book and flipped through it again. "Did either you two go and get some extra pages?" When they shook their heads, Signum nodded. "Must have been Vita then, there's four more pages than last time."

Closing the book, Signum looked at them seriously. "As much as we need the pages, we have to remember not to get too hurt, otherwise Hayate will get worried about what's going on." The other two looked solemn for a moment. "We'll save her for later if we need to." Signum wasn't afraid of her, the girl in white was far more terrifying in her mind, but the fact was, she did slice into that woman, her sword connected, she felt it, but it had done no damage to her. It had felt like she had been fighting a shadow and not a real being.

"What about that red haired woman?" Zafira asked. "She was strong enough to stop the girl in white."

Signum thought about it, before nodding. "Agreed. There's also the Testarossa girl."

"Who do we go after first though?" Signum leaned back against the couch at the question.

"I suggest that we try to draw at least one of them out. If we go after one or the other when there's people around, we'll likely be defeated." Zafira brought up to them. "That girl in white, those jewel things gave her incredible power."

"Doesn't seem like she can use it too well though." Signum could see Zafira's point though. "We'll just have to be careful."

"Agreed." Shamal and Zafira nodded to her.

(-)

"So, you introduced yourself to them?"

She grimaced as her master made his displeasure known by slamming her against the wall, his hand on her throat. "I didn't tell them my name... I just revealed myself."

His glare was terrifying and she knew that the only thing keeping him from killing her was the fact that she was still useful. Snorting, he dropped her to the ground. "You're just lucky that she wasn't hurt after using that spell." He walked away from her and looked outside, towards the large building in the distance. Still, it was bothersome.

"There's something more, master."

Death Bringer turned to her and gave her a smoldering glare as she knelt in front of him. "It better be important."

"That girl's device... Gives her magic Holy properties."

His glare became confused as he thought about it. "Holy properties? The last devices that could do that were in Al Hazard and..." He trailed off, growling at that. "Damn, I thought I destroyed all of the relics from that time!"

"So, master... Considering the Book of Darkness and the Al Hazard artifact are there, what do you want me to do?"

He snorted at that and turned to her. "For now, just sit back and watch. I'd say that I would hope that my little "gift" in that thing and the girl would kill each other off, but I need her alive for now..." He chuckled at that and grinned as more plans formed in his mind. "You said that the little Chaos generator had friends right?" She nodded at that. "Make sure that they're split away from her for future fights."

"Why?" She blinked as his grin practically split his face. "Master?"

"Because, if she feels as if she's in enough danger, or her friends keep getting hurt because she couldn't stop it, she might just... Break and release her true power once again."

His servant grinned at that. "And if she happens to be on another world... We might see more than one planet fall to her destruction."

"Exactly." He laughed at the thought of the look on her face. "Just make sure... Make sure that whenever her friends fall, she sees it." He wondered what it would be like when she finally went over the edge again.

"Of course." She disappeared in a flash, leaving him alone in his office.

Chuckling, he couldn't wait for everything to come to fruition. Oh well, even if he failed now, he could wait.

As a Mazoku Lord, patience was something he had in spades.

(-)

"You're kidding me." Lina said flatly as she, Shiro, Miyuki and Kyouya looked at Nanoha, Fate and Yuuno.

They shook their heads and Lina rubbed her forehead. "Explain it to me again, just so that I'm clear on this... She was sliced by a sword, but didn't seem to get hurt, summoned a lot of demon-like creatures and commented on Raising Heart having Holy properties and then started to cancel magic?"

Kyouya frowned as the kids nodded. "Mom..." In all the years he had known his mother, he had NEVER seen her look so upset and pale as she did at that moment. "Mom?"

"Mazoku..." Lina gripped the table with her hands. "Just my luck! After fifteen years of not even getting a whiff of anything, they show up now. Just great!"

"What's a Mazoku?" Miyuki asked what was on everyone's minds.

Lina sighed softly. "To put it bluntly, a creature of thought and energy. What you see isn't really their bodies." She sighed at the blank looks she was getting. "The bodies you see are actually shadows." She pulled out a piece of paper and a pencil and started doing some quick drawings. "Okay!" She pointed to two stick figures on the paper. "This here, is a human." She pointed to the one on the left. "This is a Mazoku." She then pointed to the one on the right. "In the world, they look basically the same. However..." She then drew a stick figure behind the one on the left and a large blob behind the one on the right. "There's more than one level of reality. There's a place called the Astral Plane. Still with me?" Everyone at the table nodded, albeit hesitantly. "The Astral Plane is where a Mazoku's true body lies. You can't interact with it normally from this side of reality, but it can interact with you just fine."

"So... What?" Lina looked at Miyuki. "You're seeing their shadow and trying to fight that, but they can still punch you when you aren't looking?"

"Exactly. All Mazoku have a true form that they can turn into, it's called a "Beast Form". While on this side of reality, it's still not their real bodies, it's closer to what they look like." She sighed as they still had a confused look on their face. "Think of their bodies as a ghost, okay? You need special kinds of weapons and magic to hurt ghosts. It's the same thing here. Mazoku don't have real bodies in this world, so striking them with magic designed to strike the physical part of reality is useless."

"So..." Fate spoke up softly. "What do we need?"

"Astral, Holy, Black or Chaos magic." Lina listed them off. "Sadly, the one spell that you could really use for Astral magic, I don't know. I don't have time to teach you the Nemesis Breaker, and I doubt that could kill her if she's that strong. I don't know any Holy magic and Chaos magic is out completely."

She sighed as the children winced. "Hey, I can teach you a few spells though. I don't know the Ra Tilt, which is what you three need, but I can teach you a few lower-level ones." Elmekia Lance might not be effective against a high-ranking Mazoku, but at the very least it could be a distraction so they could get out of there if they had to fight again.

"Couldn't you just teach them the Nemesis Breaker?" Shiro asked and Lina shook her head.

"Can't. I'm not sure any of them have any affinity towards Black magic anyway."

"Why don't you teach it to them, mom?" Miyuki asked, chuckling nervously at Lina's look. "I mean... You can do it, Nanoha should be able to, right?"

Seeing the hopeful looks on everyone's faces, Lina sighed heavily. "Look, even if I could teach it to you, there's no way you three could use it safely. The spell's designed to be strong enough to one-shot a Dragon." Well, not really, but she had wanted to make a spell as strong as the Dragon Slave. She sighed even more at the down-hearted looks. "Do you three think you can take the time to learn it?"

They nodded and she felt like banging her head on the table. "Alright... Alright, you win. I'll teach it to you. But I'm also going to teach you some of my Astral Magic." She felt uneasy about teaching them how to cast a tactical nuclear spell, but they seemed determined to learn it. At the very least, if they failed, she could teach them the Astral spells that she knew.

(-)

"How does it look?" Lindy asked as she walked up to Lina. The redhead was having the kids go through some simple spells. Well, simple enough if they were all casting it with ease, except for Fate, who seemed to be struggling a little with it.

"Well enough, I suppose." Lina shrugged. "Yuuno! Help Fate out!" When he nodded and went to help her, Lina turned to Lindy. "So... I see you brought Chrono here."

Lindy smiled and nodded, looking at the open area. "Mind teaching him some of these spells?"

"Mother!" Chrono yelped as she pushed him forward. "I can ask just fine."

Lina rolled her eyes. "Get down there, have Nanoha or Yuuno show you how to cast the Elmekia Lance. It might be a bit difficult at first, but it is a spell that can hurt Mazoku."

Chrono nodded and walked over to the others.

"Just... What is it that we're dealing with?" Lindy asked Lina seriously. "Nanoha contacted us and said she was going to learn a spell that might be able to deal with this thing, but..."

"What they fought, I think they can handle with the spells I'm trying to teach them." Lina really, _really_ wished Zelgadis was here. He was better at Astral magic than she was. "Then again, Elmekia Lance is just the start. What I used on the Garden of Time though..."

"You're going to teach them that?" Lindy gasped as Lina shook her head.

"_Try_ to teach them that. But first I want to make sure that they can do two other spells first." She smiled as Fate finally was able to use that spell. "Interestingly enough, since Nanoha and Yuuno both have said so, it is possible to merge the spells I'm teaching them with spells that they already know."

"So that Divine Flame Buster is really just a Divine Buster..."

"Plus a Val Flare." Lina smiled at the other woman, who nodded at her. "She's also combined her shield with a Mono Volt." Which wasn't too bad, if Lina thought about it. "Anyway, the only problem is," Lina huffed and gave the children a half lidded stare, "doing that gives them serious headaches and burns through their magic faster." Though the effects were pretty tremendous, she would admit.

"So, if that's one spell, what's the other?" Lindy asked as Lina smiled at her.

"I was thinking of Blast Ash, but then I realized that the only way to show that one off would be to disintegrate someone, so I think I might go with Disfang or Dark Claw."

"Uh..." Lindy blinked as Lina giggled at her look.

"Well, it's not like I have a lot of time, so I'm trying to hurry up with this." The only reason she was even bothering with low-level Black magic was so that the kids had an idea of what Black magic felt like before she tried teaching them a spell that drew straight from the Ma-Oh. After all, you didn't teach someone how to read by giving them something written by Shakespeare.

Lindy gripped her shoulder. "Again, what is it that these things are? Nanoha said that they're ghosts..."

"...It's closer to call them that than anything else, really. Mazoku are entities of thought and energy. What you see, their physical bodies, is nothing more than a shadow, their real bodies exist on a different plane of reality." Lina turned to look at her seriously. "If the one that they fought can cancel magic and says she has a master, then I think that you're likely dealing with a Priest or a General. Actually, I'm almost certain that she's a Priest."

"...What makes you say that?" Lindy asked as she pulled her hand away from Lina's shoulder.

"Generals are far more offensive, they're more likely to fight, only leaving if their master says so. A Priest though... They're not as powerful, but they're far more dangerous."

"Let me guess..." Lindy sighed as she looked at her son having some trouble with the spell in question and Nanoha giving him tips while Fate and Yuuno both worked on that lance spell that Lina had taught them. "The General can beat you to the ground without much trouble, but the Priest is likely to set you up so that you beat yourself to the ground?"

"Pretty much, yeah." Lina chuckled mirthlessly. "And a Lord? Forget it. They're as far above a General as a General is above a human."

"So, if we have to fight this... Lord..."

"Leave it to me." Lina looked at Lindy seriously. "I haven't taught them anything that could work against a Lord yet."

"Then, why don't you?" To Lindy, it was simple, teach them what they needed to know so that they could survive.

Lina shook her head. "The only spell that would work for sure is something I never want to use again. And the other spell that might work, well..." She turned and looked at her daughter, who was smiling as Chrono finally got the spell to work right. "The only person I'm going to teach it to is my daughter, but right now, I don't think that it would be good for her." The Ragna Blade might be useful for dealing with this Lord, whoever he was. The only problem with that was...

"Mrs. Takamachi?" Lindy blinked as Lina sighed, but then shook her head. "Are you alright?"

"Please! Call me Lina." She smiled at Lindy. "And, don't worry about it, okay?" Lina turned to go down to the kids and started to instruct them on how to cast Disfang. Even so, she wasn't going to teach Nanoha the Ragna Blade, not yet.

The reason why was simple.

Her girl still had nightmares for what she almost did to everyone. Every night since she recovered from having her Linker Core taken had Nanoha waking up screaming, trembling, sweating and crying.

Not that Lina blamed her, not one bit. The power that she tapped into... Was frightening to everyone and everything.

Especially when you experienced it firsthand.

* * *

This is going to come back and bite them, isn't it?

As for a Starlight Breaker+Dragon Slave.

It won't be for any time soon, if at all.

They'd need to be on the Ruby-Eye staff to cast the Dragon Slave after all.

Also, about Nanoha at the end. Don't think that I ruined her characterization from canon. Even Lina, miss-I-go-against-Dragons-demons-and-Mazoku-without-problems, is freaking TERRIFIED of using the Giga Slave. Heck, in the novels, she puts a SEAL on it so that it can NEVER be used again. And she hates using the Ragna Blade because of what it does to her body. Now, that's Lina, who grew up in a world where even going for a swim in a lake can be deadly with fishmen and lake Dragons.

Nanoha, at this point, has had to deal with the Jewel Seeds and now the Wolkenritter at worst. She's _never_ dealt with _anything_ like the power of the Lord of Nightmares. And, honestly, I'd think that she would suffer terrifying nightmares from it.


	14. A's the Sixth

A's the Sixth

Standard Disclaimer is here.

* * *

Days later...

Signum looked out at the desert planet before nodding. This was a rather undeveloped world, she doubted that she'd be disturbed as she grabbed Linker Cores from the beasts here.

Still, something was bothering her. Another six pages of the book had been filled, but everyone denied having gone out and grabbing Linker Cores during the past few days. At the rate it was going, they would probably have the book filled after the first month of the new year.

Still, she wasn't sure what was going on, and she wasn't going to waste time finding out. Hayate needed that book filled up. It was the only way to save their master and they were going to take it. "Here we go." She whispered as she flew towards the strongest magic she could find.

(-)

Meanwhile...

"Hmm..." Amy blinked as a new report came up. "What the?" Her eyes widened as she saw Signum fighting some sort of beast. "That's convenient." Who was sending her all this information? Another screen popped up and showed Vita flying through a forest and another showed Zafira alone. Something wasn't right, she knew that, someone was sending her information, but who knew what was going on fully?

Still, this was an opportunity. "Nanoha, Fate, Chrono, Yuuno, Arf, we have them."

(-)

Signum panted, she had been fighting this one beast for at least twenty minutes now. "What is going on?" She didn't think it would be as hard as it was.

"Oh, that would be my fault." Signum blinked as the creature stopped moving and seemed to shrink back as that blue-haired woman from before appeared in front of her. "It's... So interesting to use these beasts for my own purposes." She chuckled as the creature gave out a whine. "Even beasts know when they're confronted by their superiors it seems." She grinned as Signum took a stance in front of her. "What are you going to do, hmm? I'm not here for a fight, I'm just here to watch."

"Watch?" Signum blinked, before she finally sensed a strong magic incoming from behind her. "You knew that Testarossa was coming here, didn't you?"

"Indeed." She chuckled at Signum. "I did, however, take the liberty of making sure that her teleport was off by a few kilometers, to give you some more time to wrap this up, but, it seems like even an S class Knight like yourself is just not good enough to do much." She laughed as her body seemed to disappear. "Oh, I'm still here, but don't worry, I'm not going to interfere at all."

The beast took that opportunity to leave just as Fate appeared in front of her. "Signum."

"Testarossa." Signum nodded at her and took a stance. Even as worn down as she was, she was certain that she could at least drive the girl back. "You should just leave." She sighed softly as the girl's device shifted into scythe form. "Very well." She closed her eyes for a moment, before taking her own stance. "It seems that we were destined to always fight, huh?"

"Yes." Fate said softly. The older woman had a sense of calm and control around her that Fate wanted to have, but just didn't, at all times. She just wished that she had met Signum under better circumstances, that they had met as friends, rather than opponents.

But then again, she supposed she wouldn't be as good of friends with Nanoha if she hadn't been fighting against each other. Though, Fate could have done without being blown up, and her clothes blown off.

And she wouldn't have met Nanoha's mother, who was rather nice, despite how harsh she was in training.

And her method for defending against Fate's Phalanx was rather interesting to say the least.

*Flash*

Fate panted, staring as the older woman didn't have a scratch on her. "How?" Linith had said that against someone with a strong defense, doing that attack was for the best.

Lina smiled, even as Yuuno, Chrono, Lindy and Nanoha watched with interest. "It's a good attack against solid barriers, I'll admit, but the Windy Shield is just that, wind mixed with a barrier. I just made your attacks collide with each other and they did nothing to me."

"...So my attacks beat themselves?" When Lina nodded, Fate nodded and thought about it. Multi-layered barriers were great, but to make attacks beat themselves? That was interesting.

*Flash*

"Shall we begin, Signum?" Fate asked and smiled softly as Signum made the first move by slashing at her body. The smaller blond made it a point to avoid that spot, even if it was just barely. "Nnngh..." She took a slash at Signum's head, only to see that the Knight had blocked it easily. Fate didn't like to admit it, but she knew that she was actually outclassed in this fight. Signum had more experience, was larger, had better reach, at least as skilled as she was and almost as fast as she was, but a hell of a lot stronger.

Signum didn't know if she could win as tired as she was, that beast had been a pain in the ass, though now that she knew the reason why, it made a lot of sense. She cursed her lack of concentration as Fate got close and nearly clobbered her with Bardiche. Blocking the attack with her sheath, she swung forward with Laevantein. "NNNyah!" She grunted with exertion, knocking Fate away.

"Bardiche, let's go..."

**"Photon Raging Bolt..."**

Signum was about to use Laevantein's Snake Form when she saw several balls of energy float in front of Fate, but that wasn't all, she could see the lightning crackling around them.

**"Fire."**

Signum grimaced and threw up a shield, which caught the bolts and was glad that she didn't try to block them with her armor or her weapon, since they exploded with crackling energy that left her skin tingling, even though she hadn't touched them directly. "Laevantein."

**"Schlangenform."**

"You've gotten better." Signum nodded to Fate as she swung her weapon up, the sword extending tremendously, causing Fate's eyes to widen as she tried to dodge the attack, but found that the blades kept circling and moving with her.

"Bardiche."

**"Sonic move."**

Signum blinked as Fate disappeared in front of her, but swung her sheath behind her, blocking the swing for her body. "Nice try." Fate, despite her speed, wasn't the first opponent that Signum had fought with superior speed and a move like that before.

Fate had to fly back as the metal snake whip nearly gutted her from below. "I don't have a choice. Bardiche, Sonic Form." She didn't want to use it up like this, but she didn't think that against Signum she stood a chance. As it was, she was barely able to keep ahead of her opponent's attacks.

**"Sonic Form."**

Fate was about to shift her clothes, when her eyes widened and her breathing became labored. Looking down, she saw a hand through her chest, holding onto her Linker Core. "What?"

"You there." A male voice spoke up, causing Fate to look back over her shoulder as she saw a man with a mask on his face standing over her. "Hurry up and use the Book of Darkness and extract her Linker Core. Or I'll do it myself, and I won't stop like you have been."

"My, my..." Fate's eyes widened as that blue-haired woman from before seemed to appear out of nowhere near Signum. "I didn't know that there was a fourth faction in on this." She chuckled as she seemingly sat cross-legged in mid-air. "Decent fight, you two. Though I suppose that since Signum was rather worn out, I can't ask for more."

"Who are you?" The man asked her.

"I don't give my name to a pervert." She humphed and looked away.

"Pervert?" The man blinked at her.

"Well, you're the one who's got one of his hands on the ass of a nine-year-old girl and the other on her chest.." She then looked at him more closely. "Or rather, through her chest, but you still have your hands on her."

"No I don't." He looked down, nope, he wasn't touching her butt with his hands.

She started laughing as he looked. "You humans are so stupidly easy to trick." She then snorted and walked behind Signum, before kicking the knight in the rear, causing her to move a foot towards Fate. "Hurry up and take that Linker Core, I'm pretty sure that it's not healthy for her to have it out of her body for such a length of time."

Signum narrowed her eyes, even as the Book of Darkness appeared in her hands. "I'm sorry." She whispered to Fate, even as she began to absorb the girl's Linker Core into the book.

The blue-haired woman grumbled to herself about how boring it was. 'Master, why the hell won't you just let me kill one of them? I'll be nice! I'll just go and kill the familiar. No one will miss her, she's not important. Or maybe you'll let me kill that green haired woman? Or her son?'

_"You know why. It's not time yet. I need that Chaos generator to be ready to break."_

'But master...' She whined.

_"No buts. You have been working her dreams over haven't you?"_

She snorted at that. Something like that was easy for a Mazoku. To them, dreams were reality, and making people see something they shouldn't was easy for even a low-ranking Mazoku that couldn't even take on human form.

"Well, I'm out of here. If you two want to sexually molest a nine-year-old, be my guests." The raw humiliation from two of the three of them was interesting. But the interest from the masked one had her wondering about humans some days. 'Glad I'm no longer one of them.' She thought as she disappeared.

Now if only her master would just _let_ her kill one of them, any of them. Hell, she'd settle for killing that blond boy if he'd just _let_ her.

But no, he wanted them alive for now.

It was annoying.

(-)

As she looked at Fate's unconscious form, Lindy felt like screaming at that moment. "So, we have this Mazoku Priest running around... These masked people helping the Wolkenritter, the Wolkenritter trying to complete the Book of Darkness and we have no freaking idea what's going to happen next?"

No one had any answer for her.

Fate chose that moment to wake up. "Ugh..."

Lindy smiled as she saw that. Well, at least that Resurrection spell that Yuuno knew was potent enough to fully recover Linker Cores. When Fate asked if she was well enough to leave, Lindy nodded at her. "Just take it easy for a couple of days if you can."

Fate nodded as she got out of bed and smiled at Lindy. "Thank you."

(-)

Later that night...

Nanoha looked around. "What..?" She gasped as the darkness was lifted, and she saw Vita and Signum standing around a throne chair of some faceless man, but still, she could tell he was grinning at her.

For some odd reason, Signum and Vita were wearing that same outfit that Princess Leia had wore in the final movie.

Her eyes widened as she saw Fate and Yuuno, both chained up to the ceiling and over a hole. She tried moving, yelling, anything, but she couldn't do anything.

"Look at you. Weak and helpless." She heard a man's voice, before the man on the throne snapped his fingers. Nanoha watched helplessly as Fate and Yuuno were lowered down and disappeared. The floor cleared up and Nanoha's eyes widened as she saw some sort of creatures under the ground assaulting her friends. "Too weak, you can watch as the tentacle creature rapes Fate to death, as for Yuuno..." He chuckled and Nanoha screamed as his body was torn to shreds. She could hear Fate's screams as her body was horribly violated by the creatures below.

"It's too bad. If only you had the power. If you only had the strength to stop me."

Nanoha's eyes widened, she gritted her teeth even as her magic circle finally appeared under her feet, gold in color. "You... You... WILL PAY!"

"YES!" He started laughed as her hair started to slowly turn gold. "You're pathetic! Just a little girl who can't do anything and her friends always pay the price for your mistakes."

Nanoha couldn't hear him anymore, her whole mind was blank, all she wanted to do was make this guy pay for what he did.

"Yes... Lose control... Of EVERYTHING!"

The last thing that Nanoha knew was a golden sheen covering her vision.

(-)

"Nanoha! Nanoha!" She was shaken from her nightmare. "Nanoha!"

Her eyes snapped open, and her breathing was labored as she stared straight ahead. "Yu..uuno...kun... Fa...ate...chan..?" She saw her two friends looking at her both worried and scared. "Uh... nnngh..." She hiccuped once, twice, before lunging forward and wrapping her arms around them tightly. "UWWAAAAAHHHHHH!" Her body trembled as tears fell down her face, her body shook as she sobbed as Fate and Yuuno hugged her tightly as they tried to get her to calm down.

The two whispered to her, telling her it was alright and that she would be okay.

(-)

"Damn!" She snapped her fingers. That girl had been _so_ close to cutting loose! Her eyes had almost been fully changed in color too!

"Oh well." She sighed and disappeared before reappearing inside a different house. Being quiet while everyone slept was easy for a Mazoku, especially a Priest like her. Not tripping any of the pathetic human defenses was just as easy.

"There you are." She whispered as she grabbed the Book of Darkness and opened it up. She smirked as she saw it actually filling itself up. "So it seems that the Chaos did something to you after all." She chuckled, but remembered her master's warning to be careful.

Oh well, she was getting bored of this and wanted to see what would happen when the master of the book lost control. Her eyes flashed as she started to pump magic into the book.

She grimaced as it greedily sucked her power, before stopping and falling to a knee, panting. "Damn human remnants..." She grumbled before closing the book. There was only three pages left to fill. Standing up, she felt a bit weak, but knew that she'd recover in a few hours at most. "The advantages of being able to feed off of emotions."

The Chaos that was going to come tomorrow... On Christmas... That was going to be so much fun!

* * *

This part of the story's winding down, as you can imagine. Hope that you like how it ends.


	15. A's the Seventh

A's the Seventh

Standard Disclaimer is here.

* * *

"Nanoha-chan! Fate-chan! Yuuno-kun!" The three kids blinked and turned to see Suzuka and Arisa waving at them.

"Arisa-chan. Suzuka-chan." Nanoha smiled, but it was strained, she was certain that her friends knew it.

Fate blinked as she saw the flowers that Suzuka and Arisa had. "What's with the flowers?"

"We're going to go see a friend of ours at the hospital." Suzuka smiled. "Her name's Hayate Yagami and she's really nice. You three will like her."

The three blinked in confusion, before Arisa sighed. "You know, this is why all those older Shonen anime heroes live as hermits for most of their lives. Training takes away any chance they have for a social life."

"I sent you a text and picture of her, Nanoha-chan." Suzuka took a close look at Nanoha and saw that her eyes were blood-shot, she was twitching slightly, and seemed to flinch from everything, only calming down when Fate or Yuuno touched her on the shoulder. "You look terrible, have you been sleeping properly?"

"Just bad dreams." Nanoha sighed softly. "How about we go see your friend?" Maybe meeting someone new would help get her mind off of the dreams she had been having?

Arisa narrowed her eyes and puffed out her cheeks. "Nanoha!"

The redhead blinked as Arisa pulled her into a headlock. "Ite! Arisa-chan!"

"I don't know what's going on, but it's more than simple dreams, isn't it?" Her left eye was closed as Nanoha started waving her hands up and down comically. After a few moments of that, Arisa let go of Nanoha, before hugging the girl. "We worry about you, dummy. If you're scared or hurting or worried, let us know, we'll help you."

Nanoha blinked, but slowly hugged Arisa back. "I'm sorry, Arisa-chan." She felt Yuuno and Fate touch her shoulders and even Suzuka got close enough to squeeze her hand. "Everyone, thank you." She sniffled, tears leaking out of her eyes.

For some reason, just having her friends around her made the huge burden she was dealing with feel much lighter than before.

* * *

Hayate smiled at her Knights. "I'm fine, Dr. Ishida says that I'm coming along nicely." She hated the hospital, but knew that she needed to be here. She was about to say something more when there was a knock on the door. "Yes?"

"Hayate-chan!" A familiar and welcome voice spoke up.

"Suzuka-chan! Arisa-chan!" Hayate smiled as they walked in. "How are you two?"

"Good." Arisa smiled at her. "We even managed to find our friends that we promised to introduce you to. Come on in, guys."

Nanoha, Fate and Yuuno stepped in and gasped slightly as they saw Shamal and Signum standing opposite of them. Nanoha turned and blanched slightly as she saw Vita almost glaring at her.

_"She's the master?"_

_"I guess so, Nanoha. What do you think, Yuuno?"_

_"I'm thinking that this world is far too weird at times."_

Despite the fact that Nanoha thought that the Wolkenritter were going to do something rash, they seemed rather calm. Seemed was the abject word, she could see Shamal fingering something on her hands and Signum seemed to shift every few seconds.

_"Why are you here?"_ Nanoha blinked at Vita's question. The girl looked like she was about to do something stupid and soon.

_"Didn't know that you would be here. We didn't know that she was your master either. We just were spending time with our friends and they wanted to come here."_ Vita seemed to want to snort, but she seemed to calm down just a little bit.

"Um, can you please stop looking at me like that?" Nanoha gulped as Vita seemed to get pretty upset at that.

"I can't help that I was born with these eyes." Vita said through gritted teeth.

Nanoha looked down, she wasn't sure what to say to that.

"OW!"

"Now, now..." Hayate pinched Vita's nose. "You don't need to be rude, Vita-chan."

"Solly."

Hayate smiled and let go of her nose. "Just don't be rude to people you haven't met before, it's not nice."

Nanoha almost felt like laughing at that. The girl that had busted her ribs was looking like a little child being scolded by her mother. Sure was an interesting change from when they fought.

She, Fate and Yuuno all tensed up as Signum mentally told them to meet them on the rooftop of the hospital. This wasn't going to end well.

* * *

"Now you know who our master is..." Signum felt her voice cracking. They were _so_ close to completing the book. "You know that we cannot let you go."

"Signum..." Fate said softly as the Knight, tears falling down her face, shifted into her battle outfit.

"She is our master, whom we love very, very much." Shamal was likewise shifting into her outfit. "You don't understand how far we will go for her."

Yuuno grimaced at that. "Look! We can help her! Nanoha's mother knows more about magic than anyone! If the Book of Darkness really did something to her, I'm sure that she can help fix it!"

"YAAAAAAH!" Nanoha looked up as Vita came out of nowhere and slammed her hammer onto her quickly thrown up barrier, before throwing Nanoha back into a barrel, which exploded, a large fire getting kicked up in the process. "We won't... Let you take her away from us!" Vita was crying freely, even with the angry look on her face. She paled slightly as Nanoha walked through the fire in her Barrier Jacket. "You... You're nothing but a Devil. You've always been a Devil in white!" She screamed, remembering how bad it was when she went crazy and gained that golden power.

"Is that so?" Nanoha said softly. "Then I'll take on that name, the White Devil, and make you submit." Raising Heart shifted into its staff form as she looked at Vita. "I'll give you a performance worthy of the White Devil title."

That was all that was needed as Nanoha and Vita took off into the air and Fate decided to not play around, activating her Sonic Form against Signum.

"You made a thin armor even thinner?" Signum was perplexed and Fate nodded.

"It was the only way I could make sure that I wasn't hit by your attacks." Despite her bravado, Fate felt a chill of anticipation...

...Or maybe that was the sudden breeze that managed to get under her armor? The goosebumps and the other effects the cold had on her body was a little distracting, but nothing she couldn't deal with.

"Foolish. A single hit will take you out completely." Still, Signum wouldn't hold back against her, not when they were so close.

Yuuno hovered just above Shamal, a sphere of fire forming in his hands even as the wind started to kick up around Shamal. Everyone was tense, ready to move, to strike, when suddenly binds started wrapping around all of them. "What the?"

In the air, Nanoha gasped slightly as she and Vita were securely fastened by the binds that sprung up. "What?"

"Nnngh... Dammit!" Vita grumbled as she found that she couldn't move. "What a time for outside interference."

Everyone looked as not one, but two masked people appeared, one of them was holding several cards, his hands wide as they were bound up, the other one had the Book of Darkness open. "Interesting, they got a lot more than I thought they did. There's only a page left to fill."

"It doesn't matter." The one who was holding up everyone commented. "Just reabsorb them into the Book."

"Of course, just..." He grabbed a flying kick from Zafira, before flying down and slamming him into the rooftop. "Just needed to do that." He held up the Book of Darkness. "Now! Recombine with the book, you broken programs."

Everyone waited with baited breath.

And waited...

And waited...

"What the hell?" The one with the book looked at it. "That's not possible, they should have been reabsorbed into the book."

"The only way they couldn't have been is..." The one with the binds trailed off and looked at Signum, who was starting to get free. "Is if they're human."

"But that's not possible." But, yet, the Linker Cores of the Wolkenritter weren't being re-absorbed by the book.

"Ngh, well, whatever, just knock them out, we'll have to improvise for phase two then."

* * *

"Oh, so _that's_ what the Chaos did to them." The Priest smirked to herself. "Severed their connection with the Book and turned them into real beings, huh?"

As she watched them knock the Wolkenritter out and the two masked people take on forms resembling Nanoha and Fate, she chuckled. This was going to be a barrel of laughs, especially after they summoned the master in front of them.

"I wonder if I can kill them now."

"Not yet."

Her eyes widened and she spun to come face to face with her master. "...M..master! What brings you here?"

He smirked at her. "Just want to see how this will end." Plus he needed to get the final plans into place and he wanted to know the last few details. "I wonder, will they kill her? Will she kill them?" Oh well, if worst came to worst, he would just grab the little Chaos generator and go back to Mid-Childa with her.

* * *

"Vita-chan..? Signum..? Shamal..? Zafira..?" Hayate gasped as she lay there, looking at her family. In front of her was the Book of Darkness.

"Look at them... So pathetic, they couldn't even stop us from killing them." 'Nanoha' said to her.

"If the master is pathetic, do you think that the servants would be any different?" 'Fate' questioned her. "Oh well, all that's left for us to do is take the bodies and..."

She trailed off as Hayate, tears falling down her face, looked up into the air and screamed as a black Belkan triangle appeared under her and the book started to fully power up. _"Time to go."_

'Nanoha' nodded as the two took off and shifted back into their masked forms. "Do you have Durandall?"

"Of course," The first one held up a card. "When she fully activates, we'll..." He trailed off as he and his companion were wrapped up in binds. Above them was Chrono, looking very dispassionately, and Lina, who was looking at them calmly, well, as calmly as one could look while lightning and fire crackled around her body.

"These are Struggle Binds." Chrono said softly. "They'll cancel all magic on you and make you reveal your true selves." As the masks fell off and the forms shifted, his eyes widened slightly. "Aria! Lotte?"

"You know them?" Lina shot him a look and he nodded at her.

"Yes, they were my old teachers in magic, Admiral Graham's familiars." Chrono frowned slightly, what the heck were they doing here?

She snorted and dropped to the roof. "Start speaking, right now." She grabbed them by their throats and slammed them against the chain link fence behind them. "If you don't I'll see what two familiars look like when I blast their guts all over the rooftop."

The two gulped and started explaining everything.

"So..." Lina felt disgusted by what she had heard. "Your plan was to have the master of, get this, a very, VERY dangerous artifact, lose her temper... Merge with the artifact... Then seal it way in ice somewhere?"

They nodded at that.

"Did it _ever_ occur to you that there might be a couple problems with that? Like, I dunno, she might be too POWERFUL for you to seal away? Or, you know, she might have a spell that could wipe out entire cities with ease? Or the fact that you used MY daughter's likeness to piss her off?"

"Lina..." Chrono grabbed her shoulder. "Please, we need them alive..."

She snorted and dropped the two. "Fine, I won't kill them..." She turned to walk away. "But..." She looked back with her eyes flashing in the dark. "We WILL be having words later, I guarantee it."

The two catgirl familiars gulped at the look in her eyes, they didn't like it.

* * *

Lina is VERY protective of children, even in canon. She may not like it when they're being brats, but kill or threaten one in front of her and she gets... QUITE upset. You can call her flat-chested three times in a row, or, as Pokota goes "Flat-chested flatty queen of the flat people" and you'll STILL not piss her off as much.


	16. A's the Eighth

A's the Eighth

Standard Disclaimer is here.

* * *

Shiro looked out the window and sighed softly.

"Dad?" Miyuki looked at him. "You okay?"

He nodded, sighing softly. "I'm just worried... That one or the other won't be coming back this time."

"Enough of that!" Miyuki yelled and walked up to her father. "Listen, dad. Our family motto is to never give up, right?" He nodded at that. Well, that was part of the motto at least. "If there's even a chance that they can come back, you know mom will find a way to turn 1% into 100%, she's like that."

Shiro smiled softly and nodded. "Yeah. I trust them, I do. I just can't help but worry about them."

Miyuki smirked at him. "Well, when they get home, we can chain them to the bed or something to keep them from leaving all the time, but for now, let's make a large meal for them, Fate-chan and Yuuno-kun, okay?"

"You're only saying that because you want mom and dad to adopt those two." Kyouya laughed as Miyuki blushed and yelled at him. "What? You always did want more younger siblings to play with."

Shiro chuckled at that. To be honest, he was seriously considering adopting Fate, who had no family at all. As for Yuuno, he wasn't sure, but he did like the kid.

Oh well, at the very least, those two were semi-permanent houseguests unless they decided to move out or do something else.

* * *

Nanoha, Fate and Yuuno stared at the transformed Hayate, her eyes had turned red, her hair silver, she had gained a few feet, hips and breasts, as well as a nice set of wings on the back as she looked at them. "You two... Would hurt my master so..." She then looked at the Knights on the ground near her feet. "Noble Knights, I promise that your lives were not given in vain." Her legs tensed before she shot up into the air, targeting Nanoha.

"Freeze!" Yuuno yelled, several ice spikes forming and launching at the transformed Hayate, who threw up a barrier and blocked them with ease, before returning fire with a lightning bolt, only to find that he had a barrier up to block it.

**"Photon Raging Bolt."**

Their opponent looked up, just in time to get several electrical bolts crash into her body, making her twitch and spasm as she fell down slightly.

"Photon Destroyer." She whispered and held up an open palm, a single arcing bolt of lightning lighting up the sky as it flew right at Fate, crashing into her body, hard.

The crackle of lightning was ungodly loud as Fate took the lightning attack dead on, stunning her and causing her to fall. She would have fallen out of the sky completely had Yuuno not grabbed her. "Nanoha!" He yelled, before pointing a palm at the winged woman. "Fireball!"

The silver-haired woman swung her hand up through the fireball, causing it to fall apart, the flames gutting out in the cold air, before she fired a red dagger of energy from the tips of her fingers. "Bloody dagger."

"Enough!" Nanoha yelled. "Diem Wind!"

The winged woman looked up and threw a barrier up, but the kinetic and wind forces were strong enough to send her flying back several feet.

"Enough is right." She closed her eyes. "Then all shall fall..." Cupping her hands in front of her, she began to chant.

_"Master of the Dark Sky, you who dwell upon the Azure Abyss._  
_Oh, ruler of the paths of Life and Death._  
_May the souls of those that oppose us be swept_  
_upon the maelstrom of thy wrath!_  
_Let the fools who stand before me be destroyed, by the power you and I possess."_

Nanoha, Fate and Yuuno all stared wide-eyed as they heard the chant. "MOVE!" Yuuno yelled as the three of them took off, moving as fast as they could. They had seen what this had done to the Garden of Time, none of them wanted to be anywhere near it when it went off.

* * *

Lina watched and twitched as she saw the spell being cast. "Damn." The only thing keeping her from interfering at that moment was that she was trembling with anger. At least that woman had enough intelligence to cast that dimensional barrier thing that all the mages seemed to enjoy using.

_"Aren't you going to help?"_ She nearly jumped at Lindy's voice, before shaking her head.

"Not yet. I trust Nanoha, I want to see what she can do before I have to step in."

* * *

**"Sir. There are civilians nearby."**

"What?" Fate gasped even as they looked back and saw the blue ball starting to get larger. "What is she waiting for?"

"No clue." Nanoha muttered as they got to where Bardiche said there were civilians. "You two! Just stay there, please? It's dangerous!"

"N...Nanoha?" Suzuka blinked as Nanoha, in some sort of white garment, landed in front of them and several pink circles appeared in front of her.

**"Defensor."** Bardiche said as the girls were enclosed in a golden dome. Fate nodded and threw several barriers in front of Nanoha's. Yuuno landed next to them and added his own barriers to the mix.

The three of them weren't sure if it was enough, but they sure hoped it was.

(-)

The winged girl opened her eyes. "It's time... _Nemesis Breaker_."

She thrust her palms forward and the blue sphere moved forward at an incredible speed, before striking the ground, destroying many of the buildings and ground as the blue sphere of destruction grew in size, quickly encompasing most of the area.

* * *

"Nnngh!" Lina covered her eyes from the large blue glow. "She's crazy!"

_"Are you okay?"_

"I'm fine! You're sure that none of this will transfer over after the barrier drops?"

_"Yes."_

"Good, because THIS would be a pain to explain to everyone."

* * *

"Ohhohohoho!" She laughed as she watched the destruction. "Lord Chaotic Blue? I didn't think anyone knew how to use his power!"

Death Bringer just... Smiled. This was going perfectly.

* * *

As the spell subsided, the three kids fell to their knees, panting. No wonder Lina hadn't wanted to teach them that spell at all. Looking up, all five kids gaped at the destruction. In front of them was nothing more than a giant crater, no buildings, no people (not that there had been people to begin with), nothing.

"Nanoha... THAT is your mom's spell?" Yuuno gasped as they got to their feet.

Nanoha nodded, before it hadn't seemed like a bad idea, but this was crazy!

Fate nodded and turned to Suzuka and Arisa and smiled softly. "Don't worry, we'll get you out of here." She, Yuuno and Nanoha were startled as the winged woman appeared in front of them. A moment later, Arisa and Suzuka were forcibly removed from the battlefield, much to everyone's relief.

"Now that you see what you are up against, do you wish to just lay down quietly so I can kill you for what you did to those poor knights?"

_"Yuuno-kun, go check on Vita-chan and the others."_ Nanoha said to him softly. _"You're better at healing than I am, I want to make sure that they're okay."_

Yuuno nodded and took off, strangely, the woman didn't stop him from leaving the area.

"My fight is with you two, not him." A tear fell down her face. "Those knights were the only people to bring my master happiness, and you stole them away from her."

"No!" Nanoha shook her head. "Book of Darkness!"

"You would call me by that name?" She asked, narrowing her eyes as a black sphere appeared in her hands.

"Bardiche, Sonic Form now!"

**"Sonic Drive."**

As Fate shifted to her faster form, she looked at the woman. "Listen! Release the armor, book! That girl, she doesn't want any of this!"

"How do you know what my master wants? All she wants is a place where tragedy like what you did can never happen again."

Fate growled softly. "You brat!"

**"Sonic move."**

"Listen..." Fate's newly formed wings on her arms and legs flapped a couple of times. "To us!" She yelled as she rushed forward at tremendous speeds.

"No, you listen." The woman held the book forward just as Fate's weapon crashed into a barrier. "You shall be absorbed into me and dream a dream for all time."

"Fate! NO!" Nanoha screamed as Fate's body started sparkling with light, before she disappeared.

**"Absorption."**

Nanoha stared, her body went cold as she stared at the flying woman.

"Everything will fall into a tranquil slumber." The woman closed her eyes.

Before anything more could be said, a sphere of fire crashed into the woman's backside, causing her to turn around, where she saw Lina glaring at her as she walked forward.

"Listen you, I don't really care just what or who you are, but to go and blow up _my_ city, turn a girl that my family likes into nothingness AND threaten my daughter? That's just going too far." She pointed dramatically at the woman.

"And who are you?" She looked at Lina curiously.

"I'm Lina Takamachi, and you'll see why I was called the Enemy of All Who Lives!"

_"Nanoha! Lina! Listen! Fate's not dead, she's still alive somehow. If you can figure out how to release her, she'll come back to us."_ They heard Amy's voice and Nanoha smiled at that, at least Fate wasn't dead.

_"The Wolkenritter are fine, they're just asleep. I'll get them awake soon."_

Lina flew down and extended a hand to her daughter, smiling at her. "You know, Nanoha, this is your fight, if you want to do this alone, go ahead."

"Mom..."

"But..." Lina grinned and Nanoha was certain if this were an anime, a theme music power up would be starting to play right now. "I wouldn't mind fighting with you."

Nanoha nodded. "Please!"

**"Call me, Excellion, Master."**

Nanoha looked at her device. "Are you sure?"

**"Call me."**

Lina giggled softly. "Seems she wants to join in, I say we let her."

Nanoha nodded. "Excellion Mode!"

**"Set up!"** Raising Heart became more spear-like instead of staff like and Lina nodded in approval.

"So, how about it?"

"Alright!" Nanoha nodded to her.

The two turned to look at the flying woman, who actually had a look of surprise and was trembling in fear somewhat. "What is this?" She gasped as the two took off, seemingly disappearing before reappearing right in front of her.

"BOMB!" Lina started.

"DI!" Nanoha continued as the two held their hands back.

"WIND!" The two screamed at the same time, punching forward and launching a supremely powerful wind sent her flying out of the city and onto the surface of the ocean, skidding along the surface, before tumbling end over end and righting herself, only to look up as several red fireballs were launched at her. Throwing up her shield, she grimaced as they were blocked, but just barely. Her eyes widened as she saw a pink beam crash into, and through her barrier, slamming her in the chest and down into the water.

"Freeze bullet!" Lina yelled as she fired several small ice blasts at the water, quickly encasing it in a thick cover.

"Wow..." Nanoha was surprised how fast her mother had done that.

"Heh, before you were born, I spent time exterminating demons. Learned how to use flight magic and attack magic at the same time." Granted, it was still better for her to be standing still for stuff like the Nemesis Breaker, but she didn't need to anymore.

Of course, the kickback was rather fierce and she really didn't like having to fly over four miles to get back to where she was before she fired the spell in the first place.

* * *

"Did they win?" She asked her master, who merely smirked at her.

"Oh, trust me, this isn't over by a long shot, not yet.

* * *

The ice shattered, wind and snow kicking up as the ice was turned into icey vapor and the woman flew up, glaring at them, her black wings started to turn gold on her. "I will show you not to take me lightly!" Black lightning crackled around her and three more copies of her came into being.

"For everything that's happened in the past..." Nanoha started to speak as she pointed Raising Heart outwards.

"For all the lives that were lost fighting you..." Lina continued, lightning dancing at her fingertips.

"For the sake of the future that we wish to live..."

"Take this!"

"All of our sorrow..."

"Our love..."

"And all of our friendship!" Nanoha finished as the two grinned at the clones, who were wondering what they were planning to do.

"Blast ASH!" Lina yelled, sniping one clone, putting several holes in its body as Nanoha pointed at another clone.

"Excellion... BUSTER!"

**"Barrel Shot!"**

The remaining two narrowed their eyes and called up more clones, this time, the clones had fire flowing from their hands. "You cannot win as you are."

"Unfortunately for you, you have no idea who you're dealing with!" Lina smirked at them. "I'll never give up."

"I will never surrender." Nanoha continued for her mother as she gripped Raising Heart tightly. "And you will lose!"

The woman's wings were glowing golden by that point. "We shall see."

* * *

Mother-daughter team-up! Whoo hoo! Well, if anyone calls for it, it's Reinforce as she is now, right?

Also, the insert song was "Plenty of Grit", the Slayers Revolution opening.


	17. A's the Ninth

A's the Ninth

Standard Disclaimer is here.

Okay, so people were complaining about how Reinforce knows Nemesis Breaker.

I guess I didn't make it clear enough, so, here it is.

Fate was learning the Nemesis Breaker before she got absorbed. So, because FATE knew the spell, Reinforce could learn it.

Therefore, Reinforce knows the spell and can cast Nemesis Breaker.

* * *

"Nnngh... Where am I?" She asked as she looked around, in front of her, she saw a silver-haired woman with red eyes staring at her. Behind the silver-haired woman, she saw a golden glow, at her feet, a black sludge seemed to be covering her feet.

"Just rest, master."

* * *

Yuuno frowned as he tried to wake up the Wolkenritter. "What's wrong with them?" This wasn't normal, they weren't moving at all.

Something told him that there was more to it, and he wasn't seeing it.

* * *

Nanoha yelped as black fire escaped from the fingertips of their opponent, nearly burning her dress off in the process. "Ouch!"

Her mother was facing down three clones, before freezing them in midair and quickly escaping.

It didn't help as they broke out of the ice a moment later, their bodies changing forms.

"Oh great, now they got tentacles coming out of their arms!" Lina groused as the misshaped clones attacked her, the tentacles generating various elements and causing explosions across the sky as they tried to hit her.

"Genocide Destruction." The woman said softly as black spheres appeared in her hands, all of her hands as the other clones that didn't grow tentacles charged up attacks.

**"Protection."**

Nanoha grunted as the spheres crashed into her barriers, before exploding and forcing her back. "AHHH!" She blinked as her mother grabbed her and pulled her away from the explosion. "She's harder than I thought."

Lina looked as the woman called up her magic circle, the black was starting to fleck gold. "Dammit! Nanoha, if we don't stop her soon, I'll have to kill her." Letting this much Chaos magic run free was just too much.

Nanoha didn't like it, but she nodded. "We'll have to try harder..."

**"Excellion Lightning Buster."**

Nanoha pointed Raising Heart at one of the tentacle clones, the powerful lightning strike blowing through it and taking out the other two clones.

"You cannot win." The clones said at once as the skies darkened and the winds picked up.

"We'll see about that!" Lina yelled, though, she was worried about what was going on.

* * *

Fate blinked as she sat up in the large bed. "What..?"

"Wake up, you three." She heard a voice that she hadn't heard in a long time. Her eyes wide, she turned to the door as Linith walked through the door and opened the shades, letting in light. "It's a beautiful day outside, come on, your mother is waiting on you three before we have breakfast together."

"Mother..?" Fate said softly, her mind and body felt rather stunned. The last time she had seen her mother, she was rejected by Precia. How could Precia want to see her at all?

* * *

"Just rest, master." She heard that girl speak again. "Soon, it will all be over."

"No." Hayate frowned as she sat up. "I won't. Where are my Knights?"

"Dying." The woman said softly, her face showing regret. "They have been for awhile now."

"What?" Hayate was stunned as she heard that.

The other woman sighed softly and knelt down. "They absorbed a large amount of Chaotic magic... It turned them into humans, but the process was incomplete and their bodies were slowly breaking down in the process."

"Why?" Hayate felt tears falling down her face hearing that.

"It is my fault." She admitted, looking down. "They were in so much pain that I absorbed most of the energy that was surrounding them to keep them from hurting anymore. I was planning on finishing the process once I completed, but I was stopped..."

For the first time, Hayate noticed that the black sludge was moving on its own.

"A powerful dark energy stopped me from doing anything, and has strengthened the Protection Program's control over me."

"Can anything be done?"

The woman shook her head. "No. I am nothing more than a corrupted book... As things stand, I cannot do anything."

"No!" Hayate frowned and cupped the woman's face. "You aren't just a book..."

* * *

As she sat under the tree, Fate looked around. The sky was unusually dark, but she couldn't see why, the sun was still shining after all.

"Fate..." Alicia spoke up suddenly and Fate turned to the smaller girl. "You need to go."

"What?" Fate thought that she needed to go as well, but she was sure that Alicia would fight her.

Alicia smiled softly, tears welling up in her eyes. "You have friends who love you back there. And the black... It's not supposed to be here." She handed Fate a golden triangle pendant. "I love you, my sister."

Fate smiled and hugged Alicia. "I'll never forget you, Alicia. I love you too, little sister."

* * *

"Nemesis Breaker!" Lina yelled, as her daughter was behind her, bracing her, the two skidded back several feet, but several more clones were destroyed in the process. "Dammit!"

"Shadow destruction." Their opponent said softly, causing Lina to cast a lighting spell, shrinking their shadows as explosions nearly engulfed the two of them.

Lina grimaced and coughed softly, her back was torn up and she was bleeding pretty badly from fighting this thing. "I just need to get close to the real one."

* * *

"But, I am nothing more than a book, a tome that brings nothing but destruction and death."

Hayate shook her head. "You aren't... You aren't just a tome of death and destruction." She smiled at the woman. "You're someone who brings support to those around her."

The woman's eyes were shining with unshed tears as Hayate continued to speak. "You'll no longer be known as a cursed tome. You're the Sacred Wind of Blessing..."

The woman had tears falling from her eyes as Hayate continued to speak.

"Welcome to my family, Reinforce."

* * *

"What's going on?" Nanoha asked as all the clones stopped moving.

"Never mind, destroy the clones, we need to get to the original one!" Lina yelled as she fired several Val Flares, destroying the still clones while Nanoha blasted others.

They would find out soon enough.

* * *

Fate gasped as she saw the black stuff start to form a solid wall. "What..?"

She never had to question it as a powerful lightning bolt crashed into it. Turning, she saw her mother holding her staff and charging up another spell. "Fate, hurry! I can't hold it off for long!"

"M...Mother?" Fate gasped, tears filling her eyes. "What?"

Precia smiled at her. "I'm sorry, Fate, for what I did to you in life. I never told you, but I did love you. I was just too stubborn to see it."

"Mother..." Fate smiled, tears falling freely. "Thank you, mother."

**"Sir?"**

"Bardiche, Zambar Form. Can you do it?"

**"Yes, sir."**

"You're a good boy." Fate smiled as Bardiche shifted into a large bladed sword.

* * *

"My knights... Can we help them?" Hayate asked Reinforce as she hugged the book.

"Not as I am. I do not have the strength to do it."

"You aren't alone, Reinforce." Hayate smiled as she hugged the book tighter, feeling Reinforce more with each moment. "With my help, we might be able to do it."

"To turn them fully human, and give them the strength to fight back, it would require too much power."

"How about that black stuff? Can we use the power it has?"

"It's too dark."

Hayate shook her head. "Just the power. If we could just send the raw power to the Knights, we could finish what was started."

"I'm not sure."

"Let's try!" Hayate yelled suddenly and closed her eyes. "Please work... Whatever can be done... Protect my Knights and deliver them back to me at full health."

'So, your conviction is this strong.' A strange voice spoke up, though neither Hayate nor Reinforce heard it.

* * *

Fate grimaced as the black sludge started to pool around her. "No! I have to go back!"

Her eyes widened as a golden glow appeared and a shovel smashed into the gunk, turning it into motes of light, before dissolving into pure energy. In front of her was a woman with long blond hair, who grabbed the shovel and smiled at her. "Who?"

The woman smiled and snapped her fingers, the dimensions breaking. "You should not tarry long. You have friends who miss you."

* * *

Just as they finished off the last of the clones, Nanoha and Lina blinked as the real one was engulfed in a white light, which shot off in the direction of the city, well, most of it, there was still a white light that remained, but it was much dimmer than before. "What's going on?" Nanoha asked in confusion, before seeing something to the side. "Fate-chan!"

The blond turned to her and smiled. "I'm alright."

"I'm glad!" Nanoha smiled brightly.

* * *

Yuuno gasped as he was bathed in a light. "What?"

"These four... I see why their master loves them so."

Yuuno turned and gasped as he saw a woman with long golden hair and a shovel looked at the downed Wolkenritter, before pointing an open palm at them. "Who... Who are you?"

"I am am nothing but an echo." The woman turned to him, but Yuuno could see that she was fading.

Before Yuuno could say anything, the woman disappeared, and the Wolkenritter woke up, before the scenery changed and the five found themselves floating over the ocean.

"Hayate!" The Wolkenritter gasped as they saw the glow that was near them. It faded, showing a girl in a a short skirt, golden wings, a hat and a long coat. Her eyes were bright blue and her hair was white.

"It's okay." Hayate smiled as she floated towards them, hugging them all. "Reinforce told me everything. I'm... Just so glad that we're all okay now."

Lina grimaced as she saw the happy reunion. No, she wasn't upset about that, what she was upset about was having her body rather bloodied from that battle. "Finally made your appearance, kid?" She turned to Chrono, who was looking at her, rather shocked at her appearance. "Yeah... Look, get me back to the ship, I'm tired magically and my body's about to give out from all the blood that I've lost."

Chrono nodded at her. "Alright."

Lina smiled softly as she felt her body disappearing before reappearing on the ship. "Oh, doctor."

* * *

"Dammit! How the hell?" She yelled as she saw them all recovering while a ball of sediment formed in the ocean. "How did she do that?"

"It doesn't matter." Her master chuckled at her. "Even if they win, we have a trump card in store."

She grimaced at the thought, but nodded. "Alright."

She wanted them to die NOW, dammit! Oh well, she'd have to settle for later then. Her master was right about one thing though.

It never hurt to have back-up plans.

Death Bringer chuckled. "I know what you want, don't worry. It's just not time yet."

* * *

Lina rolled her shoulder. "I really need to teach these people some better healing spells." At least her back wasn't bleeding freely anymore and as soon as this was over, she could have Shiro give her some serious pampering.

As she walked by a door, she looked inside and frowned. "Well, well, you two..." She saw an older man with them and two guards outside. She took a step forward, but the guards stopped her.

"I'm sorry, ma'am, we cannot let you in there."

Lina sighed and put her hand on his shoulder. "If you're worried I'll commit murder... I might just do that, on the fool who decided to stop me from what I'm going to do."

"But, I was told not to let anyone in here." He looked nervously at her.

"I remember you..." Lina smiled at him. "You're the one who tried to keep me from talking to Fate." She put a hand on his shoulder. "Well, you do a good job." She chuckled as he fell down, asleep, before looking at the other one, who was looking away. "Good boy."

Graham blinked as that redheaded woman walked into the room, looking at his familiars, who were gulping in sheer fright. "Excuse me?" He yelped as she grabbed his collar and pulled him close to her. "What?"

"Get out." Lina shoved him away and walked slowly, deliberately towards the catgirls.

"Father!" Aria yelped as Lina stopped just in front of us. "She's going to kill us!"

"Oh, no... No, no, no..." Lina grinned at them. "If I killed you, you wouldn't learn anything." She snapped her head towards Graham. "Get out, or you'll share in their punishment."

"Father!" Aria whimpered. "Go, we don't want you hurt."

"That's a good girl." Lina grinned as Graham walked out. "Don't worry about them... This is only going to hurt... Tremendously." She turned and yelled at the guard outside of the door. "Close the door, we don't need people hearing this." She smiled as the door was closed. Turning towards the catgirl twins, she snapped her hand out. "Balas Rod." A whip appeared in her hand. "Man, if Naga ever heard what I'm going to do now, she'd freak."

"Do what?" Lotte asked, whimpering as Lina snapped the whip a few times.

"OHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHO!"

* * *

Hayate looked down as the sediment started to settle. "The program that caused Reinforce to be called a cursed tome... The Darkness... Of the Book of Darkness."

As the creature appeared, several tentacles broke out of the surface of the water.

"Fire BALL!" Yuuno yelled, several spheres lashing out from his fingertips, exploding and destroying the tentacles.

"You better be able to keep up with me, you Devil." Vita smirked over her shoulder.

"You too!" Nanoha smirked at her.

"Iron Hammer Knight Vita!" She hefted the hammer on her shoulder. "And Graf Eisen, the Black Iron Count!"

**"Gigant Form!"**

Vita swung it around as the hammer shifted to a larger form, one that had Yuuno gulping slightly. "Rolling Hammer Slam..." She swung up as the hammer got MUCH larger in size. "Giganto... STRIIIKE!" The hammer slammed down on the first of four barriers, crushing it under the pressure.

The creature under the barriers seemed to not be worried as several magic circles appeared around it.

_"Be careful everyone! It's preparing something."_ Amy's voice was heard.

"Let's go! Nanoha Takamachi and Raising Heart Excellion!"

**"Load Cartridge."**

Nanoha smiled and spun her device a few times before pointing it at the protection program. "Excellion... BUSTER!"

Even as its second barrier was pierced, more runes appeared around the creature.

* * *

"What's going on?" She asked, her blue hair blowing in the wind.

Death Bringer chuckled. "Seems that a little gift I left it will be activating soon." When his Priest looked at him in confusion, he shook his head. "You'll see. By the way, why haven't you turned your hair and eys back to normal yet?"

She chuckled at that. "I want it to be a surprise for them. If they survive this, well... I'm sure that she'll just _love_ knowing who I am."

* * *

"Signum, Miss Testarossa, you're up!" Shamal yelled, though she was worried about what was going on below.

"I am the Blazing General, leader of the Wolkenritter, Signum." She unsheathed her weapon and held it high. "And this, the magic sword of flame, Laevantien!" She slammed the hilt into the sheath. "The ultimate form, made of connected blades, the form of archer's steel!"

**"Bogen Form!"** Laevantien became an elegant bow that Signum aimed at the creature, two cartridges popping out of it.

"Now go... Dash Falcon."

**"Shudenviken!"**

The third barrier never stood a chance as the arrow connected and caused it to explode.

"Now! Fate Testarossa and Bardiche Zambar, it's time to go!" She held her weapon up high as lightning crashed down onto it. "Pierce it, lightning!"

**"Jet Zamber."** Bardiche said as Fate slashed down, piercing the last barrier.

Moments before the sword could strike the body, several black, red and green beams shot up from the creature, causing everyone to either dodge or block the attacks.

"What the hell?" Vita yelled, yelping as she nearly lost her face from an attack.

_"Looks like that's what it was planning."_ Amy's voice was heard. _"The barriers are down, but it's firing spells at random, I can't figure out what's going on."_

Nanoha grimaced, this wasn't good.

"Give me some defense!" Hayate yelled as a Belkan triangle appeared under her feet and several circles appeared in front of her as she began to chant.

Zafira and Shamal nodded as they were the closest, due to their mad dashing to avoid the beams of death from the creature. As the beams got close, the two tossed up some of the strongest barriers that they could, keeping the attacks from harming their mistress.

"Hræsvelgr!" Hayate called out, powerful white beams crashing through the attacks, exploding and causing them to halt for a moment.

The creature looked up, narrowing its eyes at the golden-winged girl.

As the skies became filled with magic runes, people started looking around nervously, this wasn't going to be good.

* * *

"What is this?" She asked and he chuckled at her.

"A spell that calls on me."

"Oooh!" Her eyes widened in glee.

* * *

_**"Death's Harvester!"**_ Black funnels appeared, moving like tornadoes as they tore through any barriers, armor, barrier jackets and spells, leaving everyone who was near it in tattered clothes and dripping blood.

"ENOUGH!" Nanoha yelled as the gems on her body started to glow. _"Lord of Darkness of the Four Worlds! Grant me all the power you possess!"_

* * *

Death Bringer raised an eyebrow and smirked. "So, she can use Magic Amplification, huh? Interesting."

* * *

A bus-sized pink ball appeared in front of her. "Excellion... BUSTER!" Nanoha screamed as she fired the attack. "AAAAHHHH!" She felt herself being pushed back by the tremendous force from her own attack spell. She blinked as she felt hands on her back. Turning, she saw Fate and Yuuno there, holding her in place. "Yuuno-kun, Fate-chan."

They smiled at her. "We're here for you, Nanoha." Fate spoke to her.

"No matter where you go, we'll be there, walking with you each step of the way." Yuuno continued as they gripped Raising Heart. "So..."

"Let's finish what we came here to do." Fate finished and the three looked down at the creature as they bombarded it with magical power.

* * *

"That's impressive." She nodded, shuddering at the Holy energy she could feel, even from this far away.

"Don't worry about it..." Death Bringer smirked, even as the creature started to regenerate, but was stopped by a combination of freezing and stoning, before it broke off and started to regenerate again.

* * *

"Hayate-chan! Fate-chan!" Nanoha looked at the girls as they floated to her side. "Let's end this!"

**"Starlight Breaker. Ex Mode."**

Nanoha's gems glowed as she chanted the Amplification spell again as Raising Heart chewed through what remaining cartridges she had left. Behind her, Yuuno was ready to grab her.

"STARRRLIIIGHT!"

"Rend lightning!" Fate held Bardiche Zambar high. "Plasma Zambar!"

Hayate frowned at the thing. "For everyone you hurt... For making Reinforce think she was useless... Goodnight." She closed her eyes for a moment. "ECHO! Whistle of lasting closure! RAGNAROCK!"

**"BREAKER!" **The three yelled as they fired pink, yellow and white beams of total destruction down at the creature.

* * *

"WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?" She gasped, her eyes wide. "That... That power's insane!"

Death Bringer shook his head. He admitted, his Priest would be taken out by such an attack, but that still wouldn't. "Interesting spell. A mix of Black, Shamanistic and Holy magic effects, huh?"

That was interesting, very interesting. "Change of plans, we're going to make things more interesting now." He chuckled as she looked at him in confusion. "We now have two targets."

* * *

"Nanoha!" Yuuno grabbed the girl as her hair turned white and she passed out. "Got you." Raising Heart shifted to gem form and he grabbed that, putting it in his pocket. "Silly girl."

"I have it." Shamal said. "Need a little help."

"Sorry!" Yuuno held a hand out. "Distance transmission!"

"Target, in orbit." Shamal said softly.

"TRANSMISSION!" The two yelled at the same time as they teleported the core straight into space.

* * *

"So they won." Death Bringer looked up as the ship in space fired a powerful attack, that destroyed the creature's body. "Heh, too bad that it won't matter. Come on, we'll see what they're going to do, then make our move."

She nodded as the two of them disappeared.

* * *

Lina smiled as she walked out of the room. "You're still here?" She looked at Graham, who nodded. "Good..."

Graham found himself on the floor from a punch that Lina connected to his jaw.

"You're an IDIOT! You know that? If someone has something THAT dangerous, you don't try to do something that will likely backfire! You do what you can to HELP them!" Lina snarled at him. "Besides, if you KNEW who had the book, didn't you think that maybe, just MAYBE I might have a way to deal with it?"

"I didn't know you existed..." Graham muttered as he stood up. "What did you do to my familiars?"

Lina chuckled and started walking away. "Go in and find out for yourself."

Graham blinked and did just that. He gaped as he saw his familiars, bare-ass naked, laying face-down on the floor with whip marks on their backs, legs and arms, but that wasn't nearly as telling as how red their asses were. "Um..."

"Father..." Lotte looked up, tears falling down her face. "I can't feel my butt anymore."

"Hurts too much." Aria whimpered and twitched. "Hurts so much."

Graham shuddered, he wasn't sure if he wanted to go through this himself.

* * *

"What did you do to them?" Lindy asked as Lina came into the control room.

Lina chuckled. "Did what their father should have done. Gave them a spanking that they wouldn't forget."

Lindy laughed softly. "Ah yes, as mothers, we need to do that sometimes."

Lina nodded at that. "Yeah." She looked at the scene where everyone was floating over the destroyed body. "So, what's going to happen to them?"

"We'll see, right now, they all need to recover."

Lina nodded, that made sense. She sighed as she saw Nanoha's hair color. "She over-did it..." Oh well, it wasn't the first time someone in her family had done that.

"This happen a lot?"

"Only when you burn up all your magic at once." Lina nodded to Lindy. "She'll be fine in a couple of hours."

"Okay." Lindy nodded at her.

* * *

Spanking of a life time, no?

Yeah, I know, followed canon for the fight (mostly) against the Protection Program. I can't help it, that was an awesome beat down.

Also, this site REALLY screws with formatting.

And, yes, that WAS the Lord of Nightmares that freed Fate, Hayate, Reinforce and the Wolkenritter from what they were suffering.

Anyway, one more part to "A's". Expect twists like you've not seen yet.


	18. A's End

A's End

Standard Disclaimer is here.

Here we go! Reinforce's fate and the big reveal as to who the Priest is.

* * *

Reinforce turned as she heard some soft crunching from behind her. She smiled softly as she saw Yuuno, Fate and Nanoha walking up to her. "Thank you for coming."

"Do you need to go, Reinforce?" Nanoha, her hair a soft red, signaling that she could her magic again.

"So you're calling me by that name now?" Reinforce asked as Nanoha blushed at that. "But, yes, I must go... The Protection Program... It's not gone. It will come back, and screw things up again." She saw the Knights walk up behind the mages. "I'm glad... That Hayate will be in the hands of capable people."

Fate held out Bardiche. "Then..."

"Let us begin." Reinforce sighed softly as the girls moved to either side of her. 'Goodbye, Hayate...'

"Yeah, yeah, big rousing speech there." Reinforce blinked as she saw Lina, in a large gray coat, walking up to her. "You know, sealing yourself away is a pretty good way to make sure that thing never bothers us again."

"Mom, what are..." Nanoha blinked as Lina waved her down.

"Ever think that there might be another way?"

"Even if there was, there isn't any time before I will be consumed again." Reinforce sighed sadly. "I just want to protect her."

"Um, hello." Lina bopped Reinforce on the head. "Sorcery genius with almost twenty years experience here."

Reinforce rubbed her head. "...You know a spell that could get rid of it?"

"Well, not really." Lina chuckled as everyone face-faulted. "In the strictest sense of the word, I can't do purification like that. Though I do have a spell that could, in fact, help you."

"Huh?" Reinforce blinked as she stood up.

"Close your eyes." Lina patted the device on the shoulders. "Just close your eyes, think of nothing but the Protection Program, nothing else. Just focus on it." As Reinforce followed her instructions, Lina sighed as she saw a soft white glow coming from Reinforce's abdomen. 'Why do all possessions in women go right for the womb? Someone needs to explain this to me someday.'

Everyone gasped as a gold and black ball appeared in Lina's open palm.

_"Source of all creation, mother of life,_  
_Aid me please and deliver this being from her captivity."_ Lina's hair wafted slightly from her power as she put her hand onto and then INTO Reinforce's belly.

_"Freedom Release."_

At those words, Lina pulled her hand back and the ball was surrounding a mass of tentacles in her hand. "Disgusting."

Reinforce snapped her eyes open at those words and saw what was in her hand. "What is..?"

"The protection program, I believe." Lina smirked before closing her fist, causing the tentacles and the ball to disappear. She looked at Reinforce. "Well?"

The device blinked a few times, before patting her belly. "It... It's gone. What did you..?"

"I used to hunt down demons for awhile before Nanoha was born, part of that was to get demons that possessed humans without killing the person. I developed a Chaos spell that would open a small portal to the Lord of Nightmares, before sending the demon that possessed people on a one-way trip. I figured that the same thing would work here." Lina smiled at her and patted her shoulder. "You don't have to go anywhere."

"I'm glad..." Reinforce smiled and blinked as she heard her name.

"REINFORCE!" Hayate yelled as she tried to stop what was going on. "Don't leave!"

"Hayate, I..."

Before anything more could be said, the snow around them exploded upwards.

"What the hell?" Lina yelled, before looking up and seeing the blue-haired woman holding a struggling Hayate. "So, you finally made your appearance."

She chuckled at Lina. "Yeah, well, I was getting so tired of..." She put her fingers near Hayate's neck. "Don't try it, little ones, or she dies."

Hayate whimpered as she was held. "Why me?"

"Just to keep you from interfering." A male voice spoke up and Lina's eyes widened as she turned around to see a man with shoulder-length black hair in a tuxedo holding her daughter, who was out cold.

"You're the master?" Lina grimaced as she saw him crush Raising Heart in his hand, letting it drop to the ground in pieces, before pulling off the Demon's Blood Talismans and dropping them down as well.

"Yes. I am." He smirked as his Priest floated towards him. "Why don't you finally reveal yourself to them?"

She smirked and looked at Fate. "Pay attention, little clone, you might be surprised..."

Fate gasped, her eyes wide as the red eyes became duller in color and the blue hair shifted to blonde. "What..?"

"I guess you don't recognize me unless I'm floating in a jar, huh?" The blonde smirked at her as her face paled. "That's right... Little sister... It's me, Alicia... Alicia Testarossa."

"And you're her master..."

"Garoth. Though you can call me Death Bringer." He chuckled at Lina. "As for what I want, well... If you want to find out, come to Cranagan, you have three days at most."

"What?" Vita yelled at him. "Just what the hell are you talking about?"

"Come and find out." He started laughing as the two of them and their captives disappeared.

Lina glared at the spot they were at a moment ago. "Nnn...nnngh...RAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!" She screamed, falling to her knees and pounding the ground. "Not again... Not again!"

- A's End

* * *

Reinforce gets to stay! Yay!

Alicia is alive? What about what I said earlier? Okay, let me explain.

When I first wanted to bring her back in Season One, it wouldn't have added anything to the story, just author appeal.

HOWEVER! However, as a bad guy, she adds something to the story, so, that's how I came up with her as a Priest.

So, not ONLY did I bring her back, but she's back as a bad guy! Who would have guessed?

Nanoha and Hayate are captured! Oh noes! And Raising Heart is shattered into pieces!


	19. Jump Start

Jump Start

Standard Disclaimer is here.

* * *

"What? What's going on?" She asked as she looked around. Everything looked weird. "Mama? Mama?" There was fear in her voice, why did everything look like it was made of running ink? Why were her hands all smokey?

"You're awake now." A male voice spoke up and she turned and screamed in fright as she saw a large black hand in front of her. "You shouldn't fear me, girl." She whimpered, her eyes watering up.

"Mama... Mama help!" She yelled, even as a man's form walked forward. It was weird, his body was there, but it wasn't solid.

"Why would that hateful woman help you?" He asked, his body seemingly flowing around her, leaving smoke as he got behind her. "It's her fault that you're here now."

"What?" She whimpered as the man smiled at her. He felt cold, unlike her mother.

He waved his hand, and she gasped as the inky blackness settled into a window screen that showed her mother talking to someone.

_"Hurry it up." Her mother was saying to someone in a lab coat. "We don't have much time."_

_"Ma'am, I was wondering, what about your daughter?"_

_"What about her?" Her mother looked at the man with contempt. "We need to finish this as soon as possible."_

_"But, this is very dangerous and you brought her here."_

_"Fool!" She screamed at him. "Do not tell me what I can and cannot do. Let's just hurry it up. Nothing else matters right now."_

He closed the window screen at that and looked at her as she whimpered and teared up, but she shook her head. "Nah uh! Mama loves me! She was going to give me a new baby brother or sister to play with after she was done."

"Does she?" He asked as several more windows appeared, each one showing how her mother only cared about her work, and never once bringing her up in a good way. "And look..." He showed her the final day, when her mother's experiment went horribly wrong and the accident occurred. "She didn't care enough about you to make sure that you were safe."

"Then..."

"You died." He replied to her, before moving around to face her. "However, I was just passing by, and you... Your body was ruined, but your soul, it was screaming, wanting to live, so..." He smiled gently, tenderly at her. "I took your soul, and transformed you, turning you into what I am."

"What you are?" She asked softly, wondering what he was.

"A Mazoku." He rubbed her head. "If you listen to me and follow my commands, I shall never leave you, not unlike that heartless woman of a mother."

Her eyes seemed to flash red as she pulled herself together fully. "You are..."

"Your master." He grinned at her. "Just follow me for the rest of your existence, and I guarantee that you will never be lonely again."

"Of course... Master." Alicia smiled up at him. He seemed like a nice person, unlike her mother, who only pretended to be one.

"Let me show you the basics of being a Mazoku, Alicia." He grinned at her.

(-)

Alicia blinked and shook her head. 'Those memories again.' Ugh, they were a pain in the ass to keep remembering. She snorted as she saw the paralyzed girl in front of her looking at her in fear. "You have nothing to worry about..." She chuckled and caressed the girl's cheek. "You don't have any part of this."

"Then... Why take me?" She whimpered as Alicia chuckled at her.

"Simple, girl... We needed a distraction while we got our real target. Plus your connection to that book is troublesome." If the girl was with the device, she would have been able to utilize the thing's full power, and while that wouldn't be enough to kill her master, it might have been enough to kill her.

They both looked to the other end of the room when they heard a scream. Floating in the middle of a black ball was Nanoha, her eyes wide and blank as she let out more screams.

Standing near her was Death Bringer, he was chuckling before he turned away from her and snapped his wrist up, several crystal pillars appearing and separating the trio from Nanoha physically, but not audibly, as they heard her screaming still. "What were you doing, Alicia?"

"Just talking to her." Alicia chuckled at him. "And remembering when you showed me the truth."

His gaze was a little unsettled at that, but he nodded and chuckled softly. "Alright... Alicia, go and set things up with the broadcasts... I need a little time before our guests arrive."

"Of course, master."

As she disappeared, Death Bringer chuckled softly even as he began to rework the Ground Forces HQ. Oh, he had to kill a couple dozen people to keep word from getting out too soon, but it was all for the better.

Just like what he did to Precia's experiment years ago.

Ruining her research and gaining such a young child to turn into a Mazoku, it was like two birds with one stone.

He would have left her alone, had she not been doing research and experiments on stuff that was far too close to Al Hazard for his tastes. The remnants of that place that kept popping up were annoying, such as that device he shattered back on Earth.

Hayate whimpered as he smirked and glowed darkly with power. "You should watch what real power is, girl. No mere human has what it takes to do what I can do."

(-)

"Isn't she beautiful, Quint?"

Chuckling, the other woman nodded at her. "Megane, you've only asked me that question like forty times since you had her." Still, Megane's daughter was cute and beautiful. "So, when are you going to tell him?"

Megane seemed to deflate at that as she rocked her little girl in her arms. "I don't know... How do you tell him that the one night you spent with him due to a drunken stupor resulted in this?"

Quint looked at her friend with some pity, before walking up to her and hugging her. "Hey, come on now..." She held her best friend closely. "If you need help, I can tell him for you."

"Hey! You trying to get me kicked off the force or something?" Megane gasped as she looked at Quint, who shook her head.

"No, just looking out for my best friend and my god-daughter." Quint smiled, before turning. "Subaru! Ginga! Come on you two!"

"Coming, mama!" The two girls called out as they walked into the room and Quint sighed as she saw Ginga covered in dirt and Subaru looking embarrassed.

"Oi!" Quint let go of Megane and walked over to her daughters. "What did I tell you about playing in the mud?" Really, it was like she was raising a couple of boys instead of girls.

"Um, use a garden hose and get your feet and legs cleaned so you don't, don't, um..."

"Track mud into the house." Quint smiled at them. "Okay, you two, go upstairs and get into the bath, okay?"

"K, mama!"

Megane smiled as she watched the two kids run from the kitchen to the stairs and disappeared. "You have good kids."

"I'm sure your daughter will be the same when she's older." Quint smiled as the little girl yawned. "Her name's Lutecia, right?" She asked as she got close and tapped the girl's palm with her finger, causing the baby to squeeze it tightly.

Megane nodded. "Yes. I hope she'll be happy when she grows up."

"With our luck, she'll have her daddy's weapon and power and your skills as a summoner." Quint giggled before a screen popped up and Zest's face appeared on the screen. "Sir!"

"Nakajima, I need your assistance." His eyes seemed to soften as he saw Megane and her baby girl. "Take care of your daughter, Alphine." The screen turned off, leaving the two women to look at each other in confusion.

"Megane, could you..."

"Not a problem." Megane smiled softly. "Your daughters like me."

Quint smiled and kissed Megane on the cheek. "You're a life saver." She ran up the stairs to tell her daughters that she had to leave for a bit.

(-)

Hayate whimpered as she heard Nanoha scream some more. "Why?" She looked at the man who brought them here.

He chuckled as his power abated. "It's simple, really. That girl has untapped power, tremendous power, but as she is, she can't use it. I'm just... Calling it out of her." As Nanoha let out another soul-wrenching scream, he chuckled. "It's too bad that to do it, I have to put her in tremendous pain and suffering..." He trailed off before laughing. "Who am I kidding? Her screams of pain and her fear are so _enjoyable_. She'll _need_ to snap, to break free and end her suffering. And the only way to do that is to let go of her sanity."

Hayate glared at him, a magic triangle appearing under her as she held a palm up, a white ball of energy appearing in her palm, before she fired it.

Or attempted to fire it, as the spell fizzled the instant it was complete.

"Hmm?" He raised an eyebrow at her, enjoying the terror she was feeling. "Pitiful really. Without that Tome, you're useless." When her eyes watered up, he smirked and knelt down, cupping her chin. "You should know... You'll be at ground zero when Lord Chaotic Blue awakens from his slumber, and then, and then you'll know true terror."

He pushed her away before disappearing from the room completely, leaving Hayate on the ground, trembling with tears falling down her face.

(-)

"Any luck yet?" Lina asked, growling as Amy shook her head. "Dammit!"

_"I have some news at least."_ Mary spoke up on a screen and Lina looked at her tiredly. _"Raising Heart was badly damaged by that guy, but I should be able to have it fixed soon enough."_

"That's something at least." Lindy said and looked at Lina, who was pacing back and forth, the very air around her was snapping and warping, and she was certain that one of the chairs that she walked by turned into a teapot before turning back into a chair. "Mrs. Takamachi, please... I know you're upset, but this isn't helping you."

Lina twitched and took several deep breaths.

"You should go talk to Miss Fate." Lindy sighed softly. "I think she needs someone to talk to."

"You're right, I just..."

"I know..." Lindy smiled at her. "If it was my son, I don't think I could act any different than you are right now."

Lina nodded and left the command room, causing Lindy to sigh in relief. Honestly, she was afraid that Lina would have decided to try and smash something to make it work better.

(-)

"Fate..." Yuuno shook her shoulder. "Come on, Fate..." The girl was unresponsive, she had been since Alicia had disappeared.

"...monster..." She said softly, so softly that Yuuno would have missed it had it not been for the fact that he was so close.

"Fate?" He blinked, shaking her by her shoulders. "Come on, Fate."

"My family..." Suddenly her lips started to tremble as tears welled up in her eyes. "We're nothing but a bunch of monsters."

Yuuno gasped as tears started to fall freely, even as Fate started to laugh. "...Fate?"

"It makes sense now. My mother hated me because I'm a monster. It makes perfect sense! My mother is hateful and spiteful, my sister's a cold-hearted Mazoku who takes pleasure in causing people pain and misfortune, how long until I become one of them?" Her laughter was becoming more strained as her breathing became ragged. "After all... The apple never falls far from the tree... I..." She stopped speaking and broke down, sobbing as she put her face in her hands. "I'm nothing more than a failed clone, a product of my sister and mother..."

"Fate..." Yuuno tried to get her to calm down. "Come on, you're not..."

"Yes I am! I'm nothing but a horrible monster! I was created just to fight and cause misery. I'm no..."

"Fate!" Yuuno grabbed her hands and pulled them away from her face. "GET AHOLD OF YOURSELF!"

There was a resounding slapping sound and Fate found herself on her side, touching her cheek, even as tears fell out of her eyes. "...Yuuno?"

Yuuno was panting. "If Nanoha was here, she would have blown you up... Fate, you're not a monster! If you were... You wouldn't be crying right now. You wouldn't have cared what happened to Hayate and Reinforce. If you were a monster, you wouldn't have helped me save Nanoha from her nightmares!"

Fate tensed as he hugged her tightly.

"So, you're not a monster, Fate. No matter what anyone says, you're no monster. She might not even be your sister, you know... Lina said that Mazoku can shape-shift and like to do all that they can to make us feel really depressed and stuff, right?"

Fate nodded, tears still falling down her face as Yuuno smiled at her. "Yuuno..."

"He's right, you know." Fate and Yuuno both turned their heads to look at Lina as she sat down next to Fate. "That might be your sister, that might not be your sister. I'm not sure."

"But how..?" Fate asked, hiccuping as Lina sighed softly.

"It's not hard, you just have to take the soul of someone and mess around with it. There was a Mazoku Lord, named Gaav, who had his soul bonded to that of a human's soul. There were rumors of other Mazoku being human at one point before being turned, it wouldn't surprise me at all if there was a Mazoku-Dragon hybrid out there somewhere even."

"So, she is my sister."

"Maybe." Lina nodded at Fate before hugging the girl, who sniffled and started crying again as Lina ran a hand through her hair. She smiled as Yuuno hugged Fate as well. "Listen, Fate, when we get there, we're likely going to have to..."

"I want to fight her..." Fate murmured into Lina's chest. "If she is my sister... I want to be the one who stops her."

"Fate..." Lina looked at her with worry. "Listen, you might not."

"Please?" Fate looked up, tears leaking out of her eyes more. "She's family... I... I want to be the one who does it."

Lina sighed as she saw those eyes. "Fate, I... If you do go against her, there's no guarantee that you'll win."

"I know." Fate nodded. "But, please..."

"...Only if she's alone, Fate." Lina finally sighed and closed her eyes. Honestly, she thought it was a bad idea, but at least she wasn't suggesting taking on Death Bringer alone.

That would have been suicide.

(-)

Chrono paced back and forth, his hand on his chin as he looked at Reinforce. "How come you didn't try to fight them? The power you had before..."

"I can only use that if I'm unisoned with my master." Reinforce said softly, her eyes closed. "As strong as I am, I can only use my full power when combined with my master. A safety mechanism, I'm sure."

Chrono nodded, at least that made sense. "Alright." He went back to pacing, mumbling to himself softly. "There's something... Something I'm overlooking..."

"Man!" Vita grumbled and punched the table. "What I wouldn't give to throw that guy into a black hole or something."

"Black hole..?" Chrono's eyes widened as a realization dawned on him. "Vita! You're a genius!"

"Huh?" Vita blinked as Chrono rushed out of the room, yelling about needing to see the old mission logs. "What was that about?"

The others in the room merely shrugged.

* * *

Chrono, just what do you have planned?

And, hey, I managed to get slip some StrikerS-era characters into the story too!

Also, here's an Omake, by Epsilon Zeta

* * *

"Fate..." Yuuno tried to get her to calm down. "Come on, you're not..."

"Yes I am! I'm nothing but a horrible monster! I was created just to fight and cause misery. I'm no..."

"Fate!" Yuuno grabbed her hands and pulled them away from her face. "GET AHOLD OF YOURSELF!"

There was a resounding slapping sound and Fate found herself on her side, touching her cheek, even as tears fell out of her eyes. "...Yuuno?"

"We don't need a moping fool. We need Fate Testarossa, the Sword that Smites Evil! A Woman of Destiny!" The young boy had a strange glint in his eyes, full of hot-blooded passion that one rarely saw in someone like him.

"... why are you...?"

He calmed down, immediately shifting into a more stoic position. "When a woman strays from the right path, a kind man needs the courage to raise his fist and correct her."

"TAKAMACHI CHOP!"

*BUNG*

Fate merely blinked in surprise as the boy rubbed the spot where Lina had smacked him earlier. "So, have you been burying your nose in some mecha manga when I wasn't looking?"

"Ow..."


	20. 2nd Jump

2nd Jump

Standard Disclaimer is here.

* * *

Chrono nodded as he turned off the mission logs. "I thought so... If that's the case, and what she said before..." His mind was working overtime as plans formed in his head. "Amy!"

She blinked and turned to him. "Chrono?"

"Can you get through to Mid-Childa?"

"Not yet." She shook her head. "Something... Or more likely, someone, is blocking any communications to Mid-Childa."

Chrono growled. "Damn." He turned around and walked out. "Still, I need to talk to a few people over this." Honestly, what he had planned was crazy, stupid and just plain nuts.

It was probably the best bet they had at that moment.

(-)

_Give in..._

Nanoha screamed, energy flowing through her body as she stared ahead blankly, her mouth open wide as her body jerked and thrashed from the pain. The white of her eyes were slowly outlined by black as her pink magic circle started to fade to gold.

_Just give in... The pillar... Use your power, destroy the pillar._

Nanoha jerkily moved her head and caught sight of a large blue crystal pillar out of the corner of her eye.

When nothing happened for a few moments, she started screaming again as fresh pain and anguish rushed through her body.

(-)

"Pathetic." Death Bringer sighed as he caused his spell to continue to torture Nanoha. "I wonder... What will happen?"

Oh well, whatever happened would be amusing, at least.

(-)

"Nakajima." Zest nodded as he saw her touch down near him.

Quint barely acknowledged Zest as she saw what happened to the HQ building. The elegant building had turned into a gigantic crystal tower with sharp spines all around the base and jagged edges along the main tower. "Looks like a giant flower opening up."

Zest nodded. "None of the ground forces nor the navy forces can break through the barrier that surrounds it."

Quint grimaced, wondering what was going on. "What are our commands?"

"Keep trying to break through the barrier and find out who or what is responsible."

Quint nodded, sighing as she crossed her arms under her breasts. "This sucks."

(-)

Lindy looked at the broken remnants of Raising Heart and looked at Mary. "Are you sure that it can be repaired?"

Mary nodded. "Yes. The body was a mess, but the core AI was thankfully spared."

"That's good." Lindy nodded at the Engineer. "Keep up the good work."

"Thanks. To be honest, if Raising Heart was left laying around for any real length of time, it couldn't be saved." Mary shook her head as she looked at it. "Even though I can replace it, it'll... I'd like to say that it'll be almost a half a year before it can be completely fixed."

"How come you said "soon enough" before then?"

Mary blushed softly. "Well, I said that when I wasn't even half way done with a project that took me over a year to finish before."

Lindy sighed, she honestly didn't understand engineers at all.

(-)

Regius glared at the barrier, hoping he could will it to dust. "What the heck is this thing?"

"Yelling isn't making it any better, boss." Quint shook her head. Not that she didn't disagree with the thought. It had been hours and no apparent progress had been made.

Well, no, a few people had gotten the idea to touch the thing and ended up losing an arm out of it, which was why she hadn't tried to do much herself.

The only solace Regius had was that even the Navy had no luck against this barrier, though he wasn't sure why they were even bothering, they never had before.

(-)

"She's here." Death Bringer whispered to himself and opened up all lines of communication, his face being shown on all televisions and communication arrays all over the city. "Citizens of Mid-Childa, no, there is nothing wrong with your television sets, I've just commandeered all broadcasts." He chuckled and smirked at them. "You people, who have lived here for years in relative peace..."

(-)

Megane looked at the screen as the man continued to speak. _"...know nothing of the terrors as society falls, crumbling away to dust. You think that your precious Bureau can protect you..."_ In her arms, Lutecia started crying and she tried to get her baby girl to calm down.

(-)

Zest narrowed his eyes at that, it was like the man was insulting him directly.

_"And yet, your precious Bureau is completely helpless against me."_

(-)

"What is he doing?" Lindy asked as the Arthra got close enough to Cranagan to warp Chrono, Lina, Fate, Yuuno and the Wolkenritter to the surface.

"Setting something up, most likely." Lina didn't like this, not one bit.

(-)

"So, just sit back, relax and enjoy your last few moments before I destroy your entire world. Oh, I know you don't believe me, so, how about a small sample?"

(-)

Zest's eyes widened as he saw the man start to glow as he snapped his fingers. "Nnnaaahh..." He fell to his knees, his head felt like it was being torn apart from the inside. Not that anyone else could do anything more, since they were all on the ground, screaming in pain.

After a few agonizing moments, the pain stopped and Zest looked up, panting at the smirking man.

_"You don't need to thank me for your suffering. You can thank this woman for it!"_ A picture of a redheaded woman with one red eye and one golden eye appeared on the screen. _"If not for her, I would not have the key I need to do what I'm going to do to you. Like what I did to Al Hazard, and the Saint Kaiser, I shall do to all of you as well."_ He laughed as the screen turned off.

(-)

"That little..." Lina growled as she looked at the screen. "Gah! I haven't had this bad of a rep since I was a teenager!"

"Calm down." Chrono shook his head. "Amy, can you get me a line to Admiral Leon Phils once we touch down?"

"Um, yeah, shouldn't be a problem, Chrono. Why?" She blinked as he smiled at her lightly.

"I'm going to need his help."

(-)

"This is taking too long!" Regius grumbled, he was half tempted to ask the Navy to fire the bloody Arc En Ciel into the city just to stop this guy.

The problem with that was, there was no way to get everyone in the city out before it would be destroyed.

"Colonel." He blinked as he saw a screen with a green haired woman looking at him seriously. "This is Admiral Lindy Harlaown. I'm sending in a strike force that can deal with the current situation."

"You know what's going on?"

Lindy nodded at him. "Yes. Events on Non-Administrated Planet 97 led to the current crisis. Unfortunately, there was a communications block, or I would have been able to contact you sooner."

"So, where are they?" Regius grumbled at her, if someone could get through the barrier, why hadn't they come yet?

"The help is a bit unusual, Colonel, but none of them are your enemies."

Regius blinked, wondering what she meant by that.

It dawned on him a moment later as a group of people appeared in front of him. "Y...Y...Y..."

"Enforcer Chrono Harlaown, these people with me are on our side." Chrono stepped up and looked at the Colonel, before looking at Zest, who was tense, on guard, but seemingly in more control of himself. "What we're dealing with is something that none of us can deal with alone, these people are here to help."

Lina grumbled as several people started to question Chrono's statement. "Man, this was easier when I was a kid, I could just blow something up to get them to listen." At least none of them tried attacking yet.

Chrono felt like banging his head against S2U, he should have known this was a bad idea.

"Can we trust them?"

Chrono blinked and looked Zest, who was looking at the Wolkenritter. "Yes. What's going on inside is a combination of factors, but if it is not dealt with, the entire Bureau and every world we look over would be destroyed."

Zest nodded at him. "Very well then kid. What do you need?"

"Two hours." Chrono nodded as Amy told him she had a line ready to go. "In two hours, the advance force will move inside to deal with the beings causing this problem."

"What are we dealing with?" Quint asked as she looked at the Belkan Knights slightly nervously. Oh, Belkan Knights on a whole didn't bother her, it was the fact that these four Belkan Knights were known enemies of the Bureau that bothered her.

"Creatures that you can't even hurt." Lina spoke up, getting everyone's attention. More than one person looked at her with resentment and anger, but she didn't care. "Your spells and abilities mean nothing to them, they wouldn't even need to block any of your attacks to stop you."

"You lie!" Someone in the crowd yelled and Lina felt like finding him and introducing her foot to his ass.

"Can any of you break through that barrier?" She pointed at the blue field around the building. "Can you?" She nodded as the grumbling stopped. "This is just a small amount of what that guy can do! If you can't break his barriers, then you can't beat him!"

Chrono nodded and turned to Zest. "Just trust me, they're on our side."

Zest looked at the group, before nodding. "Very well, kid. What do you want us to do?"

"For now, try to keep any civilians from going crazy, I need to make some preparations." Chrono turned and took off. "Give me two hours!"

"Two hours, huh?" Zest looked at him leave before turning to the rest of the Bureau's forces. "You heard him! Fan out and and reassure the civilians that we're doing all we can to protect them." The groups nodded and dispersed, though not before some of them had to question him on why he was giving the orders. "None of us are able to do anything and it's more important to keep civilians safe right now."

"Good speech." Lina spoke to him after the others left, the only ones left were Regius, who was glaring at her and the Wolkenritter, which she ignored, Zest and Quint.

Zest nodded at her. "You can get through this?"

Lina chuckled. "This is the easy part. The hard part is that bastard that stole my daughter from me."

Zest nodded, he didn't have any kids, or at least he didn't think he had any kids, but considering that both Megane and Quint had children of their own, he knew one thing.

If either of them had lost their children to some madman, all he would do was make sure that they came out of the ordeal alive.

(-)

"Enforcer Harloawn?" The blond elderly man blinked at the young boy who was talking to him through his communication array. "What can I do for you?"

_"I need you to do a major favor for me, Admiral."_

He raised an eyebrow at that. "Why me?"

_"You're the Admiral that overlooks the Judicial branch. I need your connections."_

"I need an explanation before I call up any friends to do anything." As Chrono explained what he needed, his eyes widened. "That's crazy!"

_"I know it is. I'm willing to take full responsibility if something goes wrong. But right now, that's a far safer bet than asking that woman to kill this creature alone."_

"There's no other recourse?"

Chrono shook his head as he flew through the air. _"None. I've seen things on Earth that are quite terrifying. I've not seen that thing fight, but from what I've seen, no one in the Bureau has any chance of beating it right now. I have a plan, but I need help for it to work."_

The aging Admiral sighed and nodded. "Very well, Enforcer. I'll get you what you need. Are you certain though?"

Chrono nodded once more as he finally touched down somewhere. _"Yes. I've come to the realization that everything that's happened in the last year was likely a set-up by that thing."_

"Alright, I'll get you the Pardon and limiter removal for her. But it only works if she's willing to help you."

_"Of course."_ Chrono nodded as the screen turned off.

Admiral Leon Phils sighed and started making calls. If everything worked out properly... Well, he didn't want to think what would happen if it didn't work out properly.

* * *

Yes, actually, Leon Phils IS a canon character in Nanoha. He's one of the three legendary Admirals. I made sure to look that up ahead of time.

So, yeah, I've got some StrikerS characters cameos going here. I wonder what Chrono's plan is. Hmm...


	21. 3rd Jump

3rd Jump

Standard Disclaimer is here.

Plans start to come together now.

* * *

"So, the great Enforcer comes to see me now, huh?" She snorted at him. "What do you want?"

"Your help." He held up an object that had her eyes widening in shock. "I need you to teach me to do to this what you did back then."

"You really think I'll help you?"

He sighed and pulled out a small device, which revealed a screen. "We're facing down the end of the world, and these two are responsible. You might be interested."

"Interested in wha...t?" She trailed off, her eyes wide as she saw the image of the blond woman. "You... That's a lie! Alicia's dead!"

"I know." Chrono nodded to her. "The body in the jar is hers. We confirmed that. But apparently she couldn't be brought back to life, because her soul was elsewhere..." He sighed heavily. "Precia Testarossa, if you're willing to help me save the world, you'll have a full pardon, complete with the limiter that's on you removed."

Precia blinked at that, staring dumbly. "What?"

"We need to stop what's happening. I don't know what you did exactly, but I need to know."

She turned away from him. "..."

"Precia Testarossa!" Chrono yelled at her. "This is your ONE chance to set everything right. Don't blow it because you're upset at yourself. Your daughter is going to destroy the very world you grew up on, is that something you want?"

"...I need time to think."

"One hour, you have one hour, Precia." Chrono turned and left the older woman in her cell.

(-)

Sighing as he looked at the barrier, Yuuno felt rather useless for what was to come. All the skills that he had learned, he just didn't know if any of them would be useful. He was startled as a hand touched his shoulder, turning, he saw Quint smiling at him. "Um..."

"Quint Nakajima." She smiled at him and sat next to him. "You know, you're rather brave." When he blinked in incomprehension, she smirked at him. "You're not part of the Bureau, yet you're on this attack force?" She chuckled softly. "I have a couple of girls younger than you. I just can't see Subaru doing anything like this."

"Subaru?" He blinked as she smiled at him.

"My youngest daughter. She's a bit of a crybaby at times, but she means well."

"Oh." Yuuno nodded at her. "Sorry, it's just that a friend of mine is in there."

"It's okay." Quint smiled at him and ruffled his hair. "I was just trying to get you to relax."

Yuuno was about to say something when a screen showing Chrono appeared in front of them. _"I'm on my way back, ETA 12 minutes."_

Lina nodded as she heard that. "We'll be moving in then."

_"Fine. But be careful."_

"I know." Lina whispered as she walked towards the barrier. She looked at Zest, who nodded at her.

"Good luck." Quint smiled as the group got behind Lina.

_"Lord of Darkness of the Four Worlds.  
On thy bonds, I do swear.  
Grant me all the power you possess."_

Quint and Zest were surprised as the four talismans that Lina was wearing started to glow with power. What they could feel was rather impressive.

Lina mentally shook her head. She didn't need the talismans to do her spells anymore, but she felt that the extra power was going to be needed to deal with Death Bringer. 'Just hang on, Nanoha, Hayate... We're coming to get you.' She thought to herself as she began chanting a new spell.

_"O fragment of the Lord of Nightmares._  
_Free yourself from Heaven's bonds."_

A black energy started to form in front of Lina as she cupped her hands near it.

_"Become one with my body, one with my power._  
_And let us walk the path of destruction together!"_

By now, everyone who was looking at Lina was getting nervous as a black magic rune appeared under her feet.

_"Power that can smash even the souls of the gods!"_

The black energy took shape into a large broad sword as Lina gripped what could be considered the handle.

_"RAGNA BLADE!"_ Lina let out a scream as she slashed forward, effortlessly cutting through the barrier, shattering it into nothingness.

Zest, Quint and Regius all stared in shock at the woman, who smirked at them as she and the others went inside.

"Good luck." Zest whispered and looked at Quint and Regius. The looks on their faces told him everything he needed to know.

The three of them were going to stick around and see what was going to happen.

(-)

As they entered the building, Lina sighed softly. "Rather cliche, huh?" She called out to no one in particular. The main room was just a large room with a door on the floor that was surrounded by stairs on either side that went up to a door above it.

"Welcome." Lina looked up and saw Death Bringer smirking at her. "To hell."

"Heard it before, been in the Palace of Hell, killed the keeper, you, you're nothing to me."

He chuckled at her bravado. "We shall see." He frowned as a fireball connected with his face. Looking at the blond boy, he snorted. "You know that won't work on me, boy." He waved at the group dismissively. "You're welcome to try and find my servant, myself or those two brats. Either way, it doesn't matter, none of you are leaving here alive." He laughed as his body disappeared.

"Why didn't you..." Yuuno looked at Lina, who shook her head.

"It wouldn't matter, I doubt his body was really here anyway." She cleared her throat and looked at the two doors. "Man, if he's like Rezo, I'm going to shove the Ragna Blade so far up his rear end that he'll be able to eat out of each end!"

Ignoring them, Reinforce walked forward before kicking the bottom door down. "Signum, Vita and myself will head this way. Master Hayate is this way."

"Then the way that the rest of us are going, is up." Lina smirked and looked at the others. "Are you sure about this?"

Yuuno, Shamal and Zafira nodded at her. They knew what their places in all of this was.

"Alright then. Come on, Fate." The two flew up to the door before blowing it in and taking off up the stairs.

Yuuno, Zafira and Shamal all looked at each other and nodded before running up the stairs after them.

Their role was far different in this matter.

(-)

"Hey, Reinforce..." Vita spoke up as the trio flew down the hallway. "How come you know where Hayate is?"

"I can feel her." Reinforce closed her eyes as she spoke. "Since the bond I share with you Knights was shattered when you turned human, the bond I have with her is incredibly strong, so I can feel her location."

"You said that you could no longer unison with us." Signum spoke up, stopping as some dog-like beasts appeared in their way. "Why is that?" Thankfully, they weren't too strong and it was pretty easy for the three of them to take out the blood-thirsty creatures.

"I could, but considering the power that flows in me now, I do not wish to risk your life or sanity. Master Hayate was there with me, she was touched by it as well."

Vita grimaced at that, but nodded. "Alright."

As they flew through the corridors, dealing with whatever creatures or animated corpses popped up, Reinforce looked at the Knights and mentally sighed, wishing that there was some way she could help them more than what she was doing.

But that was neither here nor now. "Hold on. Diem wind!" She held her hands forward and created a mini-cyclone, pushing the bags of bones away from them and crashing them into the walls, destroying them.

But the most important thing at the moment was finding Hayate, then Nanoha, then finding some way to deal with this Mazoku lord.

(-)

"They're coming, master." Alicia chuckled as he nodded.

"Of course..." He smirked at her. "Go and... Say hello to your sister."

Alicia chuckled as she disappeared.

(-)

"Is there nothing but stairs?" Lina yelled as she stopped on the way up, taking a moment to stop and look up, grimacing. "Okay, this guy _is_ like Rezo, I'm going to demand that villains join a union so that they can avoid cliches so often. Or at least not use so many damned stairs!"

Taking a deep breath, Lina continued to fly up the stairs along with Fate, before the spiraling stairs finally stopped in front of a large door. "...For some reason, this feels too easy."

Fate didn't say anything as the doors opened up, revealing a rather sparse room. The two walked into the room and Fate yelped as the doors closed on their own accord.

"Hahahahahahaha! That look of stupid fear suits you... Little sister." Alicia, wearing a brown skirt and jacket snapped into appearance in the room, smirking at the two of them. "If you want my master..." She jerked a thumb behind her. "He's just down the hall."

Lina narrowed her eyes at Alicia. "Fate, are you sure?"

"Yes." Fate nodded at her. "Bardiche, Zambar Form."

**"Yes sir. Zambar Form, Drive Ignition."**

Alicia chuckled as she saw her sister ready to fight. "Little sister... Little sister..." She waggled a finger at Fate. "It doesn't matter, you won't win." She then looked at Lina, before moving away from the door and leaning against the far wall. "I'm only interested in my sister, not you. But, if you don't hurry, your precious little girl will snap and destroy everything."

Lina growled at her. "Fate..." She really couldn't, in good conscience, let Fate fight a high ranking Mazoku alone.

Alicia shrugged and smirked at her. "Sure, stay here and fight me, but who knows what my master will do to your daughter in the meantime?" She then grinned at the dark look on Lina's face. "Oh! I know! He'll rip her intestines out and then stuff them down her throat! That sounds like FUN!" She laughed as Lina growled at her. "But then again, what do I know? I'm just his Priest."

"Go!" Fate yelled at her and gripped Bardiche tightly. "I'll be okay." She frowned at Alicia. "I'll finish this up and join you later."

Lina looked at her and nodded before running through the door.

After Lina left, Alicia chuckled softly. "Well, little sister... I guess I can make this... More fair..." Her outfit of a Bureau member changed into the outfit that she wore the first time that they had met. "So, I'm not going to hide on the Astral plane, nor will I attack from there." The grin that ended up on her face had Fate gulping slightly. "Otherwise, how can I make sure that you endure maximum pain?" She roared as she rushed forward.

(-)

Lina panted as she blew the doors in front of her open.

In the middle of an empty room, sans a giant crystal in the middle, was Death Bringer Garoth, frowning at her. "You do know that the door would have opened automatically, right?" He deadpanned at her before chuckling as she glared at him.

"Where... Is... My... Daughter?"

He pointed down and Lina gasped as she saw her daughter and Hayate on a lower floor. Hayate was on the ground, apparently trying to call Nanoha, who was in a ball of black energy. "What..?"

"A little creation of my own design." He chuckled at her. "Oh, don't worry, it's not going to kill her... I'm just causing her physical and mental pain until she snaps." He chuckled and stretched. "You can just sit back, relax and watch as she goes crazy." He laughed at the glare she gave him, even as the Demon's Blood Talismans started to light up. "Or you can use your strongest Chaos spell... And destroy the crystal pillar that's behind me."

"Or you can go to hell." Lina muttered to him.

"Heh, well... If you think you can win..." His aura picked up as he grinned at her. "Go ahead and TRY!"

"Oh, I will!" Lina yelled back as she jumped away from a black tornado that he created.

* * *

Chrono, just _what_ plan do you have that involves getting information from Precia?

Okay, next few chapters are going to be fight chapters, and they all happen at the same time, more-or-less.


	22. 4th Jump

4th Jump

Standard Disclaimer is here.

Testarossa Family Feud

* * *

"Shall we begin, little sister?" Alicia smirked as she rushed forward.

**"Sonic Move."**

Alicia's eyes widened slightly as Fate disappeared from view. "Oh, you think having some speed will help, huh?" She ducked under a slash that was aimed at her head. "Nice try." She grinned and kicked up at her sister.

Fate grimaced as Alicia's foot connected with Bardiche, sending her sprawling and crashing into the wall behind her. "Strong..." Hell, even Signum hadn't been _that_ strong in the desert, yet her sister nearly shattered her arms with one hit!

"Surprised?" Alicia chuckled at Fate as she stood up. "I'm far more than a mere... Human." She snorted in disgust and slowly walked in a circle as Fate regained her bearings. Her eyes glowed as her power started to flow out of her. Her laughter filled the room as several dark spiral energy beams extended from her finger tips, crashing into where Fate was a moment ago. Looking up, she laughed as Fate swung her weapon down.

"Ahhhh!" Fate connected, and gasped as the weapon went through Alicia, but did nothing as all the damage was repaired in an instant.

"Not bad." She slammed her fist into Fate's face, sending the girl tumbling to the ground with a spray of blood. "If only it was enhanced to actually... Oh, I dunno, HURT ME!" She moved forward and kicked Fate in the belly as her younger sister got to her hands and knees, eliciting a scream from the smaller blonde.

Watching as Fate rolled side over side into the wall, Alicia shook her head. "Ah well, what can I expect from not only a human, but a worthless clone?" The anger and hurt that flowed out of Fate at that moment was quite... Delicious.

Fate got to her knees and narrowed her eyes at her sister.

**"Plasma Elmekia, Full Autofire."**

Alicia blinked as several golden lances surrounded her. "Really, sis?" She smirked as she chanted a quick spell, canceling the spell.

Or so she thought. "Arrrgh!" She yelled as she was pierced in several places. "I see... Combining two schools of magic?" A quick flex of her astral muscle pushed the lances out of her body, where they dissolved. "Never seen that spell before, but I'll have to be more careful about what you do."

Fate gulped slightly as her sister created a crackling whip of dark energy.

"I read in the reports that "mother" liked to whip you... I wonder what pretty screams you'll make." The look of glee on her face was not something that Fate liked.

She liked it even less as the whip snapped out even faster than she could react and tore into her, shredding through her armor and leaving a bright welt on her bare skin.

"Again!" Alicia yelled as she snapped out, this time destroying Fate's boots and tearing into her sister's feet. "AGAIN!"

Fate screamed as her hands were struck, causing her to drop Bardiche. 'Why... Why can't I move?'

"I suppose I probably shouldn't have been attacking your nervous system while I hit you." Alicia said with a bored tone. "It makes it... Too easy to hurt you." She whipped Fate again, causing the small girl to scream as her armor started to fall to pieces. "I wonder, little sister... How much will you bleed when your armor is destroyed?" Her eyes glinted. "Let's find out!"

Fate screamed and slumped to the ground, face down, her hips were curved up slightly as Alicia whipped her bare back, shoulders, legs and ass with her magically enhanced whip. The way that her flesh was torn into, the way that the blood flowed freely, it was, so delicious that it was incredible.

Especially the way Fate's pert little butt would flex with each snap against her body.

"Yes! Cry! Scream! And BLEED!" Alicia laughed, her eyes flashing red, before stopping her assault on Fate's back, before walking up to her and brutally kicking her, causing Fate to let out a low groan of pain as she was flipped in mid-air and crashed on her back with a splat, making her shake as her body flinched from the pain. "Now... Little sister..." She knelt down and looked her naked sister's body over before gently caressing her face. "It's too bad. Such a little cutie like you... If only you hadn't been made from my DNA and memories..." She trailed a hand down Fate's neck, to her chest, stopping to squeeze each developing breast, her thumbs flicking over the nipples, getting them hard and a flushed expression of embarrassment from her younger sister's face, before running a hand over Fate's belly, stopping to tease her there, before continuing to move her hand to Fate's crotch, getting a gasp and whimper from the girl as Alicia manipulated her body down there. "Ah well..." Shaking her hand, Alicia stood up and took a few steps away, before turning around, grinning and cracking her whip again. "Let's see some BLOOD!"

She snapped the whip forward and laughed as the energy cut across Fate's chest, getting a loud scream from her young sister.

(-)

Zest looked up as he saw Chrono land, before rushing into the building, some sort of case in his hands. Idly, he wondered what the kid's part in this was. He blinked as he saw the person that came with him. "You're..."

The person ignored him and followed Chrono inside at a slower pace.

"...I'm surprised she can move at all in that dress." Quint said as she looked at the spot stupidly.

(-)

Yuuno twitched as he looked at the door. "Dammit! I can't stand this!"

"Calm down." Shamal grabbed him. "If we screw this up, we're all going to die."

Zafira winced as they heard the sound of crackling energy smacking against flesh. He knew what that was like from personal experience and couldn't imagine it was any fun for the little girl.

"Sorry for the wait." Chrono panted softly. "I got them."

"So, she helped out?" Zafira asked and Chrono nodded.

"Yes. Shamal, Yuuno, get us into position."

The two nodded and began working on a the teleportation spell they needed. "It's unlikely there will be any cover." Zafira muttered.

"Then we'll need some cover." Yuuno muttered softly.

"And hope Lina can either beat him so that we don't have to, or keep him distracted so he doesn't notice us until it's too late." Chrono added as the two continued their work.

(-)

Fate whimpered as she slid across the floor, her blood streaking across the floor with her.

"Pathetic... And you were supposed to replace me?" Alicia narrowed her eyes as Fate held up a hand, the young girl's body trembled before Alicia knelt down and grabbed Fate's hand, squeezing hard enough to hear the bones crack, snap, and break.

"Ahhh..." Fate felt tears falling out of her eyes, before she bit down on the pain and looked at her sister.

"Oooh! Good look of hatred on your face, little sister." Alicia chuckled at Fate before letting go of the younger girl's hand. "Look at you, naked, bleeding, trembling... I could do _so_ much to you right now, and there's nothing you could do about it." Then again, considering what Alicia had done when she had torn off Fate's armor, they both knew that.

She yawned slightly. "Oh well, all good things must come to an end."

"Enough."

Alicia chuckled and turned around. "Well, well, well... If it isn't mother-dearest?" She looked at Precia with nothing but contempt in her eyes. "Isn't this what you wanted, mommy? Me, alive, and this worthless, degraded, pathetic copy of me dead." She started to laugh at Precia. "Tell me something... Was creating her a chance to appease a guilty conscience for killing me?"

"Killing you?" Precia asked softly. "I never..."

"Yes you did!" Alicia roared at her as she spun on Precia. "All I wanted... Was a baby brother or sister to play with! And you ignored me! Your precious research was more important than I was!"

"That's not..."

"True?" Alicia snorted as she started to walk in a circle. "That's bullshit and you know it, mother. You brought me to your lab on that day. I died because you wouldn't stop the experiment or take your time! Nothing else was important to you." She chuckled and pointed at Fate. "But... We can fix that, mommy... Yes..." She grabbed Fate by the throat and held the limp, naked and bleeding girl up in front of her, between her and Precia. "Come on, mommy... How about it? We can get to know each other again as we slice her apart, piece by piece. I'll even let you have the choice of what we cut off. Maybe her fingers? Or toes? Her hair? Or maybe we'll just rip her flesh off, piece by piece?"

Precia shook her head, a disturbed look on her face. "NO... I won't. I won't do that." She closed her eyes. "Not like I did before, I'm sorry."

"No you aren't, right now, I can tell, you just want to hurt her, hurt me!" Alicia growled and threw Fate to the side, where she bounced off the floor and slid until her body was touching Bardiche. Alicia's eyes glowed brightly in anger. "You'll PAY for this!"

"Alicia!" Precia gasped as Alicia lunged at her. "Stop!" She held a hand up as a magic circle appeared under her.

Alicia snorted. "As if any pathetic spells you have could actually hurt me, mother!" She was inches from Precia. "You killed me with negligence, and you wanted me back, so you could kill me with abuse!"

"Dimension bullet." Precia fired a small energy ball at Alicia.

"Like that will... GRAAAAHHH!" Alicia screamed as her mother's spell ripped through her shoulder, causing her to fall to the ground in pain, black tendrils of energy trailing out of her torn shoulder. "C...Chaos... Power..?" Alicia gripped her shoulder as she glared at her mother. "How..."

"I was an expert in Dimensional theory, Alicia." Precia looked at her sorrowfully even as her daughter started to regenerate. "Dimensional magic is close enough to Chaos magic that it actually hurts you."

Alicia glared at her mother even as she forced herself to stand up. "You... Would _dare_ to harm me?"

Precia closed her eyes. "I love you, Alicia. I never hated you."

Alicia snorted and grabbed Precia by her throat and squeezed hard. "Then... WHY DID YOU HATE MY CLONE?" Alicia screamed at her mother. "WE WERE THE SAME PERSON!"

"Dimension..." Precia groaned as Alicia squeezed her throat hard.

"But I'll fix that... Mother... I'll kill you... Then I'll kill Fate and you two can sleep together forever!"

Precia gripped at the hands grabbing her throat. Her vision was starting to go dark from the lack of blood and oxygen going to her head.

"Yes... You can die! Die! Mother! You can just... URGH!" She looked down and saw a golden blade sticking out from her chest. "Heh... So, combining your sword with that previous spell, huh?" Alicia turned her head and looked at Fate, who was chanting while clutching Bardiche. Tossing Precia away, Alicia smirked. "And, just what are you going to do, little sister? There's not a single spell you know that can harm me."

Fate twitched, her body trembling as she looked up, blood falling down her face as she looked at her older sister's face. "You..." There was a disturbing look on her face. "You are not... My sister!" The blade started to change colors even as as Alicia struggled to get free. "I mixed a binding spell in with that Elmekia Blade, Alicia." Fate explained. "You aren't... Going anywhere!"

Alicia looked down, her eyes wide as the blade was blue. "Wait, what..?"

"NEMESIS ZAMBAR BREAKER!" Fate screamed as she cast her spell.

Alicia screamed loudly as her physical and astral body were assaulted by the most powerful Black magic spell under Chaotic Blue.

Fate panted heavily as she looked at the end of her sword, which fell from her weakened arms and clattered onto the ground. "I... Did... It..." Her body slumped to the ground from exhaustion and blood loss. "I'm... Sorry... Everyone."

(-)

"What the HELL was that!" Quint's eyes were wide as the outer wall was blown open by a blue beam that destroyed at least four other buildings in its path. Even though it wasn't pointed at them, she and Zest **both** shuddered from the feel of that power. So destructive and dark, it wasn't a pleasant feeling.

Zest shook his head. "What's going on in there?"

(-)

Rubbing her throat, Precia looked at the downed form of Fate, before narrowing her eyes at the naked blond. "You killed her..." Considering how weakened Fate was at that moment, it would be so easy to reach down and snap the girl's neck.

Just so easy, that little clone, naked, bloody and weak.

(-)

Fate groaned as her eyes fluttered awake. "What?" She blinked, why was she wrapped in a blanket?

"That wasn't your sister." Her eyes widened as she heard a voice she never thought she'd hear again. Turning, she gasped as she saw Precia, the bottom of her dress torn. "Your sister, Alicia... She wanted a baby brother or sister to play with, to appease her loneliness because I was working all the time. Had things worked out differently, I would have given birth to you shortly after the experiment had completed." Precia closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "Alicia, the real one, would have loved you as a sister."

Fate narrowed her eyes at Precia, before looking at her body and seeing the wounds she had were gone. "...You healed me? Why?"

"...I don't know, Fate. I don't know."

"Alicia..?"

"I'm assuming she's dead. She hasn't come back yet." Precia sighed softly. "Whatever you did to her... Killed her... For good this time."

"...Maybe." Fate stood up, ignoring her nudity as she grabbed Bardiche and reformed her barrier jacket. "I should..." Her eyes widened and she coughed, falling to her knees. "Ugh... What?"

"I only stopped the bleeding, Fate." Precia said as she walked away from the small girl. "...I didn't want you to go fight again."

Fate looked at Precia with narrowed eyes. "You threw me away... You said you hated me. You expect me to believe you?"

Precia turned back to look at her. "Believe what you want, Fate. I let you go, remember? You aren't my concern anymore, but I will not have you dying if I can help it."

With that, she left, leaving Fate looking at where she was in both anger and confusion.

* * *

Channeled a bit of Carnage from Marvel and Iori Yagami from King of Fighters into Alicia there.

Ouch, she really was depraved, huh?


	23. 5th Jump

5th Jump

Standard Disclaimer is here.

Time to rescue Hayate

Not a long chapter, I'll admit.

* * *

Reinforce frowned as there were three large creatures with clubs standing between them and the room Hayate was in. "Let us get through this."

Vita grinned as Graf Eisen shifted to its Gigant Form. The three had flecks of blood and other things on their body. "Graf Eisen!"

**"Jawol!"**

The hallway was just wide enough that the three creatures, which were much larger than any of the trio, weren't hitting each other or interfering with the other's movements.

Of course, that meant nothing as Vita hit the lead one and sent it flying into the wall next to the door.

"Laevantien!" Signum yelled as she cut into the one that got close to her. Next to her, Reinforce punched the last one in the chest so hard that its ribs shattered under the force.

"They weren't that tough, huh?" Vita chuckled, which tapered and died off as the creatures got up, looking no worse for wear. "What the?"

"Guuuurrrr!" The one she had hit was up and swinging its club down at her.

Vita grimaced as her barrier blocked the attack, grimacing at the force. "Ugh! What are these things? Trolls from a video game?"

Signum slashed the one in front of her horizontally, before slashing down it's chest and practically gaped as the thing regenerated in only a few moments.

As for Reinforce, she kicked the thing she was fighting between the legs hard enough that she felt the bones break. The troll let out a scream as it fell to the ground. She closed her eyes and created four black balls of energy from her hands. "Die." She whispered and fired two black energy beams from her hands, the balls of energy expending their power and converging onto the creature, vaporizing it. "You need to kill them in one shot, or they simply regenerate."

"I figured that out!" Vita yelled as she tried smashing the thing's chest, but found her weapon blocked by the troll's club. Her eyes flashed. "GET OUT OF MY WAY!" She screamed as she backed up a step, before swinging her hammer up, breaking through the thing's club and smashing the thing straight up into the air.

"Purple Lightning Flash!" Signum yelled out as her sword was covered in flames as she swung down, destroying most of the creature's body.

Vita panted as she finally got rid of the troll in front of her. "Come on! We've wasted enough time for this!"

Reinforce was already at the door, kicking it down. "Hayate!" She gasped as she saw the girl turn to her, her face tear-streaked. "Are you okay?" She picked the girl up gently.

Hayate nodded. "Yes, but Nanoha-chan."

**"JAWOL!"**

Hayate gasped as Vita smashed the barrier between them and Nanoha. She smirked as she looked at her handiwork. "There's nothing Graf Eisen and I together cannot smash."

Ignoring that, Hayate begged her Knights to get Nanoha out of that ball.

Signum walked up and reached into the black energy, letting out a groan of pain as she grabbed Nanoha's arm, her flesh was starting to turn red as the skin was being torn and burned off. With a yell, Signum squeezed Nanoha's arm and pulled her free of the ball.

Clutching her arm, Signum looked at the thrashing and screaming Nanoha. "Calm down, you're free of..." She stopped and quickly backed up as she saw the pitch black in Nanoha's eyes.

**"GRRRRRAAAAAAAAHHHH!"**

Vita trembled as she saw Nanoha start to fully change into that weird golden form from before. "This isn't good."

Reinforce put Hayate down. "Master Hayate..." She pulled out the Tome of the Night Sky. "I believe this is yours."

"Thank you, Reinforce." Hayate smiled. "Set up!"

Reinforce nodded as Hayate gained her wings, hat, skirt and her staff appeared in her hands. "Just a moment, master." She walked over to Signum and grabbed the woman's arm. "She hasn't fully transformed yet." Her hands glowed white as she cast a recovery spell.

"When did you?" Signum blinked as her arm was healed.

"You absorbed her Linker Core, she learned healing spells, even if she never uses them." Reinforce stood up as Signum squeezed her hand open and close a few times to test it. Turning to Hayate, Reinforce nodded at her. "Shall we, master?"

Hayate looked at her, then at Nanoha, who was screaming even more as her hair turned gold and black lightning formed around her. "No... Reinforce... Can you fight her as you are?"

Reinforce nodded at her. "Yes, I can, but I cannot fight at full ability without being Unisoned with you."

"We're going to need all the help we can get." Hayate said as she gripped her staff tightly.

Nanoha looked at them. **"You done? Because... Time to..."**

"GRAAAAH!" Everyone looked as the Troll that Vita had apparently killed rumbled through the door.

"You have GOT to be kidding me!" Vita yelped as the thing looked at her and let out a loud roar.

**"Die."** Nanoha held out an open palm and the troll was turned into ash from a black sphere that escaped her hand. **"You two... Die."** She looked right at Signum, then Vita, her eyes glowing golden and causing them to gulp slightly.

This wasn't going to be pretty.

The four _moved_ as Nanoha started snapping her wrists up and down, black spheres erupting from her hands. **"All of you... DIE!"** She screamed, golden flame rushing from the walls and sending the four sprawling.

"Dammit! Calm down!" Vita growled as she hit Nanoha from behind. She gaped at the results of her attack.

Which was pretty easy to understand, since her hammer was stopped mere millimeters from Nanoha's head by the golden aura that surrounded her body. "...Crap."

**"You hurt me..."** Nanoha turned to her. **"Back then... You hurt me."** She pointed at Vita. **"I won't be so easy, fall to pieces."**

"Nanoha-chan! No!" Hayate yelled as she fired several bloody daggers at the crazy girl, only to gulp as each one was stoppped as they connected with her barrier. "Stop it! This isn't you!"

**"You..."** She turned to Hayate, her eyes flashing dangerously. **"You're the reason!"** She held up a hand above her head, a red ball surrounded by golden energy formed above it. **"If not for you..."**

"No!" Signum yelled as she slammed her sheath against Laevantien's hilt, transforming it into its bow form.

**"Shudenviken!"**

The arrow flew fast and strong, connecting with the golden energy, before exploding and causing her to stumble back.

"Go." Reinforce said softly as over twelve black balls of energy fired beams at once, colliding with Nanoha's body, causing the girl to jerk side to side as she was bombarded over and over by the energy.

"Atem des Eises!" Hayate yelled as she encased the crazy girl in a giant block of ice. She panted and was just glad that she didn't need to aim it too well, since the space was so enclosed and Nanoha was only a few feet away from them.

"This isn't good." Signum grimaced as the ice started to crack.

"If you've got a suggestion, I'd love to hear it." Vita grumbled, just before the ice shattered with a roar of golden energy and Nanoha floated upwards, glaring at all of them.

**"Now... You all will die!"**

Reinforce closed her eyes as she finished chanting her spell. "Forgive me... Nemesis Breaker!" She threw her hands out, a blue beam blasting out and colliding with the girl, causing a powerful explosion. They were all fortunate for them that they had gotten barriers up to block the worst of the damage.

"Is she dead?" Vita asked, walking close to the girl, who suddenly snapped her eyes open and stood up. "Oh, damn!"

**"Now..."** Nanoha glared at Reinforce, who stepped back as she cupped her hands in front of her, a black and gold ball of energy formed there. **"You... Then the pillar."**

"Binding." Reinforce said softly as she wrapped several layered binds on Nanoha, and watched as they dissolved in an instant.

"That's useless." Vita grumbled as she knocked several metal balls at Nanoha and grimaced as they exploded as connected with her golden aura. "Damn, is there ANY way to stop her?"

Signum growled as her sword connected with Nanoha, slicing into the girl's arm and causing her to scream out as her attack faded. The girl glared at her, before holding an open palm, a force of power jerked her arm back and sent Signum flying back, her back crashing into the pillar.

**"This..."** Nanoha's arm healed in a moment as a black ball of energy formed in her newly healed arm. **"Source of all... DESTROY!"**

"NO!" Hayate yelled as a circle appeared under her and a triangle appeared in front of her as she chanted. "Ragnarok!"

Nanoha let out a scream as her body was bombarded by one of Hayate's strongest attacks. When the attack ended, Nanoha was flung, face first into the pillar, before falling to the ground, the golden energy fading from her body.

"Is she... Dead?" Vita asked as she poked Nanoha's body. When the girl groaned, she let out a soft sigh. "Not yet." She was actually pretty grateful for that.

Signum groaned softly. "Not my best showing."

Hayate groaned and fell to the floor, whimpering. "Nnngh... My head hurts."

Reinforce looked her over. "You used up a lot of power and weren't in the best of health, master."

"We need to help Nanoha-chan's mother..." Hayate looked at Reinforce. "He's... He's too powerful." She had felt his power first hand, he trumped everything in power by so much that it wasn't funny at all.

Reinforce nodded. "But you're too tired, I do not think that my unisoning with you will be of much help." At least not now, maybe if they had at the start of the fight, but now? Probably wouldn't be helpful.

Hayate smiled at her. "Don't worry, Reinforce." She reached up to cup Reinforce's face. "I have an idea."

Reinforce blinked as Hayate told her what she was planning. "...Is that even possible?"

"Let's find out." Hayate smiled at her and closed her eyes.

"Unison... In!" The two called out at the same time.

Vita and Signum could only look on with interest as they watched Hayate and Reinforce as they were covered in a white light.

* * *

Man, Vita has a knack for understatement, no?

What did Hayate and Reinforce just do? Find out soon.

Also, next chapter is finally going to show you Death Bringer vs Lina.


	24. 6th Jump

6th Jump

Standard Disclaimer is here.

And now... Lina vs. Death Bringer!

Before anyone says anything about how I made Death Bringer in this story, really, go back and re-watch what Hellmaster did to the group in the anime, especially as he forced Lina to cast the Giga Slave and how he was killing people off.

* * *

Lina jumped away from another black tornado and glared at the Mazoku Lord, who chuckled. "Don't you like my tornadoes?" Garoth smirked at her as several tornadoes twisted around him. "Aren't they lovely? If they touch you, they'll tear your physical and astral body to shreds."

"Like I haven't heard that before." Lina muttered, the Demon's Blood Talisman's glowing brightly. "I hope you don't mind if I don't care."

_"Fragment of the Lord of Nightmares._  
_Free yourself from Heaven's Bonds._  
_Become one with my body._  
_One with my power._  
_And let us WALK the path of destruction together!_  
_Power that can smash even the souls of the gods!"_

Death Bringer raised an eyebrow as a sword of black power formed in Lina's hands. "Like that will save you. This attack scrambles everything!"

"Just like Phibrizo." Lina smirked as the tornadoes rushed towards her. _"RAGNA BLADE!"_

His eyes widened as the blade cut through his attacks like they were nothing. "Impressive." He whispered.

"AAAAAAHHHH!" Lina yelled as she jumped into the air, before swinging down and connecting with his body.

"Nnnngh..." He groaned, the sword cutting into his physical and astral body as he grabbed her wrists. "You..." His eyes flashed for a moment, before Lina let out a scream, her eyes closing in shock. "Does having a sudden stomach ulcer hurt?"

Lina gritted her teeth and opened her left eye, which flashed golden. "Not as much as giving birth did." Forcing her arms down, the Ragna Blade cutting into and finally through the Mazoku Lord's body, causing him to let out a cry of pain even as his body faded away.

Lina panted as the Ragna Blade, energy spent, fizzled. 'Hate casting these spells.' They took such a toll on her body she wasn't sure if she could handle casting this spell too many more times. "Come on out, Death Bringer. Even as strong as the Ragna Blade is, a single cut isn't enough to kill you."

A moment later, the Mazoku lord reappeared, leaning against the far wall. "I'm rather impressed that you knew that I couldn't be killed so easily."

"Yeah, your Astral Body's far too large for a single strike to kill you, even at my best, I probably only cut off a limb." Lina chuckled at him, even as his eyes flashed in rage at her.

"You..." He regained his composure as she started to chant again. "That won't work again." His eyes flashed and Lina fell to her knees as she cried out in pain, clutching her head. "Do you want to know a little something?" He slowly walked forward and smirked as blood started to leak out of Lina's ears and eyes. "I wasn't given the title "Death Bringer" for no reason. Unlike the other lords who fell thousands of years ago, I can kill a person... Hundreds of times before finally letting them die for good." He started to chuckle as she looked up at him, her pained expression cleared. "I can kill you, and bring you back... As much as I want to." He laughed as Lina got to her feet before he snapped his fingers.

Lina's eyes widened as a painful throb happened in her chest. "Nnnngh..." She clutched at her chest as she fell down again.

"Oh my, I had forgotten how much pain you humans felt when your hearts exploded." He snapped his fingers again, and Lina panted, she could feel her heart beating again. "Like I said, I can make you die in many... Creative ways." He smirked at her. "I wonder how long before you go crazy?" He shrugged at her. "Well, whatever, let's find out just how many times it takes me to kill you before you beg me to stop." He held his hand up and paused. "Well, I won't kill you again, if you use that blade, by the way, that thing HURTS, did anyone ever tell you that? Anyway, if you use that blade and slice the pillar apart, I'll stop killing you."

"Go... To hell." Lina grumbled and thrust her palms up. "Nemesis Breaker!"

Nothing happened.

He laughed at her. "Please, if you caught me by surprise, that might have worked. Too bad for you." Snapping his fingers, Death Bringer laughed as Lina screamed, or tried to scream. "All your internal organs, removed..." He shook his head as she fell to the floor, before snapping his fingers and replacing them. "Really, that's pitiful, but then again, you are nothing more than a mere human, Chaos power or not." He walked over to her, knelt down and cupped her chin to make her look at him. "I was also given the title of "Death Bringer" because I can kill entire civilizations with nary a thought." He stood up and turned away from her. "But, like I said before, I can end this if you just use that blade of darkness on the pillar there."

He closed his eyes and turned around as she called out her spell again. "Going to listen?"

"Go to hell!"

"You first." He snapped his fingers and smirked as there was a sickening cracking and crunching sound as Lina's ribs shifted, shattered and pierced her lungs and heart. "Oh my, that must have hurt, considering what I just felt from you." Even before Lina hit the ground, he fixed her bones and internal organs. "Now then... Just do what I ask and everything will be fine."

Lina looked up at him, anger and defiance in her eyes and he sighed. "I'll kill you."

"I've heard that one 72,658 times before." He chuckled and snapped his fingers again. "Let's see what happens if I remove your stomach lining this time."

(-)

Looking out from behind the pillar, Chrono winced as he watched the Mazoku lord, his back to them, toyed with Lina. "Alright... Let's get this over with." He opened the case he had been holding and revealed the twelve Jewel Seeds inside.

"You sure this will work?" Shamal asked, and Chrono shook his head.

"Not sure, but Lina said that between the dimensions is the Lord of Nightmares, and that her Chaos spells draw upon the Lord of Nightmares..."

"So, we're going to open a rift to there?" Yuuno asked as Chrono nodded.

"Wish we had all twenty one, but nine were lost in that explosion back at the Garden of Time." He then tossed one to Shamal and one to Yuuno. "Zafira, if he notices us, you'll need to keep him busy." The Guardian Beast nodded at him. "Alright. Yuuno, Shamal, and I will use three Jewel Seeds while charging the other nine up..."

"And we're going to..." Yuuno started to speak as the nine Jewel Seeds floated in a circle between them.

"Use these twelve to create a rift that will hopefully suck that bastard into the Sea of Chaos." Chrono said softly. "The Jewel Seeds that we hold onto will act as conduits to help us control how the rift forms and the effects."

"Let's hurry then." Shamal said softly as a green triangle appeared under her. Green and blue circles under Yuuno and Chrono respectively formed as well, the Jewel Seeds started to throb with power, before spinning away from them and pointing towards Death Bringer, who still wasn't looking at them.

(-)

After awhile, Death Bringer smirked at Lina, who was on her back and staring out at nothing. "So, that's what? Twenty times that I've killed you now?" He flicked a wrist up and watched as she floated up to her feet. "Just use that blade of darkness... Slash the pillar."

"...Why?" Lina asked feebly even as she stood on shaky feet.

"Oh." He laughed. "I guess you wouldn't know, huh? Eons ago, my master and the Blue Dragon fought each other, before creating servants and sealing each other away in this universe, unfortunately, I never knew where they were sealed away. I've found my master though. This pillar is where he is sealed, I'm sure of it."

Lina was about to ask him what he would do if he was wrong, but decided against it. If he was, and that was the Blue Dragon, then all would be okay. But if not, well, then the whole universe was going to be destroyed.

Even 1/7th of Shabranigdu was too powerful for her to deal with fully, who knew how powerful this guy was.

"NOW!"

Death Bringer's eyes widened and he turned around, just in time to see a circular tear open up, and a Sea of Nothingness form in front of him. "What?" He started groaning as he felt his physical and astral body being pulled towards it. "What is this?"

"A Chaos black hole." Chrono's voice was heard over the roar. "You're going to be pulled straight to the Sea of Chaos."

He groaned and started focusing his power to resist the pull. "This won't work!" He yelled, even as he was slowly dragged towards it. "I WON'T ALLOW IT TO WORK!"

Lina fell to her knees, panting. "Ugh. I... can't..." She felt her consciousness fading.

_"Is that all?"_ A male voice that sounded familiar to her spoke in her mind. _"The great Lina Inverse, stopped just because she ran out of stamina? To think that I actually respected you."_

"Zel?" She whispered. "I... I just don't have the strength."

_"Come on, Miss Lina! An ally of justice shouldn't give up so easily!"_

"Amelia..." Lina groaned, even as she started to open her eyes. "Hurts so much..."

_"Miss Lina, you're so strong, I just wanted to be like you."_

"Slyphiel..." She wondered why she was thinking about her friends at a time like this.

_"Come on, Lina. The little girl that I fought with all those times wouldn't give up so easily."_

"G...Gourry." Lina forced herself to her feet and saw Death Bringer laughing, even as the Jewel Seeds started to shatter. "I... I won't lose... Not to him." Her eyes flashed red and gold as the Demon's Blood Talisman's lit up one more time. "I forgot... Just who the hell I was."

Chanting the words again, Lina called forth the Ragna Blade. "Hey! Phibrizzo-wannabe! I've gone up against worse than you before, and I always came through, simply because I have friends and family waiting for me."

Death Bringer's eyes were wide. "N...NO!" He let out a yell as Lina slammed the Ragna Blade into his gut. "You..." He growled and grabbed her wrists as he lost control and started to fall in. "If I go, you're coming with me!"

Lina pushed her feet against the floor, trying to stop herself from going with him. "No!"

"You're going with me!" He growled at her as her feet pushed against the floor as the two were slowly dragged in.

"No, she won't." A female voice spoke up over the roar, before a golden streak rushed in, grabbed Lina and a black ball appeared on Death Bringer's wrists, destroying his hands.

Lina looked at her savior. "Reinforce..?" She blinked a few times. "Since when were you a blonde?"

Reinforce looked at her, her red eyes had a golden tint to the sclera of her eyes, and smiled softly. "I shall explain later." Another black ball appeared in her free hand and she dropped Lina to the ground before rushing forward and slamming the hand-sized ball into Death Bringer's chest. "Diabolic Emission." She watched with no emotion in her eyes as the ball expanded and pushed against him.

He let loose a scream as that was the last bit that was needed to push him through the portal. "I WILL NOT FORGET THIS!"

"Now!" Chrono yelled. "SEAL!" It was harder than he had hoped for, and he was certain that at least a few more Jewel Seeds shattered in the process, but in the end, the portal did finally seal itself away and four Jewel Seeds fell to the ground, dim from the loss of their power.

Reinforce closed her eyes, held her hands up like she was going to hold someone, before a flash of light and Hayate appeared in her arms. "I do not wish to do that Reverse Unison again, master."

Hayate giggled and rested her head on Reinforce's chest. "That's fine. It felt weird to me too."

* * *

I love that PSP game. Yes, Reinforce's look here as she helped Lina out was basically her look from the PSP game when Hayate became HER Unison partner in game.

In case you missed it, Alicia happened to look EXACTLY like Material-L from the same game for most of the story.

Damn, Chrono... That was a HELL of a plan.


	25. Final Jump

Jump End

Standard Disclaimer is here.

Someone complained about how, in the last chapter, Lina didn't do everything by herself.

While it is possible for her to do everything by herself...

That wouldn't be an entertaining story. Even DC comics, with Superman in the Justice League, lets the others have their moments. Even though Superman can easily take care of most of the DC universe's bad guys alone, it wouldn't be an engaging story if that happened, now would it?

You've got to let the cast that's around the main character do stuff to, otherwise, why bother having them in the story?

* * *

"I'll get out of here and when I do, you'll..." Garoth screamed into the void as he fell.

**"Do what?"** A female voice spoke up. Turning, his eyes widened as he saw that woman from before, only this time, both of her eyes were gold, as was her hair. **"You and I, Garoth, are going to... Be such good friends."**

Garoth screamed as a golden hand wrapped around his body and pulled him towards the woman.

(-)

"Oi!" Vita called into the room as she helped Fate walk in there. The blonde girl was tired and worn out, but looking okay.

Signum nodded as she walked in, carrying Nanoha in her arms. "I believe she's yours." She handed Nanoha over to a rather grateful Lina.

Cradling the girl in her arms, the woman nodded tiredly at Signum as she held her daughter. "I'm sorry, Nanoha... I should have known this..."

She didn't even finish her sentence as the whole place started to rumble and the walls cracked. "Oh, damn..."

"RPG boss syndrome?" Hayate yelped as the ceiling nearly crashed down onto them.

"Great, and most of us are too tired to blast our way through it." Vita muttered, wishing that a count-down timer or something would pop up to tell them how long they had to get out of there.

"Then just run!" Lina yelled at her as she stood up and hugged her daughter tightly. She would have grabbed Fate, but Signum was already there, putting the girl on her back as the group raced out of the throne room

"I can't fly." Reinforce frowned as she ran. "I can't cast any spells in here."

"Damn Mazoku, they always have a back-up plan!" Lina yelled as they got to the stairs and started running down the steps. Her eyes widened as sections of the stairs broke and fell down. "Be prepared to jump down!" She yelled back as she dropped down the open floor to the stairs below, before tumbling a couple of times and righting herself and making sure that the others made it alright, before running, this time Vita was in the lead.

"Grah!" She grumbled as she felt the stairs start to crumble and fall apart on her. "HURRY!" She she yelled as they continued to avoid falling debris and getting off the stairs as they fell down.

(-)

"Zest..."

The man narrowed his eyes. "Let's go, Quint." He was tired of waiting, and knew that Quint must have been going crazy.

"Be careful, you two." Regius said to them as they nodded at him and moved towards the crumbling building.

(-)

"Almost..." Signum almost cursed as the stairs fell apart at the end, leaving a wall of debris just high enough that they couldn't get through.

"This can't be the end..." Shamal gasped, only to cover her face as the wall exploded in.

"Quint and Zest, here to rescue the big heroes." The woman smiled at them as she rolled in, Zest right behind her, helping them get free of the building.

The whole group got outside and watched as the building crumbled to dust, leaving just a large pillar in its wake.

"What is that?" Zest asked Lina, who shook her head.

"A seal on something that could bring total peace to the universe... Or destroy it."

Zest nodded at that as medical teams started to roll in.

(-)

Hours later...

Nanoha looked down at her hands and watched them tremble. "I..."

"Nanoha!" She blinked and looked up at the sound of Fate's voice. Standing there with her was Yuuno, both were smiling at her as they walked in.

"Where's mom?" She asked, her voice incredibly small and timid at that point.

"Getting a complete check-up by the doctors." Yuuno saw the way she trembled and grabbed her hands, steadying them. "She just wanted to make sure that there was no lasting effects from what that guy did to her."

"Yuuno-kun... Fate-chan..." Nanoha's eyes teared up. "You two came to save me..."

"Of course!" Fate smiled at her. "You saved us when we needed help."

"You didn't need to either." Yuuno added. "But, more importantly..."

"We're your friends, Nanoha."

Nanoha teared up and pulled them both onto her bed, hugging them tightly. "UWWAAAAHHHH!"

The two blinked, but hugged her gently.

(-)

"So..?" Lina rubbed her arm where that nurse drew some blood from hours ago. She didn't want to be here, she wanted to go check on her daughter and make sure that she was alright. She was sitting in her bra and a pair of pants in front of the doctor and her skin had a layer of goosebumps on it.

"Looks like you're fine to me." The doctor nodded to Lina. "I won't hold the great hero of Cranagan here."

"Heh..." Lina chuckled and put her shirt back on. "Better than being the Enemy of All Who Lives." She walked out and blinked as she saw Lindy sitting on a chair across the hall. "Lindy?"

"Lina." The admiral nodded at her as she stood up and the two women started walking down the hallway. "...What are you going to do about Nanoha?"

Lina sighed, her eyes downcast. "I failed her, really... She's going to be messed up from this."

"I'm suspecting you want to help her close to home, huh?" When Lina nodded, Lindy smiled and gave her a card.

"Huh?" Lina blinked as she looked at it. "...A psychologist?"

"One who moved to Earth from Mid-Childa, actually." Lindy smiled at her. "Nanoha won't need to hide anything about what happened to her." She sighed as Lina still looked dubious about it. "Listen, even the best among the Bureau members sometimes goes through an ordeal that leaves them shell shocked. Your daughter was tortured and tormented at age nine. She's going to need help getting through this."

"I know." Lina sighed softly. "What about Fate and Yuuno?"

Lindy chuckled. "I suspect that they like it on Earth, it's not a bad place. Plus, where else are they going to be able to help Nanoha out if she starts to regress again?"

"Good point." Lina sighed again. "I wish I hadn't failed her." She blinked as Lindy grabbed her shoulders and shook her head. "Lindy?"

"You didn't fail her. You went and led a rescue operation against someone that the rest of us would not have been able to defeat, saved your daughter, and the whole universe." She smirked at Lina. "For a civilian, that's quite the accomplishment."

Lina shrugged, even though she was blushing from the praise. "Eh heh... Thanks." She took a deep breath as they continued to walk. "If the two do come to live with us, I think I'll have Fate go through some therapy as well. Having to deal with her mother and sister like she did... Speaking of which, what happened to that woman?"

"Last I heard, Precia was moving to a new place to herself. She said that she released Fate and wasn't responsible for her anymore. I think she just doesn't think that it would ever work out as a mother to Fate after everything that's happened." Both Lindy and Lina had grim expressions on their faces. Neither of them could imagine abandoning their children just because they had problems being a mother.

"Just keep an eye on her. What about that girl and her family?"

"Hayate?" Lindy raised an eyebrow. "Well, they've plagued the Bureau for an incredibly long time, though there's consideration that "Death Bringer" may have been involved with everything, it's screwing up the trial for them. Plus they stopped the Protection Program from destroying Earth, didn't kill anyone this time around AND they helped save the Universe, it's causing a lot of headaches for the Judicial system."

"What about your son?"

Lindy smiled softly. "He's in a lot of trouble for what he did, or at least, he would be, if that crazy plan of his wasn't been the reason we're all still here right now."

"So, in other words, it's a giant mess right now." Lina laughed as Lindy nodded. "What about Raising Heart?"

"It'll take Mary probably six months to fix it up. Legally, it's Nanoha's, so when it is fixed completely, and the frame reinforced, we'll give her a call and return it to her." Lindy stopped and opened a door. "Go see your daughter."

"Thank you." Lina nodded as she walked into the room.

"Mom..." Nanoha tried smiling, but Lina shook her head.

"It's okay, Nanoha." Lina rubbed her head and smiled as she saw Fate and Yuuno there with her. "Listen, we're going to have to head home soon, I'm sure that your dad and siblings are worried about us, all of us, by now."

"What about Yuuno-kun? And Fate-chan?"

Lina shrugged as the two kids looked at her worriedly. "You two are welcome to come back with us and live on Earth. I wouldn't mind having a couple more kids running around the house, and I'm sure that Miyuki and Kyouya wouldn't mind it either."

"You... You mean it?" Fate asked, her eyes wide as Lina nodded and smiled at them.

"You two are quite welcome to live with my family for as long as you desire. And considering what you two did today, I insist that you two come and live in my home, with my daughters, my son, my husband and me."

Lina smiled at the way all of their eyes lit up in sheer joy at that. "Oh, Nanoha... Raising Heart was in pretty bad shape, it's going to take them awhile to fix it, okay?"

She nodded, her mood getting a damper on it, but at least it was something.

"So, as soon as your doctor here says you can, Lindy's going to take us to Earth, okay?"

"What about Lindy-san, Chrono-kun and the rest of the Arthra crew?" Nanoha asked and Lina shrugged.

"Up to them really. This is their world, not Earth. But Lindy does seem to like it, so, who knows? Maybe they'll stick around for awhile?" She was almost certain that Lindy was going to stick around, after all, the best way for the Bureau to learn her magic was to have someone there learn it first and then give the rest of the Bureau the run-down on her spells.

(-)

The next day...

"MOM!" Miyuki hugged her mother tightly. "Nanoha! Fate! Yuuno!" She released her mother and hugged the three kids tightly. "What happened?"

"It's a long story." Lina said tiredly, yelping as she felt a hand grab her butt before strong arms wrapped around her from behind. "Shiro!"

"Sorry." He chuckled at her as she blushed. "Just missed you."

Lina sighed into his embrace. "Missed you too..." She shot him a look that said that they would talk later. "How about I make us all a good breakfast, huh?"

The way that Fate, Yuuno and Nanoha's stomachs all growled at that moment let her know that she had made the right announcement, even as the three children in question blushed red.

Lina laughed at them. "Well, that settles it, come on then." She got out of her husband's grasp as everyone went to the kitchen, helping prepare a large breakfast for the household. "Where's Kyouya?"

"With Shinobu." Miyuki grumbled and Lina, Shiro and Nanoha all laughed at her. "What's so funny?"

"Nothing at all." The three said at the same time.

Jump End

* * *

And finally, an Omake.

As I was writing "Jump" and finishing it up, I realized something...

I lost track of Arf during A's. Didn't mean to, I don't dislike her, I really don't. She just slipped my mind.

So...

She has her revenge on me!

* * *

"Well, there's another part, now, I wonder..."

"HOLD IT!" A female voice yelled.

"Huh?"

Arf glared at the author and grabbed his collar. "You... FORGOT ABOUT ME!"

"ACK! Um..." The author sweated at the glare in her eyes. "Um..."

"Admit it, you forgot about me. I wasn't important to the story and you forgot about me!"

The author sighed. "Alright, I admit, I did forget. I should have at least had you there for the Book of Darkness fight."

"Just because Yuuno got more offense than he had in canon isn't right to forget me!"

"Alright, I'm sorry, I'm only human. I TRY to remember everything, but it wasn't easy. You kind of just... Disappeared during the course of the story."

Arf narrowed her eyes before taking her shirt off and pulling on the author's head, pressing him into her bare breasts. "HERE! Now you can't forget about me!"

"Mmmph! MMph?"

The author nodded against her chest.

"Good." She pushed him away and put her shirt back on. "Better not forget about me again."

"Right, right... Though, what would you do if I did forget again?"

The author ran from the angry wolf that started chasing after him.


	26. New Start

New Start

Disclaimer: I own nothing, you know that by now!

Here we go! New arc, ready to go!

* * *

"Nanoha-chan! Fate-chan! Yuuno-kun! Hayate-chan!"

The four kids each blinked and turned towards the voice. "Arisa-chan!" Nanoha smiled happily as she saw her and Suzuka waving as they walked up to them. "Suzuka-chan, hi!"

Both girls smiled at the group and Arisa knelt down to give the puppy form of Arf a pat on the head. "How is everything going?"

"Pretty good." Nanoha smiled at her. "The dreams have been coming less often, and I don't shake when I'm trying to call up some magic." Whenever she thought about what happened almost half a year ago, she started to shake horribly, though her psychologist did say that was normal, so she didn't feel bad about it at least.

Arisa and Suzuka nodded, they had heard about what had happened. It sounded weird, magic, demonic creatures, mental and physical torture of their best friend, alien worlds, star-ships that sounded like something out of Star Wars.

Yet, for some reason, it made perfect sense.

"How about you, Hayate-chan?"

The wheelchair girl smiled at them. "My legs work again, but I can't walk on them for very long, my muscles are weak and the last time I tried to walk too far, I fell flat on my face." Not to mention that her legs wouldn't work the following day, still unused to being used at all. "My therapist said to take today and take it easy."

Fate was about to say something when Nanoha's cell phone started ringing. Blinking, she opened it up. "Yes? Uh huh... Mary wants to see me and Hayate-chan? Huh? okay, I'll tell them, bye."

"What?" Everyone blinked as Nanoha smiled softly.

"Mary said that she has something to show us, she's waiting for us all at Lindy-san's place."

The kids all blinked at her in confusion and Nanoha shrugged, she had no idea herself.

(-)

"Ah!" Lindy, in casual clothing, smiled as she saw Yuuno, Nanoha, Fate, Hayate, Suzuka and Arisa at her door. "Welcome. Oh, Hayate, you don't need to get up."

"I've been sitting all day, Lindy-san." Hayate said as she slowly got out of her wheelchair, her legs wobbled slightly as she slowly made her way to the living room, Yuuno, Fate and Nanoha around her to make sure that she didn't fall down. "I'll be okay." She smiled and gasped as she saw Reinforce in the room. "Reinforce!" Her eyes lit up in happiness even as her legs started to buckle under her. "I haven't seen you in almost six months!"

The silver-haired woman blushed softly even as Hayate stumbled forward, the only reason that she didn't fall completely down was because Fate grabbed her and helped her walk over. "I am sorry, master, I asked Mary to help me with something and she needed me to stick around for six months."

"But first!" Mary smiled and held out a small box, before opening it up. "I believe someone wants to say hello."

**"Hello, my master."**

Nanoha's eyes sparkled as she saw the red gem in the box. "Raising Heart!" She was about to take a step forward when the thing suddenly grew wings and floated towards her. "What?"

Mary laughed at the looks everyone had. "She wanted some modifications to her design so she could help you more."

"But, this must have taken a long time, how did..." Nanoha blinked as Raising Heart floated right to her hands.

Mary laughed at her confused look. "Once the tech people heard how this was a device that made the wannabe destroyers of the universe cringe in fear, they were more than willing to ensure that the frame got repaired and reinforced, all systems put back in, and any extra additions that she wanted, we were able to get into her."

"Like what?" Nanoha blinked as Mary laughed again. "What?"

Mary shook her head. "Don't worry about it, but your device is fully set up to give you full support in the future, Nanoha."

"Hey." Everyone turned to Arf as she nudged Reinforce. "What's with the blanket?"

Reinforce blushed, but gave Mary a dirty look. "This is all your fault."

"Yes, yes, blame the mad scientist." Mary rolled her eyes. "Anyway, remember how I asked to scan your Linker Core right after the events on Mid-Childa?"

"I still say that you went too far." Reinforce muttered and Mary rolled her eyes some more. "Right after the fight against Death Bringer," she mentally sighed as she saw Nanoha flinch and tremble slightly before Yuuno grabbed her shoulders and caused her to calm down, "I asked Mary to create a new Unison device, one that could fully support the Guardian Knights where I could not."

"Why not?" Arf asked as she jumped up onto the chair. "Aren't you supposed to be able to bond with them?"

"Reinforce told me that she was worried that what she had gone through would make it hazardous for the Knights if she bonded to them." Mary then frowned softly. "That reminds me, where are they?"

"They all got called on a mission last night." Hayate pouted. "They'll be back by tomorrow, but until my legs work properly, they're not letting me out on missions."

"I thought it was because mom threatened to blow them up if they sent you on a mission before your legs were better." Nanoha chuckled softly as Hayate nodded. She really didn't think her mother would do that, but apparently they all had seen what Lina had done to the Garden of Time and none of them wanted to have that happen on Cranagan.

"New device?" Suzuka asked softly. "What new device?"

"HI!" A small figure popped out from under the blanket. She was wearing a small blue outfit, had long silver hair, a hair band like Hayate's and her eyes, when she opened them, were blue. "I'm Reinforce Zwei, Tome of the Azure Sky, here to give the Guardian Knights support when I can!"

"She's so cute!" Arisa gushed as she looked at the little thing.

"Um, how did you make her?" Yuuno looked at Mary. "Shouldn't this have taken a couple of years?"

Reinforce gave Mary a dark look. "She cheated. Unison devices aren't meant to become pregnant."

Mary laughed at the stunned looks everyone had. "Yes, well, I think you can blame yourself and that weird energy that makes up part of you. Sure sped up the work needed to make her."

"Um..." Hayate blinked as Reinforce Zwei floated towards her and smiled.

"Hi, daddy."

Hayate's eyes rolled up into the back of her head as she fainted dead away.

(-)

Fate looked at Reinforce, then at Zwei, then at Hayate. "Um... How..?"

"Using Hayate's Linker Core, we were able to basically take data from it and Reinforce's Linker Core and merge the two together to make Reinforce Zwei's Linker Core." Mary explained as they had Hayate resting on the couch.

"You can call me Rein!" Zwei smiled happily "I want to be good friends with all of you!"

"Hayate's not even 10 years old and has a child of her own, and she's the father?" Arisa looked at Hayate before throwing her hands up. "Argh! You magic people throw everything out of whack!"

Lindy giggled softly. "Now, now... It's not Hayate's fault that this happened. Reinforce wanted it, though I'm sure she didn't want it like this."

"Mouu... Mommy! Daddy fainted on me!" Zwei turned to Reinforce, who sighed softly.

"Rein, stop teasing daddy." Reinforce deadpanned. "It's not normal for girls to become daddies after all."

The little unison device pouted. "I thought daddy would be happy to see me though."

Reinforce sighed softly at the look her miniature blue-eyed "child" was giving her. "I never gave her a warning, I was curious as to how she would react."

"Mouu..." Reinforce Zwei pouted at her "mother". "Okay, okay. Do you think the Guardian Knights will like me?"

"I'm sure." Reinforce nodded at Zwei, who threw her hands in the air and cheered.

"Um, Lindy-san." Suzuka spoke up, getting the older woman's attention. "No offense, but, I was curious, why are you still on Earth?"

Lindy chuckled at the girl's question. "Well, I do like it on Earth, so I thought no one would care if I stayed."

"Plus you probably want to keep an eye on us, huh?" Nanoha spoke up, giggling as Lindy balked at that. "It's okay, mom said that she'd be more surprised if someone wasn't trying to make sure that we were being watched at all times."

"You're... Rather astute." Lindy sighed, but nodded the point. "Considering you, your mother, Fate, Yuuno, Hayate and her family, not having a Bureau member here watching over such powerful and skilled magic users would be incredibly irresponsible." And it wasn't like it was hard to get back to Mid-childa from Earth anyway.

"So, I never did find out." Arf looked at Lindy from her spot on the chair. "What happened to Chrono anyway?"

Sighing and shaking her head at what her son had done, Lindy explained to the group. "He got a reprimand for breaking several laws and rules."

"But he..."

"However," Lindy interrupted Nanoha, "because of what he did and the results, our bosses were pretty lenient on him, he only had to serve a five month leave of absence."

"Uh..."

Lindy chuckled at the blank looks. "Basically, he was forced to spend five months away from the Bureau without pay."

"Oh." The girls nodded.

Lindy smiled at them, though she was slightly worried.

If Chrono didn't keep on his toes enough, Amy was going to drag him into bed with her.

(-)

Hayate groaned as her eyes slowly opened up. "Ugh... Did I..." She trailed off as she saw the small girl floating in front of her. "...I guess I didn't..."

"Hi, daddy." Reinforce Zwei smiled at her. "I'm here to help the Guardian Knights where mommy can't."

Reinforce rubbed her head, wondering why she had such a troublesome child. "What Zwei means is, I'm worried that the Chaos that touched the two of us would have negative effects on the Guardian Knights and I asked Mary to help make Reinforce Zwei so they could have a Unison device help them."

"Oh." Hayate sat up and looked at Zwei. "So... You're my daughter?"

"Yep, yep!" Zwei grinned at her "father". "You can call me Rein or Zwei, it's up to you."

Hayate nodded and looked at Reinforce, who shrugged, then at Mary, who shook her head. "Don't look at me, she's your daughter." Really, this was a lot of fun.

Nanoha was about to say something, when her cellphone rang. "Huh?" Answering her phone, she nodded. "Uh huh, uh huh, yeah, Raising Heart's finally fixed. What? Sure, okay, bye mom." She hung up her phone and looked at Yuuno and Fate with a confused expression. "Mom wants to see us about something."

"You better go then." Lindy nodded as Nanoha, Fate, Arf, and Yuuno left, with Arisa and Suzuka following right after them. "I do have a question, Mary."

"Hmm?" The scientist looked at Lindy. "What?"

"If Reinforce says that she doesn't want to unison with the Knights because she's worried about what happened after she came into being, and with how Zwei came into being, how can Zwei unison with the Guardian Knights and Reinforce can't?"

"Even if she was born from the two of us, she seems to lack the Chaos energy that Hayate and myself have." Reinforce spoke up. "Or, at the very least, it doesn't manifest with her powers as much as it does with mine or Hayate's."

"Right, the two of you have black-tipped gold wings, don't you?"

"Yay!" Rein threw her tiny arms into the air. "I'm helpful!"

Hayate stared at her for a few moments, before giggling, grabbing Rein out of midair and hugging the tiny girl to her. "Welcome to the world, Reinforce Zwei."

Rein smiled and hugged Hayate tightly as best she could even as the others smiled at the heartwarming scene.

* * *

What? I can't use my idea from the Omake files and incorporate it into a fic somehow? When I wrote that Omake, I intended to use it in a fic somewhere, somehow. I figure, why not now?

Rein Zwei! Ain't she so cute?


	27. New Two

New Two

Disclaimer: I own nothing, you know that by now!

* * *

"You wanted to see us, mom?" Nanoha asked as she, Fate, Arf and Yuuno walked into the house. Arisa and Suzuka had left to their homes along the way.

The four stopped as they saw Lina sitting at the table with a woman in a suit. "Mom?"

"Ah, here they are." Lina smiled and motioned for them to come to the table. "This is Ms. Tanaka, a lawyer who specializes in family affairs." Lina then pushed some papers across the table. "Fate, I want you to read this carefully."

The girl blinked her red eyes and picked up the papers, reading them slowly, before her eyes widened. "You..." She put the papers down. "You mean it?"

Lina nodded and handed her a pen. "If you want to, just sign your name at the bottom." As Fate took it and started signing, she blinked as the girl stopped and looked confused for a moment. "Fate?"

"Um, I don't think Takamachi is a good name for me. Can I have your maiden name?"

"You want to be Fate Inverse?" Lina blinked a few times and looked at the lawyer, who shrugged at that.

"She can choose any name she wants, but she'll legally be your daughter."

"Fate Testarossa-Inverse." Fate said with conviction and nodded as she finished the paperwork before handing the papers back to Lina, who wrote down on them before handing them to the lawyer.

"Mmhmm, mmhmm, mmhmm... Everything looks in order." The lawyer smiled as she stood up. "I'll just go and file this, but she is now your daughter legally." She bowed to the family before leaving the house.

Fate was blushing as Nanoha hugged her tightly, still, she did enjoy the hug, she liked it more when Arf shifted to her human form and pulled her up into a tight hug. "Thank you."

Yuuno looked at Lina in confusion and the woman smiled softly. "Fate, despite everything else in life, you need a family, people you can fall back on." Arf put Fate down as Lina continued to speak. "Regardless of how you're born or come into a family, it's incredibly painful and hard when you find yourself without friends and family." Lina sighed as her eyes became unfocused. "I remember how bad it was for me when I crashed onto this world."

"Really?" Nanoha was curious now, her mom never talked about her past. "What happened?"

"Well, when I first got here, I was unconscious." Lina chuckled softly. "Plus I came from a world that was at least two centuries behind this one in terms of technology."

***Flash***

"Ugh..." She groaned as she woke up. Her left eye hurt, badly. It felt like Zelgadis decided to take the hilt of his sword and smack her a few times. "Where am I?"

"Dad!" She opened her right eye up to see a little boy turning to look out of the room. "She woke up!"

Sitting up, she groaned as her eye throbbed. "Ugh... That's the last time... Next time I go up against a Mazoku like that, I'm going to shove a Ragna Blade down their throat."

"That sounds like it could hurt." She looked up as a black-haired man walked into the room. "Are you okay?"

"My left eye hurts, feels like someone took a sword hilt and tried breaking my skull."

"Let me look." He knelt down and moved her hand from her head. "Well, I don't see any indication of someone trying to use a hilt to kill you." He blinked as she opened her left eye. "I've never seen someone with red and gold eyes before."

"Gold?" She asked, surprised. "Can't be, my eyes are red."

He frowned slightly and turned to the boy. "Kyouya, can you go get me a mirror, please?"

"K, dad!" The boy ran out of the room as the man turned back to her.

"My name's Shiro Fuwa, you met my son Kyouya. What's your name?"

"Lina Inverse." She muttered and got slightly worried when he didn't react to her at all. "Never heard of me?"

He shook his head. "No, I haven't."

"Dad!" Kyouya ran into the room with a small hand mirror in his grasp. "Here!"

"What did I tell you about running in the house?" Shiro sighed as he took the mirror and handed it to Lina. "Take a look for yourself."

Lina took the mirror, before gasping, her eyes wide as she saw her face. "But... That's not possible." Suddenly her eye throbbed and glowed brightly. "Ugh!"

"Neat!" Kyouya smiled as he saw her eye light up. "Hey, dad, can you do that?"

Shiro shook his head, helping Lina up and out of the room, where she gasped as she saw the various electronics. "What's wrong with her, dad?" The four-year-old had never seen anyone react the way she was reacting.

Seeing the way she was looking, Shiro guided her back into the room she had been in, where she slowly calmed down. "I think that you could use some explanations..."

"Please." Lina nodded at him.

***Flash***

"Wait, you're not Kyouya-nii's mother?" Nanoha blinked and Lina shook her head.

"Not biologically, no. But he is my son, and your brother." Lina sighed as she leaned back. "Took me over a year to get used to all the technology around me."

"How did you end up married to dad?" Nanoha blinked at Lina, who smiled at the memory.

"That was... About three years later." Lina smiled in remembrance. "Before that, I spent a lot of time doing various odd jobs, mostly helping your father on various body guard duties. One mission in China was especially interesting."

"What happened?" Arf asked, curious.

Lina had a dry smirk on her face, that had been an interesting time. "Well..."

***Flash***

"Dammit!" Lina cursed as she dodged out of the way of another blast of energy. "Shiro! The next time your client is being pursued by the local Demon King, make sure to find out BEFORE we're nearly killed!"

"Got it!" Shiro yelled as he stood between the creature and the client, who was begging for them to protect him.

The creature in front of them was large, fire surrounding its body as the skull on its head cackled at them. **"Do you think you can defeat me in my own domain? I'm the Demon King of this land!"**

"Can't hurt to try!" Lina called out as she slammed her open palm on the ground, ice snapping from her palm towards the Demon.**  
**  
He looked down as his legs were encased in ice. **"Do you really,"** he broke out of the ice with ease, **"think that a little ice can stop me?"**

Lina snarled at him, man what she wouldn't have given for a Dynast Breath or Zelas Brid at that moment. "I've fought worse. Elmekia Lance!" A yellow spear of energy lashed out at the creature, who engulfed the thing in black fire, destroying it.

**"Just hand the fool to me, and I shall let you live."**

"Don't think so." Shiro glared at him and rushed forward, dodging the flaming chains that the thing summoned up, parrying any that got close to him, before slashing at the thing's arm, only to gasp as his body was wrapped up by chains.

**"Fool."** The demon squeezed the chains, causing them to cut into Shiro's body.

"SHIRO!" Lina yelled, the talismans glowing brightly as she froze the chains covering him, allowing him to break free. "That's it!" A blue ball formed in her hands. "Shiro, get him out of here, I'm going to kill this asshole."

"Right." Shiro nodded and started to move, only to stop as he saw the Demon's attention turn to Lina completely.

The demon glared at her. **"Die!"** The demon's chains moved and snapped straight for Lina.

"MOVE!" Shiro grabbed Lina and pulled her away from the chains, only to gasp as he felt his side punctured.

Lina's face went pale as she saw that. "You..." Her hair started to float upwards. "Will not survive this."

**"You think you can stop me?"**

"I won't know until I try. Here we go!"

A black circle appeared under Lina as energy crackled around her. 'Please, L-Sama, let this work, I'll be dead if I'm wrong about this.'

_"Master of the Dark Sky, you who dwell upon the Azure Abyss._  
_Oh, ruler of the paths of Life and Death._  
_May the souls of those that oppose us be swept_  
_upon the maelstrom of thy wrath!_  
_Let the fools who stand before me be destroyed, by the power you and I possess."_

Energy blasts fired by the creature splashed against Lina's barrier harmlessly. **"What are you trying...?"**

_"Nemesis Breaker!"_ Lina screamed, the spell complete, the blue ball was fired forward and engulfing the creature, destroying it and the mountain that was right behind him.

"Wh...What?" The client gasped as he saw Lina, her hands glowing white, covering Shiro's body. "What did you..?"

"The strongest spell I could come up with." Lina said softly and smiled as Shiro groaned and woke up. "You dummy! I have a barrier around me when I cast my spells!"

"Heh, sorry." Shiro smiled at her. "Just couldn't let you get hurt. Kyouya likes you too much."

"Dummy." Lina felt tears in her eyes for some reason. "What would he have done if he lost you?"

"Called you mother." Shiro said chuckling softly.

Lina sighed softly at him. "Dummy." Still, he was a sweet-heart. "Don't you ever do something that crazy again, okay?"

"Heh..." Shiro smiled at her and cupped her face. "Careful, you're sounding like a wife who's worried about her husband."

Lina sighed, she had been on this world for three years now. "Maybe..."

***Flash***

"Shortly after that, I ended up marrying Shiro." Lina smiled as the kids all looked at her in awe. "That was the first time I ever used the Nemesis Breaker. Boy, the Chinese were sure upset when they realized that the exploding mountain took out part of the Great Wall."

* * *

Not that long of a chapter, I know, but hey, some people were wondering how Lina coped with being in this world, so, here you go.


	28. New Three

New Three

Disclaimer: I own nothing, you know that by now!

Big thanks to Kenko for letting me use his story idea for what happens to Vita.

* * *

"Ugh..." Vita groaned as she and the others got home several hours early. The sun was barely up, but she was so worn out that all she wanted to do was crash on a bed for a few hours.

Well, that and she had to glare down, before turning back to Signum, who looked at her with a slightly tired expression. "How do you... Put _up_ with these things?" Her chest was sore, tender and she really missed the days when she didn't age at all. Although, she couldn't believe that she was actually missing those days now.

"You barely have anything there." Signum rolled her eyes at Vita. "They're still growing, so, it's going to be sore and tender for awhile."

Vita grumbled as Shamal patted her head. "Don't worry, Vita-chan, you'll get used to it soon enough. Just be careful around Hayate-chan for a bit, otherwise you'll find her groping your chest all the time." It was an amusing thought, but Shamal wasn't sure if Vita would want her newly developing breasts groped so suddenly.

Vita turned away, grumbling, though her face was red at the thought.

"I say we let Hayate have at her breasts, so she knows what you and I have had to put up with." Signum smirked as Vita turned back and glared at her. "I wouldn't glare like that, otherwise Hayate will think something's wrong."

"Ugh, I think something _is_ wrong, my body feels weird more often and I feel all cranky and yucky." Vita grumbled as she walked into the house.

_"Shamal, make sure to double our supply of Midol soon."_

_"You think she needs it?"_

_"Don't know, but better safe than sorry."_ Signum thought as the group walked into the house as well. "Reinforce?" She blinked at the tall silver-haired woman, who was wearing casual clothes and a green apron as she worked on making some food. "It's been awhile."

"Yes." Reinforce nodded to the rest of the family. "Would you come to the living room, you need to meet the newest member of our house."

The Wolkenritter blinked as Reinforce put some sandwiches on a tray, some glasses and walked out of the kitchen, before following her into the living room.

On the couch was Hayate and floating around her was something that had Vita scratching her head in curiosity.

"Reinforce? Why is there a small you here?" Vita asked as Reinforce put the tray on the table.

"Vita, Zafira, Signum, Shamal, I'd like you to meet Reinforce Zwei." Reinforce motioned to the small girl, who floated up to them.

"HI!" She grinned and waved her hands at them. "So you're the rest of the family, huh? Mommy and daddy have been saying so much about all of you!"

"Mommy and daddy?" Zafira blinked as he looked at her, then at Reinforce.

"You're confusing them, daughter." Reinforce said softly. "At least explain who's who."

"Sorry, mommy." Rein pouted at them. "Anyway!" She floated back to Hayate. "This is my daddy!" She hugged Hayate, or tried to, since she was so small, it was hard for her to wrap her arms around anything on Hayate's body.

"Wait... Daddy?" Vita twitched, what was that about? She... The little thing couldn't be serious, could she?

Hayate pouted at Reinforce. "You shouldn't pick on me so much."

"Sorry, daddy." Reinforce said softly from behind a glass as she sipped from it. "But you're our daughter's father, you can't deny it."

Zwei sniffled. "Doesn't daddy love me?"

"I do!" Hayate waved her hands back and forth as Rein started pouting at her. "I'm just not used to being called "daddy". That's typically saved for boys! I'm a girl!"

"Sorry, daddy." Rein pouted at Hayate, who shook her head. It really was hard to stay mad at the little device. She was just so cute!

"Never mind."

"What do you MEAN "mommy" and "daddy"? Devices can't get pregnant!" Vita suddenly yelled and swung her arms up and down in exhasperation.

"That's what I thought too..." Reinforce muttered as she explained how Reinforce Zwei came into being, during which time, the Knights took various places around the table in the living room. The rather stunned looks on the Guardian Knights faces was rather amusing. "I can tell you, being pregnant was not very fun." Reinforce sighed and shook her head. "...Even if I got someone like her out of it." There was an... Odd smile on her face as she looked at Zwei, who was trying to eat a sandwich that was as tall as she was. "Here, let me cut that."

"Why are you up so early?" Vita asked Hayate from her position on the couch.

"Couldn't sleep." Hayate yawned softly. "Zwei couldn't get to sleep and I wanted to stay up with her."

"I think that we should get some sleep though." Shamal smiled as Zwei finally seemed to be running out of energy and her eyes were drooping as her body slumped. "We can all talk more when we've had a few hours of downtime."

Reinforce nodded and walked over to Hayate. "Come along, dear."

"Hey!" Vita yelled at Reinforce as the taller woman picked up Hayate. "What's that about?"

Reinforce turned to Vita and raised an eyebrow. "Mothers and fathers should sleep in the same bed. Otherwise their children get confused and upset."

"...I think Reinforce is having too much fun with this." Zafira muttered as he watched them walk off.

Picking up Zwei, Signum nodded and followed them. She didn't know where to put Zwei and she was going to find out before going to bed herself.

(-)

Sitting at the table, Lina looked at door as she heard a knock on it. "Huh..." Putting down her coffee, she walked to the door and opened it up. "Lindy? Chrono? What brings you two here so early?" She let them in and guided them to the table, where she gave Lindy some coffee and tried to give Chrono some food, he shook his head, stating that he already had some food.

"Well, I was wondering if you ever thought about going back to your home world."

Lina sighed softly. "I thought about it, a lot. But I got married, had Nanoha, I have kids, responsibilities, I just kind of... Settled down." Heck, now that she thought about it, it wasn't too different from her own parents. They had wandered around a lot before getting married, settling down in Zephilia before having Luna and then herself.

Lindy nodded at her. "All things considered, I'm not surprised, really. Being on a world so different than your own, with hardly any magic users around, and if there were any, none of them could open a dimensional portal back to your home."

"No offense, but even your world is in the same universe as this world."

Chrono scowled a bit at that and Lindy chuckled and nodded. "Oh, yes, of course, at the distance we were away from your world, it might as well have been a whole dimension away." Seeing Lina shrug, she smiled softly at the other woman. "We may have found a way to your world."

Lina stared at her. "...You better not be lying to me. It's been... Sixteen years now." She sighed and shook her head. "Even so, I can't just go back and say "hey, how's it going?" to them, I mean, sixteen years, I was sixteen when I left, I can't imagine what they've been up to since I left." If they were even alive, but she didn't want to think about that. Lina chuckled softly, wondering what her friends were up to. Amelia was probably the Queen if her grandfather and father weren't around, though she doubted it. Maybe Zelgadis had found a cure finally. Gourry probably forgot about her. Maybe Slyphiel managed to get him to marry her. 'I hope so, they're good people.'

Lindy raised an eyebrow at her. "You don't want to go?"

Lina laughed at her. "Oh, if you had asked before I got married, I would have said sure and jumped on it." She looked at her cup, before taking a small drink. "But... I don't know if I could just go back there."

"Even for a visit?"

Lina stared at Lindy blankly. "...A visit?"

Lindy chuckled at her. "There's no guarantee, and we're just doing some testing, but getting to your world, it shouldn't be too hard."

"Are you sure, because the way that people spoke before, they made it sound like Mid-Childa was on a whole different dimension and..."

"Who said that?" Chrono interrupted her. "I don't recall anyone saying that Mid-Childa was on another dimension."

"...Wait, you're serious?" Lina looked at him and frowned. "Damn, I wish I had a book or something, it would be so easy to just flip back and re-read explanations."

Lindy smiled at her. "We can get to other dimensions, we just tend to not do anything unless there's some sort of dimensional disturbance. We have enough problems patrolling this universe."

Lina laughed. "I can imagine that."

"Say..." Chrono frowned thoughtfully. "I was thinking... You don't seem to be too bothered by the fact that you're stuck here."

Lina chuckled at the kid. "Well, at first, I was, because all the technology, lack of magic and the fact that there wasn't things like dragons, demons and the like running around freely made me feel like I was a fish out of temporal water."

"But, there are demons and the like running around in this universe." Chrono pointed out and Lina smirked at him.

"Yes, but they aren't that common." Lina shook her head. She didn't know how many demons were running around in the world, most of them that did kept their heads down and didn't try to do too much anyway, humans were more than capable of killing each other off these days anyway. "It's like that Men in Black movie, but while there are aliens on Earth, there's also some demons too."

"Men in Black?" Chrono blinked and Lina felt like slapping her forehead.

"Sorry, forgot that you probably never saw it. Movie made awhile back in the United States, pretty decent, though they made it sound like there was nothing else in the universe." Lina chuckled at that, oh that movie was fun to watch though.

"Well, just so you know, we may have a lead, and we could probably get to your world in a few days at best, a couple of weeks at worst."

Lina nodded to Lindy and leaned back to think about it. "Sounds fun." A quick trip, taking her current family to see her mother, father and sister? That was something that she could enjoy.

Maybe her sister found someone and she was an aunt. She then thought about it and shuddered a little. A miniature Luna? That was a scary thought. Then again, the thought of ten Naga clones all laughing like she did was still the scariest thing she had ever heard in her life.

(-)

"Yay!" Rein laughed in glee as she splashed around in the bath tub. "Morning baths are fun!"

"Be careful." Hayate tried to warn her. "You don't want to bonk your head."

"Okay, daddy." Rein smiled as she splashed around. "Whee! Big waves!"

"Yes, very big waves." Reinforce said as she removed her towel and slipped into the water, sliding close to Hayate. "Are you okay?" Hayate nodded and sighed as she rested her head against Reinforce's chest. "Hayate?"

"Mmm... Your breasts are so nice." Hayate giggled and Reinforce sighed, before yelping as Rein jumped on her unoccupied breast.

"Zwei?" Reinforce felt herself going completely red in the face as she felt her breasts getting squeezed, nuzzled and fondled by the two younger girls.

"Mommy's really soft here!" Rein snuggled up to Reinforce's chest and the taller Unison device sighed heavily, before gently rubbing Rein's back and hugging Hayate with her other arm.

"What a family I have." Reinforce was slightly red in the face as Hayate took that moment to squeeze her breasts. "I'd prefer if you didn't do that when our daughter was here, dear."

"Mouuu..." Hayate pouted, but relented, before Rein let go of Reinforce's chest, turned and did a cannonball into the bathtub, giggling as she started to swim around. "Rein, be careful, okay?"

"Okay, daddy!" Rein took a deep breath before ducking under the water for a few moments and erupting out of it with a splash. As she out from under the water, she giggled and blinked as her body was in a fairly large bubble. "Hey! Lookie! Big bubble!"

Reinforce rolled her eyes and reached over, popping the bubble, causing Rein to let out a yelp as she fell back into the water. Reinforce smiled softly as Rein spluttered and looked up at her. "Bath time isn't for playing around so much, Zwei."

"Moouuu... Okay, mommy." Rein pouted but conceded that point as she went back to just swimming around the bathtub.

Reinforce nodded as she settled back down in the tub. She blinked as Hayate moved to sit in her lap. "Hayate?" Her face turned slightly red as Hayate leaned her head back against her chest. "Hayate?"

"Warm pillows." Hayate giggled and spluttered as Reinforce splashed her with water.

"You shouldn't sleep in the bath tub, dear." Reinforce said flatly.

Before Hayate could say anything, she and Reinforce found themselves splashed. "Splash fight!" Zwei giggled as she splashed her "parents" with water. "Eeek!" She had to cover her head as Reinforce flicked her wrist and splashed her back.

"I think that's enough." Reinforce said as she stood up with Hayate. "Come on, we should get ready for the day. I'm sure that the Knights will be up soon and hungry."

Hayate pouted, but nodded as Reinforce carried her out of the bath, wrapped a towel around her, and around herself, before getting a tiny towel and helping Rein get the towel around her body, before the three went back to their room to get dressed.

About half-way to the room, there was an ear-splitting scream that came from the room. "Vita-chan!" Hayate gasped as Reinforce hurried up to get to the room, only to find Signum and Shamal at the door looking into the room, Zafira, in wolf form, right behind them. "What happened?" Hayate asked Signum, who shook her head and everyone looked into the room as Vita sat on the bed, trembling and tearing up.

"I'm bleeding!" Vita cried out as she looked down. "Blood doesn't come from there!"

Signum sighed and hung her head. "Shamal, go check on our Midol supplies." She then stepped into the room. "Reinforce, you may want to change the sheets before going to sleep later." She walked up to Vita and pulled the girl off the bed. "Come on, let's get you cleaned up."

"What's happening?" Vita whimpered, she just felt so... Disgusting at that moment, and she was bleeding, she shouldn't be bleeding! Especially from between her legs like that!

"Just your first period." Signum shook her head. The house was going to be hell for the next few days.

Zafira wondered if maybe he should shift to that puppy form Arf preferred and hide under the couch for the next week.

(-)

"It's not funny." Vita grumbled as she sat at the table not long after the events in the bedroom, eating some chocolate. "I feel gross and yucky and I want to break something, but then I want to go and cry and... HOW DO YOU PUT UP WITH THIS?" She had been given the option of pads or tampons, and well, the way tampons were set up quite frankly freaked her out.

Signum sighed, wishing that she had disappeared when Zafira did. "It's worse for your first time. Shamal and I have to deal with it every month."

Vita groaned and banged her head on the table. "UGH! I don't like this! Make it stop!"

Shamal smiled softly as she gave Vita some tea. "Just drink this and the midol, it'll help."

Vita groaned as she did that. "How do people put up with this!"

"If you will just stop yelling, I'll show you how." Signum got up from the table. "When you've calmed down a touch, I say you come with me to the gym."

"Why?" Vita looked in confusion as Signum smirked softly.

"Because they've got punching bags."

Hayate stumbled into the kitchen on shaky legs and watched as Signum and Vita left the house. "Is Vita-chan going to be okay?"

Shamal nodded at her. "Oh yes, it's just hard for her right now. First times aren't easy for anyone."

Hayate thought back to what Vita went through and looked at Shamal. "Do... Will I go through that too?"

"Sooner or later, yes." Shamal nodded at her. "All girls normally do."

Hayate grimaced, that didn't sound like fun.

(-)

"What are we doing here?" Vita grumbled to Signum.

"Like I said before," Signum nodded to the building as she and Vita were in front of, "we're going to the gym so you can beat up a punching bag."

Vita grumbled as she was led into the gym and led to the punching bags. "I don't see how this is going to help me."

"Just start hitting it." Signum got behind the bag and braced it as Vita sighed. "...Not into it anymore?"

"I don't know, I just don't think..." Vita trailed off as she saw some guys laughing off to the side. She wasn't even sure what they were laughing about, but she was sure that they were laughing at her.

Though, if she had even bothered to look closely, she would have seen that they weren't even looking at her and were in fact laughing about a joke one of their friends had said.

Snarling, Vita started punching the bag. "It's just not FAIR!" She yelled, each word emphasizing a hit to the bag. "I go all my life, all of them, and because of that Demon, I'm forced to go THROUGH this?" She hissed and Signum felt her body getting jarred from the punches Vita was landing on the bag. "Everyone thinks it's _so_ freaking easy, don't they?"

"You're tearing the bag up."

"So WHAT?" Vita yelled as she punched the bag with enough force that her hand broke through it. "...That's not fair at all!" She slumped to the floor and whimpered. Having a period sucked, all women went through this? "Kill me now."

Signum rolled her eyes. "Please, Hayate would be upset and you'll be back to normal in two days."

"Two days?" Vita groaned and flopped onto her back. "How do you put up with this?"

Signum was about to answer when she heard some snickering. She looked and saw those same guys as before pointing and laughing at Vita.

"GRR! You have it easy, don't you?" Vita shot to her feet and stormed over to them. "You can just go day in and day out and never have to put up with any of this!"

"Run along, little girl, you don't want any of this."

Vita was about to scream but Signum put a hand over her mouth. "Gentlemen, perhaps you'd be willing to put your muscles where your mouth is?" She mentally smirked as they looked at her in interest and she nodded to an unused table. "Arm wrestling, any of you against my friend here." When they started laughing, she shook her head, even as she had to struggle to keep Vita from harming them. "I guess you're nothing more than a bunch of children who can only talk big."

"Hold it right there." One of them spoke up as he frowned at them. "If you think that that little girl can beat us in arm wrestling, you're wrong."

"Prove it then." Signum normally wasn't this confrontational, but she needed to do something or Vita WAS going to seriously hurt these idiots.

"Fine!" The first one rolled his eyes and walked over to the table before sitting down and holding his arm up.

Growling, Vita walked over and sat down and grabbed his hand. "You shouldn't have laughed." She narrowed her eyes at him.

"Man, Ryo's going to mop the floor with that little girl."

"Bet?" Signum raied an eyebrow at him. "Say... 1000 yen?"

"I'm in."

"Me too."

"Same."

"SIGNUM!" Vita growled and slammed the guy's arm down in a flash. "How dare you?"

"Well, I think that means I win."

"Ryo! You pansy! Let me take over!" One of the men growled at him before handing Signum 2000 yen. "Double or nothing."

"Yeah!" Signum blinked as several more thousands of yen were put into her hand. Oh well, if they wanted to lose all their money _that_ badly, she wasn't going to complain about it.

"Ready to lose, little girl?"

Vita rolled her eyes as she gripped the guy's hand. "Tell me, have you ever had to wrestle a bear?"

"No." He blinked.

"Oh." She shrugged and blinked as she felt him pushing down on her arm. "...Is that all you got?" Hell, the guy was barely moving her arm. "Here, let me help." A moment later and the guy found his hand pinned under Vita's.

The girl snorted and got up. "Really? That's all you got?" No wonder Signum had held her back, she would have killed these guys.

"Let me try." A _huge_ guy came out of nowhere, he completely towered over everyone in the room and Vita wondered how the hell she missed him before.

Sitting down, he grinned at her and held his arm up. "You ready?"

She grabbed his hand as she sat back down. "Yeah."

"Go!" They said at the same time and stared as it was actually pretty hard for the both of them to move the other one's arm.

"One last bet?" Ryo looked at Signum and held up some money. "All or nothing?"

"Fine." Signum shrugged at him. She was only out a thousand if Vita lost.

"...I need to stop hanging around Lindy so much." Signum sighed to herself. Between Lindy and Hayate, she had obviously picked up some bad habits.

"Nnngh... You're strong."

"For a girl, right?" Vita nearly snapped at him and he shook his head.

"Nope, you're just strong." He grunted and felt his arm starting to push hers down. "Looks like you're going to lose though."

"No..." Vita growled and started pushing his arm back. "I won't!"

There was a creaking sound as more people gathered around to watch. "Come on! Get her!"

"Look at her! She's so small and she's doing that."

Signum looked as more people kept giving her more money. Really, she wasn't even trying to take bets anymore, but everyone wanted to get in on the large stack of money in her hands. No one even dared betting on Vita, it was quite amusing.

"Grrr! SIGNUM!" Vita yelled and started pushing the guy's arm down. "HOW DARE YOU TAKE MONEY FOR THIS?" She screamed and slammed the guy's arm down with enough force that the table shattered.

"I think that she won." Signum said calmly and put the money in her pocket. "We'll be leaving now."

Vita yelped as Signum grabbed her and guided her out of the gym before anyone could say anything.

(-)

"Happy?" Vita felt like crying as she looked at Signum. She couldn't believe the boob demon would take such pleasure from her pain and suffering.

Signum didn't say anything as they continued to walk.

"You are! Aren't you?" Vita started to tear up. "Just because I was always a brat and did mean things to you and the others in the past and..."

"I was never angry at you for that. You may want to apologize to Reinforce sometime, but I am not mad at you." Signum interrupted her and pulled her into a store. "Why don't you order anything off the menu?"

"Huh?" Vita blinked as she realized that she was brought into an ice cream parlor. "...You mean it?"

"I made a lot of money off of that." Signum shook her head, wondering how people had that much money just laying around. "Besides, Shamal and I come here when we have our periods."

Vita blushed hard and nodded as she was led to the counter. "Um..."

Signum rolled her eyes and ordered for Vita. "This is what Shamal gets, okay?" It didn't take long for Vita's order to get dropped in front of her.

Vita stared. It was chocolate, a lot of chocolate, and ice cream, and whipped cream, in a large bowl, that was stacked up bigger than her head. "...Shamal eats this?"

"...I help." Signum grumbled, wondering why Shamal would order something so huge to begin with. She almost started laughing as Vita tore into the treat with abandon. "Better be careful or you'll get a headache."

"MMMMGH!" Vita groaned and her eyes closed in sheer delight. "Heaven..." Tears fell out of her eyes, before she went back to eating again.

Signum shook her head, well, at least Vita was calm for a few moments.

(-)

"Come on, Vita." Signum sighed as she knocked on the door to Vita's room. Or rather, the room Vita SHOULD have been using as her room. She tended to crash in Hayate's room and sleep with their master most nights. Right after they had gotten home, she ran straight to her room, crying about something or another.

Then again, when she was on her own period, she tended to write poetry, it was weird.

The door finally opened and Signum was about to say something when she stopped and stared stared, she stared hard. "V...Vita?" She gasped.

In front of her was Vita...

If Vita had taken her hair out of her braids and let it roll down her back freely and was wearing a white, pink, lacy and FRILLY dress while holding a cane.

"Hai! Vita-chan's feeling all icky-sicky today, so come back tomorrow to play. Now, where is Vita-chan's sheep!"

Unseen to them, Zafira, dressed up as a sheep, was trying to slip away unnoticed. How he got dressed up as a sheep was anyone's guess, but he was, and he wanted to avoid being seen.

Vita was bad enough normally. Emotionally unstable? It made him wish that he knew more guys to hang out with.

* * *

Poor Vita... Oh well, it's hilarious.

And, no, this is NOT the reason that the story is called "Blood That Flows".

And Zwei's cute, isn't she?

If you're wondering about where Kenko's story idea originally came from, go look up the Ranma fanfic called "Girl Days". VERY hilarious!


	29. New Four

New Four

Disclaimer: I own nothing, go away please.

* * *

Days later...

"Well, I have good news." Lindy smiled as she looked at Lina and her family. "It took some time, but I'm happy to announce that we might have found your home world, Lina."

"Really?" Lina chuckled as Lindy nodded.

"Well, I can't say we found it for sure, but I think we did. We'll need you to come with to find out for sure."

Lina grimaced slightly as she thought about what was needed to do before she could go on a trip. "I need to get things set up at the shop first, and we need to pack and..."

Lindy laughed and waved Lina's concerns down. "Don't worry, I understand. There's no rush. Take your time."

"Thank you." Lina smiled, to be honest, the thought of going home was making her incredibly nervous and excited.

She wondered how things had changed since she left.

(-)

Three days later...

"Are you sure, Kyouya?" Shiro looked at his son as he nodded to him.

"Yeah, someone needs to watch the shop while you're out. Plus, well..." His face got slightly flushed and Shiro shook his head. Young love, it was a joy and a pain at the same time.

"Alright, if something happens, don't hesitate to use that number and call the ship."

Kyouya looked at the phone number dubiously. "I really don't think that it works that way."

Shiro shrugged, he didn't either. "They can call from across the universe on normal cell phones, I'm pretty sure that they can pick up phone calls in another universe."

"I still say that it doesn't work, but..." He shrugged and put the number in his pocket. "You know that there won't be too many problems." He smirked at his father. "If there are any, I'll just tell them that Nanoha would be upset." He still didn't know why all the fighting stopped when Nanoha stuck her head in, but he was glad for it.

Shiro laughed as he walked out the room with a suit case in hand. Standing just outside the door with a few bags of clothing, Lina had insisted on very little clothing, stating that it would just slow most of them down. But then Lindy had stated that they could just transport any clothing that they needed down to them, making the argument a moot point.

"Why isn't Miyuki-nee coming with?" Nanoha looked at Lina, who shook her head.

"She wanted to spend some time with Fiasse before her friend went on a quick tour." Not to mention that Fiasse had asked Miyuki to be a bodyguard, but it wasn't for too long, but she was going to miss the trip this time. Lina cleared her throat and looked at the group. "Where's Arf?" She looked at Fate, who blushed slightly.

"Right here!" The wolf girl jumped out of the tree to show off her new form. "See! I'm new and compact, even in human form." She took a pose, standing there in a white tank top and blue shorts.

Nanoha giggled at Arf's current body. "What's with that look?"

"Easier to go clothes shopping for!" Arf giggled at Nanoha. "Besides, it draws less attention than my adult mode does." Plus it didn't consume as much of Fate's magic, and considering what she had heard of Lina's home world, she wanted to make sure that Fate had as much magic as possible. After all, what would happen if one of those Mazoku-things showed up again?

"Alright, alright, so, if everyone's ready..." Lina smiled as they all nodded, she flipped open her cell phone and pushed a couple of buttons. "Lindy, here we go."

A flash of light and Kyouya watched as his family disappeared. "Have fun." He muttered to the open air.

(-)

Nanoha trembled softly as the ship came out of its dimensional transport. "That... Didn't feel good." Her whole body felt like something was surrounding her and squeezing her.

Lina looked at her in concern, but when Nanoha shook her head, she turned back to the screen as a world came into focus. Her eyes went a bit out of focus for a moment. "Well, anyway..." She narrowed her eyes and pointed to a rather large peninsula. "Focus in on that area there."

Amy nodded as the screen zoomed in on the area in question. "Look familiar?"

Looking at the display, Lina nodded, albeit hesitantly. "Maybe, but my memory's a little fuzzy..." She pointed to a place near the center on the map and Amy zoomed in on it. "That's it! Seiryuun!"

"So, this is your home world?" Fate asked as she looked at the display.

"Yep!" Lina grinned as she looked at the map. "Zoom out a little, go... here." She pointed at a place to the north and east of the first place and grinned as it zoomed in. "That's where I was born." She tapped her chin and pointed at a lake a few kilometers out of town. "Drop us off there."

"You sure?" Amy looked at her in confusion and Lina nodded.

"Yeah, I don't want to scare my mom and dad too much." Hell, if they were still alive, they'd probably have heart attacks just from seeing her alive. "Plus I need to do some testing."

"Testing?" Amy blinked as Lina winked at her.

"Don't worry, just drop us off there." She walked to the teleporter as Amy nodded.

(-)

Shiro shook his head as he materialized on the ground. "And you people do this all the time?" He asked Chrono while he felt the hilt of his sword. He knew it wouldn't be very good against those Mazoku things, but against any bandits or normal threats? Well, he wasn't the best in his clan for nothing.

"You get used to it pretty easily." Chrono nodded and looked around, before gawking at Lina. "What's with that cloak?"

Lina had a light brown cloak over her shoulders, completely with a hood over her head and a mask over her face. "Let's just say that it's best not to scare everyone right away. If I walked around as I am, people might think I'm a Mazoku or something, but first." She looked at the water and held up her hand. "Dynast Breath!" She grinned as a pillar of ice appeared in the lake. "So, he's still alive... Zelas Brid!" Energy tendrils appeared around the pillar of ice, slowly chipping it away. "Great, if she's still alive, so is the fruitcake, I bet. And now..." Lina slapped her open palm against the water. "Dolph Zork!" A torpedo of energy rushed into the pillar, making it explode. "Huh? So those three are still alive, and I'm sure that Ruby-Eyes is still alive."

"What was that for?" Chrono asked her as he and the others watched with interest.

Grinning under her mask, Lina walked up to him and flicked him on the forehead. "Just testing. Black magic needs a source, those three spells draw upon three different Mazoku Lords."

"Lords?" Nanoha gasped, looking around and Lina sighed heavily. "They're going to be like Death Bringer and torture me and try to..."

"Nanoha!" Yuuno grabbed her shoulders. "Come on, calm down."

"But, there's three beings like that Death Bringer guy and they're all really strong and Chrono-kun doesn't have any Jewel Seeds this time and I might just..."

"Nanoha!" Lina put a hand on her shoulder, causing her to look up at her mother. "For one thing, Shabranigdo's in several fragments, not in one spot like Death Bringer thought about Chaotic Blue. Secondly, as nasty as Mazoku can get, the Lords tend to stay out of human affairs unless it can directly benefit them. So, unless you're a fragment of Shabranigdo, which you're not, they'll probably just ignore you." Lina knew that she, on the other hand, was more likely to catch their attention, especially now that she was back. "Besides, there are actually Gods and Dragons running around here, there's more for them to do around here, okay?"

Nanoha nodded, though she was still shaky.

Lina shook her head as she looked at the rest of the group. "Well, we won't find anything just standing around here, let's head to Zephilia, you can meet my mom, dad and sister."

The group nodded and started following Lina, though Shiro made sure to walk by Nanoha and squeeze her shoulder.

"Dad?" Nanoha looked up at him. "...Is it okay to be scared?"

He nodded at her. "Your mother won't say anything, but she's scared too. She wants to see her family again, she's worried how they'll take her now, and she's scared for you."

"She is?" Nanoha blinked as he nodded and knelt down while the others went ahead.

"Yeah, your mother worries about you so much after what happened to you." Heck, after those events on Mid-Childa, Lina was a nervous wreck, always checking on Nanoha every couple of hours, just to make sure that she was okay and not screaming out in terror and pain all the time. "So, she's just putting on a brave front for you, you need to do the same for her, okay? Your friends will make sure nothing happens to you."

Nanoha smiled and hugged Shiro. "Thanks, dad."

"HEY!" Arf yelled back at them. "Move it or lose it!"

"Coming!" Nanoha yelled as she turned and ran towards the small girl, Shrio following right after her.

(-)

Lina turned back and smiled as her daughter and husband hurried up and caught up to them. "I wonder..." She trailed off and blinked as her group was suddenly surrounded by people in various tattoos, ratty clothing, unkempt hair and short blades. "You have _got_ to be kidding me."

"Give us any goods ya got on ya!" The one in front of her, obviously the leader advanced on the group and waving his weapon threateningly at the group.

"Better put that away before you hurt someone." Lina said dryly as he took a step forward.

"You bitch!" He raised his weapon up as he tried to strike her.

A flash of blades later and the man found himself on his butt, his hand bleeding and his dagger in pieces around him as Shiro stood above him, his sword sticking out as he looked down with narrowed eyes that promised extreme pain to the bandit.

The leader looked at Shiro with a mix of anger and fear. "GET 'EM!"

"Hey, mom, we're done here." Nanoha spoke up and the leader gasped as he saw all his men covered in pink, yellow, orange, green and blue chains and wraps.

"What, is it Christmas?" Lina chuckled and looked at the leader. "Now then... As you can see, we're not harmless travelers." A sphere of fire appeared in the palm of her hand. "It's been a long time since I've killed a bandit." Seeing the man's eyes widen and water up, Lina smirked, not that anyone could see it. "But, I MIGHT be willing to let you go... If I was feeling nice."

"Dammit!" The bandit leader groaned as the sphere of fire got bigger. "And we all thought it would be safe to be bandits again since that Bandit Killer died!"

The fire gutted out and Lina knelt down to look him in the eye. "Tell me more."

"W, well, word got out that the Bandit Killer, Lina Inverse, died awhile ago and without her running around, it's been a golden age for Bandits!"

"How long ago was this?"

"How should I know?" The man screamed out. "Last I heard about her, Seiryuun was having a giant funeral for her."

Lina frowned behind her mask. "...Wait, that means she didn't die that long ago." Something about this wasn't right. "Come on, we should get to Zephilia." She turned to her group, and they nodded to her.

"Hey, mom..." Fate asked softly as they moved towards the city in question. "What about them?" She pointed to the bound up bandits, before pouting as the leader of the group started to run off.

"Huh, forgot about them..." She shrugged at Fate. "Eh, leave them for now."

"What about the one who's running away?" Yuuno asked her.

"Nanoha... Why don't you..."

"On it!" Nanoha giggled as she called out Raising Heart to shooting mode. "Divine Flame Buster!" A white-hot gout of flame erupted from the tip of her staff, racing towards the fleeing bandit.

As the spell connected with the bandit, Chrono sweat-dropped at the explosion. "Don't you think that was a bit much?"

"Don't worry!" Nanoha grinned at him as Raising Heart became a gem again. "I had it on stun."

"A Divine Flame Buster with a stun setting?" Yuuno sweat-dropped as Nanoha laughed, rubbed the back of her head and stuck her tongue out. "Nanoha!"

"Hey! It could happen."

* * *

The whole "Stun Setting" thing with the person using it and going "Hey, it could happen." is a shout-out to when Brianna Diggers of Gold Digger used a 50-mm vulcan cannon and said it was on stun.

And now, we're on the red staff, Lina's homeworld.

What kind of crazy insanities will happen?

What kind of plot arc is coming?

And why are there tacos trying to eat a Chihuahua?

...

Best not to think on that last one too much.


	30. New Five

New Five

Disclaimer: Slayers and Nanoha, both are owned by their respective creators.

* * *

"Um, Nanoha..." Chrono sweat-dropped as he looked at the girl. "Wasn't that a bit over-kill?"

"I held back, and I didn't even hit him directly. I blasted in front of him, he'll be okay, if extra crispy." Nanoha giggled at his look. "Besides, mom's told us before that bandits are okay targets. If they bug you, you can blow them up completely and no one cares about it."

Lina looked at Shiro and stepped close to him. "I thought you were going to kill that guy." She whispered to husband.

"Not in front of the kids." Shiro whispered back. "They don't need to see that." Had it just been the two of them, well, he sure wasn't going to hold back on scum like that.

"Let's hurry up." Lina said to the group. "The less time we dawdle the quicker we'll find out about what's going on."

"Why don't we fly?" Yuuno suggested.

"Because, flying can be seen as hostile, and let me tell you, my sister is the LAST person you want to have thinking you're hostile."

"Why?" Fate asked as the group got to the top of a hill.

"You know that Nemesis Breaker I taught all of you back on Earth?" Not that all of them could use it, neither Chrono nor Yuuno had managed to actually cast the spell yet, but they did know how to use it at the very least. "Well, on this world, the equivalent spell is called Dragon Slave, similar effect and power, okay? My sister can cut a Dragon Slave in half with a kitchen knife."

"You're... Kidding, right?" Arf looked at the cloaked woman, who turned back to her and shook her head.

"My sister is absolutely terrifying if she gets upset. It's even worse because she's the Knight of Cephied."

"Cephied?" Yuuno looked at Lina in confusion. "Who's that?"

"God of this world, equivalent to Ruby-Eye Shabranigdo. The Knights of Cephied are all that's left of his power though, he died sealing away Shabranigdo and creating the four elemental Dragon Lords." Lina shook her head, it was a little more complex than that, but that was the basic outline. It had been a long time since she had actually thought about that story.

"Oh." Yuuno nodded, this was all so interesting to him. All he needed to do was start taking notes soon and he could just imagine how his clan would react when they got information on this different universe.

Nanoha frowned and looked around. For a moment, she thought she felt something, but it was only for a moment, and it was rather subtle. What was that?

* * *

"Seems that you were caught, Sherra." An annoying voice had the blue-haired general growling and spinning around.

"Xellos!" She hissed and reached for her sword.

He waggled a finger at her. "Ah ah ah! I don't think that Dynast would like it if his general was killed by me or by the Knight of Cephied."

"So, Zelas sent her messenger boy to see what we all felt, huh?" A woman with one eye open, the other one was closed and scarred over, short green hair parted around her face, a bandage over her nose and a large tri-pronged sword spoke up as she looked at the other two. "Even Lord Dolphin was concerned about this."

"Riksfalto." Sherra snorted as she saw the other general.

"Hmm..." Xellos peered in closer to the group, before taking a step back in shock. "Oh my..."

"You know something?" Riksfalto looked at him.

"That... Is a secret." Xellos smirked as he disappeared. "Just a tip, I suggest that you disappear for awhile, if you tarry too long, you'll attract attention."

Riksfalto growled as she saw him disappear. "Damn General-Priest, acting so superior to all of us!" With a snarl, she disappeared in thin air.

Sherra smirked and wondered just how fun it would be to fight against Dolphin's general. Oh well, Dynast probably wouldn't interfere with anything Zelas had planned, after all, no one really knew what the Greater Beast had planned, but it was generally a good idea to not gain her attention.

With a chuckle, the blue-haired, pigtailed Mazoku general disappeared to report back to Dynast.

* * *

As they walked into Zephilia, Lina took a deep breath as she looked around. "Wow... It really hasn't changed too much." She muttered to herself softly.

Shiro grabbed her hand and squeezed it tightly. "Can you do this?"

"Yeah..." Lina nodded at him.

"Hey, mom..." Nanoha walked up to her. "What should we do?"

Lina rubbed her forehead. "I'm not sure... I don't even know how much time passed since I apparently "died" here."

Yuuno was about to say something, when he jumped out of the way of an oncoming horse and carriage. "What the?"

Lina stared at the carriage as it drove past. She shook her head. "Come on." She gestured to the group to follow her. Part of her was anxious, part of her was scared as hell. She didn't know what to think at that moment.

"Hey, Nanoha..." Fate nudged the other girl. "Mom seems nervous."

Nanoha nodded, she could imagine why, but it was weird seeing her mother so weirded out like she was. "Come on, let's hurry up."

It didn't take them long to get to a house near the edge of town. As they approached, Lina found herself slowing down as she saw the house. "..."

"Mom?" Nanoha tugged on her mother's shirt sleeve. "You okay?"

"...This is the house I grew up in." Lina sighed as she walked towards it. "...Beware of Spot?" Since when did her family have a dog?

"GRAH! Who the hell is calling me Spot?" A green furred manbeast appeared out of nowhere and growled at the group. "My name is Dilgear!"

"...Dilgear?" Lina raised an eyebrow. "Why does that name seem familiar?"

The beastman snarled at her. "I don't know who you are, but you aren't allowed in this house today."

Nanoha tilted her head. "Why?"

"Because there's a wake for Lina Inverse, that's why." Dilgear snarled at her, before sighing. "If only Zelgadis hadn't betrayed me, I wouldn't have ended up as that woman's "pet" like I did."

"Oh! Now I remember!" Lina slapped an open palm with a fist. "You tried to kill me."

Dilgear snorted, he probably did at one point. "Well, whatever, you aren't going inside."

"Aww!" Arf shifted to her adult form and Dilgear's eyes practically bugged out of his skull. "But we came from so far away just to meet the people inside." She slid up to Dilgear and touched him on the chest gently. "Are you sure that you can't let us in?"

She was embarrassed for doing this, but damn if those movies that Lina owned weren't useful.

Though, she still wasn't sure how a male rabbit dressing up as a girl could pull this off, but she was certain that she could a better job at it.

"Um, but I was told not to..." Dilgear trembled as he felt Arf's body against his. "But... Um..."

Lina sighed and grabbed his shoulder, pulling him down a bit to speak into his ear directly. "Trust me, if you don't let me in, I'm sure that your owner will be _more_ upset at you."

Dilgear shuddered as he thought about that. "Um... Fine... But, if she gets mad at me, can you at least say that you stabbed me with that sword?" He pointed at Shiro's weapon.

Lina rolled her eyes and threw Dilgear to the ground. "You're pathetic." She looked at Arf, who took a loli form again. "Been watching Looney Tunes?"

"Sorry, I thought it would be funny." The little wolf girl giggled as she put her hand behind her head.

Lina sighed as Nanoha ran to the front door and knocked on it.

"Yes?" The door opened shortly afterwords and a redheaded older woman stepped out with a man with graying hair behind her. "Can I help you?"

Lina's eyes glistened as she saw the two people behind the door.

"I'm sorry, could you come back tomorrow, I'm not..." The woman trailed off as Lina took two steps forward and hugged her tightly. "What?"

"I'm home... I'm home... Mother."

"...L...Lina?" The older woman trembled and grabbed Lina tightly. "You're my girl?"

"Yes... I've come back, mommy, daddy. I'm home."

* * *

After the initial shock wore off, the man narrowed his eyes. "You can't be my daughter." He frowned at her. "My daughter..."

"Sank into the Sea of Chaos after being consumed by the Lord of Nightmares?" Lina said as she pulled away from her mother and pulled the hood and mask around her face down, revealing her face, which was older, but still had similar features to the girl that they knew. "But for some reason, the Lord of Nightmares was feeling kind and let her go, but dropped her off on a different section of the staff, where she spent sixteen years of her life before finally having a way to come home."

"Prove that you're not a Mazoku." He wanted to believe, he did, but the fact that she could have been a Mazoku was just high on his mind. With all the negative emotion coming from the house at that moment, it was just too easy for one to come by for a quick meal.

Lina nodded, she had expected this. "Nanoha, Fate, Yuuno, Chrono, pay attention..." She looked around until she saw a mountain in the distance. "Man, I hope there's no people up there."

_"Darkness Beyond Twilight..._  
_Crimson Beyond Blood That Flows_  
_Buried in the Stream of Time_  
_Is Where your power grows_  
_I pledge myself to conquer_  
_All the Foes that stand_  
_Against the mighty gift bestowed_  
_In my unworthy hand_  
_Let the fools who stand before us be destroyed_  
_by the power you and I possess..."_

The kids watched as a red sphere formed in Lina's hands, before she opened her eyes and fired the spell at the mountain.

_"DRAGON SLAVE!"_

A red beam of energy shot lanced out, flying into the mountain at a great speed, until it collided with the peak, consuming it in a ball of red destructive energy.

"What the heck?" Several voices from inside the house yelled at once as the explosion went off in the distance, turning what was a jagged peak into nothing.

Lina grabbed Nanoha and took a step back as she saw old and familiar faces come out of the house.

"It... It can't be." Zelgadis stared, his face showing incredible disbelief. "But... It's not possible."

"Yeah, it's possible." Lina said, sighing softly even as she had a small smile on her face. "I missed you guys... A lot more than you think."

"Miss... Lina?"

"Well, that explains the carriage from earlier. How are you, Amelia?" Gods, she was trying her hardest not to cry at that moment, she was... Oh who the hell was she kidding? Tears fell freely from her face as she looked at her old friends. "I missed you all, so much." She nearly broke out into laughter as her mother slapped her father with a slipper and ran to her, hugging her tightly. "Mom..."

"I thought it was you, I just did."

"Impossible!" A loud male voice yelled as a large man walked out that had Lina staring bug-eyed in shock. "Miss Lina Inverse? Alive?" The man clenched a fist and held it in front of his face. "Truly, this is an act of justice for all mankind!"

"Daddy's right!" Amelia cheered and took a pose by Prince Phil. "Man, Mr. Gourry is going to be so sorry he didn't come with."

"Where's Gourry?" Lina asked, frowning and wondering where he was. L-Sama, she hoped he wasn't badly hurt somewhere in a ditch.

Amelia sighed and looked down. "When you... Um..."

"Sank into the Sea of Chaos." Lina rolled her eyes. "Look, I should be dead, I'm not going to lie, I shouldn't even be able to see you right now."

"Right, well, after your battle, Mr. Gourry was very distraught. Miss Sylphiel and Mr. Gourry decided to stay near Seiruun for awhile, at least until Mr. Gourry doesn't feel so depressed."

Lina mentally flinched at that, she never would have wished such pain on Gourry, not like that. Gods, it was going to be a pain to explain to him what happened. Not to mention her family. 'Oh L-sama, why didn't I just come alone?'

"Hey, sis..." A woman with shoulder-length auburn hair walked up to Lina and looked at Nanoha. "Who's the kid?" Her eyes were blood-shot, and Lina could see several tear-tracks down her face, but she was smiling and she didn't seem like she was upset, well, any more upset than she was normally.

"Luna…" Lina gestured to Shiro to stand next to her. "...This is my daughter, Nanoha Takamachi."

"WHAAAAT?" Lina winced from the volume as everyone stared at her in shock. It was kind of funny to see her family with such shell-shocked looks on their faces, though.

"...Yeah... And this..." She squeezed Shiro's hand as he smiled at them and bowed. "Is my husband, Shiro Takamachi."

"H...Hu...Husband?" Amelia felt like fainting at that moment. "But... That means..." Actually, she wasn't sure just _what _it meant, but it meant something.

Lina smiled softly. "My name is Lina Takamachi now. The blonde girl is my adopted daughter, Fate Testarossa-Inverse, the little orange-haired girl is her familiar, Arf, the blond boy is Yuuno Scrya, a friend to the family and the last one is Chrono Harlaown." She gestured to each one in turn.

Lina's mother blinked, before tearing up and grabbing Fate, who had walked forward, and hugged her tightly. "I'm a grandmother! Twice over!"

"Um, four times over, actually, mom." Lina sweat-dropped, though she was glad that her mother was taking it well at least. "My eldest two couldn't come today."

"I take it that you've got a hell of a story, huh?" Zelgadis spoke up dryly, though he was incredibly happy to see Lina, even if she was older than he recalled.

"Um, there is a small problem." Yuuno spoke up, catching everyone's attention. "You were gone for sixteen years, but here, it's only been... How long?"

"Thirty two days." Zelgadis answered him. "You disappeared fighting Hellmaster thirty two days ago."

"Which means that it's possible for every two days here, a single year passes back on Earth."

"Which means that if we ever want to see our friends and family again, we can't stay..." Lina sighed, this sucked. Seeing everyone start to get depressed, Lina blinked as her left eye throbbed. "Wait a second... What if I was thrown sixteen years into the past before being dropped there?"

Chrono scratched his head. "...I SUPPOSE that's a possibility, but how can..."

"Why not ask your mother to go back to our home for a few days before coming back to pick us up?" Yuuno shrugged at the look Chrono gave him. "I mean, if she's gone for only an hour, then we know that we can't stay. If she's gone for three days, then we know that Lina was thrown back into the past."

Chrono slapped his forehead. "Why didn't I think of that?" He turned away from the group. "Excuse me a second." He closed his eyes and concentrated. _"Hey, mom..."_

_"What is it, Chrono?"_

_"I need you to head back to Bureau space for a little while. Come back in 72 hours. We need to test whether or not time flows differently between the dimensions or if Mrs. Takamachi was thrown into the past."_

_"Ah, sure, no problem, just take care."_

_"Will do."_ Chrono cut communications and turned back to the group as they were led inside. Once inside, he turned to Lina with confusion on his face. "...How come you cast that Dragon Slave to prove yourself?"

Lina smiled at him. "Mazoku can't cast Black magic. Or rather, they can't cast Black magic of Mazoku of higher rank then themselves. For them to do it, it would be suicide, they'd die before they completed the incantation."

"...Oh."

* * *

After a few moments of realizing that, yes, Lina was back, and yes, this wasn't a dream, Zelgadis and Amelia looked at each other and then at Lina and then at the rest of the group before realizing that things were getting a touch awkward for everyone.

"This is a great day indeed!" Well, apparently not for Prince Phil, the man seemed to not be deterred by anything. "We find that not only did you defeat the most evil being in the world, but you've been returned to us!" The large man started laughing as he looked them over. "This is a red letter day for enemies of justice everywhere!"

Lina mentally groaned as she listened to Phil. Not that she had anything against his enthusiasm, but it reminded her... Way too much about those stupid magic girl anime from back home.

"I guess there's one thing that bothers me, sis..." Luna spoke up and gave her sister a flat stare. "Just what the hell did you do?"

"Put the whole universe at risk because I couldn't figure any other way to defeat an enemy that could warp reality to how he sees fit." Lina said flatly. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Nanoha tense up, at least Fate was there gripping her shoulder and getting her to relax. "Do you think I'm so careless that I would use something like that for no reason?"

"Yes." Luna said flatly causing Lina to groan in dismay.

"Be nice to your sister, Luna."

"Sorry, dad." Luna looked away, uncomfortable. Despite everything, her parents _still_ could order her around with no problem. Must have been something that parents had over their children, she decided.

"Miss Lina..." Amelia frowned softly as she looked between Lina and Shiro. "You said you were gone for sixteen years, but... How is that possible?"

"I'm not sure." Lina shook her head. "I was absorbed by the Lord of Nightmares, sank into the Sea of Chaos, and I'm lucky I came out of it at all. You tell me how it's possible." She always knew that this day was coming, she did, but she wasn't sure how to explain it all.

"I guess the Lord of Nightmares really isn't on anyone's side." Zelgadis spoke up softly as he looked at her. "Your eye wasn't gold last time I saw you. I'm guessing that the Lord of Nightmares did something to you before letting you live."

"Most likely." Lina nodded to him, glad he wasn't making a terribly big deal out of it.

"The next time you try to do something that stupid, Lina, try to give the rest of us warning so we can smack you." He deadpanned and Lina hung her head.

"I'd like to say that I could have given you warning. But you were, oh, I dunno, kind of dead at the time." Lina shook her head and looked at her daughter. "But, that's enough of that, mom, dad, you mind if Nanoha takes my old room for a little while?"

Her mother shook her head. "Not at all." She looked at Nanoha and frowned. "Oh dear, you look like you haven't gotten any good sleep, come along."

"Um..." Fate looked at Lina, who nodded, and she and Yuuno followed Nanoha out of the room.

"I think there's more to it than just letting your daughter get more sleep." Zelgadis said softly as he looked at the children. "She seemed absolutely terrified of something."

Lina wasn't sure what to say when Shiro squeezed her hand and smiled softly. "Thanks."

"Excuse me..." Zelgadis spoke softly as he looked at Arf, who was poking his arm. "Would you stop that?"

"Wow! You really are stone!" The little girl, in appearance, kept on poking Zelgadis' arm. "That's so COOL!"

"Cool?" Zelgadis blinked a few times as Arf nodded to him.

"Yeah! I mean, having a stone body would be _really_ awesome, that way all the normal spells couldn't hurt you too much. And if you needed to be normal, you could just use transformation magic and..."

"Wait..." Zelgadis interrupted her. "Transformation magic?"

"Yep!" Arf grinned as she shifted from her child from to her adult form. "Kind of like this."

"Interesting..." Zelgadis was interested, if there was magic that could turn change a person's form voluntary, well, that was something that he had only thought Mazoku, Gods and Dragons could do that. Humans that could shape-shift?

Lina shook her head, she had almost forgotten that Zelgadis would do nearly anything to be normal again. "Hey, Zel..." A small smile came to her face as he looked at her nervously. "If we're still here in the morning," depending if she had traveled back in time or time went completely different between the pillars, "would you mind teaching these kids Astral Magic?"

He looked at her, then at the girl with orange hair and shrugged. He supposed that he could teach them some of his spells. He didn't expect them to learn much of anything, but if he could learn how to do that transformation magic, well, it would make his life a lot easier in the long run.

* * *

"Lina, dear." Lina turned as her mother came back into the room, looking concerned. "Can you come here?"

"Sure." Lina nodded as she left the room.

"I'm coming with." Luna spoke up. "I want to speak to you about something."

As they left, Zelgadis shook his head. "No one answered my earlier question." He looked at Shiro, then Chrono, then turned his head to look at Arf. "Just why was that girl so terrified?"

"Nanoha." Shiro spoke up. "Please call my daughter by her name."

Zelgadis nodded at the man. "My apologies for that." He wasn't worried about what the man could do to him, Lina was a different matter all together, but it paid to be polite at the very least.

"As for what happened," Chrono spoke up and sighed, "I can't tell you all the details, but back on her home world, Nanoha, Fate, Yuuno and myself ended up dealing with some powerful enemies at the time. During the fight, something happened that caught the attention of a powerful Mazoku, Lina said that he was a lord."

"A lord?" Zelgadis and Amelia gasped as they looked alarmed and Chrono nodded, sighing softly.

"The lord and his... Priest, yes, I believe that's what she was, anyway, the two of them targeted Nanoha and tortured her mentally for a time before they finally decided to use her directly."

"But, Miss Lina's daughter?" Amelia looked troubled as Chrono nodded. "Why? No Mazoku does things without a reason and..."

Chrono held up a hand. "I'm sorry, that's not my place to say. If Lina and Nanoha wish to tell you all the details, they will. But when it was said and done, Nanoha was a horrible wreck and Lina blames herself for what happened."

Zelgadis nodded and shook his head. "I see." He could understand not wanting to talk about things. He never liked talking about his own problems very much.

* * *

"Mom?" Lina blinked as her mother opened the door to her old room silently and she smiled as she saw Nanoha sleeping, her face buried into Fate's chest as the blonde girl hugged her in the front, and Yuuno hugged her from behind. The two were still awake and gave them a pointed look. Nodding, Lina stepped back and closed the door. "Let her sleep."

"But they..."

Lina shook her head and sighed. "Nanoha has terrible nightmares at times. They've been getting better, but last night was a pretty intense one." Plus just getting to sleep took her daughter hours most nights. She did find it interesting that when Fate or Yuuno was in bed with her, Nanoha fell asleep almost instantly. Six months just wasn't enough time to fully recover. Hell, it had taken her almost three years to get over being separated from her world, and she thought that had been fast.

"I see..." Her mother sighed as she looked back at the room. "If it helps her."

"Sis..." Lina turned and saw her sister looking at her, frowning slightly. "Can we talk, just the two of us?"

Lina jerked her head. "Outside then."

Watching her daughters leave, she sighed heavily, wondering why things had to be so tense between them.

* * *

After they stepped outside and away from the door, the two sisters stopped and stared into the air for a little while. "What is it, Luna?" Lina asked her sister as she looked at the Knight of Cephied rather tiredly.

"...You changed. You used to be terrified of me." Luna sighed as Lina gave her a flat stare, completely unflinching. "I thought you died off for real." She shook her head as her sister turned away and looked at the sky. "I never..."

"I know." Lina said softly. "I know you cared about me, but I was stupid as a kid and after what you did, I was scared stiff of you. Honestly, I thought you'd be more angry at me for doing what I did and..."

"You idiot!" Luna growled and grabbed her sister, spinning her and hugging the redhead tightly. "Of course I'm angry at you! But I'm more upset that you went away like you did!"

Lina's mis-matched eyes were wide in shock as her sister hugged her. "...Sis?"

"I was stupid, and I was scared that I would never get to see you again." Luna trembled slightly. "Even now, it feels like I'm dreaming and that you're really gone and..."

"Excuse me." Lina pulled away from the hug and punched her sister in the jaw hard enough to send Luna falling to the ground on her ass. "That help?"

Luna groaned and rubbed her jaw. "Yeah, actually, it did." She blinked as Lina outstretched a hand to her. Grabbing it, Luna smiled at Lina, got up and hugged her again. "It's good to have you home, baby sister."

"Heh, I'm the older one now, Luna." Lina chuckled softly as she hugged Luna back. "You're going to have to convince mom and dad to have another kid if you want to call someone your baby sister from now on."

Luna shook her head. "No... You're always going to be my baby sister." Tears fell freely from her eyes as the two continued to hug. "Even if you're older than me."

"Nnngh... Damn." Lina sniffled slightly. "You're a sap, you know that?" Lina broke the hug and smirked at Luna. "I guess we may just have to tell mom and dad to have another kid, otherwise people will find it weird that you're calling someone older than you your baby sister."

The two looked at each other for a moment, before laughing and smiling.

* * *

Who the heck are Sherra and Riksfalto?

Sherra is the General of Dynast Grausherra. She was introduced in novel 9. She has a sword that is also a Mazoku. As for her looks, she looks EXACTLY like a female Ranma Saotome. In the novels, she has black hair in her disguise. But all color pictures has her with blue or green hair. So, I'm going with blue hair.

Riksfalto is the General of Deep Sea Dolphin. She was introduced in the Knight of the Aqua Lord manga. She's a tough one. Unlike other Generals, Priests and Lords, she never bothered to cancel out magic spells, and instead tanks them. Her first moment in that manga has her laughing off a Dragon Slave from Lina. For some reason, I imagine Riksfalto being voiced by Envy's (Full Metal Alchemist) English VA.

As for Dilgear, yes, he was adopted by Luna and was renamed Spot. If you don't remember who he is, he was the half troll, half wolfman that worked with Zelgadis for awhile at the start of the Slayers series until Zelgadis, Zolf and Rodimus turned on him. The last thing he said was "Just wait till I revive!" after being shot by Flare Arrows from Zolf.


	31. New Six

New Six

You know the drill by now.

* * *

The next morning...

Zelgadis rubbed his eyes as he walked out of the house. "Morning, Amelia." He nodded to the princess, who was sleepily moving towards the outside as well. There hadn't been much in the way of talking, though Zelgadis did want to have a sword fight against Lina's husband. If he was any good with the blade he held, it could be an interesting fight.

"Mr. Zelgadis, why are you up so early?"

"I did say that I'd help teach them Shamanism magic." He drawled out. "And I wish to learn that transformation spell that the girl used." The two stepped outside and Amelia blinked as she saw the kids, all of them, using various spells while Lina over-looked it.

"Miss Lina?" She gasped as she saw Yuuno fireball a tree into cinders. "What?" She was about to do something when Lina turned and shook her head. "But, Miss Lina!"

"It'll be fine, Amelia." Lina smiled at her softly. "Take a close look, don't you notice something?"

Zelgadis frowned as he looked around. "Huh, everything looks... Off for some reason."

Lina nodded and told the kids to stop for a moment. "Yeah, it is off. Apparently these kids know a spell that makes it so that we can use magic freely without worrying about destroying everything."

"Could have used that in the past." Zelgadis muttered softly. "So... About this transformation magic."

Lina grinned at him. "Not a problem, this should be fun."

(-)

"Xellos..." She looked at her servant. "What news do you have?"

"It seems Miss Lina Inverse has returned."

Zelas raised an eyebrow at her servant. "Indeed. I did not know that the Lord of Nightmares was in the neighborhood of returning people back to life. Should we be worried that our esteemed Hellmaster is going to return?"

"I doubt it." Xellos said as he looked at her while she took a drag from a cigarette. "Her aura is both far stronger and leaks out Chaos itself."

"Indeed." Zelas raised an eyebrow as she held a goblet of wine in her hand. "I suppose this changes our plans for that remnant."

Xellos shrugged at that. "Perhaps it does. She was traveling with some people that I have never seen before."

"I see." Zelas turned away from him. "Do what you need to, Xellos."

"Of course." Xellos smiled as he disappeared.

Zelas narrowed her eyes at where he was. 'Just what are you thinking, my servant?' Oh well, he was nothing if not loyal.

(-)

Xellos reappeared just outside of Zephilia and blinked, well, as much as he did, as he looked at the distortion field around the city. "Huh, a local time-space distortion, huh?" Interestingly enough, it didn't seem like it was dangerous to anyone. "This just gets better and better." He grinned and floated up to a tree and waited. He was sure that he'd get an opportunity to get close to her soon enough. He had something to confirm.

(-)

"So, Hellmaster's executioner returned?" She turned to her General, who was kneeling and nodding to her. "Riksfalto, are you sure?"

The one-eyed Mazoku nodded to her master. "Yes, Lord Dolphin, I'm sure it was her. Metallium's pet seemed interested in her."

Dolphin sighed and turned around. "Huraker!"

A woman in fancy robes and ash-colored hair looked at her master. "Yes?"

"How goes your project?"

She smirked. "Oh, just fine. I may have to scale back my operations though if what I heard comes to pass."

"Do what you need to." Dolphin turned away from Huraker and frowned, wondering just what was going on. It felt like the winds of change were coming.

"Excuse me, master." Dolphin turned to Huraker, who was holding a box to her. "I believe that these will be good for you."

Dolphin blinked as she took the box and opened it up. Her eyes widened and sparkled in delight. "CHOCOLATE!" She squealed and dove into the treats with abandon.

Riksfalto stared at Dolphin and grabbed Huraker, teleporting both of them away from Deep Sea Dolphin. "Are you INSANE? You know that our master isn't allowed to have chocolate!"

Huraker shrugged, oh, she knew that. "Anyway, I have places to go and people to screw over."

As Huraker disappeared, Riksfalto sighed, wondering just what was going on. "I HATE subterfuge! Why can't everything be straight forward?"

(-)

"Hey, mom..." Nanoha smiled at Lina as they finished their training for the day and the field shrank down. "Mind if we go looking around?"

"That's fine." Lina nodded and looked at Zelgadis, who was still working over the transformation magic. "Just don't wander out of the village, okay?"

"Okay!" Nanoha smiled and ran off, Fate, Yuuno and Arf following her.

Chrono shook his head and shrugged, oh well, he was curious too. "Excuse me."

As she watched them leave, Amelia turned to Nanoha with a look of wonder on her face. "They learn fast." Heck, the most she did was help that Yuuno boy refine his healing magic, since Zelgadis and Lina were teaching them various attack spells.

Lina smiled and the two stopped as Zelgadis let out a yell. They turned and both stared as his skin smoothed out, his hair softened and his clothes seemed to deflate slightly. "Zel?"

"I... I did it!" He started chuckling as he felt his face. "Unreal." It had been so long since he felt something other than hard rock on his face. "I... I can..."

"Don't get too used to it, Zel..." Lina shook her head. "While it's true that you were able to shift forms thanks to Yuuno and Arf showing you that, your true form is the Chimera. It shouldn't be too hard to keep yourself looking like that." Heck, she had no idea how far the transformation went, considering Yuuno was only as heavy as a normal ferret when he was in that form, and even Arf's body changed in mass when she was a child and a puppy. "But if something happens that dispels magic, you'll be back to your Chimera look in an instant."

Zelgadis grumbled, but nodded, that made sense at least. "Alright." He may not have looked too different that he did when he was a Chimera, but he was normal again! Or at least as normal as he could have been. This was the best day of his life! His eyes widened for a moment. "I won't be used as an anchor ever again!"

As they watched Zelgadis start laughing and dancing to himself, Lina and Amelia sweat-dropped heavily. Who knew being a Chimera had such an effect on his personality?

"I think Mr. Zelgadis is too happy."

"I'm worried that something's going to happen to screw with him." Still, it was nice to see Zelgadis happy.

...

So why was she worried that the world was going to explode?

(-)

"Feels like I stepped back in time." Yuuno commented as he and Fate walked down some of the streets. "I mean, really far back in time." Heck, even Ancient Belka and Al Hazard, from what he knew, had better levels of technology than this. Even the most rural worlds in Bureau space were more developed than this place was.

It was... Rather refreshing actually.

Fate smiled as she looked the place over. It was nice. Arf had disappeared somewhere, thought she was certain that was because that "Spot" person was bothering her. At least Arf didn't seem to mind, otherwise her familiar would have done something a bit drastic to that wolf person. "I wonder how long we'll stay here?"

Yuuno shrugged, though now that there was a way here, he wouldn't mind coming back every so often, at the very least, he could study all the variations of magic, dig up something that was destroyed and find out the whole history of everything that happened here.

Fate frowned lightly. "Just where did Nanoha go off to?"

(-)

"OOOOH!" Nanoha squealed as she saw some really pretty flowers near the edge of town. "So pretty." She had never seen these before, and was rather surprised that they existed at all.

"My, my..." Nanoha's eyes went wide as she heard a voice from nowhere. Standing up, she looked around, before gasping as a purple-haired man in a black outfit, carrying a staff and looking at her through closed eyes, appeared close to her. "Looks like I was right."

Nanoha trembled, the feeling she was getting from him... "Raising Heart!"

**"Set up."**

The man gave her a confused look as she called out her device and pointed it at him. "You really should put that thing away. You could poke an eye out with it."

Nanoha couldn't stop herself from shaking, she could just tell. "You... You're a Mazoku, aren't you?"

He looked rather stunned at that. "Oh my... What gave me away?" Nanoha didn't answer as she fired a volley of Axel shooters at the Mazoku. "Now, now..." He grinned and flicked his wrist, causing the attacks to dissipate. "Enough of that. I don't want to fight, just talk."

"So... Who are you?"

He grinned at her and bowed. "I'm Xellos, the Trickster Priest. But, as for you, I was right." He started laughing and slapped his leg as he doubled over.

Nanoha wasn't sure what to think, but she blinked in confusion as she looked at him. "Um... What?"

"You're Lina Inverse's daughter!" Xellos managed to get out between laughs. "Who would have thought that the little girl who put me in headlocks and caused terror wherever she went would have a daughter?"

Nanoha stared stupidly, even as she slowly lowered her weapon. "Uh... What?"

Xellos chuckled and stood straight up. "Oh, nothing, nothing at all." As he faded, he gave a parting shot to her. "You should learn to control that Chaos power you have, otherwise every Mazoku will come for you."

"What do you mean?" Nanoha called out.

"That... Is a secret."

Nanoha looked around and gulped before recalling her device and running back to her grandmother's house. This was... She stopped and blinked, what was this? Despite being a Mazoku, the guy didn't seem as... Mean as Death Bringer and Alicia had been.

"This is confusing..." Nanoha pouted as she continued to make her way through the town.

(-)

"What do you want?" She turned to see the one-eyed, green-haired general grinning at her. "Riksfalto..."

"Now now, Sherra..." The other General grinned at her blue-haired counterpart. "Would it kill you to smile?"

"Unless I'm fighting, I don't really care." Sherra rolled her eyes and sighed. "Lord Dynast has put his own plans on hold right now. There's nothing to do."

"Well, you do know that Xellos is interested in something right now." She grinned more as Sherra's face darkened. "So... Considering what's going to happen, want to... Mess with Xellos' plans a bit?"

Sherra thought about it, and when Riksfalto explained, she grinned and nodded. "Oh yes. But, why help me? Your master and my master aren't close, unlike your master and Lord Zelas are."

Riksfalto grimaced. "Let's just say that... Despite my master and Zelas being friends, I don't like Xellos."

Sherra smirked, she didn't like Xellos either. "Alright, I'm in. But if Zelas gets mad, this is your fault, remember that."

"Of course." The two disappeared from the mountains that they were in.

(-)

"So, you say that she returned?" An upset man looked at the one who gave him the news. "You're sure?"

"Yes." He nodded to the one who spoke. "However misguided your revenge may be, Valgaav, remember that we need the weapons of light."

"Don't worry." The green haired man grinned as he looked at the Lance in his hands. "I'll help you get what you want, you just get me a clear shot at her."

"Very well." The large Shinzoku nodded to the hybrid.

"Soon, Lina Inverse, soon..." Valgaav grinned to himself.

(-)

Meanwhile, a majority of the world away...

"Milady?" A young boy with a rather muscular body, spiky blue hair wearing brown boots, green shorts and a white coat looked at Hurauker as she walked out from behind a tree. "What brings you here?" He asked, gripping his large sword, Banisher and looking at her in concern.

"It seems... The end of the world is coming." Huraker sighed softly. "Even the mightiest Gods and Demons cannot stop what is going to happen."

"That's wrong!" The boy frowned at her. "I'll do anything for you, Milady! Anything!"

"Really?" Huraker smiled softly as she pulled out a gem. "This gem will take you across the oceans, Lyos. It won't activate for a few more days, but if you are there, I know that the world can be saved."

Lyos nodded as he took the green and purple gem from her. "How do I use it?"

Huraker pointed towards the ocean. "In three days, stand with your feet in the water, then use the Banisher and the power you have as the Knight of the Aqualord, and you shall be taken across the planet, to meet your destiny." Sure, Huraker would have rather have dealt with it here, but she didn't know if the world was going to survive or not. Oh well, it would be interesting to see if this boy could manifest what little power the Water Dragon King left behind in him.

As Lyos ran away, Huraker grinned. "Just you wait and see, world... Once I have the power of a fully mature Knight of the Aqua Lord, I'll have everything." She started laughing even as she disappeared into thin air.

Oh, this was going to be so much fun.

(-)

"Xellos appeared before you?" Lina asked Nanoha, who nodded, causing Lina to sigh and rub her forehead. "Great, just great. If that fruitcake showed up anywhere nearby..." She groaned and slumped. "Chrono..."

The boy looked at her, he, Yuuno, Fate and Arf had came back as Nanoha called to them, saying something important was going on. "What?"

"Regardless of when your mother gets back, we're going to have to stay."

"You mean it, Miss Lina?" Amelia gasped, her eyes sparkling happily.

Lina sighed and looked at her husband. "Shiro..."

"It's okay." He smiled as he walked close to her and hugged her. "You know something's coming, and you've told me before that whenever Xellos shows up, bad things tend to happen."

Lina felt like rubbing her forehead, she just came back and now she had to deal with whatever plans that fruitcake had in store. "Thanks."

Amelia blushed and turned away as Shiro gave Lina a kiss on the lips, it was quick, but it was there and it was... _SO_ romantic that it had her heart a flutter.

Nanoha, Fate and Yuuno just shook their heads, they had seen this way too often to really comment on it anymore.

"Amelia!" Prince Phil called into the house. "We need to get going! I need to tell the WONDEROUS news that Lina Inverse is not dead!"

Lina's eyes widened at hearing that. "Wait a second, Phil!"

"Ahahahahahahaha!" The large man started laughing as his daughter got into the carriage, looking embarrassed. "Don't worry, Miss Lina! With the information that you're back, any bandit gangs will surely break up. YAH!" He snapped at the reigns of the horses and they took off out of town at a high speed.

Zelgadis sighed as he watched them go. "Leave it to Phil to make things get weird again. Anyway, Lina, come to Seiryuun as soon as you can, if the fruitcake's involved somehow, we're going to need all the help we can get." He started walking, before stopping as a hand was placed on his shoulder.

"And... Just where do you think you're going?" Lina asked in a tight voice. "We don't have much in the way of clothes or other things, Zelgadis, so... We'll be right with you in a few moments, okay?"

Zelgadis nodded and grimaced as she let go of his shoulder. "Never thought that losing the stone skin could be a bad thing." He muttered, forgetting just how... Delicate he had been without the stone skin.

When Lina let go and turned her her parents, they had a knowing smile on their faces. "Mom? Dad?"

"Still got some wanderlust in you, huh?"

Lina shook her head at her father's question. "No. I just don't want whatever problems that Xellos is a prelude to pop up back home." She took a deep breath and hugged her parents tightly. "I promise, when this calms down, I'll come visit more than once every sixteen years."

"It's okay." Her mother whispered to her. "Even if you don't show up again, the fact that you're still alive is more than enough for us. I'm glad you found happiness."

"Thank you." Lina said softly and blinked as she saw her sister walk into the room. "Sis?"

"I'm not going to go on whatever adventures you have, Lina." She chuckled and gave her sister a hug. "Just make sure that whatever you fight, you kill deader than dead."

After letting go of the hug, Lina nodded and grinned at her sister. "Right. Maybe when this is over, I'll introduce you guys to my older children."

"Take care." Luna smiled as she watched them leave.

(-)

"I guess I'm breaking my promise to you."

Lina shook her head. "No, you aren't, we promised we'd be in this together, Shiro, no matter what. And we both knew that my past life would eventually call for me." Why the heck couldn't Mazoku wait a few more decades before trying something crazy and stupid?

"I know." Shiro squeezed her shoulder tightly. "Not sure how much help I can be on this."

Lina shrugged and smiled at him. "Well... I don't know either. If you want, when Lindy gets back, you can spend time in the ship, making sure that we're all okay."

Shiro shook his head. "No, I'd rather be here, by your side." Even if he couldn't hurt a Mazoku with his weapons, he'd find some way to get by.

He wasn't going to let his family face a great threat alone.

"Before I forget, Lina..." Zelgadis turned to her. "Prince Phil is leading an expedition to the world outside of the barrier, it's scheduled to go in three days."

Lina nodded to him. It made sense, too much sense actually. The world had been split apart for over a thousand years, to suddenly have the barrier crash after so long, well... "Let's hurry then."

"Where are we going, mom?" Nanoha asked as Lina looked into the distance.

"Seiryuun... There's a couple of people there I want to pick up."

Zelgadis gave her a look and slowed down his pace to match hers. "You do realize that it won't be fair to Gourry, right?"

Lina shook her head, oh, she knew. She knew that it wouldn't be fair at all. "But letting him think that I'm dead is even less fair."

"Lina." Zelgadis grabbed her shoulder. "It might be for the best. He'll be sad, but he'll move on, eventually. If he knows that you're alive..."

Lina nodded, she knew it wouldn't be pleasant. "Maybe so, but it's more cruel, I think, to let him think that I'm dead when I'm not."

Zelgadis watched as she got out of his grip and walked away. "...She grew up."

"Having to take care of children does that." Shiro said, catching his attention. "She might act like she did when she was younger, but I can tell you that she's likely not the same person you knew."

Zelgadis looked at her as she pointed various things out to Nanoha as she asked about them. "...No, She's not." And, honestly, he felt it was for the better.

* * *

Dolphin liking chocolate and being hyperactive… Well, it's not official in canon, at all.

It was something I came up with, myself, a long time ago. I only used it once.

Huraker is Dolphin's priest. Like Riksfalto, she's from the Knight of the Aqua Lord manga. She's known as "milady" in that manga to Lyos, who's one of the main characters in that story.

So, when I was writing this part of the story, I couldn't decide what plot I wanted… Try, Knight of the Aqua Lord or the novels.

So I said "screw it, I want it all!" And that's how this story arc started to come to be.


	32. New End

New End

Disclaimer: I own nothing, don't sue.

The New Arc is over with this chapter.

The next arc is going to be named Try.

I always intended to end the "New" arc here, I was just lazy before. For those who followed this on any of the forums that I post this story on.

* * *

"Gourry-dear..." Sylphiel sighed as she saw him sitting at the bar again. It wasn't that he was drinking himself to death, thankfully, she just wished that he wasn't so depressed all the time. Heck, even anger would be better than what he was going through right now. "Please."

"What?" He looked at the Sword of Light in his hands. "I should have thrown this away years ago!" Really, why _did_ he listen to that man? All that happened was nothing but misfortune.

"Gourry-dear." Sylphiel sighed and sat down next to him, giving him support where she could. 'Miss Lina, why did you cast it? You knew that you shouldn't have.'

Strangely enough, blaming Lina didn't make her feel any better.

All she could do was support Gourry as best she could.

* * *

"Daddy!" Amelia pouted at her father as they rode back to Seiryuun. "Miss Lina probably doesn't want everyone to know that she's still alive."

"Nonsense!" Prince Phil laughed. "Besides, whether she's here or not, the mere threat of Lina Inverse hiding around the corner should be able to scare the rabble."

Amelia sighed, she loved her father, but sometimes, he was just... Weird. "Daddy, could you at least wait a little bit before announcing it? Like, after a city or two is blown up?"

Prince Phil sighed and looked at his daughter, who was puffing her cheeks in annoyance, before nodding. "Very well, I will wait at least a little bit of time before announcing that. But for now! We must go and get ready for the voyage to the outside world!"

"ALRIGHT, DADDY!" Amelia jumped to her feet. "We'll show the whole world the power of love and JUSTICE!" At that moment, the cart hit a bump and Amelia was tossed off of her feet and into the air.

"Amelia!"

"AAAHHHHH!" Amelia went flying up, up and away, without using any magic.

When Prince Phil found her, he found that she was alright. After all, she only landed on her head, nothing too important was damaged, though for some reason, she was spouting off lots of speeches of justice, which her father nodded in approval of.

"Well, as long as you're alright, daughter." Picking her up, Phil got back in the carriage, or rather, put his daughter in it and got back to driving the thing.

As royalty, Prince Phil really didn't do things normally.

Though, if one knew about his oldest daughter, Naga the White Serpent, it explained so much.

So was the fact that her outfit was something that Prince Phil's wife had left behind when she died.

* * *

Two days later...

Zelgadis looked slightly stunned as he and his companions walked into the gates of Seiryuun. "This... What..?"

Chrono sighed and hung his head at the glares that he was getting from the group. "I miscalculated, okay?" How was he supposed to know that seeing technology as advanced as the Arthra would freak someone out like that?

Lina sighed and called up a sphere of water, before dropping it on Zelgadis' head. "Better?"

"Much, actually." Zelgadis nodded as he got the excess water out of his clothes. "So, why don't you just use that ship of yours to get around?"

"Too conspicuous." Chrono spoke up for Lina. "Besides, there are times of high magical interference, making it impossible to get into an area of conflict."

"I guess that could be a problem." Zelgadis nodded to him as they walked into Seiryuun. "So, what's the plan?"

"Find Gourry and Sylphiel." Lina sighed softly, she didn't want to do this, but she knew that it needed to be done. "We'll need the two of them... And if Amelia can get away from being a princess, I'll take her too." Heck, at this point, she'd take Naga. But she had no idea where to go to find her old traveling partner, and she really didn't want to be under-prepared for what was to come.

_"Don't worry about a thing."_ Zelgadis nearly jumped as he heard that captain's voice in his head. He wasn't sure that he'd be used to this telepathy thing that he was just introduced to. _"We'll support you from here. And if you need a quick lift, we'll be glad to give it."_

_"Better keep those offers to a minimum, mother. We're not on official assignment."_ Not yet, but if things were as bad as Lina feared, then they would be soon enough.

"Let's just find Gourry and Sylphiel and get out of here." Lina sighed. Honestly, this felt like it was going to be a very, VERY long trip.

* * *

"Huh, will ya look at this?" A ruffian grinned as he saw Gourry and Sylphiel sitting by the bar. "A drunk and a shrine maiden wench."

Sylphiel looked at him, before turning back to Gourry and rubbing his back, trying to get him out of his funk.

"Hey! Are you listening to me?"

"Gourry-dear, come on, we should go." Sylphiel tried to get him to leave, but the depressed man just wouldn't budge.

"Just give us your goods, or we'll have to get... Nasty." He grinned as he looked at the two of them.

"Excuse me." A young girl's voice was heard and the ruffian turned to look at the little girl with reddish hair, a pink gem in her hands, and purple eyes, wearing a light colored traveling outfit as she looked at them. Behind her was a young blond haired, green-eyed boy in brown shorts, a green shirt and a cape and beside him was a blond girl with red eyes wearing a black outfit. "You shouldn't be causing problems in here."

"Get lost little girl." The man snapped his fingers and the three found themselves surrounded by a large group of people. "Or we might... Hurt you."

The girl didn't seem to be afraid, instead she just... Grinned. "Dil..." She held her left hand up, preparing to snap her fingers.

"Bran.." The boy did the same, but with his right hand.

"Do." The other girl finished as all three snapped their fingers at once.

The explosion was so powerful that the whole building was blown sky high, literally.

"Hey, boss! I can see my house from here!"

"Shaddup!"

Gourry blinked as he was starting to be lifted out of his chair. "...Are we moving?"

"Falling!" Sylphiel yelled, terrified as she grabbed his arm.

Gourry blinked and grabbed the Sword of Light out of mid air and jumped for the open door, before bouncing off of a few rooftops and walls, past three flying children and onto the ground below, moments before the building crashed back down, amazingly enough, it was intact, if a bit cracked up.

"What was that?" A voice, a familiarly haunting voice caused both Sylphiel and Gourry to turn, slowly turn, as they saw someone they never thought to see again glaring up at the three children as they floated down and looking sheepish. "I leave you three alone for five seconds and you start blowing stuff up without me?"

"Sorry, mom." The little girl in white said and bowed her head.

"...MOTHER?" Both Gourry and Sylphiel gasped as the woman in question turned to look at them. "LINA!" They both yelled and ran to her, hugging her tightly.

There were questions, they needed answers, but for now, those could wait.

After they had finally let go of Lina, mostly due to her turning blue from the force of the hugs, the two looked at her rather awkwardly.

Looking at them, Lina sighed heavily, she could see how confused they were, and she was honestly not as confident as she had been before. "Gourry, Sylphiel..." It had been so long since she had seen them, it... it was nice.

"Lina..." Gourry looked at the kids, then back at her. "...So... Um..."

Lina sighed and nodded at him. "Meet my daughters, Nanoha and Fate, and my houseguest, Yuuno Scrya."

"Lina!" Gourry blinked as he saw a man, a boy and an orange-haired girl that he had never seen before. Or maybe he had, he couldn't remember.

Lina walked up to the man and took his hand in such a way that had Sylphiel gasping and holding her hands over her mouth. "Gourry, Sylphiel... Meet Shiro Takamachi. My husband."

Gourry looked stunned as he looked at the man, then at Lina, before he took a deep breath. "What happened, Lina? The last time I saw you, I... Uh..." He closed his eyes and tapped his head. "I chased you somewhere, but I don't recall what happened after that."

"You don't recall very much to begin with." Zelgadis said as he walked up to the group. "Lina ended up on another world for a long time."

Gourry scratched his head. "Another world? You mean like that Overworld place you said once?"

Lina face-faulted. "You REMEMBER that?" She honestly wondered if he really had memory problems or was just faking it so that everyone underestimated him.

"Yeah, hard not to when you said you wouldn't let me eat if I didn't pay attention." Gourry rubbed the back of his head and Lina sighed, oh well, at least he remembered SOMETHING!

"But, yes, Gourry, I was sent to another world for a long time, I came back to say hello, but something happened."

"A new adventure?" Sylphiel spoke up and Lina nodded to her. "But they..." She gestured to the kids, who looked at her in confusion. "Miss Lina, what you deal with is too..."

"If it wasn't for these kids, I wouldn't be here right now." Lina spoke up and looked at them. "These kids would go and get involved even if I didn't want to." She smiled at all of them. "So, I figure, the best I can do is help them out, make sure that they come back alive."

"Ah, Zelgadis..." Gourry spoke up as he looked at his friend. "How are you not rock?"

Zelgadis smiled as he looked down at his arm. "I still am, I just look normal."

"So..." Sylphiel spoke up. "Miss Lina, what is going on?"

"I don't know." Lina shook her head. "A certain fruitcake, who heralds bad things, showed up and Zelgadis said that there's going to be an exploration to the world outside of the barrier soon."

Sylphiel's eyes widened. "Oh! That's right... Miss Lina, what are we..."

"You can do whatever you want, Sylphiel." Lina pointed at Gourry. "But as for the lunk head here, I need either you to come with, or you can give my husband the Sword of Light and stay here if you want."

"No way." Gourry shook his head and gripped his sword. "I'm coming with."

"I wish to go as well." Sylphiel nodded to her. "I may not be that good for combat, but I can heal and give support."

Lina nodded and looked at her group. "So... Zel, just where is the Seiryuun fleet going to be?"

"Not far from here, thankfully." Zelgadis nodded to her. "If we hurry, we can probably get there before Prince Phil."

"Well..." Arf spoke up. "Why don't we just have Lindy drop us off just outside of the town?"

Zelgadis shuddered slightly, the technology made him leery. Especially that teleportation stuff that they did. But it was faster than walking, or even flying. "Not a bad idea." He conceded and braced himself mentally for the teleportation.

Shiro saw Gourry giving him a look and stepped away from his wife. "Excuse me for a moment."

Yuuno blinked as Gourry and Shiro walked off and turned into an alleyway, causing Lina to sigh. "What?"

"Mages, fighters, swordsmen, it doesn't matter if they're young or old, we always feel a need to prove ourselves to each other." Lina shook her head. She didn't begrudge things like this, L-sama knew how many times she did something similar in her own life.

Nanoha looked at Fate, then at Yuuno. "Yuuno-kun, we weren't that bad, were we?"

He gave them a flat stare. "The two of you took one look at each other before deciding to try and blow each other up."

Sylphiel looked at Lina, then at Nanoha and walked up to her old friend. "Um, Miss Lina... Are you happy with him?"

Lina smiled softly and nodded, before wrapping an arm around Sylphiel's shoulders. "Yeah. Lemme tell you about what I do for a living." She giggled at Sylphiel as she explained.

"...You... Bakery... Cooking... Huh?"

Arf walked up to Sylphiel and tapped her on the hip. "...I think you broke her."

"Probably." Lina laughed softly.

* * *

There was a clang of metal on metal as Shiro parried Gourry's stab forward. "Tell me something, Gourry, did you love her?" He kicked forward, pushing the younger blond back slightly. Even so, he didn't press his advantage. He wasn't trying to kill the lad after all, and he wasn't as nimble as he had been when he had gotten injured in the past.

"I don't know." Gourry admitted as he and Shiro traded blade strikes against each other again. He was a bit loathe to admit it, but the man was incredibly skilled, easily a match for him. "Tell me, is she happy at least?"

"I hope so." Shiro nodded as he and Gourry rushed in, their blades clashing and grinding against each other. "She never complains about it, and if she was unhappy, I know that she'd tell me."

Gourry chuckled at that. "Yeah, that sounds like Lina alright."

The two split apart for a moment and Shiro smiled at Gourry. He wasn't jealous of Lina's old boyfriend. Hell, Lina never was upset that Kyouya came from another woman, so why should he be upset about the fact that she had an old boyfriend. "I dunno how helpful I can be, but I'm not going to let my wife and children fight something this dangerous without helping them."

Gourry nodded and the two men put their weapons away. "I feel the same way." At least he felt better about everything.

Fate watched as the two came out from the alley and frowned softly. "Mom? What are we going to do next?"

Lina sighed softly. "First, we meet up with the Seiryuun fleet, grab Amelia, then get across the ocean. Once we do, we'll have to scout on the ground until we run into the problem that's going to happen." It always worked in the past, and knowing Xellos, he'd lead them right to where they needed to go. It was pretty hard to avoid his plans, even if you knew that he was manipulating you.

* * *

Meanwhile...

Lyos stood with his feet in the ocean and waited, and waited. When the sun crept over the horizon, he tossed the gem up, grabbed his large weapon and slashed down, carving the gem in half, before he was surrounded by water and energy and launched at a very high speed, across the planet. "WOOOOOAAAAAAAHHH!"

He wouldn't let the world be destroyed, he would stop it at any cost. He just knew that he could.

* * *

Yeah, for those who followed it before, you know that I continued on with this arc as "New". But I always thought that "New" really was just the set-up arc and "Try" should have been the real name.

So, um, yeah, it'll be "Try" from here on out. I just was lazy before.


	33. Try Start

Try Start

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Here we go! Start of the "Try" arc. How about we start things off with a bang?

Or rather, an explosion.

* * *

"That... Was disorienting." Sylphiel commented as she looked at the group. "And you do that all the time?" She talked to Arf, for some reason, the little dog girl just seemed to click with her in personality. She wasn't sure why either.

"Pretty much, yeah." Arf nodded to the Priestess. "Where Chrono, Yuuno, Fate and I are from originally, doing stuff like that isn't too uncommon." It certainly wasn't the most common thing ever, but it was more common than what was around here.

Gourry scratched his head and looked at Fate. "So, uh... It's easy to get around that way, huh?"

She nodded at him. "Yes, but I doubt that we'll be able to use it as much after we pick up Amelia again."

"Why? It seems like a really good way to get around."

"Because we need to stay close to the ground to gather intelligence and deal with problems as they pop up." Chrono explained to the man. "If we just use the Bureau ship to get where we need to go, we'll miss important information."

"We'll, let's head to the pier!" Lina smiled at her daughter's enthusiasm, and nearly fell over laughing as she heard several stomachs start growling loudly.

"We will, but first, let's get something to eat." She laughed as all the children blushed to various degrees.

(-)

Panting as she got to the city, she frowned as she looked around. How was she going to find this person? "Honestly!" She huffed in exasperation. "I can't believe that the Knight of Cephied would refuse a request from servants of the Fire Dragon Lord."

At least she had given her a lead on someone who could possibly help. But trusting someone who had a reputation as a common hooligan wasn't something that she felt was a good thing. "Cephied, give me strength in this time of need." If it wasn't for the fact that the Supreme Elder had chosen _her_ specifically for this, she wouldn't even bother.

Oh well, she'd find that woman, explain things to her and then have her deal with the problem. After all, who would force a lowly Golden Dragon Priestess to face down a threat to all worlds?

(-)

"THAT was good!" Nanoha smiled and patted her full belly. "You eat like this all the time, mom?"

"Used to." Lina said as she looked at her plate in front of her. Only three plates had been cleared, and considering the way that Gourry and Sylphiel were looking at her in concern, she knew it was a weird sight. "Guys, I'm semi-retired from fighting, okay? I'm mostly here to make sure that no one gets killed if I can help it." Plus her metabolism wasn't as high as it used to be. She looked out at the sea and smiled softly. At least they had chosen a good spot. "Huh, guess the crowds are gathering."

"Time to go then?" Sylphiel asked, getting a nod from the others.

"Excuse me..." A female voice spoke up, catching their attention. "Is one of you, Lina Inverse?"

"Nope!" Lina grinned at the blond woman in white robes. It was true, she wasn't Lina Inverse anymore. "Now, if you asked for Lina Takamachi, I might know where she's at."

"Oh." The woman blinked a few times in confusion. "Do you know where I can find her?"

"Not a clue." Lina grinned at the blond woman, who seemed to get upset enough that her hair was standing on end, as was her dress, which was rather impressive.

"Mom!" Nanoha pouted at her mother as the woman calmed down, but Chrono seemed distracted by something. "Sorry, but my mom is who you're looking for."

The woman seemed to give the grinning redhead a flat glare. "I can't believe you.. EEEK!" She spun around, seeing Chrono kneeling behind her, her dress flaring up because of it. "You... PERVERT!"

"Chrono-kun!" Nanoha gasped as she looked at him. "I can't believe that you... No WONDER you wanted to come along! You just wanted to look up my skirt too!"

_"Chrono, really..."_ Lindy's voice was heard in his head. _"If you needed to look up someone's dress, you could have just looked up Amy's skirt."_

"B...Bu...But..."

"I'm sure she has a lovely butt to look at." Lina deadpanned as she gave him a lazy grin. "But that's no reason to go looking up her skirt."

"YOU PERVERT!" The woman yelled and lifted her leg up, pulling out a rather large mace and took a swing, clocking the shocked Chrono in the head and sending him flying into and through a few buildings.

"...You do realize that he's not even fifteen years old, right?" Lina gave the woman an annoyed look. "Arf, Fate, go make sure that he's still alive." She was certain that he got a barrier up in time, but she wasn't sure about that. "Nanoha, why don't you, Yuuno and Zelgadis go and find Amelia?"

When the kids nodded and disappeared, Lina stood up and walked up to the woman, who was looking put-off, before slapping her across the cheek, sending her onto her butt in shock. "Even if you couldn't control your reaction, he's a kid. So, tell me, what the heck is your name and what the heck do you want?"

Rubbing her cheek, she didn't realize just how strong this woman was. "My name is Filia Ul Copt, and I need your help."

"To save the world, right?" Lina said flatly. "Look, I don't care what you need my help with, but don't go around hurting kids just because they do something that embarrasses you." She shook her head. "Shiro, Gourry, Sylphiel, let's grab Amelia then get across the ocean. Whatever's going to happen will be there."

Filia blinked, that wasn't how she expected things to go. Still, she couldn't believe that the Knight of Cephied would trust the world's safety to that woman. Oh well, she supposed that she could test the woman before they got away.

After all, only the Knight of Cephied was strong enough to deal with what was going to happen, no one else could.

(-)

"Miss Lina!" Amelia smiled as she saw her friend. "It's good that you're coming with us."

Lina was about to say something when a fast-moving object flew overhead. "What the?"

"A Dragon!" Someone yelled, and people started screaming as the Dragon smashed through a few ships, before laser breathing another ship.

"Hey mom!" Nanoha grinned as she called out Raising Heart. "Don't worry..."

**"Standby ready."**

As Nanoha and Yuuno shifted to their Barrier Jackets, the girl smiled at her mother as they floated into the air. "Don't worry about it, we'll deal with this."

Gourry scratched his head. "Did that staff just talk?" He looked at the Sword of Light. "...Why can't you talk?"

(-)

"Chrono!" Fate gasped as she pulled him out of the pile of rubble he was buried under. "You okay?"

"Ugh... Got my barrier up, but that woman hits WAY too hard." He rubbed his head.

"Just why did you look under her skirt?" Arf asked. "If you wanna see a woman's butt so badly, I can show you mine."

Chrono blushed hard. "NO! That's not it at all! I thought I saw a tail and I wanted to make sure."

Arf blinked at hearing that. "Why would a tail be so weird?" She spun around and whapped Chrono in the face with her tail. "See, I got one."

"It was..." Chrono trailed off as he saw the Dragon over the ocean and the pink and green lines chasing it down. "...A Dragon's tail..."

Fate blinked. "...Oh."

(-)

"This one's fast!" Yuuno called out as he tried to bind the Dragon, only to find the thing would just disappear when he tried. "Nanoha!"

"Got it! Raising Heart! Excellion Mode! DRIVE!"

**"Ignition."**

Nanoha grinned as she saw the Dragon reappear. "Guess it's time to give that spell of mom's a test!"

_"Darkness Beyond Twilight..._  
_Crimson Beyond Blood That Flows..._  
_Buried in the Flow of Time_  
_Is Where your Power Grows_  
_I pledge myself to conquer all the foes that stand..._  
_Against the mighty gift bestowed in my unworthy hand."_

The Dragon seemed to hesitate and was about to warp out when several chains wrapped around its body.

"Got'cha!" Yuuno grinned. "You don't need to destroy everything, you know?"

_"Let all the fools who stand before us be destroyed!_  
_By the power you and I possess!"_

Nanoha had her staff above her head and a red ball appearing in front of her. "Raising Heart, NOW!"

**"Excellion Slave Breaker."**

At the last second, the red sphere gained a pink shell before Nanoha swung her weapon down, several red and pink beams lancing out, before spiraling around each other and barreling towards the Dragon.

The Dragon's eyes widened as the spell converged on where she was at. She closed her eyes and concentrated.

Nanoha and Yuuno had to close their eyes as the spell connected with the Dragon and the massive explosion sent them flying back towards the city.

"Got'cha." Lina said as she and Amelia grabbed the kids out of mid-air. "Good job." She smiled at her daughter.

"Thanks, mom." Nanoha smiled brightly. "That was fun."

_"I hate to ruin the moment,"_ Amy's voice popped up in their heads, _"but there's a tidal wave heading towards you."_

Nanoha, Lina and Yuuno looked up and blanched as a _massive_ tidal wave was heading towards the city. "AMY! GET US OUT OF HERE!" Lina yelled as the growing group disappeared from the ground and to the ship, but not before Nanoha, Yuuno, Fate and Chrono threw up some barriers to take the brunt of the tidal wave so that the city wouldn't be totally destroyed.

It was too bad about the harbor though, it didn't survive.

(-)

Reappearing on a mountain several kilometers away, Filia grabbed her chest and panted. "What kind of MONSTERS are those kids?" Seriously, what kind of Dragon Slave was _THAT_?

If she was that bad, how bad was her mother?

Filia shuddered and made a vow _not_ to piss that woman off in the future.

* * *

Yep, variation of the Dragon Slave. Ka-BOOM!

Poor Chrono, looking up Filia's skirt like that.

But, yes, I always disliked the fact that the woman could hit the man as hard as they wanted and no one would go "what the hell are you thinking?" to them.


	34. Try 2

Try 2

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

* * *

Stumbling around as he ended up on a different land, Lyos shook his head. "Ugh... I think I'm going to be sick." At least there was a coastal town right in front of him, he could at least find out where he was and then figure out where to go from here. He doubted that the lady would show up here, but if she did, he didn't want to disappoint her.

He jumped back as a large group of adults and children appeared out of white light in front of him. "Who the heck are you?"

"Hi! I'm Gourry Gabriev!" The tall blond man smiled. "These are my friends, Zelgadis, Amelia, Sylphiel, Lina, her husband and all her kids."

Shiro chuckled as they were all pointed to. "Close, but only Nanoha and Fate are our children, Gourry."

Lyos snorted, he didn't really care. "Yeah, well, I don't know what you're planning on doing, but you need to stay out of my way."

Gourry blinked as the rest looked at Lyos with various looks. "Huh? Why?"

"The world's coming to an end, and I was chosen to..."

"Stop it." Fate spoke up, interrupting him. "We know that the world is in danger, that is why we are going to face it down."

Lyos snorted, the kid really had no idea what she was getting into. "I'm the Knight of the Aqua Lord, chosen by Milady to deal with this and... Hey!" He glared as Lina grew bored and walked towards the town.

"Don't care who you are, kid. If you think that just because the Water Dragon Lord left a small bit of power in you that means that you can order us around, forget it." Lina waved him off.

Shiro shrugged as the group started following Lina. "Sorry, kid."

Lyos stared as they just ignored him. HIM! The Knight of the Aqua Lord. The one chosen to save the world!

"Fine, don't need their help anyway." Gripping Banisher, he picked a random point and started walking towards it. He'd find his own way around.

(-)

"So..." Sylphiel looked at the city. "What are we going to do?"

Lina shrugged. "I have no clue, honestly. Just look around and listen for any rumors that pop up. If you hear anything interesting, we'll check it out." The others nodded and broke off into pairs, except for Arf, who tagged along with Chrono and Fate while Yuuno and Nanoha went off to another direction. Gourry and Sylphiel went to check out the taverns, hoping ot hear something interesting while Amelia and Zelgadis went to the market place.

As for Lina and Shiro? Well, they just walked next to each other, enjoying the scenery. "You know, if the world is going to be doomed, this isn't going to be a fun trip." Lina sighed softly as she took her husband's arm.

"I know." Shiro said softly as he looked around and frowned. "Say, Lina... Is it just me... Or does it seem like these people don't have much magic to them?"

Lina blinked and took a close look around. "What..." She trailed off as she saw someone entertaining some kids with a light spell. "...You're right." A light spell where she was wouldn't do more than light up a house. "Why?"

"Because magic here is very limited." A familiar voice spoke up and Lina and Shiro both turned to see the blond woman from before. "The most common spells are Light and Fireballs, nothing more, unless a Dragon does it."

"...Seriously?" Lina asked her flatly. "And, how did you get here so fast?"

Filia lowered her head. "I'm sorry. I wasn't honest before. I am a priestess of the Fire Dragon Lord. And, yes, magic is almost unheard of here. Especially magic that you and your daughter possess."

Shiro nodded as he looked around. "Considering that the place where you used to live, Lina, was under constant attack by trolls, Mazoku and other monsters, it's pretty obvious that section of the world would develop magic to deal with it."

"Yes." Filia nodded. "As for here, the worst that we typically have to deal with is a few bandits. As for how I got here so fast..." She bowed her head again. "Forgive me. I was the Dragon that attack the harbor."

"Why?" Lina blinked several times. It was unusual to see a Dragon begging for forgiveness, but she was curious.

"I wanted to test your power. The Grand Elder told me to search out the Knight of Cephied, but she turned down my offer, so I was told to go after you by her."

Lina sighed, leave it to Luna to leave the fate of the world on her shoulders. "Great... So, do you have any idea what's happening then?"

Filia nodded and cleared her throat. "We recently got wind of a prophecy, and I think you should hear it. There shall come a controller of a dark star who will call forth the light, and the world shall be flooded with darkness. Dragon's blood shall spread, and following the power between light and darkness, a single star shall be awakened. Around the star shall spin five lights, and the power shall be a darkness beyond twilight, a brilliance beyond the dawn. When the power is loosed, we shall fall to an arrow which will split the heavens apart."

Lina frowned and thought, before her eyes widened and her face went blue. "...Seriously... Dark Star?"

Filia blinked, not really understanding the problem that Lina had. "What..."

"Dark Star... Your prophecy is stating that Dark Star is threatening the world?" Lina let go of Shiro and started pacing. "But that makes no sense, no Ma-Oh is even interested in any of the other worlds at all." Something had to have happened, but what, she wasn't sure. "So, you're a Golden Dragon, but even you couldn't have gotten here that fast unless you teleported."

Filia nodded and yelped as Lina grabbed her by the front of her shirt. "Um..."

"What the HELL were you THINKING? Hitting Chrono like that? You KNOW that you have more strength than a normal human, so what the hell is wrong with you?"

"Please! I'm sorry!" Filia lifted her hands up. "I'll try to not do it again. I thought he just wanted to look at my underwear."

Lina snorted and dropped her to the ground. "Let's get one thing straight. I have four kids, okay? One of them is a boy. I know one thing, if a boy wants to see you in your underwear, he'll see you and you won't know about it." She narrowed her eyes at Filia, who gulped as the golden one seemed to glow lightly. "Try hurting these kids again, and I'll do to you what I did to those familiars."

Filia didn't know what she did to familiars, but she didn't want to find out. "Right." She nodded. "...but what if he tries to look up my dress again?"

"Let him, and then complain to his mother and girlfriend. They won't accidentally kill him with super strength like you can." Lina shook her head. "He's a boy, he gets curious about things." She sighed, having kids really did change a person.

"So I'm supposed to let him look up my skirt with no problems?" Filia felt tears threatening to fall down her face. "But that..."

"Find ways to keep him from looking." Shiro shook his head. "But I don't think he wanted to look at your underwear, he doesn't seem like a kid who would do that."

Filia wasn't listening, in her mind, she had a terrible vision of Chrono, with red glowing eyes and shark-like teeth grabbing her outfit and tearing it off, revealing her unmentionables to the world. "Lord Cephied, why must I suffer so?"

(-)

"Mr. Zelgadis..." Amelia looked at him as the two walked around the town. "What are you doing?" In his hands was a small ball that seemed to project a small map of the world. "What is that?"

"Something that the captain of that ship gave me. It's pretty useful." He looked at it more closely. "So, we're here... The desert of destruction..." His eyes widened slightly as the map seemed to "roll" upwards a bit. "Well, we're pretty far south, aren't we?"

"What are you going to do with that, Mr. Zelgadis?" Amelia asked him.

Smiling softly, he put the device away. "I plan on sharing this information with all the kingdoms when we get back."

Amelia nodded and jumped as she heard Lina's voice in her head. "...Wow, I forgot that she knows how to do that."

"It is weird." Zelgadis admitted, but it was useful at least. "This magic is weird and unusual, but it has lots of uses." Telepathy, teleportation, transformation magic, there was a _lot_ that he wanted to learn from these people. Familiar making and their technology... So much to learn from them. "I might even go to their world to learn."

Amelia gasped. "Mr. Zelgadis!"

"What?" He looked at her in confusion. "I'm curious about their style of magic. Plus I can help them learn some of our Shamanistic magic."

"But... You... You'll just leave like that?"

Zelgadis shook his head. "No. This is my home. I would only be there for a little bit, to learn and teach. As nice as it might be, this is where I live now. I'm sure that Lina wanted to come back more than anything when she ended up on that world. She just had no way to get back."

"Until now." Amelia said softly. "I'm just worried, she seems happy there, what if you..."

Zelgadis shook his head. "I'm thinking that she resigned herself to staying there, since there was no way, that she knew of, to get back here, and ended up falling for her husband. If she could have gotten back here as soon as she could have, I'm sure that she would have."

"I guess..." Amelia sighed. "I guess I never thought about it from her perspective. To me, she was only gone a month... She has a family now... She has children..."

"She also grew up." Zelgadis smiled at her. "She's pretty calm compared to when we last saw her."

"Yeah." Amelia nodded, smiling. Maybe this would be good. "Hey, Mr. Zelgadis, can you pull up that map again?" When he did so, she blinked as she pointed to something in the east. Her eyes widened as the map zoomed in on it. "This looks like a temple."

"You're right, it does." Zelgadis was further impressed by the technology that Lina's friends had. "I wonder just how detailed this map can get..?" He tapped something on the screen and his eyes widened as the image zoomed in on a statue. "...THAT is detailed." He didn't see any living thing there, but he wasn't surprised, this was still more than he had hoped for.

(-)

"Gourry-dear, what are you going to do when this is done?"

He shrugged and was about to say something when the gated wall in front of them exploded inwards. "What the?" He blinked as a one-eyed red furred fox person, a bunch of lizard people and a one-eyed, blue-skinned troll-like creature came barreling through the walls. "Hey! Blowing up other people's walls is wrong!"

The fox creature pulled out a dagger and pointed it to him. "Just hand over any good ya got."

Gourry blinked and looked at Sylphiel. "I think this side of the world is just weird."

"Hey!" The troll thing spoke up. "When Jillas speaks, ya better listen!"

"Or what?" The the whole group looked to the top of the walls to see a boy in an open coat and a giant sword looking down at them with contempt. "Just because you have more numbers, you think you can win?"

"It's the rude boy from before." Sylphiel said softly, causing said boy to twitch and fall off the wall, crashing on the ground below.

"Ugh... You're rude, you know that! And my name's Lyos!"

Jillas pulled out a strange item, it looked like a handle with two small cylinders and pointed it at them. "Just listen to Garvos and give me your goods."

"Flare Arrow!" Sylphiel called out and blushed as, instead of an arrow, she got a carrot. "Why can't I do it right?" She hung her head and sighed, before tossing it at the the creatures, who were backing up and looking at her nervously. "Huh?"

"B,,,Boss... She can use magic!" One of the thugs whimpered. Magic users were just bad news.

Jillas yelped and jumped back as the carrot exploded in front of him. "Damn! I didn't know we'd have a woman like her! Alright boys! We kill her and then take her goods!"

"Hey!" Gourry frowned as he stepped forward and held up his weapon. "How dare you talk about a woman like that?"

Lyos frowned as he walked up behind the group. "I don't know what that woman did, but I'm with him. Threatening women like that is just evil." Grabbing Banisher, he slashed through one of the Lizard men with a single stroke. "And I hate evil."

"Naive little!" Garvos held up a club and struck down, only to gape as the little slip of a boy actually blocked it with his sword. "Who are you?"

"Name's Lyos! I'm the Knight of the Aqua Lord!" Letting out a yell, he pushed the troll-like person off of him.

"Enough of this!" Jillas yelled as he jumped back and opened his cloak. "I'll just destroy the whole town!" Laughing, he threw the bombs forward, only to gape as they collided with an invisible barrier and bounced back towards him. "AAAAAAHHHH!"

Gourry and Lyos both winced at the explosion. "What were those things?" Gourry asked as the the group was blown out of town.

"Not a clue." Lyos said as he put his sword away. "Well, I guess that's all..." He turned to leave.

"Hey!" Gourry caused him to turn back. "Listen, if you're going to try and save the world, why don't you come with us?"

Lyos shrugged. "I doubt it. I mean, it's not like you could keep up with me."

"Actually," Gourry started laughing softly, "I think it's the other way around. You're strong, kid, but you don't seem that special."

"What?" Lyos glared at Gourry. "What makes you such an expert?"

Gourry shrugged at him. "I'm not one, but if you try to save the world on your own, you'll just end up getting killed."

Lyos stared as he watched Gourry and Sylphiel walk away.

"Gourry!" Lyos stared as he saw that redheaded woman from before run out onto the street. "Just what happened?"

"Eh, bandits with weird weapons." Gourry shrugged and Lina looked at the mark on the street.

"Bombs?" Lina frowned softly. "Guess this side of the world developed better technology than I thought." She turned to Filia. "Tell me, are bombs common over here?"

"If you can make them, yes." Filia nodded to her and blinked as she saw Lyos looking at them in confusion. "...Why does he have such power?" She asked herself. It felt like Luna Inverse's power, just not as pure or strong. "Miss Lina... That boy, is he a part of your group?

Lina looked at Lyos and shook her head. "Nope. Don't know him, why?"

"He... He's powerful. I thought humans couldn't use Holy magic at all. He's got it flowing through him like your sister does."

Lina just blinked in confusion. "He does?"

Filia nodded. "Yes, but it's very unrefined." Her eyes widened as a thought came to her. "If we go to the Grand Elder with him, I'm sure that the Golden Dragons can help him gain control over it, and it would be a great help for what's to come."

Lina looked at him and sighed. "Fine, but he better behave himself. I'm not above giving a kid like that a spanking if he doesn't behave himself.

(-)

Meanwhile, on Earth...

"Aria..."

"Yeah, Lotte?"

"Does your butt hurt for some reason?"

"My butt never stopped hurting."

The two familiars groaned and went to find some Bengay for their butts.

(-)

Elsewhere…

Valgaav narrowed his eyes as he stood on a mountain outcropping. In his hand was Ragudo Mezegis. It wasn't lit up at the moment, but he could call out its power at any time. "Well, well... A couple of Generals." He pointed the lance at them. "Tell me, why shouldn't I just kill you two right now?"

"Because you couldn't." The green-haired one grinned at him, causing his eyes to narrow at her. "Unlike you, our masters are both still alive, which gives us more power."

"You bitch." Valgaav snarled at them. "Light come forth!" He called out, Ragudo Mezegis lighting up the front and the end of the Lance becoming a weapon that Mazoku in general feared.

The two in front of him just smirked. "Please, even if it is stronger than Gorun Nova, a pitiful weapon of light like that won't hurt us." Riksfalto chuckled as the three of them disappeared from normal view.

Valgaav grunted as the blue-haired one materialized in front of him, her sword swinging out and clashing against his weapon. "Your sword is a Mazoku?"

Sherra smirked at him. "You're lucky that you're a Mazoku. If you were anything but a Mazoku or a Shinzoku, this sword, Dulgofa, would turn you into a half-demon under my control."

Valgaav growled at her as she disappeared, before his eyes widened as he felt a sword stab into his back. "What?"

"Oh, I get it..." Riksfalto grinned from behind him. "You're only half Mazoku." She chuckled as she pulled her weapon from his back. "As strong as you are, you're nothing to a real Mazoku."

Valgaav spun around and slashed down, only to find his sword parried by hers. "I'm more than a match for you."

"You're three hundred years too young, boy." Riksfalto smirked as she parried his attacks several times. "I may not be as powerful as Xellos, but I AM the strongest of all the Generals, and you're nothing but a half-Mazoku."

"Just like that traitor, Gaav." Sherra spoke up from behind him as she drove a knee into the small of his back, causing him to cry out in pain.

Valgaav's eyes flashed in anger as he spun around. "You..." He let loose a scream as black feather wings sprouted from his back and a horn grew from the center of his head and stuck out, his hands became covered in dark scaly claws and both Sherra's and Riksfalto's eyes widened in surprise. "DIE!"

Swinging down, he growled as Sherra disappeared, he spun and saw that Riksfalto was gone as well. Turning around, he looked around for a bit until he saw the two generals on a rocky ledge not too far from him.

"An Ancient Dragon?" Riksfalto chuckled. "Well, that changes things." The two of them had only come to test Valgaav's power, but an Ancient Dragon-Mazoku hybrid? Especially one who was turned by the late traitor, Gaav? That changed a lot of things.

Valgaav growled and shot forward, only to find a sword against his throat. "You..."

Riksfalto grinned at him. "Calm down, big guy, we're not here to fight you, well, not anymore, even if you are a remnant of that traitor, Gaav."

Valgaav narrowed his eyes at the General. "Don't speak of my master with such loose lips, unless you want me to give you a new pair in the chest."

"Look!" Sherra growled at him. "I don't know _why_, but all the Lords that are still alive want to make you into one. We just wanted to see if you were worthy of their attention."

Valgaav snorted at her. "I don't care who you two are, but you better give me a reason not to try and kill you."

Riksfalto grinned at him. "Well, right to the point, my kind of man. Anyway, the woman who killed your master is currently running around with a little pet project of one of my master's Priest. And she has friends. You try to go after her as you are, even with those," she took on a disgusted look as she spat out the next word, "Shinzoku, and you'll lose. That woman _did_ kill Hellmaster Phibrizzo after all."

Valgaav grimaced, that was true. Hellmaster was the strongest Mazoku on the planet, even Shabranidgo, due to being in seven pieces, was weaker than he was, technically. And Gaav was even weaker than that. What chance did he have against someone that powerful? And if her friends were anywhere near that strength... "What do you want?"

"A team-up." Sherra spoke up. "You do know that Xellos is going to be with them, and he's stronger than any of us are."

Valgaav mentally snorted, he was certain that he could take Xellos on in a fight, but she was right, that Mazoku was likely strong enough that Valgaav would end up dead. "What's in it for you?"

Riksfalto growled softly. "I don't like Xellos, Sherra has a rivalry with him. Anyway, the problem is, as she is, your master's killer is unbeatable in straight up combat. However..." Riksfalto held up a green and black ball. "This little gem will help us deal with her."

Valgaav raised an eyebrow at that. "What is that?"

"This is a nice little gem used during the Koma Wars by various mid and low-level Mazoku to split Dragon Forces apart. It won't affect us, unless we want it to."

Valgaav grinned as he looked at it. "So... I get revenge on Lina Inverse, you two mess with Xellos' plans..."

"The only thing here is," Riksfalto looked at him seriously, "that we can't kill Huraker's pet project. I'd rather not explain to my master why Huraker's trying to kill me."

Valgaav nodded. "Any other information you can share?"

"There's a little girl with reddish hair that's traveling with Lina Inverse." Sherra spoke up. "I think Xellos was interested in her."

"I wonder why." Valgaav said. "Never mind. When should we go?"

Riksfalto smirked at the hybrid. "Simple. They're heading towards the temple of the Fire Dragon King." She chuckled as his face darkened in anger. "Oh, that's _right_, isn't it? The Golden Dragons slaughtered your entire clan during the war." Which was probably the biggest reason that the Dragons had been slaughtered so badly back then. After all, if the Fire Dragon King decided that his own servants weren't worth his protection, what chance did they have at all? "Those Dragons are soft, they haven't fought in a millennium. They won't want to mess with Mazoku as powerful as we are."

"Really?" Valgaav raised an eyebrow at her and thought it over as he powered down Ragudo Mezegis. "My only stipulation is that I get revenge on Lina Inverse. My... Unfortunate allies will want the Sword of Light."

"I doubt that we can kill Lina Inverse." A new voice spoke up and Valgaav spun and saw a woman in fancy clothes standing on a different rocky ledge. "From what I understand, if we kill her, the world would be destroyed by someone other than ourselves." She looked at the three seriously. "However, the instant that she fulfills her role in this story, you would have a free shot at her."

"I'm supposed to let her live?" Valgaav hissed at the woman. "Who are you?"

"Huraker, Priest of Deep Sea Dolphin. And you only need to let her live a little bit so she can defeat the coming threat." She then smirked softly. "However, instead of killing her, how about making her suffer like you have?"

"What do you mean?" Valgaav narrowed his eyes at her.

"She has a daughter." Huraker said softly. "I do not believe that she is important to the prophecy."

Valgaav suddenly smirked evilly as he thought about it. "You have a deal." After all, he may have been an Ancient Dragon originally, but he was also a Mazoku now. Revenge was something that all of them understood. "But this is only for the sake of my vengeance. When this is over, I won't hesitate to kill the three of you."

"Of course." Sherra nodded at him. "I wouldn't want it any other way." She thumbed her sword and grinned at the thought of turning people or even a few Dragons into minor demons under her control.

* * *

Oh dear, looks like Valgaav has a new target to go after. This can't be good.

Okay, just so people don't wonder what's going on...

I'm going to call the Weapons of Light by their proper names.

Sword - Gorun Nova  
Lance - Ragudo Mezegis  
Trident/Claw - Nezzard  
Axe - Bodigar  
Bow - Galveira

Also, I will be using the proper names of the four Dragon Lords when they pop up. The most common names you'll see will be Ragradia (Aqua Lord) and Vrabazard (Fire Lord).

And, yes, Lyos was a jerk in canon at first. He got better as the story went on.


	35. Try 3

Try 3

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

* * *

"How come we aren't using the ship to get there, Miss Lina?" Sylphiel asked as the group moved away from the city.

"Partially because I'm curious about this portion of the world, and partially because we can use this time to train the kids."

Lyos grumbled as she included him in the group. "I'm no kid."

"Knight of the Aqua Lord, yar yar." Lina waved her hand at him. "Don't know what you think you can do as that, kid, don't care. You've got a small bit of a Shinzoku soul in your body, you're going to learn how to draw at least a small amount of it out."

"Miss Lina," Filia frowned at her, "I protest to your treatment of him!"

"And I honestly don't care." Lina shook her head. "There is another reason, there's someone I'm waiting on to show up."

"Who?" Sylphiel asked in confusion.

"Now that..." Lina grinned in such a way that had Amelia and Zelgadis looking at her in growing dread, she couldn't mean what they thought she meant. "Is a secret."

Seeing her wink and waggle a finger at them, Nanoha, Zelgadis and Amelia groaned while Gourry just scratched his head in confusion. Nanoha's reasons for doing so were far different than Zelgadis and Amelia's reasons however.

"You have to be kidding, HIM?"

"Who's him?" Arf asked, it must have been a really bad person if Zelgadis was reacting like this.

"Did you have to steal my phrase, Lina Inverse?" A familiar voice asked as Xellos materialized in front of the group, looking saddened and upset. "I put so much effort into making that phrase mine and you just go and steal it? Who's the Mazoku here?"

"Get a copyright for it." Lina smirked, even though she didn't turn around, her attention was on the kids, and their reactions.

She wasn't surprised as they all seemed to get ready to try and blast Xellos where he stood. It wasn't a bad attitude to have when dealing with Mazoku, even one such as Xellos.

"I can't believe this!" Filia yelled, her hair standing on hend as she glared at Lina and Xellos. "You were trying to... Trying to draw out this... this raw garbage?"

"Raw garbage?" Xellos felt his eyebrow twitching. "Who's raw garbage?"

Seeing how most everyone but Gourry, who was scratching his head, Shiro, who was looking amused, Sylphiel, who was confused, Lyos, who didn't seem to care, and Amelia, who was looking concerned, seemed to want a fight with Xellos. It was a pleasant thought, but Xellos could kill all of them pretty easily if he wanted to.

Time to nip this in the bud. "Xellos, you knew that the world was doomed, didn't you?"

"Well," he tapped his chin and tried to look innocent, "I suppose I did." He yelped as Lina grabbed his clothes before slamming him to the ground. "OWW! What was that for?"

"Old time sake." Lina smirked as she sat on his back. "Now then, my daughter could use a nice punching bag, and since you're a Mazoku, I think you'd be perfect for it."

"Miss Lina!" Xellos whined as he looked at her. "I don't like being anyone's punching bag!"

"Well, think of all the negative emotions you'll get to feed off of when she beats you up." Lina grinned at him, causing him to pout more. "Though, if you tell me what I want to know, I might be convinced to let you go."

Xellos grumbled, the things he did for a plan. "Alright, what is it?"

"What's going on, the world's in danger and you know something, so spill."

Xellos sighed softly. "Well, it's true that the world is in danger. It seems that a minion of Gaav's is still alive and his power increased dramatically lately. From what I know, they're after the Sword of Light and a weapon that's even stronger than it."

"What's stronger than the Sword of Light?" Zelgadis asked, getting a smirk from Xellos.

"That... Is a secret."

Nanoha frowned as she looked at him. "Who's Gaav and who's this person?"

"Gaav was a Mazoku lord that ended up dead due to a series of events that used your mother to draw him out into the open." Xellos shrugged uncomfortably. "As for his minion, his name is Valgaav and apparently he wants revenge on you, Lina."

"Figures." Lina sighed as she got up off of him and kicked him in the ass. "Go ahead, Nanoha."

"WHAT?" Xellos turned to her with a hurt look on his face. "Miss Lina!"

**"Set up."** Bardiche, Raising Heart and S2U all said at the same time.

"Don't worry, they won't kill you." Seeing the almost bloodthirsty looks in the eyes of all the kids, she quickly amended that statement. "I think."

"No fair!" Xellos whined as Pink, Blue, Green, Orange, and Yellow colored energy descended on his body.

* * *

Meanwhile...

"What is this place?" Valgaav looked around at the Colosseum that he and Riksfalto were at.

"Just where you'll get your revenge." She smirked at him as she looked around and pulled out a blue crystal. "Just need to do some preparations before we begin."

"Why? And where's Sherra?" He asked gruffly, blinking as the blue-haired General appeared in front of them.

"It's done." Sherra smirked and pointed behind the two of them.

"The reason we chose this location is simple." Riksfalto grinned as she saw the veritable army wander into the arena. "It's close to a village of three hundred men, women and children."

Sherra snapped her fingers and the humans-turned-demons moved to the tunnels under the stands. "They have only one order, to wait until there's humans here, and then they'll attack."

"They look like Zombies to me." Valgaav said gruffly to the General, who shrugged at him.

"I was lazy."

"Anyway, we need to do some set-up before we make our move." Riksfalto grinned at him. "Where to next?"

"I'd say the hero's graveyard." Sherra chuckled and Riksfalto's eyes gleamed in delight.

"Ooooh! A bunch of demon zombies will be fun." Riksfalto clapped her hands together happily.

Sherra smirked, she was going to enjoy her fight, that was for sure.

* * *

Lina, as she sat by Shiro, smiled as the violence on Xellos finally came to an end. Getting up, she walked over to her daughter, who was panting slightly. "Feeling better?"

Nanoha blinked and looked at her mother. "Yeah." She rubbed the back of her head nervously. "How did you know?"

"It's in your mother's nature." Zelgadis spoke up, smirking at Lina, who rolled her eyes at him. "She used to beat the rest of us up for doing stupid things."

"Really?" Nanoha scratched her head in confusion and looked at her friends, who shrugged. "Mom never beat anyone up for doing something stupid."

"You don't know your mother." Amelia muttered softly as she let out a mushroom puff from her mouth.

"I strongly protest the treatment of myself!" Xellos yelled at Lina as he stood up, looking none the worse for wear. "Seriously, just because I'm a Mazoku doesn't mean you have to be so mean to me!"

_"Is it just me,"_ Fate sent to Arf telepathically, _"or is he not the least bit hurt?"_

_"Doesn't seem like he's hurt at all."_ Arf shot back to her.

"You're still alive, so why are you complaining?" Zelgadis smirked at the Mazoku, who only seemed to pout at them all.

"It still hurt my feelings."

"Raw garbage such as yourself doesn't have any feelings." Filia huffed and stuck her nose up into the air as she turned away from him. "Come on, Lyos, I'll teach you what I can about Holy magic before this piece of filth infects us."

Xellos felt his eyes twitching. What kind of worthless Dragon would call him those names? He wasn't the one who caused them to lose their protection from both Vrabazard and Ragradia after all. Well, okay, he _did_ kind of help kill the latter, but he still didn't _do_ anything to the Gods directly after all.

Lyos shrugged and followed Filia for several feet where the two sat down and talked in quiet tones.

Gourry scratched his head and looked at Xellos in confusion. "What did you do? Go on a date with her and run out on the bill?"

Xellos and Filia, who had excellent hearing, face-faulted at the question. "I've never seen her before in my life." Xellos said indignantly even as Shiro and Lina laughed at them. "She's just upset because of what happened a thousand years ago."

"Huh, so you ran out on her mother then!" Gourry punched his open palm, causing Xellos and Filia to face-fault again while Lina was on the ground, laughing and kicking her legs up and down. "Really, Xellos, running out on a date is bad enough, but a pregnant lady, that's just wrong."

"Really, Mr. Xellos!" Amelia took a stance and pointed at him. "I know that you've been mortal enemies with Dragons for your life, but leaving a pregnant Dragon in the lurch is not only wrong, it's pure evil! I, Amelia Wil Tesla Seiryuun, will not stand for such an act!"

Lyos poked Filia with a stick as she curled into a ball and started whimpering, crying about her mother being pure and not doing something so hideous with someone so disgusting.

Lina was on the ground, pounding it hard as she tried to get some oxygen into her lungs. This was so funny it was hard to breathe.

"What's so funny?" Yuuno asked Shiro, who was laughing, but not nearly as hard as Lina was. "I mean, if he did run out on her mother..." He looked down as Lina started to beg them to stop, tears were falling out of her eyes. "What's so funny?"

"The fact that, one, I don't have children and two, this Dragon is upset because I killed an entire Golden Dragon clan during the wars, completely ignoring how her kind did pretty much the same to mine." Xellos grumbled as he looked at the group. He couldn't believe they were having so much fun at his expense.

"BAH!" Filia yelled at him. "You're just an evil creature, you don't deserve any sympathy."

Xellos snorted and frowned at her. "...I think I need to take my leave." He faded away and left a parting shot. "I wonder what you'll do when you find the truth out."

"Mother?" Fate poked Lina as she continued to kick her legs up and down on the ground. "Are you okay?"

"F...Fi...fine... Just, hahahahahaha, give me, heeeheeheehee, a few, BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

"I think you broke Miss Lina, Gourry-dear." Sylphiel looked bemused as the rest looked on in both concern and wonder.

Shiro shook his head. "While we wait for my wife to recover."

"Hahahahahahahaha!"

"How about we train a bit?" Shiro pulled out a couple of wooden swords from somewhere and tossed one to Fate, who caught it.

The others shrugged, it sounded like a better idea than just standing around waiting for Lina to regain her bearings.

* * *

"You would team up with Mazoku?" A thin, blue haired, blue skinned man in a blue outfit glared at Valgaav, who narrowed his eyes at the person.

"Erulogos, enough." A similar sized man with pink skin, pink hair and wearing a black body suit, shook his head. "He is a Mazoku, we shouldn't be surprised that he would not trust Shinzoku such as ourselves."

"I never betrayed anyone." Valgaav snorted at them and looked at the last one, a rather large person with dull-colored skin, one eye and long gray hair that slipped out from a large armor. "What are your thoughts, Almace?"

The older-looking Shinzoku would have shrugged, but the spikes on his left shoulder and the round ball on his right might have cut into his body. "Just make sure that those three get us Gorun Nova. Sirius, have you found Galveira yet?"

The pink Shinzoku shook his head. "No, not yet. Wherever it is, it's hidden well." He turned as Valgaav started to walk away. "Where are you going?"

"Out." He disappeared and Erulogos frowned heavily.

"We should just kill those humans and take Gorun Nova for ourselves." He disappeared as well, leaving the other two Shinzoku alone.

Both Almace and Sirius knew that they could easily kill the humans. After all, there wasn't a single spell on this world that could harm them, not as long as their Astral Bodies were back in Overworld.

Of course, that did leave them with a major weakness.

"Do you think we can stop what our master became?" Sirius looked at Almace, who sighed.

"We have to. If we don't the two of them will move onto the White Dragon's world. Then to the Blue Dragon's world."

"Death Fog and Chaotic Blue." Sirius said softly and closed his eyes. "You're right. Who knows if any of those worlds could survive. Ours hasn't."

* * *

Four days later...

"We finally made it." Amelia smiled as she looked at the temple in question. "Wow..."

"Could have made it sooner if we rode on my back." Filia frowned at Lina and Shiro, both of whom had wanted to go by foot to get there.

"Kids." The two said at the same time while shaking their heads.

"I'm older than this whole group put together!" Filia yelled at them indignantly.

"Wow, so you're a really old woman, huh?" Gourry scratched his head and Filia threw her hands up in disgust, letting out a scream in frustration.

"Old to us." Sylphiel spoke to Gourry. "Dragons age much slower than we do. If she was a human, she's only be about thirteen or fourteen years old."

"Which is why she's a kid to mom." Nanoha nodded, smiling at Filia, who sighed heavily.

"A little off, I'd be closer to sixteen human years old, actually." The Dragoness blinked a few times. "Wait, why am I trying to compare myself to a bunch of humans?"

"Which is why you're a child." Lina shook her head as she, Shiro, Yuuno and Lyos were walking into the temple. "Learn to take a joke."

Ignoring the way that Filia was yelling, Lyos looked at his hands and frowned softly. 'Why?' He could feel tremendous power, it wanted to come out and do stuff, but all the techniques that Filia had taught him had fallen flat. He had more luck pulling out power when Shiro offered to cross swords a few times with him. As he looked around at the group, he was starting to feel quite out of place, almost like he didn't really belong. 'What good is being the Knight of the Aqua Lord if I can't use the power?' He raged to himself.

At least Filia had said that the Supreme Elder of this temple could help him. The eldest Dragon had lived for well over three thousand years, he had to be a big help.

After all, the only other way that Lyos could draw out the power of the Aqua Lord was to ask a Shinzoku. That is, if the Supreme Elder couldn't help him.

He hoped so. He wanted, no, he _needed_ to use this power. It was there, just out of reach, not wanting to bend to his will and do what he wanted it to do. But why?

"Filia!" An old man smiled happily as he saw her with a large group of people. "Welcome back, child. Who are these people? I thought you were going to get the Knight of Lord Cephied."

"She turned it down, Supreme Elder." Filia hung her head slightly. "However, these people offered to help us in her stead. And this boy," she gestured to Lyos, who frowned at her, "has a fragment of Aqualord Ragradia inside of him."

The elder's eyes lit up as he looked at the boy. "Really?" He smiled gently. "This is a great day then. The passing of the Aqualord was a great loss a millenia ago, and to have her back, though reborn as she is, is something that we all enjoy."

"Her?" Lyos felt his eyebrows twitching as they talked about him as though he wasn't there, and a girl at that!

"Yes. Aqualord Ragradia was a powerful Dragon Goddess who protected the Northern section of the world until a thousand years ago." The Supreme Elder smiled at the boy gently. "With your help, we'll surely be able to save the world from destruction and..."

"I'm sorry, Supreme Elder," Filia spoke up to the older man, "but Lyos here, he only has the power, he can't seem to use it properly. I thought that maybe some time with you helping him..."

"Ah, of course." The old Dragon nodded to her. "I suppose that if you didn't live near us or inside the barrier, you wouldn't have known how to draw it out properly. A few days should be able to get the power to fully manifest itself."

Lyos smirked, he liked that thought. "Sure."

The Supreme Elder looked at the group. "You are all welcome to stay for a few days, I am sure that you are all worn out from your travels."

"Mom, can we look around?" Nanoha looked at Lina, who nodded to them and told them to mind what the Dragons said.

* * *

Later that night...

Yuuno yawned as he walked through the hallways. Nanoha had kicked him, literally, out of bed due to a nightmare of when she went berserk against Vita and the others. Fate had calmed her down and was sleeping with her now, but he couldn't get back to sleep. Well, at least a walk could clear his head and help him relax.

"...believe it." Yuuno blinked as he heard the Supreme Elder's voice. Narrowing his eyes slightly, he shifted into his ferret form, making it easier to slip around unnoticed, and moved towards the conversation. "You're serious?"

Looking around a corner, Yuuno saw the Supreme Elder with another Dragon, one who had shown him and Chrono around earlier in the day, talking about something. "Yes. All of our efforts to help him draw out Ragradia have failed."

The Supreme Elder growled. "And any attempts to get Vrabazard to hear our pleas have gone unheard for the past thousand years!"

"Perhaps it is time to just admit that we aren't the protectors that we once were."

The Elder frowned at the other Dragon. "Enough of that!" He hissed. "Our magic may have changed since the Koma wars and the loss of Ragradia, but that does not mean that we have lost our status!"

"Our magic has only gotten weaker since then, Supreme Elder! When we decided to turn on..."

"Do not look at it like that!" The Supreme Elder shushed him. "The Ancient Dragons betrayed us all. If they had given us that weapon back then, we would not have lost Ragradia. We may have even been able to break the barrier and kill off one of the five Mazoku Lords back then."

Yuuno frowned, what weapon? What did they mean?

The other Dragon sighed heavily. "Supreme Elder, I will follow you until you part this world, but I do have to say, it's perhaps time we send a messenger to the Golden Dragons under the Airlord Valwin or the Earthlord Rangort."

"Enough!" The Supreme Elder frowned at him. "This is the last we shall speak of this. That boy, Lyos, he _will_ draw out the power of Ragradia before he leaves here." He spun and left the other Dragon alone, who sighed as he watched him leave.

"I'm sorry, Supreme Elder, but I think that you're wrong. Ever since we slaughtered them, Vrabazard seems to have taken away his blessing." He sighed and left the room, never noticing the little yellow ferret looking at him in confusion.

Yuuno blinked as he scampered off to find a place to turn back to normal. If the Dragons couldn't draw out the power of one of the Gods that they worshiped, then how could they help Lyos? And, if that was the case...

"What magic are they using then?" Yuuno wondered aloud softly. Filia and Amelia had mentioned that Dragons were the only ones who could use Holy magic anymore. But if Holy magic had to come from a God and one God was dead and another God was refusing to give them power, then, what _were_ they using?

* * *

Yes, Yuuno, just WHAT are the Dragons using if not Holy magic?

Poor Xellos, being used as a punching bag.

I think Lina's having too much fun right now.

And, yes, I sped up some of the canon quite a bit already. Sirius and Erulogos are already on the Slayers world, so that means that Nezzard and Bodigar are as well. Why? Well, let's just say that "Try" isn't going to go the way you think it will go.


	36. Try 4

Try 4

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Shorter chapter than previous, but it should be good. The plot kicks into high gear here!

* * *

Yuuno yawned as he and the other kids walked out into the courtyard. Looking around, he just couldn't help but notice how all the Golden Dragons were carrying various lances and looking, most of them, down at the group. "Where is everyone?" He asked Shiro as the older man halted practice with Fate.

He shook his head. "Lina's inside with the other adults." Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Chrono and Nanoha lightly sparring while Arf played with Lyos. Playing in this case was Lyos trying to catch the ungodly fast familiar, who kept dancing out of sword-point and taunting him.

Yuuno nodded and frowned slightly. Something about what he had seen last night still bothered him. Just what were the Golden Dragons hiding?

Suddenly his eyes widened as he felt a surge of magic, powerful magic, coming from the temple. "What the?"

* * *

"I am Almace." The large being looked at the group while he held a staff with three prongs lit up. "I come from the Overworld and I seek the sword Gorun Nova and one other weapon of power."

Lina narrowed her eyes at the large being. "You think that just because you're from another world, you can get the Sword of Light?"

"Yeah!" Gourry gripped his sword as he looked at the large being. "I'm not going to let you just have it."

"Enough." The Supreme Elder looked at them and then back at Almace. "For what purpose do you wish to have this weapon? If it is to save the world, then..."

"Yeah, I don't really care." Lina interrupted as she walked forward and stepped in front of the Dragon Elder, who glared at her. "Look, buddy, you want the Sword of Light, get in line, there's a lot of people who want it. I'm pretty sure that what you want to do with it isn't in our best interests anyway."

Almace sneered at the human who had the audacity to stand in front of him. "You think... That you can order me around like that? I need the Sword of Light! With it, I will summon Dark Star and..."

"Figures." Lina snapped off a fireball, which erupted just before hitting him. "And you're not normal, are you?"

"Perceptive." Almace grinned at her. "But I need that weapon. I'll even make you a deal. I won't summon Dark Star to this world if you just hand it over to me."

Lina narrowed her eyes at him. "Sorry, but I used to live in this world, so, you aren't getting anything."

"Enough!" The Dragon Elder snapped at her, before chanting a spell that had Lina looking at him in confusion. "Ray Freeze!"

Everyone in the room, but Almace, Filia and the Elder Dragon was frozen as a golden light covered the room. As feeling left his hands, Gourry dropped Gorun Nova, which the Supreme Elder moved towards and picked up. "I'm sorry." He said as the humans started cursing him out. He could live with that. "But I must do what I can to protect this world and..."

He stopped as the ground in front of him exploded. Turning, he gasped as Lina started moving, very slowly, towards him, her body encased in a golden aura. He and Almace both were shocked when she opened her eyes and the left one was completely glowing golden. "I've spent... Sixteen years learning this power, Elder... If you honestly think that a simple Holy spell is going to stop me, then you're wrong." A black ball of energy formed in front of her as the spell around her faded. "Power of the Lord of Nightmares, mother of all creation, flows through my body, and you're trying to do something so _stupid_?"

"Then you are no ally." The Supreme Elder frowned at her. "To sell yourself to the Dark Lords of all Dark Lords."

Lina snarled at him. "Sell myself? Big talk coming from someone who's trying to sell the world out."

"I'm trying to _save_ the world!" He stressed to her. "But to use the power of [i]that[/i] Dark Lord? You're going to doom us all!"

Almace stared as Lina's body flared in golden energy. He had _never_ seen or felt such power from a human before. "Wait..."

"Too late!" Gourry yelled as he picked up the Sword of Light and stood by the others, who were recently freed from the spell.

"Heh, good job." Lina smirked as the glow from her body started to abate, but not before she and the others disappeared in a black flash, before reappearing outside, startling everyone.

"Mom?" Nanoha gasped as her mother appear in front of her glowing like a sun, she had _never_ seen her mother do this before.

Lina closed her eyes, the glow completely subsiding, before shaking her head. She couldn't keep it up for very long, even with a soul fragment of L-Sama in her soul. Her body just couldn't handle it for too long before she was forced to cancel it. 'How the hell do seals of Shabranigdo handle it?' At least Rezo and Lei Magnus' positions were a lot easier to understand. Hell, how did her _sister_ handle that piece of Cephied in her? "Never mind, looks like we've got other problems now."

"You're right!" Lina gasped as she looked up and saw a green haired, shirtless man looking down at her. "For killing my master, Gaav, you'll pay for this!"

The Dragons looked around, readying their weapons, when the Supreme Elder ran out onto a balcony and looked down. "My troops, that one, Lina Takamachi, has aligned herself fully with the Darkest of all Dark Lords."

"But, Supreme Elder!" Filia gasped, having been teleported out with the others. "If we are to believe what the Knight of Cephied said..."

"Filia, stand aside or be destroyed with them."

"You fool!" Valgaav yelled at him while gripping Ragudo Mezegis and glaring down at the Supreme Elder. "Lina Inverse is MY prey! And then, you're next!"

"Valgaav, enough." Almace said as he appeared on the ground in front of the large group. "Just give me Gorun Nova." He held out Nezard and said three words that had most people staring in shock. "Light Come Forth." The three prongs on the weapon lit up in power.

"Are you betraying me, Almace?" Valgaav glared at the Shinzoku. "Light Come Forth!"

"What the hell?" Gourry cursed as he saw the two weapons light up. "I thought there was only one Sword of Light!"

"Guess the rumors were true after all." Lina muttered as she looked at this. "I'm up for suggestions."

There was some slow clapping that had the Golden Dragons turning and suddenly looking on in terror. "My, my... All of this going down at once, hmm?"

"Xellos!" The Supreme Elder gulped, he remembered just what that Mazoku had done all those years ago. "Hold back, men."

"Aww!" A new voice spoke up and even Xellos was surprised as two more women joined the group, one was a large woman with green hair parted and framing her face with a bandage over her nose and one eye open as the other one was scarred over and closed and the other one was a shorter woman with blue hair done up in a pigtail while her hands were on the hilt of a rather ornate sword. "And Sherra and I were looking forward to a bloodbath."

"Riksfalto." Xellos said flatly. "What are you doing here? I'm pretty sure that Deep Sea Dolphin has no plans for this place."

"Deep Sea Dolphin?" Amelia, Zelgadis and Sylphiel gasped at the same time.

Riksfalto didn't answer as she pulled out a rather interesting bauble. "Don't worry about it, Xellos, this isn't going to screw up your master's plans for these worthless Dragons and that human." Sherra disappeared from view as Riksfalto sneered at Almace. "Servants of the Gods sure are quick to doom a world when it suits them, huh?"

The Supreme Elder narrowed his eyes at the Mazoku. "Just because you survived the Koma wars doesn't mean that you can order us around."

"Oh sure, sure. Let's just ignore the fact that you basically _slaughtered_ the Ancient Dragons, just because they were better than you were." Riksfalto growled at him. "At least we Mazoku don't do that without a good reason."

"Really?" Valgaav spoke up as he floated closer to the ground. "Then what about my master?"

"He tried to usurp Lord Ruby-Eyes and was a threat to the race as a whole." Riksfalto shot back at him. "Besides, if you don't help us, then you won't get your revenge."

"My, my, seems that everyone's an enemy around here." Xellos said as he materialized next to Filia, who looked on in revulsion at him. "I was starting to wonder if Valgaav was going to show up at all."

Yuuno frowned, so that was who the Golden Dragons turned on.

Almace frowned. "If only we had Galveira, this would have been taken care of already."

That caught Lina and Yuuno's attentions for different reasons, when suddenly there was some yelling among the Dragons. Turning, and Lina was starting to worry about whiplash, she gasped as at least five Dragons started glowing black, before being kicked down into the courtyard in front of them. "Riksfalto, now!" Sherra yelled as she disappeared, Valgaav doing the same and Riksfalto throwing a sphere to the ground, enclosing the entire group in a black dome of power that lasted only four seconds, before three black beams shot out into various directions. By the time that everyone recovered, only Almace, the Dragons that weren't in the courtyard and Xellos were still around.

Xellos frowned. This wasn't good. "That sphere, haven't seen one of those in a thousand years." He sighed, wondering where everyone was, before teleporting away himself.

* * *

"Captain!" Amy gasped as she looked at the world map. "An above SSS+ teleportation was struck up where Miss Lina and the others were."

Lindy frowned as she looked at it. "Tell me something, Amy, can we get any scans into those black dots along the continent?"

"Negative, the power there is like what Death Bringer was using to warp the area around the former Ground Forces HQ."

Lindy sighed, how could this have happened? "Do your best to get through that field, Amy."

"Roger!" Amy's fingers flew over the keyboard as she tried to break down what the field was.

* * *

"Where are we?" Zelgadis asked as he looked at Lyos, Sylphiel and Lina.

"Looks like a graveyard." Lina frowned as she looked around.

"You're right." On top of a small shrine, Sherra stood, her sword glowing with power, around her, the five Dragons, formerly Gold, now Demons, were glowing in darkness. "This is the Heroes graveyard, where many humans and other creatures that fought in the wars, ages past, died." She smirked at Lina before blasting the ground and the undead creatures started to crawl out of the ground. "Can you defeat my undead Demon army?"

* * *

Nanoha looked around as she saw the Colosseum, before gasping as creatures that looked like zombies started to pile in around her, Fate, Arf, Amelia and Filia.

"You!" She looked up and gasped as she saw Valgaav pointing Ragudo Mezegis at her. "You're Lina Inverse's daughter. I will make you suffer as I have since my lord Gaav died!"

"Raising Heart!" Nanoha gripped her device.

"Bardiche." Fate frowned even as Arf turned into her large wolf form for this fight.

"SET UP!"

**"Standby Ready."** Both devices called out as the two called up their Barrier Jackets. Fate shifted Bardiche to Zambar mode while Nanoha called up Excellion Mode.

"Interesting." Valgaav grinned and snapped his fingers, the former humans moving towards them. "Can you slaughter that village?" He pointed at Nanoha. "She is mine! The rest of you can do whatever you want to them!" He rushed forward, Ragudo Mezegis glowing brightly as he raced down to face Nanoha head on.

* * *

"Well, well, well..." Riksfalto grinned as she looked at the four males of the group. "I get the easiest group to kill." She chuckled as she pulled out her sword. "I'll play fair... I won't attack you from the Astral Plane." Oh well, she wanted to fight these four anyway. "Let's see if you four boys can actually get me excited." She grinned as Shiro frowned while gripping his sword, Gourry had his hand on Gorun Nova while Chrono called up S2U and Durandal while Yuuno took a defensive posture. "This will be fun." She smirked as she looked around. "Several battles were fought here before any of us existed." There were still some weapons laying around discarded. "This field... SHALL BE YOUR GRAVE!"

* * *

Oh dear, things really derailed from canon, no?

Yes, I know that the Supreme Elder isn't like this in canon, but I have reasons for this. Trust me. The ONLY reason Valgaav's working with Sherra, Riksfalto and Huraker is because they weren't responsible for Gaav's death and they promised that he would get revenge on Lina for what happened to Gaav.

Plus, two or three on one? Even if he's stronger, there's more of them and they can beat him and he knows it.

One more note. I never did buy into the whole "our astral bodies are on a different wavelength than the magic of your world" for the Shinzoku and Dark Star in Try. My personal thoughts is that the Shinzoku sealed away their astral bodies back in their home universe, and since their physical bodies aren't real, just like Mazoku, nothing can really harm them outside of Chaos magic. After all, the bodies you see aren't real, and physical spells can't harm astral beings, and if their real bodies aren't there either, then there's almost nothing that can harm them.

However, doing that, their bodies are tough, but incredibly fragile if they get hit. Destroy the physical body and they die for real.


	37. Try 5

Try 5

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Well, since there's 3 fights going on, there will be 3 chapters, one for each fight.

And, if you're expecting a curb-stomp battle, please, I don't like those. I might let the heroes have an edge or the villains have an edge that makes it look good or bad for them, but if I wanted to write a fic about characters that won every fight, I'd go read some Naruto fanfiction. =/

You NEED to have tension and drama to have a compelling story.

And sometimes, you need to do things to keep your strongest character out of the story.

But, that's just my opinion.

First fight... Valgaav vs Nanoha and friends

Fight!

* * *

Nanoha frowned as Valgaav rushed down at her. "Fate-chan, I'll deal with him, help Filia-san and Amelia-san with those things."

Fate nodded as she flew into the fray.

"Visfarank!" Amelia yelled as her hands glowed with power, before she started punching the various Demons. "Using humans as Demon slaves? I, Amelia Wil Tesla Seiryuun, will not stand for such injustice! In the name of all that is good and just in this world, I shall punish you!" She pointed at Valgaav, who was ignoring her as he held an open palm at Nanoha, firing a powerful magic blast at the young girl.

"Miss Amelia." Fate said softly as she cleaved a Demon in twain with her Zambar, which was now red in color, "we need to concentrate on these creatures."

"Don't worry about Nanoha." Arf yelled as she used binds to tie up more of the Demons. "She can make miracles happen."

Fate smiled softly and nodded. "Yes, she can."

"Flame Bless!" Filia yelled as she set a group of four on fire. "There's so many of them!"

"Then we need to speed this up!" Arf growled, these things were starting to move faster. "How can they!" She gasped as the ones who had been taken out suddenly got back up, looking as though they weren't hurt. In fact, if anything, they seemed to be gaining flesh.

Fate frowned as she slashed down more of the demon-like humans.

"Ra Tilt!"

"Chaotic Disintegrate!"

The spells fired from Amelia and Filia shrouded the arena in white.

"Fate!" Arf growled and looked at her master. "Let's try that out!"

"You sure?" Fate asked, and Arf nodded. "Alright!" She closed her eyes and jumped up, before landing on Arf's back as the wolf started running at a high speed towards the rest of the demon-creatures.

Fate held Bardiche Zambar behind her as it started glowing red with power. She grit her teeth as she swung her weapon forward, slamming into some of the demons and moving them off of their feet in a circular sweeping motion, over and over again, before the creatures were launched into the air, spinning around and around. "Dragon Zambar SLAVE!" Fate yelled, firing an extremely potent Dragon Slave into the funnel, which exploded as the enemies collided with the spell.

* * *

Meanwhile, as that fight was going on, another fight was happening.

Nanoha gasped as his power nearly punched through her barrier. "So strong." She yelped as he fired a powerful ball of red energy at her that her barrier barely managed to deflect.

**"We can defeat him, if we remain calm."**

Nanoha nodded and took aim at him. "Axel Bolt!"

Valgaav's eyes widened as several pink beams, all crackling with lightning shot out from the tip of that spear and straight at him. "What the?" He didn't know what they were, but he didn't care, using Ragudo Mezegis, he slashed through the spell before swinging his weapon down at Nanoha and crashing into her barrier. "So, that weird shield again. Can you really stand up to the lance that pierces?"

Nanoha's eyes widened as the weapon seemed to respond to that and its power increased, the edge became serrated, before easily slashing through her barrier and cutting into her jacket somewhat, before she was launched to the ground at high speeds. "What?" She put her hand to the slash and gasped as she felt a trickle of blood seep out. She knew just how strong her barrier jacket was, and how strong her shields were, for a single attack to slash through so easily, it was terrifying.

And exhilerating at the same time.

Valgaav sneered at her. "Don't you know? Each weapon of light has a basic power, when you call forth the light, and it's true power, when you call it's purpose out. Gorun Nova, the sword that slashes, Ragudo Mezegis, the spear that pierces all, Nezzard, the claw that gouges, Bodigar, the axe that bashes, and Galveira, the arrow that flies. When you call forth their power like that, they're far more dangerous than they are normally." Gripping his weapon, he let loose a scream, even as the area below him was engulfed in white energy. "I'll kill you, and your mother can learn the pain I felt when my master was killed by her!"

"Raising Heart."

**"Excellion Buster. Barrel shot."**

Valgaav's eyes widened as a near-invisible power washed over him, freezing his body in place. "What?" He growled as his Mazoku power started to flood his body, before a giant pink beam of energy rushed forward and slammed into him, sending him flying backwards, before it exploded.

The pink light contrasted the red ball quite nicely.

"Good job, Raising Heart." Nanoha smiled at her device.

**"No problem."**

Nanoha smiled as she saw the others. "That was..."

"YOU BITCH!" Everyone looked up and gasped as they saw Valgaav, only his look had changed. He now was sporting feather-like black wings on his back, his arms were covered in the same colored scales and his hands were clawed as he glared at her. His body was smoldering from that last attack. "I'll KILL YOU!" Swinging his weapon, a wave of power crashed down on the group, sending them to their knees. "DIE!" His eyes were glowing with power as he rushed towards Nanoha.

Nanoha looked up and grit her teeth. She didn't know what she could do, she had to do something, but what?

**"Call me, Assault Mode, Master."**

Nanoha blinked as she looked at Raising Heart. "What?"

**"Call me, my master."**

Valgaav held Ragudo Mezegis above his head. "Now... DIE!" He was almost within striking distance of the girl and everything to Nanoha seemed to be moving in incredibly slow motion at that moment.

Nanoha's eyes widened. "Assault Mode... ACTIVATE!"

**"Drive Ignition."**

Valgaav grunted as she was shielded with light that assaulted his physical and astral senses. "WHAT THE HELL?" He had to float back as a surge of power pushed against his body, forcing him back to avoid going blind and deaf.

Nanoha gasped as Raising Heart broke apart a bit, the red gem floating to her chest as the head actually increased in size. She wondered what was going on when her staff started to unravel on her, leaving her with nothing to defend herself if he attacked.

She looked up as the tip of Raising Heart split apart, becoming an "x" shape that came to a rest on her shoulders, latching down to form a protective barrier on her chest. Looking down, she could see metal bands go from the side of her hips upwards until the "x" met right where the gem of Raising Heart was. The gem was then half-covered in the metal that made up the spear head of Excellion Mode.

Her eyes widened as she felt the sides of Excellion Mode strap themselves to her back. The spear edges became wings on her back that pointed downwards. She gasped as she felt her feet, hands, arms and legs get wrapped up in a familiar feeling metal. "The shaft..." So that was why it broke apart like it did.

The metal bands went from her fingers and toes up to her shoulders, where her puffy shoulders were covered in metal. She gasped as her neck was wrapped up as well, before the metal went up the sides of her head, covering her ears, a pink-tinted visor then covered her face. Looking down, she saw that her right wrist gained a flat surface, before a magical chain formed on it, spiraling around the center, before a jagged point stuck out, facing towards her finger tips, before it was covered in a dome-like cover. It looked like some sort of grappling hook. Her eyes widened as she felt wheels form under her feet, as well as the cartridge system forming on the outsides of her legs.

Her left arm gained a rather large cannon. Well, large for her anyway. It seemed connected to her arm, starting at the elbow, the back of it was a box that seemed to have a power cell or something, the barrel of the cannon went so far forward that if she lowered her hand down, it would reach below her feet. A bar extended out for her hand to grab, which she did, and a button, right where her thumb could touch, was there.

"What the?" Nanoha blinked as she looked at herself.

Valgaav shook his head. "I don't know what you're trying, but this won't help you!" He swung Ragudo Mezegis at Nanoha's head.

**"Protection Enhanced."** Raising Heart and Nanoha said at the same time, as a pink wall appeared between Nanoha and Valgaav, the weapon of light stopping cold in its tracks.

"WHAT?" He couldn't believe this, the power was at maximum, he was using his real power, he couldn't feel any give to her new armored form.

"Divine..." Nanoha said softly as a pink ball appeared at the tip of the cannon. "...No..." Nanoha shook her head. "Supreme... Buster!" Nanoha yelled as a buster beam, far stronger than even Excellion Buster, lashed out, point blank range, and sent Valgaav flying back, screaming as he was bombarded with Holy magic.

"Nanoha?" Fate gasped as she saw her friend, before blinking owlishly. "...I have _got_ to get me one of those!"

"What's going on?" Nanoha asked as an image of Mary popped up in her view screen.

"Ah, I see you activated it. If you're wondering, the cannon is a weapon that can help you channel any of your strongest spells without any problem to your body at all."

"Um, you're not making sense."

"Sorry, it's a mode to help you use your power properly. Raising Heart asked for a mode so you can use that Chaos power of yours." Nanoha gasped slightly, even as Raising Heart, on her chest, pulsed softly. "As you are, you're only slightly stronger than you were before. Concentrate, and let loose the real power."

"You..." Valgaav growled as he got to his feet, his wings stood out as he looked at her, pissed. Blood dripped from his lips. "I'll KILL YOU!" His body was smoldering and trembling in pain. He had never felt such raw pain as he felt at that moment.

Nanoha closed her eyes and concentrated. "Let's go... Raising Heart..."

**"Chaos Enhance."**

Valgaav flew forward, ignoring the way that Nanoha's body glowed golden, even as she looked at him with black and gold eyes.

"Use the whip to fight him in melee, Nanoha." Mary's image spoke up as the chain suddenly glowed pink and with Nanoha's swings, not only blocked Valgaav's attacks, but pushed him back into the air as she swung upwards, the shock wave of power was enough to cause the others on the ground to have to cover their faces to keep the dirt out of their eyes.

"Listen Nanoha, one last piece of information. You can only maintain that mode for five minutes at most. Any longer and one of three things will happen. One, you'll go berserk again. Two, Raising Heart will be destroyed. Or three, you could die. All of those are bad things, so keep this in mind."

Nanoha nodded. **"Alright."** She said softly, her voice was the same as it had been when she was crazy before.

Looking up, Nanoha took to the skies after Valgaav and the fight quickly became a duel of pink energy lancing out against white energy, with various technicolor beams of energy thrown in as well.

"HOW!" Valgaav yelled as he took a gold-laced Divine Buster to the side of his body. "How is she so strong!" His body was smoldering with energy from the various near misses. His skin was crawling just from the feel of the aura of that girl.

**"By combining my master's power with my own, our ability is many times more powerful than before."**

Valgaav panted and looked at the others, before pointing at Filia. "You... Worthless Gold Dragon, your kind... I curse you... For the unjust murder of my people a thousand years ago!" He snarled at her surprised look. Looking at Nanoha, he narrowed his eyes. "We'll meet again." He growled and disappeared.

**"Raising Heart..."** Nanoha whimpered, time was almost up. **"How do we..?"**

**"Chaos purge."**

Nanoha's eyes widened as the wings on her back seemed to rise up and a golden energy washed over the field, returning her to normal, before Raising Heart returned to Excellion mode. "Is everyone okay?"

Fate blinked and nodded as she looked at the others. "Weird, that didn't hurt."

**"It was just energy, sir, the Chaos power was shot straight up where it dispelled."**

Fate nodded and smiled at Bardiche. "Thank you." She then walked up to Nanoha and gave her a wry smile. "So... Where can I get one of these modes?"

"Nyahahahah..." Nanoha giggled and stuck her tongue out.

* * *

What? I bet some of you were curious about Nanoha's new mode that she got back in "New", right? Well, here it is.

So, yeah, I don't like curb-stomp battles...

Unless there's a reason for them, like showing off a new power.

Oh dear, looks like Fate wants an upgrade for herself.


	38. Try 6

Try 6

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Again, this fight, Nanoha's fight and the fight of Riksfalto vs the men of the group are all happening at once.

Now it's time for Lina and Co. to go at it.

* * *

Lina looked at the various zombies and the newly minted Demon Dragons and narrowed her eyes. "First that stubborn Dragon decides that I'm public enemy number one and now this?" She sighed as she looked at Sherra. "So, tell me, who's your master?"

"He has no interest in this conflict." Sherra had a rather bored look on her face. "Though, your ability to use "mother's" power so freely is interesting, how is it possible?"

Lina smirked at Sherra as the zombies surrounded them, not moving just yet. "Why don't you go ask her?" A sphere of fire appeared in her hands.

"Why don't you use that power from before?" Lyos snapped at her. "You could crush them all with it." He wasn't sure, but the Dragons seemed terrified of it.

Lina growled and snapped at him. "Idiot! The power of the Lord of Nightmares, using that willingly starts breaking my body down. It _kills_ me to use it for more than a moment. EVERY spell and power that calls upon the lady taxes my body so much that it's crazy." Hell, even though she could have cast multiple Ragna Blades these days, her body was in such a mess afterwords that it took her weeks to recover. Hell, the only reason she even bothered using multiple Ragna Blades against Death Bringer was because of the Demon's Blood Talismans.

And those were the _safest_ powers of L-Sama she could use.

"I see." Sherra grinned at her. "Even with her power, you're nothing but a human."

"More than enough to kick your cute little Mazoku butt." Lina grinned up at her.

"We'll see." Sherra snapped her fingers and the demons started to move towards them.

"Lina, please tell me that you can deal with this amount of enemies without blowing all of us up." Zelgadis said as his sword glowed a bright red. Lina found it interesting that Zelgadis would choose to turn back to his Chimera form for fighting, but then reasoned that it was better this way, at least he wouldn't be so squishy.

"Actually, yes..." Lina smirked and snapped her fingers at the zombies. "Blast Bomb."

"WHAT?" Sherra and Zelgadis were shocked. No human, no human could cast that spell without amplifying their magic levels with something like Gorun Nova or the Demon's Blood Talismans.

Shocking as it was for Lina to say that, it was more shocking to see several small domes of firey death engulfing the zombies, destroying them.

Lina groaned and panted softly. "Dammit..." She screwed her eyes tight as she fell to her knees. "Ugh..."

"Sylphiel." Zelgadis snapped to the healer. "Get her back on her feet." The last thing they needed was Lina out of the fight. "Lyos, if that power of yours means anything, help us deal with the Dragons and that Mazoku."

Sherra grimaced as she looked at the handiwork. "Impossible." Humans shouldn't have had that much power, her entire zombie forces were taken out in an instant.

"Should have cast Raugnut Rushavna on them."

Sherra frowned at her sword. "Quiet you." Still, maybe it was right. Even so... "You five, get them!" She growled as Zelgadis and Lyos rushed at her remaining forces.

Lina groaned as Sylphiel cast Resurrection on her body. "Don't... Don't bother." Lina shook her head. "I'll get better." At least she wasn't hurting anymore. "Help... Help them."

"Miss Lina." Sylphiel frowned softly at her. "Please, we need you. Why is it so..."

"No human... Should have the power of the Lord of Nightmares." Lina said softly as Sylphiel held her hands over Lina's chest. "The Ragna Blade... Is the safest power that any human should use." She groaned heavily. "I never... Sold my soul to L-Sama..."

Sylphiel shook her head. "I never believed that." She smiled softly. "When you were back, Gourry-dear... He was so happy, even if you were married now. He would be so sad if you were gone."

Lina chuckled and coughed hard before grabbing Sylphiel. "Go, help them out, I'll be fine now."

Sylphiel nodded and turned to look as Zelgadis and Lyos were being driven back by the Dragons. "Miss Lina... I'm still upset at you... For casting the Giga Slave, and for hurting poor Gourry-dear. So don't go and die because of something so stupid."

As Sylphiel walked off, Lina smiled softly and groaned. Really, she could use the pure Chaos that resided in her, but anything longer than a moment? It was just as harmful to her as it was to her enemies.

Which was why she didn't bothered developing much more than just that version of purification and her personal teleportation spell.

"Should have known that it wouldn't be a good idea to cast the Blast Bomb after weakening myself back at the temple." Lina muttered to herself.

"Then why do it?" Lina looked up to see Sherra looking at her curiously. "No Mazoku would do something so stupid. Even those worthless Dragons aren't so stupid as to push themselves like that."

Lina smirked at her. "I'm human, we don't give up just because things are hard." Still, she felt like crap, and if Sherra decided to attack her, well, she wasn't sure that she could do anything.

Sherra smirked at Lina. "Your body is torn up." She knelt down and smirked at Lina. "You can't even cast a Flare Bit right now, can you?"

"Miss Lina!" Sylphiel finally noticed Sherra next to Lina. "You, Mazoku, leave her alone!" She gasped as Sherra fired a powerful sphere of destruction at her. Reacting quickly, a barrier went up, blocking the attack, but forcing her off of her feet.

Sherra shook her head, she may not have been as powerful as Huraker, Riksfalto, or anywhere near as close to Xellos in power, but she was still pretty strong. "To be honest, I was just curious how someone who killed Hellmaster and Gaav could be so weak right now."

"I'm near the end of my youth, Sherra. We humans get older after a few years." Lina shook her head at the confused look on the Mazoku's face. "You should know this." Lina was pretty sure that her youth was going to last a long time at least. Rezo was at least one hundred twenty years old when she killed him and he didn't look a day over forty.

Sherra shrugged, she honestly didn't care about that. "Yeah, well, it's not something I care about." Though, she found it odd that Lina didn't look any older than her other human friends, and that wasn't her physical looks, but the way her Astral Body was.

"Elmekia Flame." Zelgadis called out snapping a spell at Sherra, who blocked it in an instant.

"Nice try." Sherra said as she stood up to her full height.

Considering that she was about as short as Lina had been before a late growth spurt had increased her height from 147 cm to 160 cm, it wasn't too impressive over-all. "You know..." Lina chuckled as she saw Sherra. "For someone so short, you're rather well-developed."

Sherra smirked at her, even as Lyos cried out in pain as he was knocked away. "I'm surprised that your companions have lasted this long against Demon Gold Dragons."

Lina smirked at Sherra. "Zelgadis is a lot tougher than you think, Sylphiel might not be too good in a fight, but she can surprise you. Even that kid, Lyos, has a lot more power than even you know, he just needs to pull it out."

Lyos blinked as he heard that. Lina had kept dismissing him with every step of the way, but she was saying that now? And why weren't these Dragons doing anything more than just attacking them with physical attacks?

His eyes widened as a black laser beam escaped from the Dragons mouths, trying to destroy him as the ground was torn up while he jumped out of the way from the attacks. "Okay, no more wondering about stupid things."

"Elmekia Flame!" Zelgadis growled as the spell didn't seem to do anything to the Dragons. "Sylphiel, you gotta do it!"

"There's no, eek, room!" Sylphiel grunted as she was knocked back by a Dragon's attack.

"Just do it!" Zelgadis growled as he moved to get the Dragons closer together.

Lyos growled, he felt so helpless, so powerless, if only... If only he could just _do_ something!

Sherra's eyes suddenly widened as she looked at Lyos in surprise. "What the?" His body was glowing with power, the energy was focusing around his sword as the power built up. "This is..." The energy, it wasn't Black, it wasn't Shamanistic, it wasn't Chaotic... It was... "HOLY?"

"RAAAAARRRGH!" Lyos let loose a yell as he swung his sword forward, a torrent of white-blue energy rushed forward and took the shape of a Blue Serpentine Dragon that swallowed the Dragons before launching them into the sky, where the water turned into ice, stabbing through the Dragons, killing them all instantly.

"Incredible..." Sherra shook her head as she saw Zelgadis and Sylphiel turn on her. She noticed that Lyos fell to his knees and seemed to be unable to move anymore. "Heh..." She smirked at Lina, who was still hadn't moved, before leaning down and getting close to Lina's ear. "I was just a distraction anyway. I wonder if your daughter survived Valgaav or not. And your husband... I hear Huraker's quite lethal." She smirked as she felt the raw anger and worry instantly spring up from Lina. "Well, time to go." She disappeared for an instant, before reappearing in the air and laughing at them. "We'll meet again, Lina Inverse." She laughed as she disappeared from view.

If only she was allowed to kill Lina Inverse. But no. They _needed_ to let her live for now. Once Xellos' plans went through though... All bets were off.

"I don't like her." Sylphiel said as she knelt down and went back to working on Lina's body. "Still, that was too easy... Why was that?"

Zelgadis shook his head and went to check on Lyos. "It's simple. They were forced to turn into Demons against their wills. They're far too prideful and strong-willed to just give up like that. They had to fight us, but they didn't have to fight well." He grimaced as he saw the dead bodies flop to the ground at various points around the graveyard. "So that's the power of Holy magic, huh?" He looked at Lyos with some new respect. "Kid, you better be able to control that power, we're going to need it in the future."

* * *

Raugnut Rushavna - A mazoku curse that makes a person immortal and unkillable as long as the mazoku who cast it is still alive. The curse part comes from the fact that snakes pop out of your skin and start biting you, causing you tremendous pain and your body swells into a lump of flesh. It's a spell that Sherra's blade is known to cast in the novels.

Yes, Lyos has Holy magic, if you notice, it's... Quite a bit different than the magic we saw in Try.

Okay, now that that's out of the way...

I know people are going to complain about Lina not being able to finish off Sherra like that, but let me explain.

The power of the Lord of Nightmares, the power of creation, really, Lina, despite how powerful she is, is STILL human. She has limits. If she was over 100 years old like Rezo was, she probably could have lasted longer with what she did.

Like I said before, don't expect curb-stomp battles from me without a reason. Lina might be a lot stronger now, but, so what? If I had Lina fix everything, then the story would be rather dull, don't you think?

Really, at that point, it's just fan-wanking.


	39. Try 7

Try 7

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Again, this fight, Nanoha's fight and what happened with Lina is all happening at once.

Now it's time for the men to go at it.

One more thing. I have REASONS, I swear, GOOD reasons, why Lina wasn't able to just OMGWTFBBQ! win in the last chapter.

I swear! But, you have to keep reading to find out.

This chapter came about because of the Movie.

Yeah, that's right, THIS chapter was made because of the Nanoha Movie.

* * *

The four moved out of the way as Riksfalto swung her sword down, destroying the ground that they were standing on and kicking up dirt and grass.

"Light Come Forth." Gourry may not have remembered a lot, but he knew that most people couldn't smash the ground so easily with a single swing of their sword. Swinging it up, he brought it down and gaped as the Sword of Light was blocked by her sword. "How?"

Riksfalto grinned at him. "The Sword of Light can cut through most magic swords and even most Mazoku, but me?" She punched Gourry in the chest, leaving a hole in the shape of her fist in his armor and sending him flying away from her. "Don't make me laugh." She twisted her arm, blocking an attack from Shiro, who was going for her feet. "Really? A normal weapon, what good is that?"

"A distraction." Shiro smirked at her, and it slowly dawned on Riksfalto that something was up.

"Blaze Tilt!"

Riksfalto turned, only to take a blue-white beam that was fired from the top of S2U. Closing her eye, she crossed her arms slightly, before flexing and swinging her arms to the side, the energy surrounding her dispelling and looking like loose flames that fizzled in the air. "Not bad!" She grinned at Chrono. "Interlinking spells, even if I managed to dispel one, I'd still be hit with the other one. And with the way that they're linked, it's pretty hard to break either one up."

Chrono was a little stunned, they were fighting for their lives and she was _complimenting_ him? "Gah!" He threw up a barrier as her sword clashed against his shield. His eyes widened as she grinned and put more force into it, eventually cutting through his barrier before grabbing him by his neck with her free hand.

"Not bad, kid." She blinked as Shiro kicked her in the side and slashed against her side, cutting into her body, which healed in an instant. "What? Don't you know that you can't hurt a Mazoku with a normal weapon?" She tossed Chrono away, who bounced off the ground once before he flew straight up. "You four, really are unlucky." She jumped at Shiro, who parried her blade and her face lit up in glee. "You're good!"

Shiro grunted, that parry nearly ripped his arm off. "You're not bad." She was just so fast and strong, no wonder his wife was so strong, if she had to deal with creatures like this one when she was younger.

Riksfalto grinned and grabbed Shiro's arm before stabbing forward, aiming at his chest, she stopped when she felt something wrap around her arm. "What the?" There were green chains on her arm, but they weren't really stopping her, she just found it interesting. She looked around and ignored Shiro as he kicked himself free of her. "Don't..." She looked up and grinned as she saw Yuuno floating in mid air, a green circle under him. "Underestimate me!"

"I'm not." Yuuno muttered as he fired an Elmekia Flame down at her face.

"Not bad, boy!" She roared as she flew up to meet his challenge, the chains on her arm shattering in an instant, the attack that he launched smashed into her back, doing nothing as she laughed at him.

Yuuno grunted and threw up several barriers, grunting as she broke through them one at a time.

"Stupid kid!" Riksfalto growled as she swung her sword back, "forget that I can cancel spells?" She bellowed at him, only to blink as her sword was stopped inches from his body. "Huh?"

"You said it yourself, interlinking spells are hard to dispel." Yuuno said to her as his astral barrier held.

"What the hell is this?" Riksfalto growled as she found it hard to move her blade against the barrier.

"Got the idea from seeing the Astral Vine." Yuuno grimaced, even so, it was hard to keep the barrier up against someone so powerful. He gasped as she disappeared, only to reappear behind him.

"Got you." Riksfalto grinned as she swung her sword towards and through his neck, only to blink stupidly as his image faded. "Huh?"

On the ground, Yuuno panted heavily, that teleportation spell almost didn't get off.

Riksfalto grinned as she looked at the four on the ground. "Oh, come on! This is fun!" She then disappeared and reappeared just in front of Shiro and swung her sword with enough force that, even though Shiro was able to parry the attack, the sword shattered from the force, before she kicked him across the field and into a rock formation.

Riksfalto leaned back as Gourry swung at her face. "Nice try." She chuckled and swung her sword up, only to find him blocking it with Gorun Nova. "You're just as good."

"I aim to please." Gourry said through clenched teeth.

Riksfalto looked him over and smirked. "I bet that the ladies don't complain when you're done at night either."

Gourry blinked stupidly. "Huh?"

Riksfalto looked at him in confusion. "Wait, you've never..?"

"Never what?" Gourry asked the Mazoku, who growled and kicked him away from her.

"Man, I don't like people who can't pick up on things!" Riksfalto snarled at Gourry, who slid across the field, before turning to look at Chrono and Yuuno. "Alright, boys... Maybe one of you can entertain me for more than a moment here."

"She's a monster..." Chrono muttered softly and called up Durandall. At the very worst, it wouldn't work, and, well, none of their spells were working right now anyway.

"New toy, huh?" Riksfalto grinned as she rushed up to him and held her sword up high. "Take th..is?" Blinking she found her momentum was completely stopped as her arms were bound together. "Huh?"

"Astral.. Bind... Got'cha."

"Yeah, right!" Riksfalto flexed her arms and shattered the binds. "But that was neat, what's next?"

**"Eternal Coffin!"**

Riksfalto had a surprised look as her body was encased in frozen ice. Well, that had been unexpected, to say the least.

"Think we..." Yuuno trailed off as the ice shattered and bounced off their auto shields. "Never mind." He muttered as the air was covered in cold vapor. "What does it take?"

Riksfalto was grinning as she looked at the boys. "I've not had this much fun in _years_, boys! If I was nicer, I'd actually let you live for this." She chuckled as she rushed towards them.

* * *

Shiro groaned and shook his head. "Damn..." He looked up just in time to see Riksfalto break out of the ice. Looking at his broken sword, he cursed and tossed it away. "Now what?" He leaned back and blinked as he felt something poking his sword hand, looking down, he found a rather plain-looking sword on the ground. Well, it may not have been something that he would have used, but at least it wasn't broken like his was. As he picked it up, he blinked, it felt... Weird. Like there was something hidden. "How are you handling?" He looked at Gourry, who offered him a hand up.

"Body hurts." The blond admitted but grinned at him. "But if I just gave up, I'd never be able to show my face around anyone ever again." He looked at the sword Shiro had. "Can you use that?"

"Feels weird, but I might as well." He shrugged and looked as Riksfalto rushed at the kids. "We're going to have to hit her with a surprise attack, if I open her side up, can you get that sword into her?"

"I'll try." Gourry nodded as they moved forward.

* * *

Chrono grunted as Riksfalto was on him so fast that he couldn't react, Durandall getting slashed through, leaving the head on the ground and the staff in his hands. His eyes widened as she held an open palm towards his face, a red sphere of magical energy forming there.

"Goodbye, kiddo." She leered at him, before grasping at her neck as chains wrapped around there, cutting her concentration. "This again?" She growled, before swinging back with her sword and, with more effort than it should have taken, the chains broke. "You..." She pointed her weapon at Yuuno. "That's pretty good, kid, too bad you're useless otherwise!"

Yuuno glared at her, but otherwise felt pretty good. "Too bad for you, I'll bind you for good next time."

Riksfalto smirked at him. "I like confident men... So, PROVE IT!" She disappeared, before reappearing in the sky, and disappearing again, reappearing from place to place, seemingly at random and too fast to get a good look. "Little boy, little boy... Wishes that he had a little toy." Riksfalto taunted Yuuno before reappearing behind Chrono and kicking him in the rear and sending him crashing into the ground, face-first and disappearing again.

Yuuno narrowed his eyes as he looked around. "Got you." A green circle appeared under his feet.

"Oh really? Are you sure about that!" Riksfalto yelled as she kept warping around the battlefield.

"Yeah." Yuuno smirked and held a hand behind him. "Astral Bind!"

Riksfalto gaped as she found herself with chains between her breasts, around her neck and across her hips. "What?"

"I figured you'd try to get me from behind, since you were making sure that you kept just in our field of vision, trying to confuse us. Now!" He jumped back and held a palm forward. "Astral Bind!"

Riksfalto grimaced as several arrays went up around her and chains shot out of the magic circles, snapping around her neck, her legs, her waist and her arms, pulling taut. Grimacing, she couldn't believe that this was binding her, not just her physically, but her astral body as well.

"Chrono!" Yuuno looked at him. "I need help, reinforce the binds for me, I've only got one chance at this!"

Chrono nodded as he used his magic to help out. "You better have a plan."

Riksfalto growled as she worked at trying to break through the binds. "I'll kill you..." She groaned out as she slowly started to move.

_"Source of all souls,_  
_which dwells in the eternal and infinite!_  
_Everlasting flame of blue!"_

Yuuno chanted, the green chains started glowing and changing colors from green to a light blue in color.

Riksfalto's eyes widened as the chains started to burn her. "What?" She gasped, doubling her efforts to get free. She had an idea of what was coming, and she didn't like it.

_"Let the power that's gathered in my soul_  
_Be called forth from the infinite!"_

The six arrays now had blue-white balls of energy glowing brightly and threatening to break.

Riksfalto's good eye was wide as a look of dread was on her face. "NOOOOO!" Her sword fell from her fingertips to the ground below as she struggled to get free.

_"RA TILT!"_ Yuuno screamed as he knelt down, his hands on the magic circle as he fed power to all of the magic circles, which then exploded, the energy lashing out and striking the bound Mazoku General with tremendous force.

The blinding flash of light, the crash of power, and the screams of the Mazoku made it very uncomfortable for everyone to look and listen for a moment.

When the energy disappeared, of Riksfalto, there was nothing to be seen.

"Wow!" Gourry smiled as he put away Gorun Nova and walked up to the kids. "That was impressive!"

Shiro nodded and blinked as Yuuno slumped, his hair was stark white, from the effort of casting six high-level Shamanistic spells at once. "So... What was up with the shibari binds on her?"

"Uhh..." Yuuno sweated as Shiro gave him a meaningful look. How could he explain this one?

As he looked at the sweating Yuuno, Chrono had a meaningful look on his face. Something like that... 'What kind of potential do you have?' He would never had thought to do something like that, hell, he wasn't sure if he could do something like that He shook his head and looked around, narrowing his eyes. He couldn't hear any birds and the wind suddenly started to blow gently. Something caught the corner of his eyes and he turned and stared.

After a few moments, Gourry noticed the look on his face and blinked. "What is it, Chrono? Eat something that didn't agree with you?" Chrono shook his head even as he paled. "What? Did Timmy fall down the well again?" Gourry's eyes lit up. "Oh, I know! I know! I can save fifteen percent on my armor insurance by switching to Greyko! I'll go do that when I get home!"

Chrono pointed a shaky finger away from the group. "N...No way!"

The wind suddenly picked up and Gourry and Shiro both turned and gaped as they saw Riksfalto's sillouette in a cloud of dust. "What the?" The two weren't sure how she survived that. And to be in good condition...

That last thought was blown away as the dust cleared away and Riksfalto became completely visible, her left leg had black blood running down it, her right arm seemed to be torn up, blood covered her face, though if they looked closer, they could see that the "blood" was threatening to break away and turn into nothingness. She was panting hard and moving towards them, limping slowly as she twitched with every step. "Haa... Haa..." Her hands were twitching as she looked at them through her one good eye. "That... Hurt..." Her shoulders shook before she threw her head back and laughed. "I've NEVER came so close to death in all my life, kiddo!" She grinned at Yuuno, who was looking at her with dread.

"H...How?" Yuuno panted as he looked at her. It shouldn't have been possible. How could she survive something like that?

"I'd be dead if you got that off a moment sooner." Riksfalto groaned, it felt like her body was trying to tear itself apart. "Rraaa..." She let out through gritted teeth. Damn, she might just die from the effort of trying to hold together her Astral body at this rate. "To be honest, I'm sure that what you just used could kill any Mazoku short of Lord Ruby-Eyes."

"How did you survive?" Shiro asked as he and Gourry readied their weapons.

Riksfalto smirked at him. "Heh... I got an arm free just before the spell hit me... I severed part of my Astral Body and escaped just in time. It was a favored trick of Hellmaster Phibrizzo." Hell, with that trick, the fallen lord could survive anything short of The Lord of Nightmares. Even the Giga Slave wasn't a guarantee against him.

At least as far as Riksfalto knew.

Sadly, for Riksfalto, she had to sever _most_ of her Astral Body to survive. Thankfully her sword was a part of her, so it wasn't too hard to use that to use that to pull herself together.

"I don't think she can fight for too much longer." Gourry said as Gorun Nova hummed softly.

Shiro nodded at him. "I think I can distract her long enough for you to get a good shot."

Gourry grimaced softly. "These guys are really tough, I'm not sure I can cut her."

"We'll have to try." Shiro nodded as the two gripped their weapons and rushed Riksfalto.

Riksfalto growled as they rushed her, ducking under Gourry's attack, she punched him in the gut, causing him to stumble back, before she grabbed Shiro's sword and squeezed the blade hard. "Do you REALLY think that you're ANY use at all?" She growled as the blade cracked and gave way under the pressure, before shattering to her superior grip. "That was pathetOW!" She yelped as she jumped away, her hand falling to the ground and black energy spilling out from the wound. "What the hell?" She looked as Shiro's sword fell apart...

Revealing a far thinner sword underneath. "That... That's impossible!" She growled as Shiro narrowed his eyes and dashed in before she could react and slashed upwards, cleaving off her right arm, causing black energy to spill out of her body in a rapid torrent. "GRAAAAHHH!" She fell to her knees and gripped at the wound. "There's... No... Wait..." Her face dawned with recognition. "The Blast Sword? How the HELL DID YOU GET THAT SWORD?"

"It was just laying around, it seems to work well enough on you."

Riksfalto growled as she looked at Shiro, then at Gourry, who was back on her feet, then at Chrono, who was pointing his weapon at her. "Haa... Haa..." She smirked at Yuuno. "You... Kid..." Honestly, she didn't know _what_ to think of him, he was interesting, far more interesting than she would have thought a human could be.

Before anyone could make a move, Yuuno was surrounded by fire that spiraled into the sky, before he disappeared, along with the fire.

"Well, shit..." Riksfalto cursed. "Vrabazard's involved? Screw this, I'm going home." She smirked painfully as her body faded from view. "I wonder if that Dragon Lord will eat him or not."

For some reason, the thought of Vrabazard eating that kid rather upset the Mazoku General.  


* * *

Heh, the Blast Sword was found by Gourry in the novels in that manner.

Yes, it's a physical blade. But, yes, it CAN actually cut and harm Mazoku. Heck, it's even BETTER than the Sword of Light is for harming Mazoku. Just ask Dynast and Shabranigdo in the novels.

I was tempted to write this chapter before seeing the movie.

The movie solidified my reasoning to write it up.

There are times that I have trouble thinking up certain scenes, or when I do, they get over-shadowed by other ideas and plots that I'm doing for a story.

That's kind of what happened in the last chapter. I thought up all three fights at the same time, but Nanoha's fight and this chapter took most of my creative juices and that's why the last chapter was kind of sub-par for what most of you were expecting.

I promise I'll make it up to you. Just keep reading.


	40. Try 8

Try 8

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

* * *

"So, you failed, huh?" Valgaav looked at Sherra, who didn't look the least bit hurt, then at Riksfalto, who looked like she was about to fall apart. "You, especially, have no excuse. The magical potential between the four of them was far less than anyone else, it should have been easy for you."

Riksfalto growled at Valgaav, her body could barely keep itself together as it was. "I don't think even Lord Ruby-Eyes could survive what that kid did to me."

"You did." Valgaav snorted at her and Riksfalto almost stood up, but with the way that her Astral body was spasming, she could only glare at him.

"_Only_ because I did something that Hellmaster Phibrizzo loved to do. If I didn't sever my astral body like I did, I would be dead right now."

"So..." Valgaav walked up to her and pointed Ragudo Mezegis at her throat. "If I was to... Use this, I could kill you right now."

"I wouldn't." Valgaav blinked before his neck was grabbed from behind and he was thrown into some rocks. Looking up, he glared at Huraker, who was looking at him in disdain. "Lord Dolphin would be... Rather upset if Riksfalto died while trying to recover."

"Tsk..." Valgaav looked away, but didn't push the issue. Even he wasn't crazy enough to try and take on a Lord. "Just came to gloat at us?"

"Not at all." Huraker smiled at him. "In fact, everything's going just according to plan."

"Not quite." Riksfalto managed to get out between gasps for breath. "Looks like what that kid did to me caught the attention of Vrabazard."

Huraker looked at her with a rather disturbed look on her face. "...What?"

"Yeah, seems like the Flare Dragon Lord took an interest in that kid for what he did to me." Riksfalto groaned and fell, face-first, into the ground. "Just ignore me, I need to recover."

"This could be a problem." Sherra spoke up to them. "The Knight of the Aqua Lord did manage to draw out Ragradia's power against the Demon Dragons, and it seems that Lina Inverse's daughter was powerful enough to send Valgaav here running away with his little tail between his legs."

Valgaav suddenly appeared right in front of her and grabbed her by her clothes, lifting her up to look him in the eye. "You want to fight?"

Sherra smirked at him. "Maybe. Though, when you lose, you shouldn't complain what I plan to do with you."

Valgaav shuddered at what he was feeling from her, before dropping her on her rear. "You disgust me."

Sherra just chuckled at him. "Must be frustrating for you, hmm? Having lost your lord and your race of people... I know that I'd have trouble dealing with it myself." She laughed as Valgaav covered his ears as he disappeared. "Foolish Dragon."

Huraker shook her head and frowned slightly. What would Vrabazard want with a human? Unless... Her eyes widened. "No way... He... He can't be the fifth, can he?"

"Fifth?" Riksfalto asked from her position on the ground. "Fifth what?"

"The fifth great Sage..." Both Sherra and Riksfalto looked at Dolphin's Priest, stunned. If that was the case...

"Man, either I got off lucky or he hasn't reached his full potential yet." Riksfalto chuckled, then groaned as her whole body, physical and astral, screamed at her painfully.

(-)

"So, Lina, explain to me..." Zelgadis asked as Lina was on her back, her head in Sylphiel's lap as the latter cast Resurrection on her body. "How is it that you can cast such strong magic?"

Lina chuckled tiredly. "When the Lord of Nightmares took my body... I was dead. She brought me back to life and dropped me into another world. I found out that she left a piece of herself inside of me. It almost doubled my normal magic power... And I found that I don't need to use the Demon's Blood Talismans like I did before, all my spells were stronger." Hell, she had to _work_ to keep her spells from being too strong normally. "And I never get tired while casting magic, but... I found out the hard way, once, that with all the benefits, there's a down-side."

"Figures as much." Zelgadis shook his head. "To cast the Blast Bomb, and do what you did..."

Lina sighed and frowned as Sylphiel put her hands directly on Lina's chest. "If I didn't feel like I was about to throw up, I'd hit you for feeling me up."

Sylphiel shook her head. "No, Miss Lina, there's a lot of scar tissue right here. I'm just trying to heal it."

Lina sighed and just let Sylphiel do her work. "Back to what you said, yes, I can do any spell that I already knew without aid now. The only problem is, after a certain point, my magic starts eating at my life." She ignored the way that Sylphiel gasped at her. "It doesn't age me physically, though it might cut my life short if I go too far..."

"If you use too much magic, I'm guessing that you could drop dead?" Zelgadis sighed as Lina nodded slightly. "Dammit, Lina! What the hell were you thinking?"

"I was thinking that we needed to deal with those demons quickly?" Lina let out a hissing gasp as Sylphiel moved her hands around. "Careful, I don't like anyone but Shiro touching me there." She smirked as Sylphiel and Zelgadis blushed, even as Sylphiel moved her hands around on Lina's chest more.

"Sorry, but Miss Lina... I'm surprised you're still alive... You seem so... Messed up right here."

Lina groaned, her eyes squeezing together as _pain_ wracked her body. "What are you, OW! It hurts!" It wasn't _quite_ as bad as some of the pain she had felt in her life, but it was up there.

"Mr. Zelgadis, hold her down." Sylphiel spoke quietly as she concentrated. "Miss Lina, please, just bear with it."

"GAAAAAH!" Lina wasn't even listening at that point, her body felt like it was dipped in liquid fire. "STOP!"

"Sylphiel, what's going on?"

"Just a few more moments, please?" Sylphiel's eyes were closed as she worked her magic on Lina's body. "Almost..." She opened her eyes and canceled the spell. "There..." She yelped as Lina grabbed her by the throat and yanked her down, glaring hard. "Miss... Urk!"

"You... TRIED TO KILL ME!"

"LINA!" Zelgadis grabbed her arm, but found her grip wasn't budging.

"Before I kill you, just WHAT were you thinking?" Lina's eyes flashed in anger, she couldn't believe that Sylphiel would do something so horrible to her.

"I...nnngh...Thought...that you...Would want to live longer." Sylphiel gasped as Lina let go and fell back, coughing hard.

"Explain." Lina sat up, most of her anger gone by those words.

Sylphiel coughed and panted. "Your... Your insides... Were a scarred mess, Miss Lina," she coughed more as she rubbed her throat, "I was casting Resurrection and healing the damage on the insides, but it was such a mess that it was hurting you."

"...You undid the damage I did to myself?" She knew about the damage, she had seen various x-rays during her life and knew that she probably wasn't going to live as long as she could have. Physically, she hadn't aged all that much, but that was on the outside, Lina's insides were pretty messed up.

Lina blinked as Sylphiel nodded. "I... I'm sorry." She stood up and walked over to Sylphiel, hugging the other woman. "I... I just hurt so much that I thought you were trying to kill me."

Sylphiel shook her head and hugged Lina back. "It's okay, Miss Lina. I'm sorry that I didn't tell you first."

Lina let go of the hug and leaned back, smiling. "Just... Next time, Sylphiel, let me know before you make me feel such pain, okay?"

Sylphiel nodded and put her hand on Lina's chest again, getting a flat look from her friend. "Sylphiel... If you swing that way... I'm pretty sure that we can find you some girls that won't mind you feeling them up." Lina mentally smirked as Sylphiel turned bright red.

"Ah, no, it's not that, Miss Lina. I was just checking... You... Wow, you healed up pretty well."

Lina nodded, thankful for that. "Just keep yourself handy, Sylphiel, I might need you to fix me up when this is over again." Turning, she looked at Lyos and Zelgadis. "How's he?"

"I'm fine." Lyos groaned as he sat up, his face was red. "Um..." He let out a yelp as Lina whapped him with a slipper. "What was that for?"

"I'm not into girls sexually, kid, so don't ask me to kiss her." Lina sighed as the three blushed red. "SHEE! I think my husband's culture perverted me or something!"

"Most likely." Lina and the others gasped as they saw a thin man with pink hair and skin looking at them as he floated in the air. He held his hands up as he touched down. "Please, I mean you no harm."

"Speak then." Lina didn't like the way this guy looked.

He nodded to her. "My name is Sirius, you met my comrade Almace at the Dragon Temple."

"So, you want to summon Dark Star as well?" Zelgadis grabbed his sword and Sirius sighed.

"Not completely." He was glad that that seemed to diffuse a lot of the tension. "We planned to only summon part of him, after we got the five weapons of light, and kill him, little by little. I am a Shinzoku, under the Night Dragon Vorfeed, from Overworld. Almace is one of my companions."

"You're a god?" Sylphiel gasped as Sirius nodded to her. "But, why do something so horrible?"

"Our world... The Overworld... Has fallen to ruin. Our master, Vorfeed, and Dark Star... The two of them got tired of all the fighting that they were doing, and agreed to merge together into one being. They planned to destroy the world, then rebuild it."

"I take it that you didn't agree." Zelgadis spoke up, getting a nod from Sirius.

"There was more to it, I'm sure." The Shinzoku continued to speak. "Even Dark Star didn't want to fight anymore. But Mazoku just _don't_ get tired of fighting, so I have no clue what they were thinking."

"Maybe they fell in love over the years?" Lina suggested and waved her hands at the dirty looks she was getting. "Hey, come on, it was just a joke."

"Regardless of why they did it, they now threaten all of the worlds." Sirius closed his eyes, before pointing at Lyos. "Allow me some time with this one."

"What?" Lyos looked at him in alarm. "What for?"

Sirius smirked slightly. "Who better to teach you how to use a god's power, but a god?"

"He has a point." Zelgadis looked at Lyos. "It's your call."

Lyos looked at his hands. "...I... You can help?" He looked up at Sirius, confusion and hope on his face.

"Better than any Dragon." Sirius nodded at him. "We won't have much time, but with my help, you'll be able to use it."

"Alright then." Lyos nodded as he stood up. "Um, so, where are we going?"

"You'll see." Sirius said as the two disappeared from view.

(-)

Sighing as he walked into the temple, the Supreme Elder narrowed his eyes as he looked at the shrine to Vrabazard. "Tell me, Fire Dragon King, what should I do?"

"Oh, I don't know," the old Dragon's eyes widened as a staff was put to his neck, "why don't you ask yourself that question?"

"Xellos." He said through gritted teeth. "I thought you left."

"That's what I wanted you to think." Xellos smiled at him and waggled a finger. "Now, tell me something, Supreme Elder... Just why would you threaten Lina Inverse?"

"Elder!" A Dragon burst in and rushed towards the two of them. "Let him, AHHH!" The Dragon screamed as Xellos pointed an open palm at him, turning the Dragon into nothing but a pile of ashes.

"Now then, I'm sure that you don't want me to do that to the rest to your little followers." Xellos smirked at him. "So, talk."

"She gave herself to the Darkest of all Dark Lords. I could feel the energy when she called up that power, just like Lei Magnus a thousand years ago, it's far too dangerous to let her live!"

Xellos lost the smile that was on his face. "Let me tell you a little secret... If she did, in fact, sell her soul like you think she did, you should be grateful that she did. Doing so allowed her to kill Hellmaster Phibrizzo."

The old Dragon's eyes widened. "...what?"

"But, that doesn't matter to you, I suppose. But I'm curious about one thing... If the Ancient Dragons were as strong as they were, how could your group kill the whole species off?" Xellos frowned heavily.

"Why would you care?" Xellos chuckled at the way the old man growled those words out.

"Oh, I don't. I'm glad that they're dead, but Beastmaster was rather upset that they were gone, not that I know why, of course." Xellos opened his eyes and openly glared at the Dragon. "Now, tell me, how did you kill them?"

The Supreme Elder sighed heavily. "The golden spears... They were given to us by Lord Vrabazard. We were to use them in the war against your kind. They increased our power five-fold."

"And when you found out that the Ancient Dragons had a power or a weapon that was much stronger than that, you wanted it for yourself." Xellos smirked at the shock and surprise that he felt. "But, it's interesting, those spears of yours, they don't have any power..." He trailed off as he thought about it. "Then again, I can't feel Vrabazard's power around here either. Those spears were blessed with his power, weren't they?"

The Supreme Elder was twitching at the words.

"And when you killed the Ancient Dragons..." Xellos sing-songed at him. "I bet that Vrabazard wasn't happy about that." He let go of the Elder and chuckled at him. "You truly are a fool. To think that you were once a threat to my people."

"I still AM!" He growled at Xellos, who smirked and looked him with both eyes open. "Your worthless kind... You and your supreme Dark Lord... Lina Inverse is that thing's messenger, she will not survive this."

He gasped as he felt Xellos' staff stick into his leg. "GAH!"

"Now, now..." Xellos waggled a finger at him. "I'll have you know that, for now, Lina Inverse is under my protection. I have... Use for her."

"What... Are you planning?" The old Dragon grabbed his bleeding leg.

"That... Is a secret." Xellos winked and disappeared from view. "But I wouldn't relax. Valgaav's almost as strong as I am, and with the servants of Dynast Grausherra and Deep Sea Dolphin involved, things are far more interesting than they were not too long ago."

* * *

There is a method to my madness, I promise.


	41. Try 9

Try 9

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

A short chapter, let's find out what happened to Yuuno.

* * *

"Where... Where am I?" Yuuno asked as he looked around. He was certain he was still on the continent, or at least the world. But where he was...

All around him was nothing but heat, fire and lava. The rock he was standing on was rather hot and uncomfortable to the touch. He stumbled back as the lava rose up, before parting and revealing a VERY large Dragon in front of him. Yuuno's eyes were wide as he gaped at the creature. 'Man, I wish I paid more attention to those video games that Arisa and Suzuka liked to play, it looks like that red Dragon that was blocking the way to the big black Dragon in that game.' He couldn't fight if he wanted to, his magic was spent and there was no bridge off of the round rock.

"Interesting." The Dragon leaned in and looked at him. "A mere human... To do that to a Mazoku." He, at least Yuuno thought it was a he, chuckled, before the large body disappeared and was replaced by a tall man with spiky red hair wearing a cloak and smirking at him. "I've never seen a human do that, at all." He shrugged before pointing a finger as Yuuno and snapping his fingers, causing Yuuno to gasp, his magic returned to him. "Too bad you didn't kill her, it might have been interesting."

Yuuno was having trouble breathing, for some reason, it felt like the heat in the area spiked when this man appeared. "You are..."

He shrugged at Yuuno. "Humans have long since forgotten my name. And even the Dragons aren't worth anything to me anymore." He snorted as Yuuno stared at him. "Considering that Valwin decided to hole himself up in that tower of wind of his and Rangort decided to hide in a cave, it's not surprising that you wouldn't know of me."

"...You're not a Dragon, are you?"

The man growled at Yuuno. "I only look like one out of respect to my master, Cephied! I am the Flare Dragon Lord! Fire Dragon King Vrabazard!"

Yuuno's eyes felt like they were about to burst out of his skull as the god announced who he was. "What... Why..?"

"You're interesting, or at least I thought you were." Vrabazard snorted at him. "But now I see... You just got lucky."

"What?"

Vrabazard smirked at him. "Little human, just so pathetic... You got lucky against that Mazoku, boy. You're completely useless. Then again, what should I expect? Humans are nothing for the coming threat."

"But... The prophecy... You sent the Golden Dragons that prophecy warning them about what was..."

"What prophecy?" Vrabazard narrowed his eyes at Yuuno. "I haven't spoken to them in over a thousand years. They asked for items to help them when Shabranigdo woke up, and then they turned on my other followers." He growled and the lava around them erupted upwards. "Just like Mazoku, they seek to control and dominate everything. And what they can't, they destroy."

Yuuno blinked as Vrabazard smirked at him. "Then again, you humans aren't any better. Just Mazoku with physical bodies."

"What?"

"Think about it... The reason humans can't use Holy magic... Is because they're too much like Mazoku. Why should we give you any of our power?" The Shinzoku started circling Yuuno slowly. "And that little girl with the Chaos power... It might be best for everyone if I just kill her now."

Yuuno's eyes widened as he heard that. "You... You wouldn't..."

"Why should you care?" Vrabazard narrowed his eyes. "It's not like she can do anything against Dark Star." He smirked more at Yuuno. "Oh yes, I know about Dark Star. I over-heard one of Vorfeed's followers explain things. But, that girl, she doesn't need to live, does she?" Seeing the look on Yuuno's face, he laughed. "HA! What's the matter? Getting upset? What good would that do? I'm a god, I'm far stronger than that Mazoku General that you messed up. Even if we Shinzoku and Mazoku are basically the same, there's no way that you can defeat me."

"So, I'm supposed to... JUST LET YOU KILL NANOHA?"

"Oh, so that's her name, huh?" Vrabazard chuckled and snapped his fingers, the magic circle that appeared under Yuuno dissipating before it could fully form. "I suppose it wouldn't be too hard, humans are so squishy at your age."

Yuuno twitched, he tried to move, but found himself bound up by some invisible force.

"Don't bother." The Shinzoku shook his head. "That Ray Freeze is so much more potent than anything a Dragon could do that you really have no chance to do anything. And here, in my domain, Black magic is useless."

As he listened to the Shinzoku speak of how killing Nanoha would be for the good of the world, Yuuno did something that he had never done before.

He lost his temper.

"LEAVE HER **ALONE**!" Yuuno screamed, his body glowing a bright red, causing the Ray Freeze to scatter to the four winds as a huge pillar of fire erupted around Yuuno, before condensing into a ball of fire and lashing out at the Shinzoku.

The ball splashed against his body and he chuckled as he walked up to the boy, who fell to his knees and panted. His body was still glowing softly, his hair wafted in the winds. "Interesting... I was right to choose you."

"...What?" Yuuno looked at Vrabazard, who knelt down to look him in the eye. "But all those things you said..."

"I needed to force you to draw it out..." Vrabazard had a nearly evil look on his face. "Holy magic, it's not the same as Black, Draconic or Shamanistic magic. And I needed to see if you could actually harness my power properly."

"Harness?" Yuuno looked at the Shinzoku in confusion as the energy dispelled from his body.

"Yes. Now, that was just one instance." He grabbed Yuuno and flew straight up. "For now, the only power that will work here, is my power." His eyes glowed as the rock that Yuuno was on before shattered and sank under the lava. "Now then... Use my power... And save yourself from death."

Yuuno's eyes were wide as he got the idea of what Vrabazard had planned. "But..."

"Just a little tip, human." Vrabazard growled out softly. "True Holy magic is different from all other forms of magic. You can't control it. True Holy magic is a force of nature." He let go of Yuuno. "You have until you hit the lava, boy."

Yuuno's eyes widened. "What... This..." He trembled as he found all his power shut off.

"I told you before, this is my realm, boy. No power but Holy and Chaos works here." Vrabazard's voice reached Yuuno as he fell, closer and closer to the lava.

Yuuno closed his eyes and concentrated. "Come on, come on!" He knew what he felt before, he just had to make it work again. The heat was starting to get to him as he felt his own clothes starting to burn. "Come on!"

Vrabazard shook his head. "Humans, always seeking to control everything." Oh well, maybe Valwin was right. Humans really weren't fit to have their power.

Yuuno clenched a fist tight. Why? Why wouldn't it work? The more he tried to force it, the more it wanted to get away from him.

_"You can't control it. True Holy magic is a force of nature."_

Suddenly Yuuno's eyes snapped open. "That's it!" He gasped, just before falling into the lava and sinking under it.

Vrabazard sighed as he saw Yuuno sink. "And here I thought you had a chance, kid." Oh well, one death wouldn't matter in the long run.

The Shinzoku floated back as the lava suddenly rose and spiraled into the air. "Well, I'm glad that I wasn't wrong about you, kid." He chuckled as Yuuno's body and eyes were flashing orange. He snapped his hands and the lava cooled enough that the two could stand on it. "How did you figure it out?"

"You said... It was like nature..." Yuuno panted and blinked as Vrabazard's eyes started glowing, a symbol of a Dragon's head appeared on his right hand, with a serpentine body crawling up his arm to his shoulder and down his back. "What?"

"My blessing. Even if you were on another one of the pillars, that symbol will allow you access to my power." Vrabazard chuckled at him. "True Holy magic... You don't control it, you direct it and work with it, otherwise it won't do what you want it to do."

Yuuno watched as Vrabazard faded away. "But, what am I supposed to..."

"You have my power now, kid, there's more to my power than just fire, lava and heat... Yuuno." He shrugged at the boy. "You'll figure it out. I wonder what kind of Great Sage you'll end up becoming."

Yuuno just sat there, blinking as the Shinzoku faded away, wondering what he meant by 'great sage', before putting it out of his mind. "More than just fire, lava and heat... True Holy..." His eyes widened. "Wait a second..." He floated up, before closing his eyes, the mark on his arm and back glowing orange, before he was covered in an orange glow. Opening his eyes, he shot off like a rocket. "WHOO HOO!" This was fun! He felt like he could actually do something instead of just being support now.

* * *

I bet you're wondering about Holy magic in this story.

What Vrabazard told Yuuno is basically the same thing that Valwin told Lina in the "Knight of the Aqua Lord" manga in terms of how Holy magic worked.

And, honestly, if Black magic requires you to take control of the power and bend it to your will, don't you think that Holy magic, being the opposite of Black Magic, would be different?


	42. Try 10

Try 10

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

You should realize that not much time has passed since the fights ended, so, it makes you wonder about the news.

* * *

"Master." She bowed as she looked at her master, who had short black hair and was wearing a black pair of pants, black boots and a black button-up jacket.

If one didn't know who he was, they'd say he was royalty. Especially with the fancy white cloak that hung off of his shoulders.

"Ah, Sherra." Dynast smiled at his General. "You're back early." Honestly, he had expected her little... Unscheduled sortie to take longer than it had.

"Plans have changed, master. There is a new wrinkle in your plans."

He raised an eyebrow at that information. "Just what would... Wrinkle my plans?"

"Vrabazard has returned."

Dynast's eyes widened just slightly. The last time one of the Dragon Lords got involved, it had taken down Gaav and a piece of Shabranigdo with it. And now, with Hellmaster and Gaav dead and the Demon King of the North frozen forever, or at least until the remaining pieces of Shabranigdo came together...

"Explain, Sherra."

She nodded slightly. "I never saw it, myself, but Riksfalto, Dolphin's General, was fighting four humans at the same time. She nearly suffered defeat by them, but before she left, the Dragon King, Vrabazard showed up and took one of the humans she was fighting to wherever he is."

Dynast frowned softly. "Why would he do that..?"

"He may be the next great Sage." Sherra supplied for Dynast.

"No, I doubt that." Dynast shook his head as he stood up and walked to Sherra. "I honestly think..." He chuckled at her confused look when she looked up at him. "I honestly think that he's not the last great Sage, but he's good if he caught Vrabazard's attention."

"Master?" She blinked as he started laughing. "Should we step up our plans?"

He shook his head. "No, not yet. In fact, if things go well enough, we won't need to use that one for now."

Sherra blinked and grinned as Dynast told her of his plan. "That... Is _perfect_, master."

"Of course." Dynast Grausherra chuckled as his General disappeared. He looked around, before shrugging. As much as he loved his frozen hell, he needed to be somewhere else. A moment later, he was gone as well.

After all, how else was he supposed to forward his plans, unless he was there making them work.

* * *

Lina frowned as she looked at the multiple screens in front of her. "So, Yuuno disappeared in a pillar of fire then?"

Chrono nodded, ignoring the way that Shiro and Gourry kept complaining about having nothing that could hold that new sword in a sheath. "Yes. Right afterwords, the Mazoku we were fighting mentioned something and disappeared as well."

Nanoha, on her screen, looked worried as she heard that information. "Miss Lindy, are you sure you can't get us?"

The largest screen had Lindy on it, who nodded, looking concerned. "As it is, some sort of energy is surrounding the areas that you're all in. The best we can do is send you a map of where you're at and allow you to make plans to meet up again."

"Only for a bit." Mary's face popped up on the screen, startling most of the people. "We're working on breaking down the energy patterns. We should be able to get around this energy in a few days."

Lina sighed as a map popped up. "Alright, looks like we're pretty far south."

"Hey, mom." Nanoha looked at her mother. "Why don't you just teleport around?"

Lina leaned back and pursed her lips, honestly, she probably should teleport them. "Alright... Zel, Sylphiel, get close to me, we're going to meet up with Gourry, Shiro and Chrono first." She looked at her friends, who nodded at her. When they touched her shoulders, she looked at where Chrono was, before disappearing in a flash of black and gold.

* * *

"Wow!" Gourry blinked as he saw Lina appear in a small lake. "Um, was it supposed to happen like that?"

Lina shook her head, getting the water clear of her clothes before wringing out her hair as she looked at her friends. "No, not really." She smiled as Gourry pulled her up. She grimaced and grabbed her head. "Ugh... I'm going to be sick." It wasn't just her head, her stomach felt queasy as well. She hadn't felt like this in years, and it did feel familiar to her.

She just hoped that it was her stomach churning from eating something that didn't agree with her than what she thought it was.

"Dear?" Shiro looked at her in concern as Lina shook her head.

"I'm fine, but anyway, what's with that sword?"

"I'm not sure," Shiro admitted ruefully, "I think she called it the Blast Sword or something..."

"The Blast Sword?" Zelgadis gasped as he looked at it. "The legendary blade so sharp that it can cut anything, including the astral bodies of Mazoku?"

He shrugged as he looked at it. "I guess, I can't sheath it at all and that Mazoku seemed like she was in pain when this cut into her."

Lina tapped her chin as she looked at it. "Huh, you know... If we had some sort of subspace pocket to put it in, or just a bunch of magnets, we could probably sheath it that way."

* * *

The Supreme Elder looked at his leg, it had been healed since the confrontation with Xellos not too long ago, but he didn't feel any satisfaction from it. "Now what will happen?"

"You could just sit this conflict out."

The Supreme Elder's eyes widened as he heard that female voice. Spinning, he stared at the blue-haired woman from before. "Mazoku!" He hissed at her as he backed up slowly. He wasn't sure how powerful she was. but she looked perfectly human, so he was certain that she was high ranking.

Sherra smirked at him as she twirled her sword in her hand idly. "Why, yes I am. Sherra, General to Lord Dynast." She gave him a bored look as he grabbed a golden spear. "What are you going to do with that?"

"Deal with scum like you!" A white ball appeared at the end of the staff. "Chaotic Disintegrate." The powerful Draconic spell lashed out at the Mazoku, who laughed at him, before the spell flickered and vanished. "Impossible!"

"Really, old man." The Dragon's eyes widened as a very malevolent entity entered the room. He turned his head slowly as he saw a short-haired man come into view. "You're a prideful Dragon, but utterly idiotic." Dynast shook his head as he walked up to the Dragon, slowly. "Look at you, Supreme Elder under Vrabazard... But we both know the truth, don't we? You have no power anymore."

"Lord Dynast." Sherra gasped as she saw her lord. "I... Didn't think you'd come here."

He waved her down and smirked at the Dragon, who was trembling. "Your spear there... Completely powerless, just like you, like this temple. Nothing but a dull echo of power that feels just like Ragradia's power after the barrier went up."

The old man started laughing and Dynast looked at him with idle curiosity. "Even with that barrier, all five lords, your master and the Dragon Slayer, the best you could do was barely kill Ragradia, leaving your lord frozen in ice forever."

Dynast shook his head. "Even with your boasts, your power is far weaker than what you had back in the day." He smirked at the old man as anger washed out from the older Dragon. "It's even worse for you, I have information that a mere _human_ has gotten Vrabazard's attention."

"What?" The old Dragon's eyes widened and he wondered why no one had come to look in and see if he was alright.

"Oh, don't worry about your back-up." Dynast smirked at him. "A strong compulsion spell will keep anyone from interrupting us."

The Supreme Elder glared at Dynast. "Go ahead, kill me then."

"Kill you?" Dynast looked surprised at that suggestion. "Why should I kill someone who obviously deserves better?"

"What?"

Dynast slowly started walking around the Supreme Elder. "Think about it. Your god abandoned you, simply because you knew, you _knew_ that the Ancient Dragons had a weapon that would tip the war in the favor of the gods. But they wouldn't turn it over to you." He shrugged while shaking his head. "You weren't in the wrong, they were. To hold back something so powerful. With it, you would have decimated our forces back then."

Dynast chuckled and flicked his wrist, causing the spear that the old man held to fly towards the Mazoku, who grabbed it with ease. "An impressive weapon, but no power anymore. Your power, that you so rightfully deserve, was stripped from you."

The Supreme Elder gasped as the golden spear started glowing with dark purple energy. "What?"

"I can give you the power that you lost..." Dynast looked at him coolly. "Return your tribe to their former glory."

"By turning us into Mazoku?" The old Dragon sneered and Dynast shook his head.

"Why would I do that?" Dynast asked the Dragon. "You're strong enough as you are, just lacking the power you need. And I have no need for more direct servants. No... By turning you into a Mazoku, it would weaken you." He casually ran his hand up and down the staff and the energy solidified over it. "However, were you to... Work for me, under my General's direction, you'll have access to all Black Magic spells that exist." A slow grin came to his face. "Including the Dragon Slave and the Ruby-Eye Blade."

"Why would I even bother to do that?"

Dynast shrugged at the Dragon. "Your youth could be returned to you, the power that your god took away from you, I would gladly grant you."

The Dragon glared at the Mazoku Lord. "You would grant me power? You make me sick."

"Fine, don't take my offer." Dynast spun the spear in his hand idly. "But remain the weakened "protectors" of this world. I guess doing anything to protect this world is just idle comments from you and your people anyway."

The old Dragon twitched as he looked at the Mazoku Lord. Everything he said was true. "...What... What would..." He closed his eyes, "forgive me, ancestors," he muttered to himself, "what would you have me do?"

Dynast raised an eyebrow. "Have you do...What?"

The Dragon knelt down, bowing his head. "What would you have your humble servant do to save this world?"

* * *

Dun Dun Dun Duuuun!

I wonder how many people saw this twist coming.

Dynast is SUCH a bastard.

NOW do you people see why I didn't kill Sherra off last time?


	43. Try 11

Try 11

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

* * *

"Where..." Lyos looked around, gasping as he saw the place that Sirius had brought him to. There were several pillars that floated in mid air around the pillar that he and the Shinzoku were on. "Where are we?" His whole being was telling him to get out of there, that being at this place was a bad thing, but why?

Sirius looked up and Lyos followed his line of sight, blinking at the large circular object that seemed to float in mid-air. "This is where we plan on summoning Dark Star." He walked over to an object that was sticking out of the platform and pulled it up. "Light Come Forth." He said softly and the weapon lit up. "This is Bodigar, the Axe of Light."

Lyos blinked as he saw the Shinzoku give the hand axe a few test swings. "What do you plan to do with that?"

"You are no magic user, Knight of the Aqua Lord. Thus using that power is harder for you than it would be normally." He pointed Bodigar at Lyos. "Allow me to demonstrate the true power of a god."

Lyos watched as Sirius held the weapon aloft, before he started glowing with tremendous power, energy suddenly surrounded his body as the winds picked up. "In...Incredible."

"No matter the Shinzoku, Holy power is not something that can be controlled, bent to your will. Black magic, the power of the Mazoku, is about control and destruction. Human and Draconic magics are more about control and protection. Holy magic, on the other hand, cannot be controlled, it refuses to be controlled. You must work with it to harness its true power."

Lyos watched as he swung his weapon down, a powerful arc of Holy energy lashed out and seemingly splitting the sky. "Wow..."

Sirius closed his eyes and turned to Lyos. "These weapons of light work better with Black magic than when Holy magic." Which was understandable, considering that they were Dark Star's subordinates. "Now then," he held up his weapon and narrowed his eyes at Lyos, "to draw out your power, we shall fight."

Lyos held his sword up, blocking the strike downwards, even so, the Shinzoku's immense strength drove him backwards, almost pushing him off the pillar.

"I would not fall, if I was you." Sirius said calmly as he swung Bodigar at Lyos, a wave of energy forcing the young boy to dodge out of the way. "This is where the Dark Lord Ruby-Eyes and the Flare Dragon fought ages ago."

Lyos narrowed his eyes and ran up to the Shinzoku, swinging his sword out, which was easily blocked. "Damn."

"You're trying to force the energy to come out." Sirius grabbed Lyos and tossed him to the other side of the platform. "The power of the gods does not want to be controlled. Those who seek to control too much shall lose everything."

As Sirius slowly walked towards him, Lyos thought back to the fight against those Golden Dragons, how he felt helpless, how the power was there, how he was tired of people not taking him seriously. He closed his eyes and tried to calm down, recalling what one of his old teachers had said about sword fighting. Going with a head full of anger was just not the way to go.

_"Clear your mind, listen to nature around you and you'll know what to do when the time comes."_ His old mentor had often said things like that when he was training. Lyos honestly was glad that the old man had taken the time to teach him like he did.

Sirius blinked as Holy power suddenly pooled out from inside of Lyos. "That is the power that you have, now, harness it. You can't force it to go where you want it to go, you have to work with it. The power of water, it flows, goes down the path of least resistance."

Lyos opened his eyes, they were ice-blue in color and slitted slightly. "I understand... The Dragons taught me how to sense for Holy magic, Lina showed me the basics of magic that I had never seen before, her husband and Gourry are incredible fighters..."

Suddenly a typhoon of water erupted from Lyos, smashing into Sirius, who grunted as he fought to keep it from harming him. Water, in and of itself, wasn't bad for a Shinzoku like himself. But this wasn't just water, this was Holy magic with a side-effect of looking and feeling like water.

It wasn't well known, but most magic had a main and a side-effect. Especially magic that affected the Astral plane. The Dragon Slave, for example, was originally intended to kill Dragons in a single strike. The main power of that was physical damage, however, it was soon found out that it had a nice side-effect of striking the Astral plane. The Ra Tilt, by comparison, was designed specifically to strike at the Astral plane, its side effect was a crushing noise, to those that could hear it, and a bright white flash that could blind people if they weren't careful.

Holy magic, from the gods, was just that, Holy magic, but each of the gods of this world had taken a liking to various elements and as a result, their power had a side-effect of looking and feeling like the element that they chose.

Interestingly enough, that side-effect gave each of the gods full control over that element and any properties it had.

Sirius shook his head as he looked at Lyos, who seemed to be floating in a sphere of water, before shooting out at the Overworlder at high speed, crashing into him and rocketing back towards land. "Impressive."

"You're telling me!" Lyos's eyes were glowing, he couldn't believe this. "This... This is the power that I had?"

"The power of the gods is impressive, isn't it?" Sirius had a small smile on his face as the two landed on one of the continents. "That was... A rather impressive amount of speed, boy."

Lyos slumped to his knees and panted. "Ugh... I wanted to get away from there. Feels... _Wrong_ to be there."

"The Shinzoku Lord of this world met his end at that place, scattering the large continent into four. No Mazoku or Shinzoku other than Ruby Eyes and the Flare Dragon can be there for long."

"Why?" Lyos looked up at him.

"Because, such a place is sacred to us." Lyos' eyes widened as he heard that shrill voice. Spinning around, he gripped Banisher and pointed it at Xellos, who was sitting in a tree, looking bored. "Please, put that away, I didn't come here to fight you."

"If you had, I doubt that you would have announced yourself to either of us." Sirius said as he walked forward, holding Bodigar. "So, Mazoku, tell me something, what is it that your kind wants right now? Valgaav agreed to help us, if we helped him get revenge, but he has since disappeared after meeting up with those others."

"Yes..." Xellos had a very annoyed look on his face. "Sherra and Riksfalto will be dealt with later... Those humans are my tools, I'd rather... They didn't get broken. As for what we Mazoku plan..."

"Yes?" Sirius took a step forward as Xellos held up a finger to his lips.

"That... Is a secret."

* * *

Valgaav narrowed his eyes as he looked up. "Jillas." He calmed down as he saw his loyal men walking into his chamber. "It's been too long."

"Lord Valgaav." The fox creature teared up as he saw his best friend. "I'm sorry, we saw the Sword of Light, but we were unable to..."

Valgaav shook his head. "Forget about it, Jillas. That group is far more powerful than I imagined. I can see how Lord Gaav fell to her, if her daughter is so powerful." He leaned back in his throne and narrowed his eyes. "And that Gold Dragon Priestess is on their side, that makes things much harder."

"Lord Valgaav..." Jillas spoke up, smiling nervously. "I know you want revenge, but, wouldn't it be better to get your revenge when they're vulnerable?"

Valgaav sighed softly. Jillas didn't understand everything, but then again, he was glad for that. Otherwise his friend would leave him. Mazoku didn't have friends after all. "Don't worry about it for now, Jillas."

"You're hurt!" Jillas gasped as he saw Valgaav's side, which was burned and crackling with flecks of energy. "What did this to you?"

"Lina Inverse's daughter." Valgaav muttered, getting a worried frown from Jillas.

"Lord Valgaav, you just recover, I'll deal with this." Before Valgaav could say anything, Jillas had turned and left, running out of the room.

Valgaav grimaced. "Fool, you'll get killed!" He hissed as he tried to take after Jillas and fell to his knees. "Damn it!" He growled, he _needed_ to stop his friend.

* * *

"Erulogos." The Shinzoku in question turned to the speaker.

"Almace." He nodded at the larger Shinzoku. "What do you want?"

"Where did you go?"

"I was scouting out those Mazoku." The blue-skinned Mazoku snarled and narrowed his eyes. "It seems that a very powerful one decided to get involved."

"Really?" Almace sighed, damn, this was becoming complicated. "We still need Gorun Nova."

"And we need to get Ragudo Mezegis back from Valgaav." Erulogos felt a smirk coming to his face.

"Erulogos?" Almace frowned as the other Shinzoku disappeared. "Just what is going on around here?"

* * *

"Now, take my power..." Dynast smirked at the Supreme Elder and the forty other Gold Dragons, all of whom were in their human forms, that he managed to get that were loyal to him. The gold spears were glowing with a dark purple energy before they floated in front of each of the Dragons. "If you accept me, take this power and become strong!" As the Dragons took the power and the room was flooded with dark light, Dynast grinned savagely. "As for you, Elder... Your name..." He touched the old Dragon on the forehead, flooding the Dragon with power, which went to the other Dragons, changing their robes from white to a dark blue-purple color. "Your name, Elder, is no longer what it was. You are now... Dyn." He smirked at the Dragon, who was kneeling and looking down.

Dyn stood up, he looked like a man who was in his early thirties, with blond hair that trailed down his back. "Yes, Lord Dynast." His voice hadn't changed much, it did sound softer, but it was still the same as before.

"Supreme Elder!" The whole group turned as a Dragon entered the room, only to gasp. "You... You're a Mazoku!" He pointed at Dynast, who grinned at him.

"Master Dyn... Why don't you... Use that new power that I granted you?"

Dyn took a step forward and narrowed his eyes at the other Dragon. "This is for the sake of the world."

The Dragon took several steps back as a red ball appeared at the end of the staff.

_"Darkness Beyond Twilight..._  
_Crimson Beyond Blood That Flows..._  
_Buried in the Stream of Time..._  
_Is where your power grows._  
_I pledge myself to conquer_  
_All the foes that stand..._  
_Against the mighty gift bestowed..._  
_In my unworthy hand..._  
_Let all those who stand before me..._  
_Be destroyed by the power you and I possess!"_

The Dragon had long since turned and was fleeing the area, flying into the air as fast as he could move.

_"Dragon Slave."_

It wasn't fast enough, as a red beam lanced out from the tip of the staff, racing through the air and connecting with the Dragon, destroying his body in a flash of red.

"Excellent, my servant!" Dynast clapped his hands as he walked towards the Dragon and patted him on the back. "Your youth, stamina, power have been restored to you. Now," he gestured to the group, "you should not tarry long."

"Where to next, master?"

"We need to get the fifth weapon of light." Dynast said to Dyn. "Unfortunately, I don't know where that is, you do. And I doubt that I can get through any barriers that are in place."

"Of course." Dyn nodded as all the Dragons, Sherra and Dynast disappeared in a flash of energy.

* * *

I always thought a Dragon casting the Dragon Slave would be blasphemy. Of course, I didn't realize that Dragons CAN cast Black Magic when I wrote this. Milgesia casts spells from Zelas after all.

Things really are being changed from canon. And I think that the Supreme Elder, Dyn as he's called now, has fallen off the deep end.


	44. Try 12

Try 12

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Looks like it's time to have a little showdown that I'm sure most of us have been curious about.

* * *

Lyos was about to say something to Xellos, regarding that last comment, when the Trickster Priest turned his head to the side and smiled slightly. "Ah, right on time."

"Huh?" Lyos blinked as he felt something... Familiar and interesting heading right for them. Turning, he saw an orange object flying towards them at high speeds. "Is that..."

"Seems to be a companion of your friends." Sirius said, blinking as the energy disappeared and the person that was surrounding it bounced off the ground a few times, before sliding to a stop right in front of them. "...Don't you know how to land?"

Yuuno groaned and looked up. "I only just started to learn how to use this power, I can't figure out how to use it and my normal power at the same time yet." He dusted the dirt off of his body. "Ugh, I hit the ground too hard."

Xellos raised an eyebrow at that. "You know, you _could_ have switched to your normal power before you landed."

"I tried." Yuuno shook his head. "This is... Pretty overwhelming. It's hard to just turn it off. It's like..."

"Every part of your being is covered in it and trying to stop it is like trying to stop breathing." Sirius spoke up, getting a nod from Yuuno. "It will take some time for you to figure out how to use your regular magic and your new power."

Yuuno nodded and blinked as Xellos suddenly went stiff and growled. "What?" Honestly, he was a bit intimidated by the Mazoku Priest. He hadn't tried fighting them, but from what he understood, he probably couldn't win in a direct confrontation against this guy. Hell, he only managed to do what he did to Riksfalto because he had help from Gourry, Chrono and Shiro. He wasn't sure if he could do the same here.

It wasn't his fault for thinking so violently, the only experiences he had with Mazoku was Death Bringer, Alicia and now Riksfalto. Xellos... Well, he wasn't sure _what_ to think about this Mazoku.

"Seems that Filia-chan's little clan did something stupid." Xellos shook his head and frowned. "My little spy that I left there wasn't too... Informative, but it seems that some of the Dragons... Hmm..." He shook his head and frowned heavily. "Seems that the game has changed, heavily."

"What?" Yuuno blinked as Xellos held up a finger.

"That... Is a secret."

* * *

Dynast looked around the snow-covered mountains and snorted to himself. "Just like home." Though it was a _lot_ warmer than his own personal lair. "So, this..." He snorted and narrowed his eyes. "This is where the weapon is sealed?"

"Yes, Lord Dynast." Dyn said as he entered the temple. "The Ancient Dragons held the weapon here, before sealing it away. We then, after dealing with them, put further seals on this place, to prevent others from getting to it."

Dynast nodded, even he couldn't break through these barriers. "Vrabazard's power?"

"Before he unjustly took our power from us, yes. However, we can still open the barriers up, as we have to make sure that Galveria is safely sealed away at all times." Dyn walked up to the first barrier and started chanting a Holy spell.

Dynast smirked as he watched Dyn start to undo the barriers. Soon, soon he would have what he needed. Soon he would...

Stare as the barrier didn't budge an inch. "What's going on?"

"I... I'm not sure!" Dyn stared at the barrier. "I personally put the barrier up myself! Why... Why won't it lower?"

"I suppose, that since you have regained the power that was stripped from you, the barrier no longer sees you as worthy." Sherra spoke up as she walked forward and put a hand on it. "Yep. It's rejecting you, the spirits of this place are quite angry at you." She grinned at him. "So, I hope you have a back-up plan?"

Dyn frowned, he couldn't go back to the other Dragons, they wouldn't help him, not after what he did. The other tribes would be worthless, none of them had a connection to Vrabazard like his clan did. "Wait... There is one Dragon who can help us."

"You mean the one that fighting against Valgaav?" Sherra grinned as he nodded. "Oh, I know where she is. Lord Dynast," she turned to him and bowed, "allow me to get Galveria for you."

"Of course." He nodded and disappeared. "I think I'll head into a city nearby... I could... Use a small snack."

"Where is Filia then?" Dyn asked Sherra, who grinned at him.

"We're going right to her. Well, you are, I'll stay hidden." The blue-haired Mazoku grinned as the group teleported away.

* * *

Lina stretched her arms above her head and sighed as she felt a small kink in her spine fix itself. "Alright, now then..." She looked at the screen and frowned as static suddenly started fogging up the image. "What the hell?"

_"I don't know!"_ Amy's voice was heard, startling most of the group. _"It's like someone... Damn it!"_ She cursed, getting a surprised look from Chrono as she continued. _"It's like what happened with Death Bringer! Something's blocking us."_ She slammed her hands on the console and growled.

"Don't get frustrated." Chrono spoke up. "Just try to figure out how to compensate for it."

_"We've been working on it."_ Mary's voice popped up. _"Don't worry, I'm pretty sure that I can figure out how to get through this heavy magic interference in a couple of days."_

"Is there anything you _can't_ do?" Lina deadpanned as Mary tapped her chin in thought.

_"Huh, no... I don't think there is."_ She laughed as Lina face-faulted. _"But, seriously, we've been working on getting through heavy magic interference since the battle on Mid-Childa and I'm sure we've almost figured it out. This just caught us by surprise."_

Lina grumbled and caught the look on her husband's face. Shiro didn't need to show anything, she could tell how bad it was for him, since his body was tense, and there was a slight shaking of his shoulders and the way his eyes were narrowed told her more than any words could. Sighing softly, she walked over to her husband and put a hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry, they'll be fine." Her words sounded hollow, even to her.

She wasn't sure if she was trying to assure him or herself.

* * *

"Filia."

The Dragoness blinked as she heard the Supreme Elder's voice. A moment later, she saw several Dragons, all in human form, appear before her and the others. "Supreme Elder?" She gasped as a man that looked like he was in his thirties step forward. What surprised her was the fact that he was so young looking. Well, that and the staffs that they were all carrying, and the different coloring on their clothes. "What's going on? Why do you have different clothes on? Why do you look so young?"

Dyn smiled at her. "Don't worry about that, Filia. I have discovered a great source of power that I'm willing to share with you. But I need your help."

"My help?" The priestess blinked in confusion. Behind her, Amelia narrowed her eyes suspiciously. Fate, Arf and Nanoha all looked rather confused at what was going on. "What could you need my help for?"

"Just a simple matter, Filia. I just need your help casting a spell. My body hasn't quite gotten used to being younger yet and my magic is a little off right now."

"Oh." Filia nodded and walked to him. "You know that I'll do whatever I can to help you."

Dyn smiled gently at her as she walked up to him. "I know, Filia..." Putting a hand on her shoulder, he whispered one word that had her eyes widening. "Sleep." As the magic seeped through her body, she found her muscles weakening as she fell forward tiredly.

"What did you do?" Amelia pointed at them dramatically as Dyn handed Filia to one of the other Dragons, who put her on his shoulder.

"Just getting her help to deal with something." Dyn said as he pointed his staff at Nanoha. "But as for you, evil creature..." Nanoha gasped as a red ball appeared at the end of his staff.

_"Darkness Beyond Twilight..._  
_Crimson Beyond Blood That Flows..."_

Amelia gasped as she heard those words. "There's no way... Why would a Dragon be able to cast _that_ spell?"

Fate and Arf both gasped, but held up their hands to cast defense barriers. They didn't know if they could hold this spell off, the last time a spell like this was cast, it had taken Fate, Nanoha _and_ Yuuno casting multiple barriers to hold off the destruction of a miss.

_"Buried in the Stream of Time..._  
_Is where your power grows..."_

"Raising Heart." Nanoha whispered with her eyes closed.

**"Alright."**

A pink circle appeared under her feet as another circle appeared in front of her as pink lines of magic started being pulled towards her, forming into a pink ball. "Zen Ryoku! Zen Kai!" She held Raising Heart Excellion above her head as the ball got larger and larger.

_"I pledge myself to conquer, all the foes that stand..."_ Dyn's eyes widened at the pink light that came from the little monster. It was an impressive light show, as was the magic that was rolling off of her. _"Against the mighty gift bestowed, in my unworthy hand._  
_Let the fools who stand before me..._  
_Be destroyed by the power..."_

**"STARLIGHT BREAKER!"** Nanoha snapped her device forward as Arf and Fate dodged to the side, while Amelia flew up and backwards.

_"You and I posses! Dragon Slave!"_

Dyn held his staff forward as the red ball became a beam and lanced out towards the oncoming pink beam of destruction.

When the two energies collided, the effect was tremendous as the energies crashed against each other, the color becoming clear as the points of contact on the beam shrank down to a single point, before exploding outwards in a dome of quickly expanding destructive energy.

"Nnngh! Sherra, get us out of here!" Dyn grimaced as the energy rushed towards him and his men. He knew that there was no way that he could survive a spell like this.

A moment later, all of the traitor Dragons and Filia disappeared in a flash of energy.

* * *

"Wow..." Gourry's eyes widened as he looked to the north. "I didn't know that the sun came up to the north!"

"What?" Lina turned and gasped. "Gourry, that's no sun! Quick, get near me!" That much energy _had_ to be Nanoha doing something. She may not have been able to see it clearly or know where it was, but she could feel it, so she could teleport right to it.

A moment later, the group disappeared in a flash of black.

* * *

"Nnnngh!" Fate grimaced as she held up a barrier. But even that was starting to crack under the pressure of the two spells that clashed. Idly, she heard the others cry out, or maybe that was her imagination, she was certain that her ears were bleeding from the destructive sound that was coming from it. Fate had her eyes screwed shut, the light was painful on her eyes as well. 'How... How can we handle this?' She had no idea, the best she could do was hold a barrier up for as long as she could.

She could feel her barrier starting to crack. 'Mother... Father... Nanoha... Arf... Yuuno... Miyuki... Kyouya... I'm sorry, everyone." She knew that she wasn't going to survive this. There was no way that she could survive.

Nothing could.  


* * *

Lina shook her head as she and the others reappeared just on the outside of the dome of power. "Shiro, Gourry, get in there!"

"What?" Gourry gasped as Lina growled at him.

"The Sword of Light and the Blast Blade can deflect and absorb magic, you idiot! Just get in there and swing to get the magic to dissipate!" She wouldn't have called him an idiot normally, but her children were in there, she didn't want to waste time when she could be saving them.

The two nodded as Gorun Nova lit up and the two ran in, swinging their swords.

True to what Lina said, the dome of destructive energy stopped moving outwards and started moving in reverse as the two swords went to work, causing the power to dissipate and get absorbed into the weapons themselves.

It didn't take long for the white dome of energy to dispel completely, revealing a downed Fate near the center, with Arf, Nanoha and Amelia not too far away from them.

"Hurry!" Lina yelled at Sylphiel and Zelgadis as she ran down to check on her daughters and friend. As she heard Zelgadis, who got to Fate, and Sylphiel, who was healing Amelia, say that they were alive, she let out a sigh of relief as she found that Nanoha and Arf were both alive, albeit shook up. "Thank the Lady for small miracles." Lina chuckled softly. She may not have trusted L-Sama, but she did give that Golden Lord her dues when she could.

From his position, Chrono floated up and gaped at the destruction. Where there was hills, flat area and some small bodies of water...

Was nothing but a large sunken hole in the ground that had some rocks that were glowing red. Well, that and the large amounts of glass that people were walking on. Other than that, he was certain that if they had gotten there a moment later, none of those girls would be alive, hell, he was almost certain that the continent would be split in two before the energy dissipated naturally.

* * *

Remember, back in Season 1 where Lina wondered what would happen if those two spells collided? Yeah, let's just say that onrushing magic like that should NEVER be used against each other.

Well, if Starlight Breaker is Holy-attribute and Dragon Slave is Black magic... Well, if you saw the clip of Shabranigdo and Cephied fighting it out, you saw how their attacks shrank to a pin-prick, before exploding outwards, right?

Same thing here.


	45. Try 13

Try 13

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

If you guys thought Dyn was a bastard before, just wait for this chapter!

Poor Filia.

* * *

Groaning as she woke up, she looked around and shivered slightly. "What's..." She stopped as she felt her bare arms. Gasping, she sat up and looked down at herself and her face turned a bright red. "WHAT IS THIS?" She was wearing black socks that went past her knees, a pair of black panties were on her hips, though, from the chill on her butt, she could tell that they didn't cover much, her body had a black corset that went from just above her navel to just over her nipples. Her face was a bright red as she realized that she had a collar around her neck. "Why is this happening to me?"

"Ah, Filia." A familiar, and welcome, voice spoke to her. Getting up, she turned and saw the Supreme Elder, much younger than she recalled, walking towards her with a smile on her face. "I see that your new wardrobe is on and fits nicely."

Filia's eyes suddenly welled with tears. "You... You knew about this?"

"Knew about this?" The Supreme Elder chuckled as he turned and gestured for Filia to follow him. "I authorized it. We need your help in breaking a barrier, Filia." He turned and saw that Filia was following him, though she had one hand trying to cover her butt and the other one trying to cover her breasts. "Why are you trying to hide your beauty, Filia? You're quite lovely."

"But, Supreme Elder..!"

"Dyn." He smiled at her. "My name is Dyn, you may call me that."

"Dyn, please... At least get me a pair of pants to cover my legs, or a coat, it's chilly in here. And..." She looked around, confused. "Where are we?"

The two of them stopped in front of a door and Filia could feel herself blushing horribly as she felt the eyes of all the male Dragons that had followed Dyn upon her body. Dyn spread his arms out wide. "The temple of the Ancient Dragons, Filia. We need you to break the barriers to the inside for us."

Filia's eyes widened as she took several steps back, her chest bouncing slightly with each step as she held her hands in front of her nervously. "Bu.. But... You created those barriers, you told us that to come her was forbidden."

"And yet, I still taught you how to break these barriers, Filia." He smiled at her softly, though, to Filia, he looked different now, twisted, mean and evil, as did all the Dragons, who were now, in her eyes, leering at her as they grinned. "So, help your old mentor out, one last time." He walked up to her and held a hand out to her.

"NO!" Filia slapped his hand away. "You... You aren't the Supreme Elder I grew up knowing!" With tears falling out of her eyes, she turned and fled as fast as she could, even with the snow coming up to her knees, she ran.

"Should we go after her, Dyn?" A male Dragon asked as they watched Filia, with great interest, run away. "She knows too much now."

Dyn shook his head slightly. "No need to. That collar will keep her from transforming into her Dragon form." He idly wondered why Lord Dynast kept such a thing, and why Sherra just happened to have it to give to him.

"Did we need to strip her down and put her in those clothes?" Another Dragon asked as he tilted his head to look at Filia's fleeing form.

"Does it matter? The view is nice."

"Enough." Dyn spoke up to them. "Sherra has left us to our own devices for now. We must make plans to get Ragudo Mezegis and Gorun Nova for master Dynast. Filia will return here, whether by her own free will, or by force. But for now, we must get the other Weapons of Light."

"What are your orders, Dyn?" The Dragons asked and turned to him after Filia fell down a slope.

"We will finish what we started during the Koma Wars." Dyn narrowed his eyes. "First, we must retrieve Ragudo Mezegis from that Ancient Dragon... Then we shall finish off that race for good. Come." The Dragons walked free of the Temple, before transforming and flying off.

* * *

Filia shivered, she had tried to transform, tried to use flying magic, but found that most everything she could use was blocked for some reason. "Why is this happening to me?" She asked, tears falling down her face as she fell to her knees. "I was a good Gold Dragon. Lord Vrabazard, why? Why must I suffer like this?" She shivered as a cold wind blew across her body. "I need..." She looked straight ahead as she got up and started moving again. "I need..." She tripped on a tree root and fell, face-first, into a snow-bank, kicking up the snow and covering her flesh with it.

"I need help." Filia sobbed as she started to crawl forward. "I need... That one... Those humans... They... They'll help..." At least, she hoped they would help. She couldn't do this, not on her own.

At this point, she'd even be willing to let that perverted boy see her naked if they'd help her free the Supreme Elder from whatever it was that was controlling him. Groaning, she got back to her feet and stumbled forward still, before her feet slipped and she fell down another slope, sliding and bouncing all over the place, until she came to a stop. Groaning, she looked up and tried to move, before she just gave up and flopped down. She was just too tired.

She didn't know how long she was out, but an orange glow caught her attention and managed to get her up. Looking up, she swore she saw some figures in front of her. But, no, that couldn't be right, no one knew where she was at. It must have been the cold getting to her.

Still... That warmth was nice, and the hand being offered to her... She didn't know what was going on, but she thought that it would be better to take the offered hand than to freeze to death.

"So warm..." She sighed in relief.

* * *

The lights were low, considering that electricity hadn't been invented on this world just yet, it was understandable. Lina was sitting at a table downstairs while looking up at where the rooms were in the inn and sighing heavily. Sylphiel had assured her that her daughters and Amelia would be just fine after sleeping off the effects of that spell. Right now, Gourry and Zelgadis were watching over the rooms and Lina _really_ wished that she had someone to ask what was going on. She watched as Shiro went back up the stairs to check on his daughters, not that she blamed him, she had been up there eight times in the past hour.

She turned to Chrono and tried to take her mind off of what must have happened. "Tell me something, what's going on with the Blast Sword?"

Chrono sighed as he looked at her seriously. "We have it back on the ship, we're analysing the metal now. Mary's working on a sheath that will be able to hold it, at the very least, we can put it in a repulsor field to keep it from slicing up a person's leg." Of course, Mary wanted to study that thing back on Mid-Childa, not that he blamed her of course, to see if she could mass-produce the thing.

"That's good and..." She turned her head and narrowed her eyes as she felt a prescience make itself known. "What is he doing here?" Really, she just wanted one good reason, just one good reason, and she'd hurt him.

"Who?" Sylphiel blinked as the doors to the inn opened up and Yuuno stepped in, followed by Lyos and, carrying someone over his shoulder, was Xellos. Sylphiel blushed as she saw the person that Xellos was holding was wearing thong underwear, and not much else.

"Excuse me." Yuuno walked up to the innkeeper. "We have someone who's very sick right now, can you get us a room for the night?"

The innkeeper looked at him, then at Xellos, who was smiling happily, before looking at Lyos. "I dunno, three guys just bringing in a woman who's wearing nothing but underwear? Sounds like trouble to me."

"But!" Yuuno started to say, before he heard someone clearing their throat.

"Excuse me, boys... Why don't you take Filia upstairs and put her in the room with my daughters? And, Xellos..." Lina gave him such a dirty look that even he found himself gulping slightly. "Do anything to them and I'll take you outside and show you just what I do to people who hurt my little girls."

He nodded, despite himself and made his way up the stairs.

Lina sighed and nodded as Yuuno and Lyos joined them. "I heard you got swallowed by fire."

Yuuno rubbed the back of his head and groaned as his head suddenly smacked the table. "What was that for?" He asked as he glared at Chrono.

"For making me think you were dead, idiot."

Yuuno blinked a few times, before nodding at him. "Sorry. But, yeah, apparently Vrabazard decided to..."

"Wait, wait, wait..." Lina held up a hand and stared at him. "You've met Fire Dragon King Vrabazard?" Yuuno nodded. "Well, that's unusual, the Claire Bible mentioned that that gods typically don't take interest in human affairs." She blinked at the looks she was getting. "What? Let's see you forget when the memories of a god talk to you directly and explain everything that it can about Holy magic and Chaos magic and who the Lord of Nightmares is." Lina might not have remembered everything, but having what remnants of Ragradia speak to her directly was something that she wasn't going to forget, at least not easily.

She looked up as Xellos materialized right next to her, though the others were startled at his sudden appearance. "Alright Xellos, I need information, and you're going to give it to me, got it?"

Xellos looked slightly uncomfortable at that. "I suppose, but you know that there's information that I just can't _give_ to humans, even one such as yourself, miss Lina."

"Mazoku secrets, yare yare." Lina waved him off. "But, for now, just _why_ was Filia in that getup?"

Xellos shrugged at that question. "Honestly, I don't know. We happened to find her like that."

Lina blinked and stared stupidly at him. "Uh... You don't know?"

"Not at all. Though, the poor dear seems to have most of her magic sealed away for some reason." He shook his head. "Honestly, it's almost like a Mazoku put a curse on her."

"Great, so she's powerless AND she's trying to seduce boys." Lina mentally smirked as she saw Chrono's face turn red, even as he turned away from her. "Alright then, just what's going on here, Xellos? I thought it was just these Overworlders and Valgaav that were going to be problems. Now the Gold Dragons seem to think I'm the greatest enemy of all time and Amelia mentioned something about the Supreme Elder becoming evil."

"Um, actually, Miss Amelia said that he had fallen down the path of injustice and needed to face the hammer of justice." Sylphiel blushed as Lina rolled her eyes.

"Yes, well, that. Know anything about it?"

"I'm sorry to say, but I don't know too much about it, honestly." Xellos shook his head at her. "However, the timing of the attack on your daughter, the fact that Dynast and Dolphin's servants are both involved, and the sudden increase of power in the Gold Dragons under Vrabazard, including," he pointed at Yuuno, "this kid's sudden ability to use said Shinzoku's Holy magic can't be a coincidence."

"Wait, Dynast... AND Dolphin?" Lina hissed, her pupils shrinking as she thought about such powerful entities getting involved. She couldn't imagine that Dynast would let her cast the Giga Slave like Hellmaster had, and Dolphin was said to have complete control over any sort of liquid on the planet and could either freeze or boil all forms water around her with a thought.

If she had to fight either of them, well...

It wasn't a pretty thought.

"Yes, well, I'm not sure that either of them are personally involved." Xellos stood up. "You'll have to excuse me, I need to check on something." He disappeared, leaving Lina to stare ahead blankly.

"...Who is Dynast and Dolphin?" Lyos asked. Honestly, in his opinion, Dolphin didn't sound like someone who was that dangerous.

"Two of the three Mazoku Lords still alive in this world. You could have an entire clan of Dragons at your side, Rezo the Red Priest with you, my sister, and Xellos, and you'd still lose to any of them." She saw the blank, but horrified looks, from all of them and nodded. "Yes, they're that powerful." She turned to Chrono and Yuuno, who were pale as they thought about this development. "Remember Death Bringer? Well, there's THREE beings that are almost as powerful as him, far older than us, and aren't likely to let us cast a spell that can crush them. So, just be careful, okay?" She didn't think that Zelas was going to get involved. If Xellos was any indication of his master, then she was more content to sit on the side-lines, for now.

"L-sama, damn it." Lina cursed softly. She _really_ missed the days when the worst she had to worry about was Naga's laugh, a minor Mazoku named Joyrock and hoping she had enough to pay for food.

* * *

Lina: Ah man! I thought my Mazoku troubles were over when I had Nanoha, they only were just beginning! Hey! Filia! Try putting on some new clothes! Next time, on Blood That Flows - Try. Read it or I'll really cause some trouble!  
Nanoha: Mom, why is my hair so short?

Heh, sorry, couldn't help myself from doing one of those previews for Revolution and Evolution-R.

As for Lina's description of the Lords, well, that's from what she remembered. She was absolutely TERRIFIED of going up against Gaav in Next and tried to find ways to avoid him. Course, Xellos and Hellmaster made sure that she would run into him.

So, she wouldn't want to go up against them, AND she wouldn't want anyone else to go up against them either if she could help it.


	46. Try 14

Try 14

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

* * *

Cracking an eye open, Filia sat up and rubbed her eye, before looking down at herself as the blanket on her body fell down. "So... It wasn't a dream then."

"Guess it wasn't." She heard a voice she hadn't expected to hear. Looking up, she gasped as she saw Lina standing by the bed. The redheaded woman sat down next to her and smiled at her gently before grabbing her arm softly.

That was all it took, the gentle smile, the touch, the friendly look in Lina's eyes...

Lina sighed softly as Filia lunged forward, hugging her tightly and sobbing into her shoulder. Rubbing Filia's back softly, Lina whispered to her gently, saying nothing, but trying to soothe the distraught Dragoness. Lina didn't blame her. Whatever caused her to end up in her underwear like that couldn't have been fun.

After calming down, Filia pulled away and wiped her eyes. "Sorry."

"Don't be." Lina shook her head at her. "I'd probably be crying too if I was brought in half naked, covered in snow and nearly suffering hypothermia."

Filia blushed and looked at her clothes some more. "Um... How come I'm still in..."

"Tried to change your clothes last night." Lina smirked as Filia blushed hard. "But," her smirk disappeared, "I couldn't get any of your clothes off. Every time I tried, well, I was in danger of ripping your skin off."

Filia winced at that thought. "Well, that doesn't sound good. But..." She blushed hard. "I don't want to go around showing my butt off like that." Her eyes widened and she grabbed Lina by her shirt. "Please, tell me that the perverted boy didn't get to see me like that."

"Sorry, he not only saw you, but he had you face down on the sheets and was grabbing your butt all night long." Lina said with a serious look on her face.

Filia turned blue in the face as sweat started pouring down her face. "Noooo! I've been sullied and ruined for marriage!" She glared at Lina when she started chuckling at Filia.

"Sorry, but he didn't do anything to you, though he did see you wearing this."

"That's not funny!" Filia grabbed her and growled, before gasping and grabbing at the collar on her neck. "Oww... Oww!"

"Calm down." Lina cast a quick diagnostic spell on the choker, before sighing and shaking her head. "Seems that there's a curse on you. You can't use magic and you can't take those clothes off."

"But..." Filia's eyes teared up as she looked at Lina mournfully. "I don't want to be stuck in these clothes!"

Lina smiled at Filia and put a hand on her arm. "Don't worry, Filia.." She winked. "If we can't take them off to put you in good clothes, we'll just have to get you into something more comfortable then." She got off the bed and made Filia stand up, before walking around her and looking the blushing Dragoness up and down. "Stop covering your butt, you've got nothing I've not seen before."

"It's embarrassing!" Filia whined and Lina sighed heavily.

"Don't see why it is. You've got a figure that most women would kill for." Lina smiled as Filia seemed to start loosening up. "So, anyway... I'd suggest a pair of pants, but I know just how uncomfortable wearing pants and a thong really is, chafes too much."

"Um..." Filia looked at Lina weirdly, who rolled her eyes at the blonde.

"I tried a lot of different things before I was married to Shiro, okay?" Lina smirked and closed her eyes. "Just hang on a minute, I'll get you some clothes."

"Okay." Filia nodded, but was concerned at the small grin on Lina's face.

_"Hey, Lindy, care to send me some clothes?"_

_"Sure, what do you... Oh my."_ Lindy was laughing softly as Lina told her what she wanted. _"Not a problem, I do hope that they suit what you want."_

_"They will, they will."_ Lina said while grinning.

* * *

Nanoha sighed as she rubbed her belly. "Breakfast is good." She blushed as her father ruffled her hair. "Mouu... Dad! It took me hours to get it right." She pouted and sighed at the fact that her hair had been burned and had to be cut to salvage and was now so short that she didn't need her hair done up in braids. The smell was pretty bad too. Looking at Fate, she pouted, the blonde girl had gotten off lucky, she only lost a few centimeters off the end of her hair.

But, no, now Nanoha had hair as short as Yuuno's hair was, and she wasn't used to not having hair that brushed her shoulders that needed to be tied up every morning. At least her mom assured her that her hair would grow back on its own.

She blinked as she heard some gasps. Turning, she stared as Filia came down the stairs and stared. "Wow..." The blonde was wearing ankle boots, an open deep-blue vest that covered her shoulders and a loose skirt that covered her hips half-way down her thighs completed the look.

"She looks a lot better than she did last night." Chrono nodded as he saw her and then gulped as she frowned at him. "Hey! You were kind of, you know, blue in the face last night."

Filia sighed and sat down near him, shaking her head. "I'm just worn out." She groaned and flopped her face onto the table.

"So, what's our plans, Miss Lina?" Sylphiel looked at Lina as she sat down and crossed her arms.

"Well, after talking to those who were there, it seems that the Supreme Elder let his fear of myself and Xellos get to him and he ended up making a deal with a Mazoku. A really high ranking one at that." Lina sighed as everyone was looking at her grimly. "Coupled with the fact that we have those Overworlders trying to summon Dark Star to this world, Valgaav trying to kill me, Xellos involved, and Dynast and Dolphin's servants, and probably one of the lords as well, are all messing around, things are going crazy right now." She held up a hand and extended a finger. "Let's recap what we know. One, Gourry's Sword of Light is one of the targets." She held up a second finger. "Two, Nanoha and myself are being targeted for death by either Valgaav or the Supreme Elder, or as he calls himself now, Dyn... Wait a second!" Lina's eyes widened as something came to her. "Oh... My... SUNNVA!" She banged her hand on the table. "Why didn't I see it before?"

"What is it, Miss Lina?" Amelia looked at her concerned as Lina narrowed her eyes.

"Dyn, Sherra... The one who gave the Golden Dragons their power... It has to be Dynast Grausherra!"

"Are you sure?" Zelgadis asked, getting a nod from Lina.

"It didn't occur to me until I said his name." Lina sighed heavily. "Just freaking great. Golden Dragons with their own power and the backing of Dynast?"

"So, what's the plan then?" Gourry asked as he thumbed his sword. There was no way that anyone was going to get this without a fight.

"For now, we're staying here."

"WHAT?"

Lina chuckled at the shocked looks on everyone's faces. "I'll be honest, it seems stupid to me too, but this might work to our advantage."

"What do you mean?" Shiro asked, slightly confused.

"Well, for one, Dyn's likely going to be looking for Valgaav, to end what he started a thousand years ago. Two, he needs Filia to get into that temple," she looked at Filia, who nodded at her, "and he can't do it himself. Three, the Overworlder's are going to eventually come for the Weapon of Light that Valgaav has and the Sword of Light. Four, whatever IS in that temple is likely something that can give us a major edge to this conflict, and if Filia's the only one who can open it up..."

"Better to keep her close with us." Zelgadis nodded at her. "But, what will we do for money to stay here?"

"That's easy." Lina smiled at him. "Don't you worry about it. I'll get us rooms for our stay here. Anyway, we can use this time to brush up on our skills and strategies." Plus it would give Mary some time to figure out a sheath for the Blast Sword.

"Actually..." A screen popped up, startling everyone at the table. Filia was so startled that she fell backwards and crashed onto the floor on her back, causing her skirt to flip open and her knees to move to either side of her head.

Poor Chrono happened to look over at that exact moment and turned redder than a ripe apple. The poor boy _tried_ to look away, he really did, but, well, it was a rather lovely view and he was a growing boy, he couldn't help himself from staring at Filia's legs, thighs, thong and butt.

"Mary..." Lindy's voice was heard as a second screen popped up. "You forget that they're not used to this here." Mary looked embarrassed and rubbed the back of her head as she chuckled.

"Heh heh heh... Sorry. Anyway, if you're going to stay there for a few days, Fate..."

"Yes?" The blonde looked at the screen in confusion.

"If you could send Bardiche here, we've got an idea for a new mode that should help you out."

"But..." Fate blinked as Mary smiled brightly.

"Don't worry, Fate!" She closed her eyes and held up a hand as she looked on cheerfully. "We actually have all the parts on hand for this new mode. We came up with all the specifications while we were upgrading Raising Heart."

"Well..." Fate looked concerned and Mary clapped her hands together.

"Don't worry, it'll take four, no, three days to fully implement them. We've run simulations and everything, nothing should go wrong. We've even go the parts to reinforce the frame work right off the bat."

"Bardiche, will this be okay?"

**"Yes, sir."**

Fate smiled softly and nodded at Mary. "Take good care of him."

"Of course." Mary smiled as she touched a few things on the console and Bardiche disappeared. "See you in a couple of days." Her screen turned off and Lindy was shaking her head.

"Well, that was..."

"EEEK!" Filia yelped as she jumped to her feet and put her hands on the front of her skirt. "You were peeking!"

"Was not!" Chrono's face was bright red as he fell to the floor, shaking his head. "I was going to help you up, honest!"

"Then why were you looking down there?" Filia's eyes teared up. "You... You're a dirty pervert!"

"Chrono!" Lindy gasped and Amy's face appeared on a new screen, looking upset. "I mean, seriously, you should at least get permission from the young lady in question."

To be honest, Lindy found the whole thing _hilarious_, and ironic. She just hoped that he didn't take after her. After all, she was about his age when she had started sleeping with Clyde.

Chrono sweat-dropped at the disappointed looks and hung his head in defeat. "Filia..." He looked up at her teary-eyed face. "I'm sorry, please forgive me?"

Filia sighed and pulled her chair up, before sitting back down on it. "I guess..." She honestly didn't know what to make of this kid, but at least he _seemed_ like he was embarrassed.

"Good, we're all good friends now." Sylphiel smiled as she clapped her hands together.

* * *

"Xellos..." Zelas raised an eyebrow as her servant appeared before her. "What's the news?" She drawled as she took a sip of alcohol, or tried to at least before it froze over. "...Dolphin's drunk on chocolate again." She sighed, heating it back up so that it was liquid and drinking it again.

Xellos bowed to his master. "It seems that both Dolphin and Dynast's servants are running amok at the moment." When Zelas raised an eyebrow, he clarified. "Riksfalto and Sherra, Dolphin and Dynast's Generals, recently teamed up with Valgaav to try and eliminate Lina Inverse and her family."

"Indeed..." Zelas pulled out a cigarette and lit it up before taking a drag of it. "I think that Huraker's got something to do with that then. Riksfalto's strong, but not that smart, and Sherra might be a touch arrogant, but she wouldn't plan something like this on her own."

"Possibly. However, it seems that Ragradia's power has manifested itself in a human male that lived outside of the barrier area his entire life."

"Really?" Well, _that_ little tidbit was interesting. "Anything more?" As long as the boy didn't interfere with her plans, she saw no reason to eliminate him. If he started a war against Mazoku and had Dragons on his side, well, she wouldn't be held responsible for her actions.

"Vrabazard has given a human free access to his power."

Zelas grimaced mentally. Just what they needed, the Shinzoku coming back, especially with the new problems that were popping up. "I see..."

"And it seems that the Golden Dragons that were following Vrabazard, at least some of them, have gained a tremendous amount of power."

"That can't be coincidence." Zelas frowned. "Xellos, postpone the offer to Valgaav. For now, keep an eye on those humans."

Xellos stood up. "Any special orders?"

"Keep an eye on things..." Her eyes flashed as she smirked. "However... Should the opportunity arise... Do take care of the little... Pests."

"Of course, Beastmaster." Xellos smiled happily as he disappeared.

* * *

Lina: Oh man! Things are really interesting now. Filia, Sylphiel, Amelia! Let's go! Next time, on Blood That Flows - Try! Read it, or I'll really start some trouble!  
Amelia: Miss Lina! Do we NEED to wear something this embarrassing?

If you're wondering about Nanoha's hair length... She now looks a bit like Material-S/Seikou from the PSP game. I do so love that video game. Keep an eye out for more references from the game in the future.

Interestingly enough, her "Divine Flame Buster" is a bit of a Seikou shout-out already. I didn't think of it at the time, but Seikou's "Divine Buster" is called Blast Fire.

Poor Filia, poor Chrono. I think it serves them both right for how they were in canon.


	47. Try 15

Try 15

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Time for some fanservice!

* * *

"So, what are we going to do, Miss Lina?" Amelia asked after the kids took off with Shiro, Zelgadis and Gourry, leaving Filia, Lina, Amelia and Sylphiel back at the inn.

Lina smirked and winked at her younger friend. "Easy enough! I talked to the owner of this inn and he said that he's in some financial straights... SO... I volunteered you three to advertise his delicious, delicious dessert that he'll have with dinner tonight."

"...What desert?" Amelia asked, looking worried as Lina grinned at them.

"Oh, just the desert that I'm going to be making for him."

"HAUH?" The three stared, wide-eyed, at Lina as if she was crazy.

Lina blinked in confusion. "What? Didn't I tell you that my husband and I own and work in a bakery?" The three shook their heads slowly. "Huh.." Lina held a finger up to her face and blinked. "Well, guess not. Okay, now you know."

"So, what are we going to do then?" Filia asked as Lina grinned at her.

"Well, give me a little bit of time and you three will be handing out free samples to people to entice them to show up when it's supper time." Lina rubbed her hands together, before throwing her head back and laughing. "OHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHO!"

The three shivered and went blue in the face. Who knew that Lina's laughter was scarier than her temper?

* * *

Meanwhile...

"Just what are you going to do to, Mary?" Lindy asked as she looked at Bardiche and all the parts that Mary and her assistants had laying around. "And what about that Blast Sword?"

Mary grinned at Lindy. "Oh, don't worry about that, I already figured out that the metal is nearly indestructible on its own, but there's some special property that makes it truly formidable."

"Considering that it caused a Mazoku some serious pain, I find it hard to believe that it can be more formidable than it already is."

Mary grinned at the Admiral. "It's rather impressive, actually! The Blast Sword can absorb all manner of magic used on or around it, making it harder, stronger and sharper. But since there's always magic around it, it's pretty hard to get it stop being as sharp as it is."

"I suppose you have an idea how to deal with it?" Lindy hung her head as Mary grinned at her. "Well, whatever, Amy and myself are going down to the surface tonight."

"Huh?" Mary blinked at her in confusion. "Why?"

Lindy smiled and clapped her hands together. "Why to eat some of Miss Lina's cooking. Nanoha, Yuuno and Fate all say that it's really good." And she needed to have a talk with her son anyway. If he was starting to take an interest in girls, she needed to make sure that he knew what he was getting into.

Well, that and Amy was starting to get jealous and upset. It was cute, but she couldn't have Amy distracted at the wrong moment. A trip to see Chrono and that girl that was obviously using her charms to try and catch his attention would probably straighten everything right up.

Or make things worse. She wasn't sure.

* * *

"Really, Miss Lina!" Amelia whined as Lina had her and Sylphiel stuffed into tight shirts that had straps over their shoulders, but emphasized their busts and short skirts that threatened to show off their panties if an errant breeze blew by.

"What?" Lina rolled her eyes as she walked out of the kitchen, dressed in the same outfit, causing all three to gasp as they looked at her, actually, after a second or two of looking at it, Amelia was almost certain that Lina's skirt was actually shorter than hers was. "Yeah, yeah, I know, small breasts do not cause men to drool over me." Honestly, she preferred it that way.

"Um..." Amelia looked away, blushing. "Sorry. But, Miss Lina... You're... I didn't realize that you filled out so much."

Lina blinked and looked down at herself. "What do you mean?" She looked up and frowned in confusion. "Amelia, just what do you mean? Are you saying I'm fat?" She blinked as she realized Amelia wasn't in front of her. "Amelia?" Her eyes widened as she felt hands grab her breasts and a body press up against her from behind. "...Amelia, that better just be a breast check and you're not grabbing my breasts because you're attracted to me."

Amelia's face was red as she stepped out from behind Lina. "Sorry, but I was just checking. Miss Lina! You... Your breasts are bigger now." Granted, they weren't extremely large, but they were pretty noticeable on her.

Lina rolled her eyes and pulled Amelia into a tight and uncomfortable headlock. "I swear, at the rate this is going, there's going to be at least one girl kissing me before this adventure's over."

"Um, Miss Lina..." Sylphiel sweat-dropped as Amelia swung her arms up and down in a feeble attempt to escape her punishment. "Sorry, we're just..."

"Not used to me having boobs, I know." The redhead rolled her eyes and let Amelia go. "Alright then!" She grabbed some plates with various goodies on them and handed them out to Filia, Sylphiel, and after she recovered, Amelia. "Let's go and entice people to come and eat at the inn."

* * *

Meanwhile...

"Master Dyn..." He turned to one of the forty Dragons that followed him. "We still cannot find that remnant."

"Don't worry." Dyn shook his head. "We'll find him, kill him, and take that weapon for ourselves."

"What about the other weapons?"

"The Sword of Light is with those humans, it shouldn't be too hard to get that, and when we get Galveira, we'll be able to take the other weapons for Master Dynast."

"What about the prophecy?"

Dyn gave his follower a dirty look. "When we have all the Weapons of Light, we'll be able to deal with him on our own terms. Now, find Valgaav!"

"Of course!" The Dragon bowed, before changing into his Dragon form and flying off.

Unseen to him, Erulogos looked on and frowned. 'What do you know about them?' He wondered to himself. He could have taken them down by himself, he probably should have, but he was curious, plus, if they knew where Galveira was, it would only be a matter of time before they led him straight to it.

* * *

"How long are you going to be out, Riksfalto?" Huraker smiled pleasantly as she sat near the face-down General, sipping some tea. "I mean, really, it's a pleasant day, you're not quite dead yet."

"Just give me some more time..." Riksfalto mumbled as she remain where she was. "I'll be back to normal in five, no, two more days."

Huraker shrugged and put the tea down. "Well, if that's the case then, I think I need to check on something. Bai bai." She waved as she disappeared from view.

"Ugh..." Riksfalto rolled over and looked up into the sky. "...She was right, it is a pleasant day." She narrowed her one good eye as an image of that kid flashed in front of her. "To think he was so... Powerful." She may not have had a real body, but she was getting goosebumps just thinking about what he did to her. It made her regret trying to kill him.

Almost.

* * *

"Miss Lina!" Sylphiel pouted as she and the others made their way back to the inn. "It's not fair!" She couldn't believe that Lina had just told them that they had to serve food that night. She was a shrine priestess, not a serving girl! Especially not a serving girl in such a... Revealing outfit!

"What isn't fair?" Lina asked and mentally grinned as she remembered the way all those men had been practically falling over themselves to get a taste of her treats. It made her feel pretty good about things. Especially since she promised that there would be more treats at the Inn that night.

"Making us serve those... Those..." Oh, she just couldn't think of the right word at this moment, she was just too flustered.

"Perverts." Amelia and Filia said at the same time, causing Sylphiel to nod as she glared as Lina, who shrugged at them.

"What are you going to do about it? People are naturally perverted, using some sex appeal to get their attention never hurt anyone."

Amelia slumped as she gave Lina a flat stare. "The miss Lina I remember would have blown them all up."

Lina rolled her eyes and spun around to look at the three of them. "Look, there's a big difference between looking and touching. If someone wants to look, I say let them. That just means that you're attractive to them. If they touch you, feel free to blow them up."

"You really have changed, Miss Lina." Amelia said softly as she looked at the older woman in a bit of awe and confusion. "I... Does having children change you this much?"

Lina put an arm around Amelia and smiled softly. "It makes you learn patience, especially since children are going to screw up a lot."

"Even with the perverts?" Amelia asked as she looked at Lina with a disturbed expression on her face.

Lina let go of Amelia and shrugged as they got back to the inn. "Like I said before, if they're looking at me like that, then it means I'm still attractive and that's a good feeling. Besides, like I said before, if boys want to see your goods, there's not much that you can do to stop them." Then again, girls were the same way, they just covered up their tracks better. She smirked at the way the three of them blushed. "Now, come on, I've got to get dessert ready for dinner tonight."

"You know..." Amelia spoke up softly as they walked into the inn. "I didn't think that she was serious about running a bakery. But it seems that Miss Lina really has settled down a lot since I last saw her."

* * *

Lyos groaned as he slumped against a tree and panted hard, Banisher was in by his side as Shiro called for a training break. He looked at Fate, who had several bruises on her body due to strikes from him, but she had still won their little sparring match. "You're fast." Not to mention really tough, but he really couldn't mention to a little slip of a girl that she was tougher than he was.

At least unless he started using his power, then he could take anything she could dish out and then some.

Not that Shiro would let them use much of their power at all when they were sparring. It was meant to increase their skills, not prove which one had the easier time beating the tar out of other one with raw power.

"You're pretty good." Fate smiled softly at him, before stretching slightly. "Shiro-papa works us hard." Though, she did see the point that her sword style quite frankly left a lot to be desired. As fast as she was, it normally wasn't a deal, but she had to stop to attack sometime, and her attacks were kind of choppy as well.

He nodded and shook his head as Zelgadis called Fate over to practice some spell or something. "Ugh..." He suddenly felt a wave of tiredness and soreness run through his body. What he wouldn't give to have a cute girl give his shoulders a massage right now.

"Rough day?" A female voice spoke up and he found himself nodding.

"Yeah..." He groaned and stood up slowly, before blinking as he saw who it was. "Milady... What are..."

She put a finger on his lips and smiled at him gently. "Oh, just checking on how my Knight was doing, that's all." She saw the confused look on his face and she laughed softly. "You don't think that I couldn't come out here to see you, do you? I mean, I _did_ give you the item you needed to get here."

Lyos chuckled and rubbed the back of his head. "Yeah, you did. But, hey! I can actually use my power now."

Her eyes seemed to widen in anticipation at that. "Really? Well, that's interesting then, my Knight." She patted his arm, before turning and walking away. "Do keep getting stronger, Lyos. I promise you, it won't be for naught."

"Of course not." Lyos grinned and turned as Gourry called to him. "Just you wait." He grabbed Banisher and made his way to the blond swordsman. "I'll get even stronger."

Unseen to him, Huraker just chuckled as she smiled at his retreating back. "Oh, I'm sure you will... I'm sure you will..."

* * *

Hours later...

Chrono blinked as he and the others, after getting back to their rooms and getting washed up, walked out into the Inn's dining area. "What the heck?" The place was _full__!_ He couldn't see a single table open to sit down at and eat, and he was starving.

"Wow, guess Lina wasn't kidding when she said that she could get business." Zelgadis chuckled and Shiro nodded and excused himself as Lina called him down to the kitchen.

"So, do we have to wait outside?" Gourry asked. He was _starving_ and he wasn't sure he could wait that long to eat.

"Hey! It's Miss Lindy!" Nanoha pointed as she spotted Lindy and Amy in a corner table. "Hey! They see us!"

"Looks like they're wanting us to join them." Zelgadis nodded as the group went down the stairs over to the table.

"Chrono, why don't you sit here between Amy and myself?" Lindy asked with a pleasant smile on her face.

Amy, on the other hand, had a dark aura surrounding her. Even though she wasn't a mage, Chrono found himself reeling slightly, before Gourry slapped him on the back and made him get between them.

"Hi!" Filia smiled, though everyone could see her skin glistening in sweat, as she came up to the table. "Here are some menus, we're serving some brownies, cakes and other fine desserts with dinner tonight."

"Lina has you working hard, huh?" Zelgadis said flatly, getting a nod from Filia. It wasn't too hard to guess, the way that the blonde was panting slightly, which was doing some... Interesting things to her chest.

"I'll be back to get your order soon." She smiled and bowed, revealing far too much cleavage, before she turned and left.

Amy was twitching and turned to Chrono, who was staring at the spot that Filia was at a moment ago. "C..H...R...O...N...O... You weren't... Ogling her... Were you?" The practically visible black aura of doom tripled in size, dwarfing the corner of the room, as Chrono didn't react to her speaking to him.

Lindy put a hand on Chrono's shoulder, causing him to yelp and jump back. "Really, Chrono, I know that she's pretty, but you really shouldn't be trying anything with her."

"But, I'm..."

Fate pouted as she looked at Chrono. "And I thought he was a nice boy." She sniffled and grabbed Nanoha, who was sitting right next to her. "Waaah! He just wants to see me naked."

"There, there, Fate-chan." Nanoha smiled as she hugged Fate. "I'm sure that the naughty pervert won't do anything while we're looking." Her eyes went blank white as a thought came to her. "But then again..." She held up a finger to her cheek. "He has all those binds, he could just bind you up and do naughty things to you when you can't fight back."

"I wouldn't do that." Chrono hissed and Amy twitched as she looked at him.

"No, you were just undressing her with your eyes, weren't you?" Not that it was hard, Filia _was_ practically in her underwear and showing everything off. It didn't help matters any that even Amy could see that she was incredibly beautiful when she was a human. Not that she was interested in girls, but she knew when there was a woman who was good looking.

And Filia made her feel a touch insecure about her own looks.

One really couldn't blame Amy for feeling like that. Chrono's own teachers were very pretty, his mother was drop dead gorgeous, Nanoha and Fate were far too cute for their own good, Hayate and her knights ranged from cute to incredibly sexy and now Filia was making passes at Chrono.

What chance did she have unless he kept his attention on her?

Lindy just smiled at Chrono. _"Chrono, when we're done eating, you and I need to have a talk about a few things."_ The way he blanched was quite... Enjoyable.

Lyos and Gourry just blinked in confusion while Yuuno's face was red at the mental images that came to his head, thanks to the way Nanoha and Fate were talking.

* * *

"Ugh..." Filia groaned as she, Amelia and Sylphiel all slumped forward onto the tables after all the customers had left. "I swear, I think my butt's going to be red." She couldn't believe that Lina had forbidden them, on punishment of doing horrible things to them, to hurting any of the customers. It was even worse, since she KNEW that the men were grabbing at her butt when they could and she couldn't turn back to yell at them.

"You all did a really good job." Lina smiled as she sat down, her body was covered in various cooking powders and sauces, but she had a tired smile on her face. "Sorry about making you all suffer through that. I forgot how grabby some men can be."

"We've got to do this again tomorrow, don't we?" Amelia asked, getting a nod from Lina. "Why..?"

"It's just for three days, Amelia." Lina smiled at her. "Well, actually, just tomorrow if we get enough sales in here."

The three girls perked up at that. "Really?"

"Yep." Shiro said as he sat down next to Lina, before pulling his wife onto his lap and causing all three girls to blush heavily as they saw the way that he grabbed Lina and the way that she relaxed and sighed into his embrace. "If we make as much tomorrow as we did today, then we'll get free room and board for as long as we stay here."

"Considering how much we can all eat..." Amelia trailed off as her stomach, Filia's stomach and Sylphiel's stomach all started growling and demanding food. "Um..."

Lina laughed and got out of Shiro's embrace, before going back to the kitchen and coming out with some food and setting it in front of them. "Always make sure that your employees and co-workers go home happy." Lina smiled as she saw the three dig into the food in front of them. "Even got you some dessert as well."

She walked over to Shiro and leaned down, whispering to his ear.

"That's... Not a bad idea." Shiro grinned as the two waved the group a good night and went to check up on their kids before going to their own room.

It was always fun in the bedroom after a long night of hard work.

* * *

As he lay in the room he was sharing with Lyos and Yuuno, Chrono couldn't help but stare at the ceiling, completely red faced, after the "talk" his mother gave him. "I... I... The banana and the bagel... And..." It was impossible that his mother could talk like that, especially with a completely straight face.

He didn't know if he could look at anyone, especially Filia and Amy, the same way again.

"Wait, why..." A sudden mental image of Amy and Filia, both naked, came to his mind's eye, before he shuddered. "Why me?" He couldn't take it anymore as his eyes rolled back into his head as he passed out, his face practically lighting the room up.

The pleasurable sensory overload was too much for him.

* * *

Lina: Man, I'm so glad that the fanservice is out of the way, we just HAD to have an episode dedicated to that. Well, there's always more on the way. Huh? Lindy, what's that? Next time, on Blood That Flows - Try. Read it, or I'll really start some trouble.  
Lyos: Man, I am so jealous of Chrono right now.

Heh, poor Chrono, he got The Talk from Lindy. Makes one wonder about her, huh?

And, as much as those of us who work in restaurants want to, we can NOT harm the customers. Bad for business.

Even if they're grabbing your butts. Girls, you need to be more dodgy, or slap hands.


	48. Try 16

Try 16

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Last chapter with fanservice for awhile.

Did you guys not like the last chapter? No reviews on it. Makes me a bit sad.

This chapter and the last one were breather episodes between the fights.

* * *

Amy sighed as she sat in the outdoor bath. "For being a rather primitive world, they do have some nice stuff." The heat and water washing over her nude form was just so relaxing that she couldn't help but relax.

She turned and frowned slightly as she saw Filia, still in those underwear, though her breasts seemed to be free now, walk into the bath area and sit down to start washing herself off. "Afraid of getting people germs?"

Filia frowned at her as she washed the sweat that had accumulated under her breasts off. "I can't get these clothes off! The best I can do is lower my top slightly."

"Sure you can't." Amy snorted as she saw Filia wash her skin up. "Oh, for crying out loud!" She got out of the bath and walked over to Filia, ignoring her nudity and grabbed at the Dragoness' clothing and pulled on it. "I bet... This..." She growled and yanked on it.

"Oww!" Filia hissed and spun, her breasts swaying as she did so. "Listen you, that hurts! I've tried to pull these clothes off, they won't come off!"

"Then how come you were able to get your top dowoah!" Amy slipped on some soap that was on the ground and fell forward.

"Eeek!" Filia tried to catch her, but she found herself slipping and falling down on her butt as Amy crashed, face-first, onto her breasts with a splat. "Oh, just great!" Filia muttered, tears welling up in her eyes. "It's not my fault, I swear! Whatever I did, Lord Vrabazard, I'm sorry."

Amy looked up and looked at Filia's face closely. "...You... You really aren't... Trying to seduce him, are you?"

"Not on purpose, but he keeps trying to look at my butt and boobs and undressing me with his eyes..." Filia whined. "Besides, you seem attracted to him."

Amy blushed as Filia pointed that out. "Well, yeah. He's a really great guy..." A flat look appeared on her face. "Even if he's being a pervert these days."

"At least he wasn't grabbing my butt like those other men were." Filia admitted softly. "So, maybe you're right, he doesn't seem like a bad guy."

Amy sighed and dropped her head forward, planting it squarely between Filia's breasts, causing the Dragoness to get wide-eyed and gulp slightly. "You're so beautiful though... I can't compare to you."

Filia sweat-dropped heavily. "But... You're not bad looking. I'm sure that he looks at you when you're not looking."

"I bet he's upstairs, in his room, thinking about you right now."

Filia shook her head. "Nah uh! He's probably thinking about you more than me." Her face turned red as Amy shook her head. The sensations were rather... Distracting, and pleasant.

"Prove it." Amy muttered and Filia blinked a few times as she looked at the naked brunette.

"Well... Um..." Her face was flushed, she couldn't believe she was going to suggest this, but... "We could go up to his room and you'll see that he's not thinking of me."

Amy blinked a few times and pulled away from Filia. "Huh, why didn't I think of that?"

"But, first..." Filia pouted. "Can you wash my back?"

"Sure." Amy sighed as she moved behind Filia and frowned as she put a hand over Filia's clothing. "...You know... This doesn't feel like clothes at all."

"Huh?" Filia blinked as Amy ran a finger down her back.

"Yeah, it's weird, but I think it's your skin..." Amy tilted her head in confusion.

"Wait!" Filia's eyes widened and teared up at the same time. "That means I'm running around naked?"

"Maybe." Amy scratched the back of her head. "But, hey, if it's just a spell that's keeping people from realizing that you're naked, then it's not so bad, right?"

"But I'm a Dragon... I should be able to turn into my true form, use magic, fly." Filia sniffled as Amy slowly washed her back. "I'm useless like this. At least Lyos, Gourry and Shiro all have skills that are useful in a fight. What good is a Dragon that's stuck as a human and can't use any power?"

"You've still got your super strength, right?" Amy asked and Filia sighed, shaking her head. "You don't?"

"I don't know. Mace-sama disappeared after I got this new outfit and..." She trembled, before putting her hands on her face. "And the Supreme Elder became evil and abandoned me. My tribe... They went evil and they just want to torture me now."

"Filia..." Amy stopped scrubbing the blonde's back. "I'm sure that when this is over, you can find other Dragons and..."

"Be betrayed just like the Ancient Dragons were?" Filia asked bitterly. She may not have wanted to believe that her race was capable of doing something so horrible, but if they could abandon her to freeze to death after stripping her naked and getting a curse on her, it wouldn't surprise her if all Golden Dragons were like that.

"Oh, come on, I'm sure..." Amy trailed off as Filia stared crying. She sighed and got behind Filia and wrapped her arms around the sobbing girl. "Come on... Not all Dragons are like..."

"We were..." Filia sobbed, "supposedly the protectors of this world, and all we did was screw up." She did appreciate the hug that Amy was giving her, but it wasn't helping her mood at that moment. "I... I believed that Xellos was the worst enemy of all Dragons." She may not have liked him, but he was right, her kind did slaughter plenty of Mazoku back then too. "Now I think... I think that maybe the world would be better off without us. At least Lord Vrabazard wouldn't feel betrayed by us."

Amy sighed softly. "Hey, come on..." She tightened her hug and wondered what she could do to help the Dragoness, the poor dear was just so stressed out at that moment that Amy wasn't sure what could help.

She could try asking the captain, but then blanched at the thought of asking Lindy just what she would recommend to relax.

The woman was just... Weird.

* * *

As she looked in on the two, Lindy smiled to herself. Who knew all Amy needed to calm down was trying to console an upset girl?

Still, she was a touch worried for her son. If he took after his father anymore, he was going to have both Amy and Filia fighting over him like she and Leti had for Clyde.

Oh well, it wouldn't be as bad as it had been between her and Leti.

At least she hoped so.

* * *

Lyos groaned as he woke up and stared at what he saw. "Uh..."

"Shhh!" He blinked as he saw Yuuno trying to quiet him down. "I got up and they were like this." He gestured to Chrono, who had Amy on one side of him and Filia on the other side. "I thought they didn't like each other though..."

"I decided that it's not right to be angry at Filia when she's suffering that much." Amy said as she raised her head to look at the boys tiredly. "Go tell Admiral Lindy that I stayed up too late, and I'm sleeping in." The two nodded awkwardly. "Get out."

"Right!" They both ran out, Lyos stopping to grab his sword and Amy rolled her eyes before flopping her head back down on the pillow and snuggling up to Chrono. She looked at Filia and sighed softly. That girl really was distressed, not that Amy blamed her. 'Maybe the captain will let her come to Earth for awhile?' Amy was more worried about Filia doing something crazy and stupid if she was by herself than anything else.

* * *

"Why'd you wake up so early anyway?" Lyos asked as he stretched his back, getting his spine to pop slightly.

"I don't know..." Yuuno chuckled, his face was slightly flush as he remembered how those two were cuddled up to Chrono. For some reason, he was getting flashbacks to when he and Fate slept with Nanoha, though in that instance, it was to calm the girl down so she didn't go crazy again.

At least Nanoha's nightmares had faded in number and intensity to a fraction of what they had been right after the Mazoku Crisis, as the Book of Darkness and Garoth incident ended up being called.

Although, as a side-effect, Nanoha could never get to sleep unless she was with either him or Fate in the same bed.

But, then again, after all that they had gone through together, Yuuno really was grateful for Nanoha's family. They had become a far more stable constant in his life than he had been used to before the Jewel Seed incident.

It was... Nice.

"Hello, Yuuno." Lindy smiled at him as she saw him and Lyos walking into the dining area. "So, tell me, how are Amy and Miss Filia doing? Is my son still alive?" She giggled at the looks she was getting from them. "What? I saw them sneaking into your room last night."

"I think they're doing okay and I think Chrono's still alive." Yuuno chuckled softly, his face slightly red. "They were just sleeping though."

"Good." Lindy smiled pleasantly.

"Um..." Lyos frowned slightly as he looked at her. "No offense, but, where are you from?" He had never seen anyone wearing the clothes that she was, though it was similar to the clothing that most of Lina's group was wearing. Not to mention that weird thing that appeared in the middle of the table before. The best he could figure was that it was some kind of weird magic.

"Ah..." Lindy tapped her chin and thought about it. "Myself, my son, Miss Fate, Miss Nanoha, Yuuno, Shiro, Amy, and Mary all come from another world, like that person who taught you how to use your power. Lina, herself, originally came from this world, but was thrown back in time and ended up on one of the worlds from where we're from."

"One of?" Lyos asked, his eyes spinning as Lindy nodded to him.

"Yes. This world is on, what's called, the Ruby-Eye staff. The worlds where we come from are located on the Chaotic Blue staff."

Lyos scratched his head and frowned slightly. "How do you know she was thrown back in time?"

Lindy wasn't sure if he was just latching onto things that he could get his mind around or if he actually understood anything, but at least he wasn't asking for massive amounts of clarification. It was a touch confusing, no matter who you were. "Well, we weren't sure completely, but we decided to head back to our world for three days. The time to travel between the worlds takes about an hour or so... We ended up back in this world just an hour after three days after we left."

"Uh..." Lyos' eyes were swirling and Lindy shook her head.

"Sorry, more used to dealing with people who understand this." Lindy smiled at him. "We were gone from this world for three days and on our world for three days, so that's how we know."

"Oh." Lyos shrugged, it wasn't like he was going to need this information in the future.

* * *

Lina: Ugh, is this breather stuff done yet? Hey, Gourry, what are you doing? Next time, Blood That Flows - Try. Read it, or I'll really cause some trouble!  
Valgaav: Damn you, Gold Dragons, damn you all.

Not much to say this time. See you in the next chapter.


	49. Try 17

Try 17

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

And now, back to the action!

* * *

A few days later...

Huraker raised an eyebrow at Riksfalto, who was still just laying where she was, her eye closed. "Lazy." She moved to kick the sleeping Mazoku, only to find her foot stopped by a hand. "Well, looks like you've recovered."

Riksfalto smirked as she opened her eye. "I told you, only a couple of days." After letting go of Huraker's foot, she stood up. "So... What's our next move?"

"Well, honestly, I don't care what it is..." The two servants of Dolphin turned and gulped as they saw a certain Mazoku floating in mid-air. "But, I wonder, which one of you gave those Dragons extra power?" Xellos had his eyes open as he looked at the two in annoyance. "And I better like your answer."

"Dragons with extra power?" Riksfalto asked in confusion. "What the heck are you talking about?" She gasped as Xellos appeared next to her and stared her right in the eye. Hard.

"No, I suppose you wouldn't know..." He then turned to look at Huraker. "How about you, my dear? Do you have any clue why about forty Gold Dragons, including their Elder suddenly got more powerful?"

"Don't look at me." Huraker raised her hands up peacefully. "I've never been interested in those hypocrites. My interest was always that one boy. Anyway, you might try Sherra."

"I have tried, I can't seem to find her." Xellos grumbled as he stepped back. "Very well then." He faded away leaving a parting shot to the two. "I suggest that you two just sit back."

Riksfalto grumbled and shook her head. "Not going to happen." She disappeared into thin air. She had her own reasons for it.

Mostly because she wanted to see that kid again.

Huraker shook her head and shuddered. 'Ruby-Eyes, dammit!' She cursed to herself. Had Xellos decided to deal with them, her plans would have come to nothing. At least he decided not to bother them too much. Still, she'd have to be careful. It was almost time.

And she had to admit, she liked the idea that she had gotten from those two girls better than her original plan.

* * *

Valgaav sneered as he saw the Golden Dragons flock around him. "Unbelievable, you dammed lizards would attack now?" He was almost certain he could find Jillas soon, he just needed more time, but then these creatures appeared in front of him. He growled as one, dressed in robes, with hair that was a mix of blond and black, floated forward.

"Valgaav..."

"You!" Valgaav's eyes widened as his pupils shrank when he heard that voice. "You're that bastard!" He gripped Ragudo Mezegis tightly as the Supreme Elder smirked at him.

"My name's Dyn, boy..." He snorted as he looked at Valgaav. "I suggest that you hand the Weapon of Light over to me."

"Or you'll kill me?" The metal blade disappeared into the weapon as it lit up to his will.

"Oh, you're going to die either way." Dyn nodded to him as he floated back and several of the Dragons' weapons started glowing red. "But we were going to make it quick and painless. Now you'll need to die painfully."

"Ruby-Eye Blade!" The Dragons called as one, the ends of their staffs becoming engulfed in red energy.

Erulogos frowned and gripped Bodigar, which Sirius had given him for his venture out into the world. "Guess I'll have to interfere."

"No you won't." His eyes widened as Sherra appeared in front of him, holding Dulgofa in front of her as she took a stance. "You sealed away most of your Astral Body, I know that, it's why you're not as dangerous as you could be."

"Light Come Forth! Bodigar, the Axe that Bashes!" Erulogos called out as the axe lit up and the edges became serrated. "Mazoku, if you don't get out of my way..."

"Sorry, can't do that." She smirked at him. "But give me that Axe and I'll gladly get out of your way."

Erulogos didn't answer as he swung his weapon forward, a wave of power flashing at the General, who disappeared, only to reappear in front of the Shinzoku, their weapons clashing. "You don't understand, what use could you have for these weapons?"

Sherra smirked at him. "Why should you care? We Mazoku are going to revive our master one way or another." She chuckled at the way he growled and the two disappeared from sight.

Meanwhile Valgaav had taken the fight to the ground when it became too obvious that in the air, the Dragons had too much of an advantage. Not to mention that spell, whatever it was, was strong enough that Ragudo Mezegis couldn't cut through it like it should have. He jumped back as a Dragon tried to take his head off. "Too bad." He hissed, his wings becoming visible as his hands and arms got covered in dark scales before he gripped his weapon with both hands and fired a powerful lancing shot that bisected the Dragon neatly. "Dyn, you coward! First you come to my people, saying that you want to make an alliance, and then you kill them! And now! Now you make a deal with a Mazoku for more power?"

"It's not different than what you did." Dyn said as a pentagram lit up around Valgaav. "Making a deal with the Demon Dragon King, Gaav..."

"I was dying!" Valgaav hissed as the Zelas Brid snapped at his body, tearing into his flesh. "At least I have that excuse!" He cut through the binds of light that were coming out of the ground before leaping away when a Chaotic Disintegrate crashed to where he was a moment ago. "You can still use your original magic?"

"Of course, unlike you," Dyn held a hand up and bent his fingers like he was trying to make a fist, before pointing it at Valgaav, "we're not Mazoku."

"Damn you." Valgaav fired a blast at another Dragon, who sliced it in half with the Ruby-Eye Blade.

_"Supreme King with the frozen soul._  
_Grant me the power of your icy rage!_  
_Dynast Breath!"_

"What?" Valgaav gasped as his body was completely encased in ice in an instant.

Dyn pointed down at the frozen body and the Dragons nodded, five of them rushing towards his frozen form to shatter and destroy him.

Moments before they got to him, the ice shattered from within as Valgaav let out a roar. Glaring at them all, he snarled. "I'll kill all of you before you leave here today."

"Big talk from a traitor." Dyn spoke up as he snapped his fingers, the remaining Dragons rushing in and attacking Valgaav at once.

"I would rather be a traitor to my dead race than turn on my companions." Valgaav blocked one attack with Ragudo Mezegis.

"Big talk from a Mazoku, let's see what you can really do."

"GLADLY!" Valgaav screamed as his aura snapped around him and he let his rage flow through him. He was going to need all the extra power he could get to deal with these enemies.

* * *

Miles away, unknown to the fighting that was going on, Gourry stretched as he walked around town. It was going to be the last day that any of them were going to be there, and he wanted to see if there was anything interesting in town or not.

"Kitty!" He blinked as he heard an old-sounding and raspy voice call out from the alleyway. "Here kitty. Where did you go?"

He blinked and looked as he saw someone covered in a brown cloak. "Excuse me? Are you looking for your kitty?"

"Yes... My kitty ran under this building and I'm afraid that my old bones just aren't as limber as they used to be." A shaky finger pointed to the small hole under the building in question. "Would you be a kind lad and get my dear kitty for me?"

"Aww... Sure." Gourry smiled as he got down and crawled into the space under the building. "Are you sure that the cat's in here?"

"Yes." The old person called out. "Just keep calling for kitty."

"Okay." Gourry looked around, but couldn't see anything. "Kitty?" He moved forward slightly and blinked as he found something round in front of him. "Are you kitty?" Picking it up, he blinked in confusion. "This doesn't feel like a kitty... Though it's hissing like one." He laughed and started backing up so he could get some better light, before the "kitty" in question exploded in his face, sending up a lot of smoke. "Hey! What the heck?" He coughed as the smoke filled his eyes and lungs, causing his eyes to tear up in an instant.

"Hahahahahahaha!" The "old" person laughed before grabbing the Sword of Light and throwing the cloak off, revealing Jillas as he ran from Gourry. "I got it! Lord Valgaav will be so happy!"

"Hey!" Gourry coughed as he got up. "Get," he coughed again as he ran after Jillas, "back here!"

"Lord Valgaav, I'm coming!" Jillas threw a bomb behind him, which blew up some trees, knocking them over and blocking the way for Gourry to follow.

"Dammit!" Gourry hissed as he grabbed the trees and threw them out of the way. "Come back with my sword!"

"AHHH!" Jillas screamed as he noticed that. "What are you?" No normal person had that much strength! He pulled out some more bombs and threw them at the ground, causing several explosions as he ran as fast as he could.

Gourry coughed and shook his head. "No..." He frowned, before turning and looking as he heard his name get called out. "Lina..."

"What the heck happened?" Lina stared at Gourry, his clothes were a mess. "Don't tell me you were wrestling a pig or something."

Gourry shook his head. "I went to find a kitty that was under a building, and when I got it, it exploded and then this person stole the Sword of Light and took off and made more explosions."

Lina stared, before growling. "Just great." She closed her eyes for a moment. _"Hey, Lindy, can you get us all to the ship, looks like something's changed, we need to group and plan."_

_"Not a problem, just give me a moment."_

"What's up, Lina?" Gourry blinked as she smiled at him. "Whaaaaa?" He gasped as he disappeared in a flash, before he reappeared on the ship in orbit, along with Lina and the others, who got there a moment later.

"What's going on?" Fate asked, and gulped as she saw the serious look on Lina's face.

"We need to get to the big table room." Lina nodded at Fate, before smiling at Filia and Lyos, who were looking around in confusion. "Sorry about the sudden trip, but we needed to make a quick stop."

"Where are we?" Lyos asked and blinked as Lindy walked into the area.

"You're on the TSAB ship, the Arthra..." She looked at Lina. "This better be important."

Lina nodded at her. "Seems that the Sword of Light was stolen."

"WHAT?" The others yelled and looked at Gourry, who held up his hands.

"Sorry, I was trying to help someone find their kitty and they tricked me." Gourry rubbed the back of his head and laughed nervously.

"Ah, you're all here." Mary smiled as she saw the group. "I was just going to call you when the teleporters went off, so I came to see what's going on. Anyway..." She smiled and held up a golden triangular pendant. "This is for you, Fate."

"Bardiche." Fate smiled and took it from Mary. "Are you okay?"

**"Yes sir. Fully ready to go."**

Fate nodded and looked at Mary as she pulled out the Blast Sword from behind her and nodded to Shiro.

"Anyway, the problem was that you couldn't sheath this, right?" Seeing the nods, she pulled out a metal sheath and dropped it straight down, before shaking it back and forth slightly. "Problem solved!"

"How..." More than one person said at once and Mary smirked at them.

"I'm a mad scientist, you should know this!" Mary laughed for a moment, before calming down and explaining to them. "The metal is nearly unbreakable on its own, so, I just found a way to break the metal down to it's core components through analysis. Using that, I managed to synthasize metal that's just as durable. But the true power of the Blast Sword is that it absorbs magic to get stronger, harder and sharper. So, I had to make sure that the new Blaster metal, as I'm calling it, could absorb the magic FROM the Blast Sword to strengthen the sheath. It's not quite as good as the Blast Sword, but unless you use the sheath to block the Blast Sword or something like it, it should be able to keep the Blast Sword from accidentally cutting through the sheath." She tossed the sheathed weapon to Shiro, who caught it. "Oh! And Chrono, Durandal got fixed." She held up a card and tossed it to him.

"...You were busy." Chrono admitted and Mary just laughed at him.

"Oh, don't worry, it was easy to fix that. It only took us like fifteen minutes."

"Captain!" Amy's voice was heard over the intercom and most of the group jumped in surprise. "We're seeing a major fight going on only a few kilometers from where Lina's group was."

"We should go down there and..." Amelia blinked as Lina held up a hand.

"Not yet, Amelia. I want to make sure that we know what we're getting into."

"Of course." Lindy smiled as they headed for the bridge.

"Try to not let it overwhelm you." Zelgadis said, even though he was looking around with wonder on his face. "I still can't believe that something like this exists."

Lina shook her head. "At least you're taking this better than I did for my first few months on Earth."

"Really?" Nanoha looked at her mother in confusion. "What was so hard about it?"

"I was suddenly thrust a few hundred years into the future in terms of technology, it was loud and I wasn't used to any of it."

"Oh." Lina smiled at the confused looks that the children all had. To them, such technology was pretty common-place, but it had been extremely new to her when she landed on Earth.

* * *

"I have it, now I need to..." Jillas gasped as he saw a woman appear in front of him. "You... You're like Lord Valgaav..."

"Not quite." The woman smiled at him pleasantly. "My name is Huraker, but, yes, I am a Mazoku."

"What do you want?" Jillas asked as she shook her head.

"Nothing much, I'm just going to send you to your master, he's in danger of dying right now." Jillas' one good eye widened.

"Lord... Valgaav..." Jillas whimpered and gripped the Sword of Light tightly. "Take me to him."

"Of course." Huraker smiled as she teleported Jillas to Valgaav's location. "Let's see what happens next." She chuckled and disappeared.

* * *

Sherra grimaced as she and Erulogos faced off against each other warily. Her body was covered in nicks and cuts that were healing up, though she had given him a pretty good beating herself, considering that his body had cracks all over it. "I'd suggest you give up." If he had his Astral Body with him, she wouldn't have stood a chance,even so, she was barely able to keep up with him.

"Why don't you, Mazoku?" He snarled and held Bodigar in front of him tightly. He knew she was right, unless he killed her now, she was going to kill him. "I can't let these weapons fall into your hands."

Sherra chuckled, before disappearing and reappearing beside him, Dulgofa stabbing him in the side. "I told you, you should give up." She was lucky, she knew it too. Grabbing Bodigar from his hands, she smirked and kicked him away as he grabbed his damaged side. "I'd suggest you take care of that before you die... Shinzoku." Still, she was too worn out to do much else. Turning and snorting as she saw Valgaav fall to his knees as the last four Dragons, and Dyn surround the hybrid. "Oh well, they'll get that one for Lord Dynast." She chuckled and disappeared.

"D...Dammit." Erulogos growled, before disappearing as well. This wasn't going to end well.

* * *

"Lord Valgaav!" Jillas gasped as he saw his master on his knees, bleeding freely from several wounds. Around him were dead Dragons in piles, their blood tainting the grass red.

"Jillas... Run..." Valgaav gasped as he tried to stand up. "Just run..."

"Lord Valgaav..." Jillas ran to the injured hybrid's side and glared at the Dragons. "Leave him alone!"

"Ah, another Weapon of Light." Dyn nodded as he saw the hilt in Jillas' hands. "I'll tell you what... Give us the weapons and we'll kill you quickly."

Jillas snarled as he recalled Valgaav coming to his aid in the past. "Lord Valgaav... He didn't need to come and save me... He came to me when no one else would, saved my life and protected me when I was in trouble. And..." Jillas grabbed Ragudo Mezegis from Valgaav's weak grip.

"Jillas, what..."

"You expect me to leave him alone? Even if he's like Lord Gaav was, he's my friend."

Valgaav stared at Jillas in shock. "Jillas... You... Knew?"

"How touching..." Dyn said as he towered over them. "Now then... Just..."

Jillas growled and gripped both tightly. "I won't let you harm Lord Valgaav!" He screamed, both weapons lighting up in response and blasting a powerful shot forward, killing the Dragons on either side of Dyn in an instant. Tears leaked out of Jillas' eye as he crossed the blades. "I won't... WHAAA?" The two weapons resonated together and started merging, creating a powerful force of energy that had everyone looking on in shock.

"You fool..." Dyn grumbled and looked at his remaining followers. "Let us retreat for now, the power will kill them off and we'll just come back for the weapons." The other two nodded and disappeared.

"What should I do, Lord Valgaav?"

The hybrid grimaced, was this it? Did his ambition end here? "I... Don't know..." He admitted, groaning in pain.

"Quick." The two blinked as they saw Almace, holding Nezzard, appear before them. "Cast a Black magic spell at me. I can combine it with my Holy magic to beat this."

Valgaav groaned, but wasn't in the mood to argue. Concentrating what he could, he fired a sphere of Black magic at the Shinzoku, who combined it with his Holy magic and fired it back at the two weapons, causing them to forcibly cancel out and power down.

"I warned you, didn't I?" Almace walked over and picked up Ragudo Mezegis and Gorun Nova. "Do not cross these weapons with each other." He sighed as he saw the dead bodies and closed his eye. "Farewell..."

"Wait!" Jillas held a hand up. "Lord Valgaav needs help, please help him!"

Almace looked at the two, before sighing. "Very well..." He disappeared, along with Jillas and Valgaav, leaving a field of dead Dragons behind.

* * *

Lina: Aww man! How could we lose the Sword of Light to Jillas of all people? Come on, gang, it's time to find out just what was in that temple. Next time, on Blood That Flows -Try. Read it, or I'll really cause some trouble.  
Filia: Why, Supreme Elder? Why would you kill them off?

I always did like Jillas, I mean, the guy has NO magic or special abilities and yet he managed to impress Zelgadis with his technology by the end of Try. Anyway, I know that Holy and Black magic worked differently in canon, I know they do.

In my defense, it had been a long time since I had seen Try and I couldn't find the DVDs when I was writing these parts up. So, any inconsistencies you see with canon and how things worked, just remember that I had forgotten some details.


	50. Try 18

Try 18

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

And now, let's split up, gang!

Okay, someone asked, why did it take so long for Raising Heart to get the upgrade and Bardiche only a few days?

Simple enough.

1: Raising Heart was shattered by Death Bringer. Had it not been recovered right away, it would have been lost.  
2: Raising Heart wanted to better support Nanoha's "Chaos mode" and needed to be fortified to handle it, even for a short period of time.  
3: Bardiche is completely intact and just needed some restructuring and rebuilding. They already had everything ready to go before-hand, they just didn't implement it.

And now... Be prepared for something rather amazing.

* * *

"WHAT THE HECK WAS THAT?" Amy yelled and looked at Randy, who shook his head.

"I don't know! The reading was off the charts! If it had gone on any longer, it would have threatened the whole planet!" Randy shivered heavily as the readings were still coming in. "Such power... It's like... Like..."

"SSS, huh?" Lindy said as she walked in, her face cast in a serious look. "Can we trace them?"

"Actually, now that our scanners aren't being screwed up by the over-flow of massive magic, we're getting several high energy readings from the planet." Randy said as a screen came up, revealing what had happened on the planet, just as everyone came into the bridge.

"Valgaav..." Filia said softly as she saw him injured and laying there, and Jillas grabbing the Weapons of Light and holding off the Dragons. "I'm sorry."

"He can't hear you." Chrono spoke to her softly. "This is just showing us what happened after the fact... Wait! Rewind this... Now, sector 2 C and enhance."

Everyone gasped as they saw Sherra shoving her sword into Erulogos. None of them knew him, but they knew who she was, seeing her grab that Weapon of Light and then disappear had them on edge.

"This is bad." Lina muttered to herself. "That was Sherra... She's not working with Valgaav anymore it seems like. And if she has one of the weapons..."

"Then Dynast has it by now." Zelgadis muttered and narrowed his eyes. "I don't look forward having to fight a Lord. Especially one with a Weapon of Light."

"Where would she go?" Gourry asked and Lina sighed heavily.

"Probably to the Kataart Mountains." Zelgadis muttered softly. "That's where most Mazoku call home these days anyway."

Lina frowned softly, there was something that she was missing. "Can you follow them?"

"Not a problem actually..." Randy said as the scanners picked up the teleportation directions. "After we were able to account for the massive energy differences, we've found where that Valgaav person went to."

"So, we're going to go down in force and deal with him and..."

"No." Lina interrupted Chrono, who stared at her. "I'd like to, but there's something else right now." She looked at them seriously. "Dyn wanted Filia to break the barriers on that temple for him. Filia, you, me, Nanoha, Amelia, Shiro and Gourry are going to go there." She looked at Zelgadis. "Zelgadis, you, Fate, Lyos, Yuuno and Chrono should go after them. Valgaav's injured right now and we can find out what's going on from them exactly." And if he tried to fight back, it would be better to have two people who could use Holy power go against him.

"What about us?" Arf frowned at Lina as she and Sylphiel weren't included in the plan.

"For now, stay here, we could use an extra surprise or two in the future, okay?" Arf grumbled, but conceded the point.

Zelgadis nodded and looked at the others, to see if any of them had any objection to this plan.

When no one spoke out against it, Lindy nodded. "Alright then. Be prepared for anything."

"We will." Chrono said as he went to his group, they were going to teleport first, since there was a signal they could trace.

After they were gone, Lina had Filia point to where the Ancient Dragon temple was. "Are you sure that I can do it? I mean, all my power was sealed away..."

"I suspect that you can still break the barrier, even with your power sealed up." Lina muttered softly as she put a hand on Filia's shoulder. "Because, in your current state, Dyn wanted you to break that barrier."

"You ready?" Amy asked as the others stood on the transporter, getting a nod from the others.

* * *

Filia shuddered as she rematerialized along with Nanoha, Lina, Gourry, Shiro and Amelia in front of the temple. "That felt... Weird."

"Trust me, I know the feeling." Gourry shook his head as he wobbled slightly. "Feels weird."

"Well, Filia..." Lina gestured to the temple. "Care to let us in?"

Filia walked forward and closed her eyes before chanting in Draconic tongue, the first barrier falling down. "I... Can cast this spell?"

"Thought so..." Lina muttered as she slapped Filia's back. "I thought your magic was only sealed for most everything, otherwise they wouldn't have told you to undo the barriers."

The group walked into the temple and were greeted by statues of Ancient Dragons. "Wow..." Amelia looked around in awe. "This is..." She gasped as a pillar that they were walking to suddenly glowed dark and several Dragons appeared, glaring at Filia.

**"Golden Dragon, you dare to defile this place with your presence?"**

Filia closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "I know... My people wronged you a long time ago, before I was born." Opening them, she looked at the angry spirits with nothing but regret and remorse. "And any punishment that you wish to give me, I would be willing to accept, but we need to know, what was it that you had hidden from my people?"

**"A weapon of power so great that with it, we would have single-handedly won the war against the Mazoku. However, such a weapon would have only doubled the efforts of the Lords to destroy the world themselves. We chose to use the power of Black and Holy magic to create a barrier to seal it away."**

"How did?" Filia looked at the spirits in confusion.

**"We had our own methods, as the weapon in question was a Mazoku lord that transformed itself into its current form permanently. It was known as a Weapon of Light in this world."**

"Galveira!" Nanoha gasped, her eyes wide. "Valgaav mentioned that name earlier."

**"Yes, the Weapon of Light was the strongest weapon that we had ever seen. If it had fallen into the hands of the Mazoku, then all of our Lords would have been destroyed. It was better to seal it away to keep the balance of power than to let it fall to the darkness."**

"For all the pain that the Gold Dragons under the Fire Dragon King caused you and your tribe," Filia fell to her knees and bowed deeply to the spirits, "I apologize and wish that there was some way that I could undo the damage that we did."

**"There is no way that you can undo the damage that your kind caused us." **Filia winced at the words, knowing that they were true.** "However, you may pass, for now."**

"Thank you." Filia stood up and the group continued on slowly.

"Mom?" Nanoha looked at Lina as Filia undid another barrier. "What's going on?"

"It seems... That the spirits of the Ancient Dragons are still angry, but they just wanted the Gold Dragons to understand what they did was wrong." Lina saw Filia trembling as she undid another barrier, before she put a hand on Filia's shoulder, causing her to gasp. "Filia... You aren't the same as they are. What your people did was wrong, but it was a long time ago. You had nothing to do with it."

"My people... We..."

"There's still a chance to make things right." Shiro spoke up to her. "You can't change the past, but you can work to make a better future."

Filia took a shuddering breath, before nodding. "You're right." She undid the next barrier and continued to walk forward.

As the barriers fell one after another, Lina frowned, this was almost... _Too_ easy. "Shiro..."

He nodded and got close to her, squeezing her hand while his other hand gripped the Blast Sword tightly. "I know..." The hairs on the back of his head were standing straight up.

As the last barrier fell, Lina took a deep breath and walked forward and grabbed Filia's shoulder, before leaning close and whispering something to her. "Got it?"

"But, Miss Lina..." Filia was confused, but nodded at Lina, who walked forward. She gasped as she felt a tingling sensation over her body. "What the?" Her eyes widened as she felt the choker around her neck disappear, and along with it, the "clothing" that she had been wearing. She blushed as the only thing she was wearing now was a loose-hanging short-sleeved vest and a skirt, and nothing else. "Um..."

"Told you to wear the shirt." Lina rolled her eyes and pulled out a shirt from somewhere and tossed it to her. The Dragoness turned around and quickly pulled her vest off before putting the shirt on and then the vest. It wasn't the best, but it was far better than being naked. And at least the others of the group had enough decency to look away from her while she was putting on her shirt.

The others were confused as well, but didn't say anything Lina walked towards something that was glowing in the middle. "This must be..."

"Galveria." Lina spun as she heard that voice, it wasn't one she recognized. In the room was Sherra, grinning as she held her sword, Dyn and his two remaining servants, all holding onto their staffs, some minor demons and a man in the middle, holding the hilt to a weapon. "And," the man holding the hilt held it forward as it lit up, "I'd suggest that you just stand down."

"Dynast Grausherra, Frozen Demon King of the North, one of the remaining Mazoku Lords of this world." Lina said, as she looked at him seriously.

He grinned as he felt raw fear coming from the smaller redhead. "Your daughter seems to be afraid of me."

Lina chuckled and smirked, revealing a small fang. "Oh, she's just worried what she's going to do to you if you attack her."

"Really?" Dynast smirked at Lina and chuckled, he did enjoy a human that could put up a brave front. "Do you think you can win against all of us? The two of you?"

"Well, I wouldn't say just two of them." Dynast frowned as a familiar Priest appeared next to Lina, his eyes closed. "I was wondering when you'd make your move, Lord Dynast."

"Xellos, don't tell me that you're planning on interfering with my plans." He held out his axe at the Priest. "I'll crush you where I stand."

"Of course not, I wouldn't plan on getting in the way of your plans. But, unfortunately, your plans are in the way of _my_ plans." He opened his eyes and stared hard at the Mazoku Lord. "And while I know that I cannot beat you, I'm afraid that I will have to oppose you this time."

"Just what does dear Zelas have planned this time?" Dynast snorted at Xellos, who just smirked at him.

"That... Is a secret."

Dynast chuckled heavily. "Oh, I should have guessed... You Metalliums NEVER tell the full story, even under the threat of certain death."

Xellos frowned as he said those words. "Don't tell me that you're planning to use these weapons and take over the race yourself."

"That... Is a secret." Dynast smirked at him. "Bodigar, bash them all!" He swung his weapon out, sending out an arch of power that caused Xellos and Lina to both leap from the attack that crashed against the barrier.

"Amelia! Take care of those Demons!" Lina yelled as she jumped in front of Dynast. "I'm your opponent, Lord of the Frozen North." She snarled and snapped forth a Ragna Blade.

"Interesting." Dynast grinned. "The power of L-Sama. Let's see if you can use it properly!" He swung Bodigar out, crashing against the Ragna Blade.

"Man, what I wouldn't give for a weapon!" Gourry whined as he jumped away from an attack from the Minor Demons.

"Would this help?" Gourry gasped as a weird sword was dropped just in front of him. "Forgot to give you this before you left." Mary's face appeared on a screen just in front of him. "It might not do too much, but it's really strong, so you should be able to defend yourself with it."

"Alright!" Gourry grabbed the sword and parried an attack. "Don't worry about us, Lina! We got this!"

Nanoha had Raising Heart Excellion in front of her as she and her father faced off against the two Dragon servants while Dyn and Filia had a stand off on their own.

"Why, Dyn?" Filia frowned at him. "Why did you lie to me for so long?" She shuddered slightly. "What was the point of the curse? And why did you betray Lord Vrabazard?"

"You wouldn't have understood." Dyn closed his eyes. "Everything I did was for the betterment of the world." Opening them, he pointed his staff at Filia. "The curse was only to last until you broke through the last barrier. At which point, we Dragons would have celebrated with you."

"While I was naked, huh?" Filia growled at him. "You... SICKEN ME!"

Up in the air, Xellos smirked at Sherra, who went a touch blue in the face. "I'm sorry, but for this fight, your opponent is me. I can't have Miss Lina fight against two high ranking Mazoku on her own, after all, Sherra."

"Damn." Sherra disappeared to the outside, followed by Xellos.

"Raising Heart..." Nanoha whispered.

**"Assault Mode, Activate."**

A flash of energy later and Nanoha had her main cannon and whip weapons ready to fight.

"Can I stay in Assault Mode longer if I don't use the Chaos power?"

**"For a little while."**

Nanoha nodded as her screen started to display the power that was being used by everyone. "Then let's go!"

"Ruby-Eye Blade!" The two Dragons called out at once, one swinging for Nanoha and the other at Shiro. Nanoha avoided by going high while Shiro just slid to the side, avoiding the attack by inches.

"Really now, that attack was powerful, but so obvious that anyone with any training could see it coming." Shiro's eyes widened as he saw his shadow appear in front of him and a red light coming from behind.

"DAD!" Nanoha called out as Shiro turned, just in time to see a spell rushing right at him.

_"Dragon Slave."_

"Dyn, you..." Filia's eyes widened, before Shiro swung the Blast Sword into the spell, slicing through it and causing it to fall apart.

"What the?" Shiro looked at the sword as red energies spiraled around it to the tip. "I wonder..." He held the weapon high and the energy spun around, faster and faster.

"What are you.." Dyn gasped as Shiro turned and swung his weapon at the Dragon he was fighting.

"Dragon SLAVE!" Shiro called out, the Blast Sword fulfilling its second ability, to absorb spells and use them again.

"Ruby-Eye Blade!" The traitorous Dragon called out, his spell colliding with the other spell from Shabranigdo and cutting through the destructive energies. He gasped as Shiro swung in, the Blast Sword, still glowing red, before it sliced through the staff like it was nothing and causing the energy that was held in it to quickly vacate the weapon and dispel into the air harmlessly. "What?"

"You're still a Gold Dragon! Use your power!" Dyn commanded him, before turning and taking a golden tail to the face, sending him flying across the room and into a stone wall.

"You have NO RIGHT to call yourself a Dragon, you traitor!" Filia yelled out, in Dragon form, tears falling from her eyes as she opened her mouth and fired a powerful laser breath.

"Chaotic Disintegrate!" The Dragon cast his spell, which was sliced in twain by the Blast Sword, before mixing with the red energies there. "Impossible! Black and Draconic spells?" He gasped as Shiro held the Blast Sword to his throat.

"You betrayed everything for what?" Shiro jumped back as the Dragon shifted to his true form and glared at Shiro.

"I would follow Lord Dyn wherever he went." His mouth opened up as magic charged up.

"I see." Shiro closed his eyes. "I'm sorry then." He leapt up and swung forward, slicing the Dragon's head off in one go.

While Shiro was fighting off that Dragon, in the air, Nanoha was darting out of the way of several spells, both large and small, that the Dragon fired at her, those that would have hit collided with her more powerful barrier. "Just stop! You'll lose if you keep this up." Her eyes widened as her visor warned her about a sudden increase from the side. "DAD!" She saw Dyn fire a Dragon Slave right at the back of her father. Before anything more could happen, he spun and used the Blast Sword to block the Dragon Slave and absorb the energies it contained.

"You should pay attention to yourself." The Gold Dragon she was fighting had transformed into some sort of hybrid of human and Dragon form.

Nanoha floated back and grimaced. "Any suggestions, Raising Heart?"

**"Confined combat mode, activate."**

"Confined combat..?" Nanoha gasped as her cannon and whip disappeared and two smaller guns were put into her hands. "What?"

**"This mode will help you fight smaller, faster, multiple opponents, or in small areas."**

"Works for me!" Nanoha smirked as she fired several shots and gasped, as each of them was at _least_ as powerful as any of her Divine Busters. However, the small beams, each only the width of a marble, had a _lot_ more piercing power than she was used to, as the ones that got through to the Dragon actually pierced his shoulders, legs and arms. "Just give up."

"NEVER!" The Dragon howled as his power and the black energy of the staff mixed together in mid-air. "I will NEVER let Lord Dyn down."

"I'm sorry then, I can't let you harm anyone." Nanoha idly noticed that the Supreme Elder guy was belted across the room, but didn't pay it any attention as she fired a continuous stream of energy from both guns, aiming for the staff.

She just hoped that he would stop before she was forced to take lethal action.

* * *

Lina stared at Dynast, who was smirking at her. "Aren't you worried, Dynast? That your force here will fail?"

Dynast laughed at what she said. "They're all expendable." He pointed at the barrier that was behind Lina. "That is all that matters. With that, even the frozen piece of Shabranigdo could be released." He swung his axe out again and Lina leapt out of the way. "Looks like you can keep up a flight spell and a high level spell at the same time, huh?" It was almost unheard of, but it was quite impressive to see a human that could float in midair and use a magic spell like that.

Lina closed her eyes as she landed. "I didn't want to ever use this, but, against you, Dynast, I'll make an exception."

"Use what?" He raised an eyebrow as she landed in front of him, a black magic circle appearing under her. "What are you..?"

_"Fragment of the Lord of Nightmares._  
_Free yourself from heaven's bonds._  
_Become one with my body_  
_One with my power_  
_and let us WALK the path of Destruction together!"_

Dynast blinked in confusion. "What are you doing? You already have a Ragna Blade active." The Ragna Blade in her hand disspiated and became a cloud of darkness above her head.

_"Let us guarantee destruction for all."_

Lina smirked as her left eye glowed brightly. "Hey, Dynast, here's just how powerful I really am."

_**"DOUBLE RAGNA BLADE!"**_

"Wh..WHAT?" Dynast took a step back as Lina spun around, black energy forming above her head as she reached up and grabbed it and spun, taking a pose, one arm above her head and the other in front of her, both hands holding a large Ragna Blade, the one above her was pointing out and the one in front of her was pointing to the side.

Lina hated using this spell, it took more than ten times the amount of stamina to use it than a normal Ragna Blade did, but the effects were several times more devastating.

"D...Double..?" For the first time in over four thousand years, Dynast actually felt something that he wasn't used to feeling.

Fear.

He growled as he took a stance, Dyn crashing into a nearby wall, before Sherra fell from the sky and landed in a heap next to him, Xellos, who didn't have a scratch on him, appeared next to Lina. "Oooh, nice upgrade, Miss Lina." Xellos commented idly, his eyes still open. "Your General is strong, Lord Dynast, but you really should have made sure that your original General and Priest were as strong as they should have been, otherwise you wouldn't have had to made two more."

Lina wasted no more words as she _moved_ towards the Mazoku Lord.

Dynast growled as his aura flashed into existence. "Bodigar! Let's work together!" His whole body became engulfed in black and white energy as he faded from existence, but not before his non-weapon arm was lobbed off completely.

"Lord... Dynast..." Sherra looked up, beside her, the broken remains of Dulfoga dissipated. "Help me..." She gasped as Dynast appeared behind Lina attempting to slice her head off, only to find that she blocked it with her other sword. "Please..."

"Shut up, you worthless servant!" Dynast growled as the room got colder and colder by the moment. "I'll just end all of you one way or another."

"Yeah, just try it." Lina growled as she swung down, missing Dynast, and Xellos, both of whom teleported out of the way. However, the tip of the Ragna Blade hit the barrier in the middle of the room, cracking it.

"I'll kill you..."

"Dragon Slave!"

Dynast snorted as the Black magic spell struck his barrier, dissipating in an instant. "Don't you know anything, human?" He snorted as he saw Shiro glaring at him. "That level of magic won't work!" He yelled, letting loose a wave of destruction that killed the bleeding Dragon that Nanoha was fighting.

"Shiro!" Lina's eyes widened.

"Dad!" Nanoha cried out in alarm. The power here was a LOT stronger than even a single Dragon Slave.

Shiro grabbed the Blast Sword and blocked the attack, letting out a grunt of exertion in the process, and blinked as the thing started to glow black. "What the?"

"The Blast Sword?" Dynast's eyes widened as he realized his blunder. "And I just powered it up..." He looked up as Filia glared at him, sure, she wasn't any threat, neither was Xellos, and even the humans, but together they were a nuisance, specifically the one with the Blast Sword and Lina Inverse. "Now I understand..." He chuckled, before dropping Bodigar on the ground. "I understand why Hellmaster was so interested in you, Lina Inverse." He turned to face her, before bowing to her. "I've lost this fight, for now. I look forward to having a rematch."

"Hold it!" Amelia pointed at him, frowning. "You're just running away?"

Dynast shook his head and smirked. "Part of being a good strategist is knowing when you've been beaten, my dear..." He then grinned as Bodigar floated up to his hand. "And I haven't been beaten yet!" He disappeared, before reappearing right next to Galveira. "With this, I'll be able to free Lord Ruby-Eyes from his frozen prison and there's..." He gasped as his body was cut in half, from head to crotch. "W...What?" Bodigar and Galveira, the latter of which had shrunk down to the size of a normal bow, fell to the floor.

Lina panted as the energies of the Double Ragna Blade dissipated and she grinned as she walked towards him. "I figured that you were going for this weapon, Dynast, that's why I moved about twenty centimeters to the right." She grabbed Galveira and Bodigar, and bounced away, tossing Bodigar behind her, where Gourry grabbed it. "Use that until we get your weapon back."

* * *

Lina: Oh man! That was hard, but now we have Galveira and Bodigar! Huh? Huraker? What's going on? Next time, on Blood That Flows - Try! Read it, or I'll really start some trouble.  
Riksfalto: I can't wait for the rematch!

Okay, I shall be honest, I don't think that the Blast Sword CAN, in fact, store spells like that. I really don't, but I heard that it could and nothing said otherwise, so, for the purposes of THIS story, it can store some magic, like any spells that are used against it directly, but only for a few days at best.

The Double Ragna Blade? Why didn't she use it against Death Bringer? Well, 2 reasons. 1: She didn't get time to use it before he decided to start messing with reality. 2: I didn't think of it back then.

I figure Dynast would know the Blast Sword. It WAS his undoing in canon. (Plus being shoved into Zanafar Armor and sliced down with the Ragna Blade.)

And now, a quick Omake.

* * *

Filia used growl.  
Dyn's attack decreased.  
Filia used Iron Tail.  
Dyn defense decreased.  
Filia used Dragon's Breath.  
It's Super Effective  
Dyn is paralyzed, it may be unable to move.

* * *

Sorry about that, but that joke's been running in my head since I wrote this awhile ago.


	51. Try 19

Try 19

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Fate mode! A go go!

* * *

"Where..." Fate looked around, surprised by the layout. They were on a large circular platform, several small cylinders were floating around them and in the sky, there was a large door just floating there.

"We shouldn't be here." Lyos said softly. "This is where Shabranigdo and Cephied ended their fight against each other."

"The center of this world." Almace said as he put Nezzard into its proper place in a small circle on the edge of the platform. The large Shinzoku turned to face them, a serious look on his face. "Sirius is searching this planet for the Mazoku who stole Bodigar from Erulogos. What are you doing here?"

"We have questions, Almace." Zelgadis said as he looked at the Shinzoku. "And we need answers."

"Very well." The Shinzoku nodded to Zelgadis. "What is it that you want to know?"

"Why bring your conflict with Dark Star to this world?"

Almace closed his eye and took a deep breath. "We don't have a choice, after merging with our master, Vorfeed, his power became too strong for anyone to deal with. Dark Star's subordinates disappeared and the best that we could do was die in front of his overwhelming power. If we could have dealt with this back on our world, we would have, but it was too much, none of us had the power to do anything."

"Why?" Yuuno asked the god. "Why would he merge with his mortal enemy?"

"I don't know, sadly. But after merging, he promised to erase the worlds and start anew."

Valgaav glared at the group as he stood up, leaning on Jillas. "What are you here for? To end me like those Gold Dragons tried to?"

Chrono shook his head. "No. But you're walking down a dangerous path."

Valgaav growled and let his body start glowing with power. "You're just like all of them. First the Dragons, then Almace, and finally the Mazoku themselves."

"I don't see what the big deal is, Valgaav, it was just Sherra who turned on you, and only because Lord Dynast told her to." A familiar voice had Valgaav's pupil's shrinking as he turned and saw Riksfalto there, smirking at him. "Oh, don't get your Dragon panties in a twist, I'm not here for you." She looked at Yuuno and grinned, though her face got a touch red as she looked at him. "That was a hell of an attack, boy. Maybe you can show me your other tricks?"

Fate frowned as she took a step closer to Yuuno. "You aren't going to hurt him."

"Hurt him?" Riksfalto laughed at her. "Oh please, I just want to fight him again." She licked her lips in anticipation. "See if he's got anything like what he used before."

"Actually." Yuuno closed his eyes and let out a breath as he let Vrabazard's power flow through him.

"You can use Holy power?" Riksfalto asked, her face becoming flushed as her body trembled slightly and she let out a groan deeply, her eye rolled into the back of her skull as sheer _pleasure_ coursed through her body, causing everyone to look at her weirdly. "Oh... This is going to be so much _fun_!"

"Uh..." Yuuno felt uncomfortable at the grin she was giving him, he really wasn't sure why, either.

"Bardiche." Fate whispered. "Zamber form."

**"Yes, sir."**

Riksfalto gave Fate a flat stare as she stood in front of Yuuno. "Not interested in you..." A weird smile came to her face as it became more flushed. "Unless he's into that kind of stuff."

"Uh..." Fate blinked several times, unsure as to what was going on.

"Well, this is the weirdest set-up to a fight ever." Zelgadis, back in his Chimera form, muttered. "I've never seen a love-struck Mazoku before."

"They can't feel love." Almace looked at Zelgadis, who just shrugged and pointed at Riksfalto.

"Well, what would you call it then?"

"Enough!" Riksfalto floated straight up. "Come on, boy... I know you can fly."

Yuuno looked at Fate. "You don't have to." She looked like she was about to do something crazy at that moment.

Fate smiled at him. "We're friends, which means we stick together."

Yuuno nodded as the two took into the air, his body was engulfed in an orange glow, his eyes practically lighting up in power and Riksfalto shuddered and grinned at him. "Alright, Mazoku... Let's go."

"This will be fun." Riksfalto grinned as she rushed towards the two kids.

* * *

"I should go up there." Chrono muttered, but in front of him was Valgaav and Jillas. Valgaav may have been injured, but Jillas had those weapons, and he was flat-out scared of what Jillas could do with them.

Jillas growled as he pulled out his guns. "I won't... Let you harm Lord Valgaav!"

"Jillas..." Valgaav got to his feet and glared at them. "Almace, it's your decision, who's side are you on?"

The Shinzoku looked at Valgaav, then at the humans, before turning and walking to the edge. "I will not participate in this battle, either way."

"Good enough for me." Valgaav growled as he looked at them. "So, Knight of the Aqua Lord, a Chimera, and a human with some magic..." He was hurting, but he could take them all out, he was certain. "All of you are standing in my way..." He looked at Jillas. "Do what I told you to do earlier. Leave them to me."

"Lord Valgaav..." Jillas nodded as he stepped back.

Valgaav's wings opened up and he snarled at the three in front of him. "If I can't kill Lina Inverse, I'll settle for her friends."

"Looks like words won't reach him now." Zelgadis said as drew his sword. "He needs to calm down first."

Chrono shook his head and sighed. Just what was up with all these missions needing to come down to violence?

Lyos pointed Banisher at Valgaav. "Listen, I don't know what's going on, but I don't care, you need to be stopped."

Valgaav just growled. "Then let us walk down the same path of destruction together."

* * *

Riksfalto grinned as she phased through a sword strike from Fate, before punching the girl away. "Come on! You're plenty strong for a human, aren't you?" Her eyes widened as a super concentrated ball of fire came right at her. "Holy magic, huh?" She chuckled and disappeared, letting the attack pass through where she was. "You're good, kid." Just as she reappeared, her neck snapped back as chains wrapped around her throat. "Not this again." Grabbing the chains, she pulled and shattered them before disappearing again.

"Almost..." Yuuno shook his head. Even if he had gotten stronger, she was still so much more powerful that it was almost stupid. Not to mention that her speed was far above his. "I can't hit her." His eyes widened as he found her face inches from his and her fist in his gut. "Ugh..."

"Come on..." She whispered to him softly. "I know that you can go harder than that." She leaned in and whispered to his ear. "I'm betting that when you get older, you can go a lot longer and harder too." She really wasn't sure why she was doing it like this, but it sure was fun.

Fate narrowed her eyes as Yuuno floated backwards, coughing from that. "Bardiche... That new mode... Set up."

**"Rubin Blitz Form."**

Fate blinked, wondering when Bardiche picked up German, before she gasped as her belt, skirt and cape came undone, before a new cloth wrapped around her legs, body and arms, tightening and hardening around her body, becoming solid, instead of cloth-like. She could feel it wrap around her neck to the underside of her jaw and all around the base of her neck, her body armor was still black, but the armor on her arms, legs and neck was red.

Bardiche Zambar shifted and shrank, the blade becoming thinner and shorter, as did the hilt. "What?"

"Oh, you activated it." She blinked as she heard Mary's voice. "This is just a recording I put into Bardiche, so listen up. This is your Ruby Flash Form. Part of the idea we already had in store when we came up with it, but thanks to experimenting on the Blast Sword, we came up with this little addition. It super condenses all of your magic. You're not any stronger, but since your magic is more compressed, you can do more damage with it. Though, you might find that it has a side-effect or two. Like making you three times faster."

Riksfalto looked at Fate, who disappeared, even to her Mazoku eyes. The next thing that she knew was that her left arm was missing from the elbow down. "Woah..." She spun and saw Fate's blade had a red outline to it. "Heh!" She grinned at Fate. "You're interesting, girl. But I prefer him." She let out a gasp as her back lit up in flame. "Heh..." She looked at Yuuno and at Fate and chuckled. "Damn, either of you can give me a good fight." This was becoming fun! She couldn't wait to...

Suddenly, Riksfalto's eye widened and she spun, looking at Lyos and growling. "What the hell? Huraker?"

Both Yuuno and Fate looked at her in confusion, before they heard Lyos scream in pain.

* * *

Down below, before anyone could make a move, Lyos let out a scream as a hand appeared through his chest, holding onto an emerald green ball of energy. Behind him, Huraker appeared and chuckled. "That was easy, I have to thank you, Valgaav," she looked at Almace and smirked, "you too, Shinzoku, and of course..." She looked up at the confused look of Riksfalto. "If she hadn't distracted those two, I could never do this." She grinned at Fate, who was looking at her with a pale face. "And thanks you your memories, I was able to change my plans... Linker Cores." She laughed as she closed her fist and started draining the power of Ragradia from Lyos, who found himself unable to move.

"Stop it!" Chrono fired a spell at Huraker, who flicked her wrist, and the spell was bounced back at him, causing him to gasp as he was knocked back, his clothing and skin shredded from that attack.

Huraker turned her body and held up a finger, stopping Zelgadis' sword cold. "The power of Ragradia... It's mine... HAHAHAHAHA! With this... I don't need Master Dolphin... I will succeed Lord Hellmaster as the leader of the Mazoku until Lord Ruby-Eyes comes back to life!" She stared at Almace, who was looking at her in surprise. "Of course, the first thing that needs to happen..." She pointed at Almace, who screamed as his body expanded from the inside out, before exploding painfully. "Oooh!" Her eyes lit up as her body was flooded with Holy magic. "This is... So incredible..."

"Mi...Lady..." Lyos groaned painfully as he looked at her.

"Well, for being such a helpful pawn..." Huraker chuckled and leaned forward, kissing him on the lips, and causing him to blush heavily. "I won't kill you." After a few more moments, she pulled her hand out of his chest and watched as he dropped to the ground painfully.

Huraker closed her eyes and grinned as her power started to increase tremendously.

"No!" Fate rushed at her as fast as she could, before gasping as Huraker looked at her, causing her to gasp as her chest suddenly throbbed in pain and she crashed to the ground and slid, flat on her face, until she stopped mere inches from the Mazoku Priest.

"Yes... I shall succede Lord Hellmaster. And I shall destroy all those who oppose me." Huraker looked at the humans, before looking up at the door. "Dark Star increased his power by fusing with a god... I have done the same."

"But you aren't as strong as he is." She turned as she saw Erulogos, his body cracked in various places, gripping Nezzard and looking at her with narrowed eyes. "Even we, the servants of Vorfeed were helpless against him."

"Light Come Forth!" Jillas said as he held Gorun Nova and Ragudo Mezegis, before tossing the latter to Valgaav. "Lord Valgaav."

Huraker smirked as she slowly walked away from the dead body of Fate. "I wouldn't bother, little boy." She snorted as she saw Yuuno trying to revive Fate. "She's dead, I stopped her heart."

Yuuno stared at her in horror. She, stopped Fate's heart? 'Wait, there's still... Still a chance!' He thought desperately as he put his hands on her chest. "Please work!" He prayed to any god that would listen.

"Huraker!" Riksfalto landed near Jillas. "What are you planning? Lord Dolphin never gave you permission for this stunt!"

Huraker laughed at the General. "You were so stupid... I just used your lust for battle against you. I didn't think that you'd find someone who could hurt you though..." She shook her head and laughed. "And to think that you're just like Gaav was around Ragradia!"

"Give me Gorun Nova." Riksfalto said to Jillas. "She's changed somehow. She's a lot calmer normally."

Jillas gulped and handed it over to her, pulling out his weapons and looked at Yuuno, wondering why he was pushing on Fate's chest, before pinching her nose and blowing into her mouth.

A moment later, his eye widened as Fate gasped and started coughing as she sat up.

"How?" Huraker looked at Yuuno in shock. "I stopped her heart!"

Yuuno smiled at the Mazoku Priest. "Where I come from, it's common practice to know how to restart a person's heart."

"Well, Riksfalto, are you going to fight against me?"

"You aren't the same person you were yesterday." Riksfalto stated as she held Gorun Nova in front of her. "And Lord Dolphin would hate what you've become."

"Well then... Shinzoku, Mazoku, Dragons, and humans against me, huh?" Huraker chuckled, closing her eyes, before she frowned and opened them. "YOU CAN ALL DIE TOGETHER!"

* * *

Lina: Woah! Dammit! As if Dark Star increasing his power wasn't bad enough, now we have a crazy Priestess? UGH! This is getting to be too much. Hey, Dyn, care to tell us some secrets? Next time on Blood That Flows - Try. Read it, or I'll really cause some trouble.  
Dyn: Everything I did was for the betterment of the world.

Well, how was that for Fate's new mode? Just her bad luck to go against someone who has that level of power, huh? At least Yuuno got her back to her feet.


	52. Try 20

Try 20

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

And back to Lina and Co.

* * *

"So, Dyn..." Filia, who was back in her human form, looked at him with eyes that held nothing but questions. "Why did you sell yourself to Dynast?"

"He's stronger than you think..." Dyn grimaced as he saw Galveira in Lina's hands. "After we gained the Weapons of Light, we were going to free Shabranigdo from his frozen prison and find the other fragments and awaken them."

"What was my role in all of this?" Filia asked him, trembling in anger.

Dyn smirked slightly. "You were going to be a reward... For all of us. After all, we'd need to make sure that there was enough Gold Dragons to repopulate after the rest have been destroyed."

Filia's eyes widened as the others stared, hard, at Dyn. "You..."

"My, my..." Xellos shook his head. "Even we Mazoku aren't that twisted... Servants of the Gods really are hypocrites." He eyed Sherra, who was trembling on the ground, before snorting. He had no reason to kill her anymore, she looked ready to fall apart right then and there.

Dyn growled and moved slightly, before he found himself smashed back against the wall thanks to a fist from Amelia.

"Just stay right there, traitor of justice!" Amelia pointed a finger at him. "If you move again, I'll make sure to snap your arm off and use it to beat you to a pulp!"

"Amelia!" Lina chuckled softly and shook her head. She had forgotten just how... Violent her friend could get when she got upset.

Then again, she was no different.

"Alright, Dyn, so you were going to turn Filia into breeding stock, and you were going to kill the rest of the Dragons, and free Shabranigdo, is there any other crimes you want to admit to?"

**"Warning, master!"**

Nanoha's eyes widened as a wave of power crashed into her back a moment later, causing her to scream out in pain as her outfit was shredded, her legs, arms and back were cut up and bleeding. Spinning around, Lina gasped as she saw Dynast standing there, not looking like he was injured at all.

"Did you really think that was enough to kill me?"

"I was hoping it would be." Lina muttered and turned as Filia let out a yelp, only to find that Dyn had taken her and was standing by Dynast's side. "Dammit!"

Filia groaned and yelped as Dyn pressed his body to hers tightly. "Now then..." Dynast spoke up. "Hand over the weapons, you have no idea how they work."

Lina saw Amelia working on healing Nanoha and turned her attention to Dynast. "Huh, you know..." She looked at Galveira in confusion. "You're right... I have no clue how to use this. I mean, there's no hilt, no obvious markings, and I was never good at archery... How does this thing work?" She moved it around as she looked at it in confusion.

"Good, now just..."

Lina looked at him and smirked. "Got'cha. LIGHT COME FORTH!" She yelled as the weapon powered up and Lina let loose a single arrow that went between Dyn and Dynast, causing both of them to move slightly as that single arrow soared out of the temple and into the sky.

"Woah! That weapon does surpass the Sword of Light, it makes it look like a candle." Xellos was impressed. This was something that he never had expected.

_"Xellos..."_ The Mazoku was shocked to hear Lina's voice in his head. _"Listen to me, I can't get a clear shot unless Filia's out of the way, can you help me out?"_

Xellos smirked and disappeared from view.

"It seems that Xellos has abandoned you..." Dynast chuckled as he moved towards them. "And even if you kill me, Lina Inverse, unlike Gaav and Hellmaster, I always win."

"Really." Lina said flatly and cast a glance at Nanoha, who was sighing in relief as her skin was no longer bleeding freely. "You aren't going to survive this, Dynast..."

"What are you waiting on then?" Dynast asked, before hearing Dyn cry out in pain and let go of Filia.

"You really should choose your allies better, Dynast." Xellos' voice was heard as Dyn let go of Filia, who stumbled away. Sticking out of Dyn's chest was a giant cone that was breaking Dyn's body down as it spun around and around.

"Xellos!" Dynast growled before the cone disappeared, leaving a large hole in the middle of Dyn's body.

The former Supreme Elder fell to the floor, dead.

"Thanks, Xellos." Lina smirked as she took aim at Dynast. "Now, Dynast, time for you to die." Her eyes narrowed at him. "You should never have hurt my daughter."

_"Fragment of the Lord of Nightmares."_

Black energy started pooling into Galveira, causing the Mazoku Lord's eyes to widen.

_"Free yourself from Heaven's bonds."_

"That won't work!" Dynast growled as he faded back into the Astral Plane.

Or tried to. He gasped, finding his ability to teleport away being blocked. "WHAT?"

_"Become one with my body! One with my power! And let us WALK the path of destruction together!"_

Galveira was covered in black energy crackling with white lightning.

_"Power that can smash even the souls of the gods!"_

"Really, Dynast..." A new voice spoke up and the Mazoku Lord looked up and gasped at who he saw.

"Zelas!" He hissed as he saw her sitting there lazily, drinking wine from a goblet. "What are you doing here?"

"Ending a nuisance." She smirked at him. "You just don't hurt a mother's child after all."

_"RAGNA BLADE! Fly through Galveira!"_

Dynast gasped as Lina let loose a black pillar of energy, one that flew so fast and wide that even if he could move at the speed of light, he couldn't have dodged it.

He let loose a scream as his body was consumed by the Ragna Blade. "I won't..." He grit his teeth as he felt himself dying. "I won't LOSE LIKE THIS!" That was the last thing that any of them heard as his body disappeared in a flash of gold.

Lina sighed softly as her weapon powered down, before she fell to her knees and started coughing up blood. "Dammit..."

"Here." Shiro was by her side in an instant, holding onto her and helping her up. "I got you."

Filia and Gourry were stunned by the power that they had seen.

"Master..." Xellos was by her side in an instant. "I... Didn't expect to see you."

"It's fine... I just was checking up on my servant, that's all." She looked at Sherra, who had black energy flowing into her. Extending a hand, Sherra's body disappeared, before reappearing next to Zelas. "Keep up with what you were doing, Xellos. This one, I have plans for her."

Xellos nodded, though he wondered just why his master would be interested in Dynast's servant.

He also wondered why he felt her gaining so much power after her master was dead.

"Zelas..." Lina coughed as she leaned on Shiro and looked up at the Mazoku Lord tiredly. "Don't tell me that you're going to kidnap my husband and then use him to force me to release a fragment of Shabranigdo from somewhere or try to destroy the world."

Zelas just blinked at her a few times. "...Why would I do that?"

Lina nearly face-faulted, but the blood that she coughed up kept her from doing too much.

"I mean, killing all the humans on the planet? Easy, but dull. After all, when they're gone, my food supply would be gone, and then where would I be?"

Lina sweat-dropped at the look that Zelas was giving her. "Then... Why help me kill Dynast?"

"Those reasons are my own." Zelas narrowed her eyes as she looked at Sherra's body. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to make sure that he doesn't come back."

A moment later, Zelas and Sherra both disappeared with a flash.

"That... Wasn't what I expected from a Mazoku." Filia admitted, before shaking her head and going to Lina, casting a healing spell to ease the pain she was feeling. "Are you okay?"

"Just fine..." Lina panted heavily. Something was wrong, she shouldn't be so worn out like she was, even a Double Ragna Blade couldn't take up that much stamina. 'Ugh, I just hope that I'm sick and it's not what I think it is.' While it wouldn't be bad if it was what she thought it was, she just hoped that she wasn't.

At least not at this time.

"Well, I'll be taking my leave now." Xellos smiled at the group. "Oh, before I go..." He snapped his fingers and tossed something to the ground near Filia. "I figure that you wouldn't mind having your mace back." He smiled as he disappeared from view.

"What did that woman mean by making sure that he doesn't come back?" Gourry asked and Lina shrugged.

"I dunno. Maybe Dynast decided that he should take his power, mind, experience and Astral body and shove them into Sherra to avoid being killed for good."

"Whatever the case," Lina looked and grimaced as she saw Sirius appear in front of the group, "I need Bodigar and Galveira."

Before anyone could respond, a screen with Amy's face popped up. "What's going on down there? First we got a SSS+ reading from where you're at, and now there's a power beyond even that coming from where Chrono and the others are at!"

Lina sighed softly. "Get us to the ship, I need to see Sylphiel."

"What about him?" Amy asked as Sirius walked to them silently.

"Go ahead, I don't trust him, but it's probably safer to have a god on board than a Mazoku."

Amy nodded as the group was teleported onto the ship.

When they got on board, Sirius blinked. "Looks like something from back home." He shrugged at the looks he was given. "Vessels like this aren't too uncommon where I'm from. I'll have to tell you about the humans that got onto the Sword Breaker sometime." He took a step forward, before turning to the group and giving them a serious look. "Please tell me that you don't have a member of the crew who's an excellent cook but destroys the kitchen when she makes a meal."

"Uh... No."

"Oh good." Sirius let out a sigh of relief. "I'll never forget Lord Vorfeed's comments about all the pain she went through when she was used like that."

"Uh..." Gourry scratched his head. "I thought that Vorfeed was a Dragon?"

"For awhile, she, Dark Star and all of his subordinates decided to live as space-ships."

Lina shook her head as she leaned on Shiro's body. "Your world is just weird, Sirius."

The pink Shinzoku just shrugged as Sylphiel ran up to Lina and gasped at her. "You over-did it, Miss Lina!"

"Didn't have a choice." Lina muttered as Sylphiel cast her Resurrection spell over the redhead's body. "Glad I had you and Arf stay up here."

"Miss Arf collapsed for a bit, I don't know what happened, but then she got up and got better, saying that Fate was badly hurt and..." She trailed off at the look on Lina's face. "Miss Lina..?"

"Hurry up and heal me, dammit!" Lina snarled, her hair starting to float upwards. She looked at Nanoha. "Are you okay?"

"I'll be fine..." Nanoha nodded at her, before gasping as Filia and Amelia both cast healing spells to her back. "Oww, okay, but I'll be fine."

"I'm sure you will be, but Miss Lina would kill us if you got hurt because we didn't heal you properly." Amelia smiled at her. "Just put up with it for a little bit longer."

Nanoha nodded, she would, she just wished that she could get there and help Fate out.

* * *

In a secluded meadow, Zelas sat under a tree, her eyes closed. Her hand was softly running through Sherra's hair as the other Mazoku rested her head on the Lord's lap.

It would be an incredibly pleasant scene, if not for the violently snapping energies around the two of them.

"Dynast... I told you, didn't I?" Zelas said softly as she looked at a rock monument not more than ten feet from her position as her eyes clouded over slightly. "I told you, one day, you would pay for what you did to me all those years ago."

Looking at Sherra, she narrowed her eyes as they flashed brightly. "Too bad for you, you really shouldn't have done that." Oh well, what was done, was done.

Even more so, since she finally got her revenge on him.

* * *

Lina: Oh man, that fight was intense. Dynast is gone, Zelas showed up, what next? Huh? You wanted to see me, doctor? And what's this about Huraker? Next time, on Blood That Flows - Try, read it or I'll really start some trouble.  
**"Prepare for Absolution."**

Man, Dyn really WAS a bastard, wasn't he?

And Dynast, damn, I don't think there's much of ANYTHING that could take a Ragna Blade through Galveira.

See you in the next chapter.

Oh, one more note. What Sirius was talking about were events that occurred during the Lost Universe Anime.

Yes, Sirius, Erulogos, Almace, Dark Star, Vorfeed and the Weapons of Light all come from the Lost Universe.


	53. Try 21

Try 21

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Longest chapter and the climax of the Try arc.

Remember what I said before? About being finding ways to make fights interesting?

Yeah, even I know when to forget that and enjoy a massive beat-down!

So, sit back and enjoy the climax.

* * *

Yuuno stood in front of Fate and Lyos, several barriers in place around them, including the one that covered them, healing them and letting them recover. "Wish I had more time."

"Hey..." He blinked as he saw Riksfalto standing next to him. "Huraker's not one to make the first move, but she's not really that good in combat."

"Why are you telling me this?"

Riksfalto smirked as Huraker closed her eyes. "I'm not sure why..." Though, what Huraker said to her, about being like Gaav, had her thinking about something. Of all the Mazoku that existed, Shabranigdo could have chosen any of them to go after Ragradia, Hellmaster was more powerful than anyone else, yet Gaav had been chosen to go against the Shinzoku.

There was more to it, she was sure.

"YOU CAN ALL DIE TOGETHER!" Huraker yelled and lashed out at the closest person to her, which happened to be Erulogos, who could barely hold off that wave of destructive energy.

Huraker held up a hand, energy in the form of water pooling up into it, before lashing out and flooding the platform. Most everyone flew up, except for Jillas, who was swept away with the water, as well as Yuuno, Fate and Lyos, who were behind the barriers, but the barriers thankfully held from the attack.

"Whyyyyyyy!" Jillas screamed as he grabbed the edge of the platform, tears falling out of his eye.

"Yaaaah!" Riksfalto growled as Gorun Nova slashed into Huraker's back, causing the Priest to stumble forward, a large gouge where Riksfalto struck.

"Fool." Riksfalto's eye widened as a funnel of water emerged from Huraker's back, and sending the General crashing into one of the pillars that were circling the platform they were on.

"Ahhhh..." Riksfalto groaned, that hadn't felt good, the mix of Holy and Black felt _wrong_ on so many levels that it wasn't funny.

Yuuno held his hands out, Holy fire escaping from his hands as it rushed at Huraker. The Priest held up a hand and returned the favor, a stream of Holy water crashing against the fire. "You can't win, boy." Huraker's voice was starting to sound wierd. "Our Holy powers cancel each other out, but unlike you..." She suddenly grinned as a red ball appeared in her other hand. "I've got my Black magic as well!" Letting out a scream, she launched the sphere at Yuuno, who's eyes widened, before a yellow barrier went up right in front of him, causing the attack to explode.

"What?" Yuuno blinked in surprise, he hadn't done that.

"I... Can still... Fight this much." Fate panted, her hand dropping to the platform with a heavy thud.

"Fate." Yuuno gasped.

"Oh, how nice, I'll have to kill her again." Huraker grinned, before looking up as she saw a shadow overhead. "Valgaav..." She grinned as he let loose a yell and charged at her, Ragudo Mezegis leading the way. "Don't you know?" She moved away from where he was and laughed when the fire power that Yuuno was using covered his body. "Never attack someone who has the advantage?"

Valgaav just smirked at her when the flames dissipated, revealing that he wasn't hurt in the slightest. "Seems that kid saw through your plan."

"Maybe..." Huraker nodded, before letting out a yell, her aura snapping into life around her, whip tendrils of magic and water forming around her. In her hands red energy was surrounded by water, which she fired, in a funnel shape, at Valgaav, who held up Ragudo Mezegis and grimaced as his body was burning from the energy. "You... Bitch..."

"Ra Tilt!" Zelgadis called out, catching Huraker off guard. The Mazoku grimaced before letting out a yell and the spell broke into magical particles. "Impossible!"

"Heh heh heh!" Huraker's eyes had an insane gleam as she snapped her fingers and Valgaav was encased in ice. "This power... Even Hellmaster didn't have this power!"

She turned her attention as a powerful spell crashed into her water barrier. "Oh yes, Knight of Vrabazard..." She flicked her wrist at him and Yuuno was surprised as he was surrounded by a bubble of water. "I think that you need to learn just what the true power of the gods is like."

Yuuno's eyes widened as he felt his temperature starting to drop dramatically.

"I'll freeze you... I think having a statue like you would be interesting..." Huraker smirked, before frowning as the water shattered around Yuuno, causing him to drop to the platform, panting, behind him, Riksfalto narrowed her eye at the Priest. "Oh really, Riksfalto... There used to be a time where you would have enjoyed doing that."

Riksfalto didn't answer as she rushed forward, Gorun Nova swinging down at Huraker, who grinned and stopped her by wrapping water tentacles around the General's body. "You really are pathetic, aren't you?"

Riksfalto's eye wavered slightly as she stared at Huraker in shock. "Just... What are you going to..."

"Do?" Huraker grinned up at her. "After I'm done playing here, I'm going to take over as the leader of the Mazoku." She smirked at Riksfalto's shocked look. "Lord Dolphin... She just has no ambition, and quite frankly, it annoys me, the way that she's always hanging around Zelas, or going crazy over some chocolate... Maybe I'll do the world a favor and put her out of everyone's misery."

"She created you! And this is how you repay her?" Riksfalto growled.

"Hey..." Huraker turned, still keeping Riksfalto wrapped up, and blinked as Valgaav broke through the ice. "You really are stupid, aren't you?"

"Is that what you think?" Huraker raised an eyebrow at him. "Then you can just die!"

"Why don't you?" Erulogos growled as he thrust Nezzard at Huraker's neck. His eyes widened as the attack was stopped mere millimeters from her. Looking down, he saw that his body was covered in the same binds as Riksfalto was.

"Unlike Riksfalto, I have no connection with you..." Huraker held a hand up and Erulogos' eyes widened at the power that was being gathered. "So... Goodbye."

"Valgaav!" Zelgadis yelled as he cast a spell. "Use this! Ra TILT!" The energy of the Ra Tilt connected with Ragudo Mezegis and the blade's energy increased tremendously.

"Well, this is interesting." Valgaav muttered before swinging the weapon down. His eyes widened as he saw the wave of tremendous power at the shocked Mazoku Priest, who let out a scream as the power engulfed her.

Riksfalto frowned as Huraker disappeared. "That was too easy..."

Erulogos chuckled at the General. "Stupid Mazoku, thinking that she can, ARRRGH!" He screamed as a hand escaped his chest. Behind him, Huraker reappeared and smirked at him.

"Did you really think that would be enough to stop me?" She asked, chuckling, before swinging her arm up and slicing Erulogos' body in half. She watched as the god fell to the ground, dead. "Pathetic... If you had only kept your Astral Body with you, you would have survived that."

Watching that, Yuuno trembled, if she could kill a god so easily, what chance did they have?

Huraker smirked at the remaining survivors. "So..." Her body was glowing blue by now. "Which of you fools will be the next to die?"

Riksfalto grimaced as she was knocked onto her back. "Oww..." The Sword of Light had shut off as she looked up at Huraker, who had Zelgadis by his throat and squeezing hard. Even the Chimera's body wasn't able to keep him from feeling the effects of the attack. Her other hand was bombarding Yuuno with magical power that he was hard-pressed to keep blocking.

She snorted as she saw Huraker use Zelgadis as a battering ram and slap Valgaav out of the air, causing the hybrid to crash down next to her. "We really suck, huh?" Maybe Huraker really did have power that rivaled, if not surpassed, that of Hellmaster Phibrizzo used to have. She looked up and stared, the door was starting to crack. "Hey... What the hell is that?"

"I don't know..." Valgaav said as he got to his feet and looked at Gorun Nova, before grabbing it and lighting both weapons up. "I wonder..."

Zelgadis felt himself starting to black out. "Nnngh..."

"This is the end, for you." Huraker smirked, before gasping as she felt a thin blade pierce her in the chest. "What?" She looked down, before looking up and chuckling as she saw Fate, still in that weird armor, standing up, still in that weird metal-like outfit. "Nice try."

"Bardiche..." Fate snapped her fingers, her armor was starting to dissolve and return to normal, she wanted to get this spell off before she couldn't fight anymore.

**"Yes sir, Dragon Slave."**

"Wait, what?" Huraker's eyes widened as her body was engulfed in a red sphere that caused her to scream out, throwing Zelgadis away from her, who coughed, but didn't waste that moment and held up his hands.

"RA TILT!"

As Zelgadis cast that, enhancing the destructive power of the Dragon Slave even higher, Yuuno put his hands together, before launching a wave of fire that was taller than he was into the dome, turning it from red-white to red-orange in color.

Riksfalto frowned, that wasn't enough, she was sure of it.

Everyone flinched away as the power was pushed away from Huraker, covering the field for a moment. "You..." Huraker growled, her body was twitching in pain. "You think that's enough to defeat me?"

"Guess I don't have a choice." Valgaav muttered. "Light come forth!" Both weapons lit up and he crossed the blades above his head, gasping as the weapons resonated with each other, the power shooting straight up and into the "door".

He grimaced as it opened up, causing all combat to halt as everyone stared up at the Dark creature that appeared at the door. **"You who live on this pillar, prepare for absolution."**

Valgaav stared at the creature, before dropping Gorun Nova and Ragudo Mezegis to the platform floor silently. "Yes..." He muttered, floating up. "I understand..."

"Lord Valgaav!" Jillas screamed as he saw his master get absorbed into the cloud-like creature. "What is that?"

Huraker looked on, greed in her eyes. "Yes... Power... Absolute power..."

"Huraker!" Riksfalto yelped as she was forced down onto her butt from the force of energy suddenly released by Huraker. "What..?" Her eye widened, as did everyone else's eyes, as they heard the next words spoken.

**"Join with me and you shall be reborn into the new world. Or stand in my way, and face nothingness."**

"For some reason..." Zelgadis grumbled while rubbing his neck. "I don't like either option."

* * *

"Ah, Miss Lina..." The ship's doctor smiled at her. "Can I speak with you a moment?"

"Ah, sure." Lina nodded as she walked over to him, but not before smiling at Nanoha, who asked if something was wrong. "It's okay, Nanoha. I was feeling a little under the weather while we were at that town, so I came to the ship for an hour and had the doctor do some tests on me, just to make sure that I wasn't coming down with the flu or something." Waving any concerns down, she walked over and talked in low tones to the doctor.

Sylphiel frowned softly and looked at Arf, in puppy form, walked to the group. "Are you okay?"

Arf nodded and sighed softly. "This form consumes less of Fate's magic."

Before anyone could say or do anything else, Sirius suddenly stiffened, his eyes wide. "No... It's too soon!"

"What?" Gourry looked at him in confusion as the Shinzoku held his hand out.

"I need Bodigar, now!"

"Why?"

"Dark Star's been summoned." At that moment, alarms went out all across the ship, causing most of the group to cover their ears. It was so loud and none of them had heard anything like it before.

"Only if you take us with you." Lina spoke up as she walked back to the group. She narrowed her eyes at the Shinzoku. "I don't trust you at all, so, if we're going, all of us are going." She looked at Arf and Sylphiel. "That means you two this time."

"Why?" Arf blinked and Lina rolled her eyes.

"You two are going to be useful for this, and we don't have time to argue." Lina nodded at Sirius as the Shinzoku teleported the whole group to where the door had opened up.

* * *

Yuuno, having grabbed Nezzard and Bardiche and finding them remarkably unharmed, was shocked as the remaining group appeared in front of him. "What?"

"Excuse me." Sirius grabbed Nezzard from him and Bodigar from Gourry, before lighting both up and using the combined power to seal the gate. He sighed as he saw Dark Star disappear "Not ready yet." Even with all five weapons, he had no idea how to deal with this. "Erulogos... Almace..." Both were dead and he really hated not knowing what to do at the moment.

"Fate!" Arf ran to the girl, who was back in her normal Barrier Jacket and panting hard. "Are you okay?"

Looking at her familiar, Fate hugged Arf and trembled slightly. "I'm okay. How about you?"

Arf hugged her master back, just happy that Fate was alive.

"Sylphiel, Yuuno, Amelia, Zelgadis, Filia, heal everyone." Lina started directing people as she made sure that Zelgadis was okay. "We're going to need everyone back on their feet and soon."

"I would hope so." Lina blinked as Xellos appeared on the platform. "It was so hard to track you after you disappeared like that, Miss Lina."

"Yeah, well..." Lina gasped as everything started to shake. "What the heck?"

Sirius stared in shock. "The door... It's cracking open!"

"Well, if Dark Star absorbed Vorfeed, Valgaav and Huraker, I'd think he'd be a lot stronger." Riksfalto shook her head as she looked at the door cracking. "I'm surprised that Dark Star merged with them so fast though."

Xellos shrugged and looked at Lina. "Well, Miss Lina, just what are you going to do?"

Lina closed her eyes. "Whatever I have to do." She walked over to Shiro and smiled at him.

"Lina, what, MMMPH?" His eyes widened as she pulled his head down and kissed him on the lips, causing most everyone on the platform to blush and look away.

Interestingly enough, Riksfalto just looked on curiously.

Lina broke the kiss, her face flushed slightly, before she turned and looked at the door. "Just keep healing them, I'm going to try something first." She cupped her hands in front of her and looked up. "And, no matter what, don't interfere."

Filia just finished up making sure that Fate was okay, before blinking at those words. "Wait a second, what are you..?"

She didn't get to say anything more as the door shattered open. She gasped as she saw Valgaav on top of a Dark Cloud, glaring at them.

"Lord Valgaav..." Jillas whimpered as he saw his master. "I thought you were..."

**"Golden Dragon of the Fire Dragon King, you, who have slaughtered Valgaav's people in the past, shall face judgment now."** It was weird, Valgaav had a mix of four different voices as he looked at Filia.

"What's going on?" Lina whispered to Xellos.

"It's likely... That because this Dark Star is a mix of Dark Star and Vorfeed, that Valgaav was not destroyed, because he is a mix of Dragon and Mazoku..."

"Then Huraker's still alive in there." Riksfalto spoke up. "She had the power of Ragradia in her."

Filia stepped forward, ignoring the way that Sylphiel and Yuuno were healing Lyos on the ground. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw him start moving again. "I am a Gold Dragon with no clan of my own. I was abandoned by my clan and betrayed by the others. So, like you, Valgaav, I am alone." Her eyes widened as she felt her skirt suddenly flip upwards, flashing her naked butt and crotch at everyone on the platform.

"You also have no panties to call your own." Xellos said smugly as Filia screamed in embarrassment, spun around and punched him clear off the platform.

"Well..." Lina dead-panned, "that killed any sort of drama that was being built up."

Xellos reappeared next to Lina. "I was just trying to lighten things up a little."

"NOW'S NOT THE TIME!" Lina yelled and gasped as she heard Valgaav chuckling.

**"It is for this reason, that all worlds must be remade. The constant strife that Dark Star and Vorfeed faced was too much for them."**

Lina closed her eyes and sighed. "I'm sorry... I can't let you do that." She gulped slightly and held her hands in front of her. "I guess I can't trust even myself to keep a promise..."

_"Darkness Beyond Blackest Pitch."_

Sylphiel gasped, her eyes wide as she heard that. "Miss Lina, you can't!"

"Ignore me and keep working on healing him!" Lina yelled at her, both of her eyes were glowing gold at this time.

_"Deeper than the Deepest Night."_

Nanoha's eyes were wide, her body trembling as she felt Chaos in waves that she had _never_ felt before, even when she tapped into her own Chaos powers.

Sirius, Riksfalto and Xellos all took steps back, their eyes wide and then they all fell to their knees and bowed their head as they acknowledged what was happening. It was something that all of them understood, deep in their souls.

_"Lord of Darkness who Shines Gold As the Sea of Chaos_  
_I call upon thee and swear myself to thee."_

There was a giant black ball of energy above Lina's head, swirling with golden power. Lina herself was gritting her teeth and had to move her right leg a step back to stabilize herself. 'So powerful...' She grimaced and took a deep breath, preparing to finish the incantation.

_"I stand ready to bear the strength you give me.__"_

Lina gasped as she looked up, the black ball of energy suddenly shattering into nothingness. "...What?" She fell to her knees, gasping as her body went cold. "What happened..?" She couldn't feel it anymore, the power of the Lord of Nightmares wasn't in her anymore.

"Lina!" Shiro was by her side in an instant and grabbed her. "Are you..." He was startled as he saw Lina's eyes. Both were the same red color.

"What color?" Lina asked as Dark Star seemed to tremble for a moment. "What color?"

"Both are red."

Lina cursed lightly. "Dammit! She's not going to help this time around."

"What?" Xellos looked at her in confusion.

"It seems that the Lady won't allow any use of her power for this fight." Lina muttered, before gasping as Dark Star suddenly let out a roar and crashed through the portal.

The last thing that most of them saw was a large ball of energy heading their way.

* * *

"Miss Lindy!" Amy gasped as the scanners were going berserk.

"I know." Lindy nodded to her, before nodding to everyone else. "Let's go everyone, we don't have a choice anymore."

"Right!" Everyone nodded as hands started to fly over the consoles.

Lindy frowned, this wasn't going to be good.

* * *

Lina gasped as everyone appeared several miles away from where the platforms were.

"That was a close one." Xellos said as he stood on Filia's back, the Dragon seemed just as surprised as the rest of them were.

"How did.." Zelgadis asked and Xellos just smirked at him. "A secret right?"

"No, I just had help from Riksfalto and that Shinzoku. And, of course, Filia-chan here." He patted the Dragon on the back and she turned her head and growled. "Now, now... You know we're contractually obligated to have some out of place humor every so often."

"Where are the Dark Star weapons?" Sirius looked around, worriedly.

"You mean these?" Riksfalto asked as they spun around her. She grinned at him. "I thought that I'd keep them, but I guess we need them."

"Miss Lina!" Sylphiel yelled at the shocked redhead. "How could you? You know that that spell's forbidden!"

"Well, yeah... But don't you think that you could yell at me for it later?" Lina pointed to the platforms that were exploding. "We kind of have a very dangerous thing right there."

"Oh..." Sylphiel blinked and nodded.

"What about that prophecy, Miss Lina?" Amelia asked, causing Lina to frown.

"Maybe... But..." She looked on as Dark Star raced towards the continent. "Damn! Filia! Catch up to it."

"Right!" Filia yelled as she took off like a rocket. Even at the speeds that everyone was traveling on her back, it just wasn't enough to keep up with Dark Star.

"At this rate, we won't be able to stop him!" Zelgadis said.

_"We can though."_ Lindy was heard speaking to everyone who could hear it. _"Pull back, we've got this one."_

Chrono's eyes widened as he paled. "FILIA! PULL BACK!" His mother wouldn't... Oh no, she would. "MOVE!"

* * *

"Weapon is fully charged and we've got a lock."

Lindy nodded as she turned her key. "Arc En Ciel... FIRE!"

* * *

Everyone stared in shock as a white beam of energy crashed into Dark Star's face, before engulfing most of the body, and then spreading out in every direction for miles.

"Woah!" Riksfalto stared. "What the hell is that?"

No one could answer her as they were busy trying to escape the massive explosion.

* * *

"Did it work?" Amy asked, silently grateful that Mary had fixed the scanners to get over their problem when a powerful Mazoku was around.

"We'll know in a moment." Lindy said quietly as the explosion finally started to subside.

* * *

"Even Lord Ruby-Eyes wouldn't be able to laugh that off." Xellos muttered. He was almost certain of it.

Suddenly a loud roar answered them as a black beam of power raced upwards towards the stars.

"NO!" Chrono gasped as he saw that. "MOM!"

* * *

"Incoming!"

"Quick! Avoid it!" Lindy commanded, hoping that they could avoid a direct hit. If not, well, it was going to be a quick flash before they all died.

A moment later, the powerful spell raced right through where they were, causing a massive explosion.

* * *

"We need to get ahead of him!" Lina yelled and Xellos just shrugged and looked at Riksfalto and Sirius, both of who nodded, before the group disappeared again.

They reappeared on a rocky out-cropping that was once a mountain range a hundred kilometers from the sea. "This work for you?"

Lina sighed softly as she walked up to Riksfalto and grabbed Galveira. "I'm going to need this." She looked at Xellos. "And I need a lift."

"Miss Lina?" Amelia asked as Lina smirked at her. "What are we going to do?"

"If we're going to do that prophecy thing... I want to make sure that it works. So, we're going to hit him with everything we've got. Our strongest spells, holding nothing back." She looked at Lyos. "You good enough to go?"

Lyos pulled out Banisher and smirked at her. "Yeah, I'm more than good enough."

Lina nodded and grabbed Gorun Nova, tossing it to Gourry, Ragudo Mezegis and tossed it to Zelgadis, Bodigar was tossed to Sylphiel while Nezzard ended up in Amelia's hands.

"Hey!" Riksfalto pouted. "I wanted those."

"You wanna be useful, help Arf and Sirius play defense for us." Lina muttered as she looked at Shiro, before walking to him and giving him a hug. "I'm sorry for what I did, Shiro..."

"It's okay." He said to her as he hugged her back. "Just do what you're best at. Making miracles happen."

Lina smiled and nodded, walking to Xellos and looking at Dark Star. "He's still hurting, we have to move now."

Xellos nodded as he grabbed her and the two teleported up and ended up hanging in mid-air.

"Light come forth!" Lina called out Galveira as the other weapons on the ground lit up. Around her, Nanoha and Fate, holding Raising Heart Excellion and Bardiche Zambar, had floated up to get close to her.

"Filia..."

The Dragoness looked at Dark Star and sighed at Yuuno. "I'll be okay..."

He nodded, before stepping to the side and letting his Holy power flow through him.

"Why not use that Ra Tilt that you did before?" Riksfalto asked and Yuuno chuckled softly.

"I was completely worn out from that, I don't know if I could do it again, I was kind of desperate to stop you, so..." He chuckled slightly at her. "I want to make sure that I can help more." He blushed as she suddenly hugged him.

"Heh... You're cute when you worry about things." She ruffled his hair and let go. "Just make sure to give him a good one for me."

Yuuno blushed heavily, the feel of her chest in his face was... Quite distracting. Shaking his head, he concentrated and let the power flow into him.

"Raising Heart..." Nanoha said softly as she closed her eyes.

**"Alright. Starlight Dragon Breaker."**

A magic circle appeared under Nanoha's feet as one appeared in front of her, a red ball forming in the center of it.

"STARLIGHT DRAGON..."

"Let's go, Bardiche."

**"Yes, sir."**

"REND LIGHTNING! PLASMA SLAVE ZAMBAR..!" Fate called out, her Zambar blade turning red even as lightning crashed down onto it.

Xellos raised an eyebrow at the power. "Huh, if four Dragon Slaves can destroy a country, I wonder what will happen when these amplified ones go off."

"Heh..." Lina chuckled as Xellos held her, bridal style, in mid-air. "We'll find out... And stop grabbing my breasts."

"Sorry." He moved his hand. "There's a lot more than there was before."

Lina rolled her eyes as she pulled back on the string of Galveira. "Keep it up and I'll give you a Dragon Slave in your ass, Xellos."

He gulped and nodded, smiling harmlessly. "Okay, you win."

"Good." She smiled at him as she, Fate, Nanoha and Sylphiel, who was holding Bodigar as it started to glow red, all started chanting.

_"Darkness Beyond Twilight._  
_Crimson Beyond Blood that Flows._  
_Buried in the stream of time_  
_Is where your power grows._  
_I pledge myself to conquer_  
_All the foes that stand._  
_Against the mighty gift bestowed_  
_In my unworthy hand._  
_Let the fools who stand before us_  
_Be destroyed by the power you and I possess!"_

As they chanted up their spells, Shiro held the Blast Sword up high, the red energy of the Dragon Slave that the sword had absorbed was spinning around the blade and concentrating to the point.

Gourry held Gorun Nova and was waiting for the right moment to strike. He blinked as Filia grabbed the sword. "Filia?"

"I can help too." She closed her eyes and began chanting in her Draconic language.

Zelgadis, Amelia and Chrono were all chanting their own spells.

_"Source of all souls, which dwells in the eternal and infinite! Everlasting flame of blue!_  
_Let the power that's gathered in my soul be called forth from the Infinite!"_

It was rather impressive how their weapons were glowing with the power that was coursing through them at that moment.

Yuuno looked at Lyos, who was focusing his power around his weapon. "You ready?" In his hands was a concentrated ball of energy.

Lyos just smirked at him. "When they are."

Nanoha opened her eyes. **"Zen Ryyoko Zen Kai! STARLIGHT DRAGON BREAKER!"** She swung Raising Heart down towards the red ball of energy in front of her, a pink and red wave of energy that was far wider than even the Amplified Divine Buster had been raced forward towards Dark Star.

**"PLASMA SLAVE ZAMBAR... BREAKER!"** Fate swung Bardiche forward, a red and yellow wave of power rushed side-by-side with Nanoha's attack.

**"DRAGON SLAVE!"** Lina and Sylphiel called out at the same time, letting their powerful magics fly forward, the energies colliding and enhancing each other as the beams rushed towards Dark Star.

**"Chaotic Disintegrate!"** Filia called out as she and Gourry swung Gorun Nova down at the same time, the powerful Draconic Spell lashing out and joining the Dragon Slave from Shiro's Blast Sword.

**"Blaze... TILT!"** Chrono yelled as he fired his spell.

**"RA TILT!" **Zelgadis and Amelia both yelled, firing their spells through their Dark Star weapons.

Yuuno snapped his hands forward, the super-heated plasma in his hands snapping forward while Lyos fired a blast of absolute zero.

"Incredible." Xellos actually had his eyes open as he stared in shock at the power that was being displayed as all the attacks connected with the merged being at the same time. "If it was just Dark Star, he'd be dead. Even Vorfeed would be dead, but..."

"I know." Lina panted slightly as she watched the destruction unfold. "Nanoha, Fate, we're going to the ground now."

The two nodded as the four of them descended to the ground.

"Now what?" Filia looked at Lina, who sighed softly.

"Heh... If he survived that, he's going to be hurting... So... That prophecy states we need the power of five points of light around a single star, the power of the Darkness Beyond Twilight and the Brilliance Beyond the Dawn, right?"

"Miss Lina?" Filia blinked in confusion.

"I actually did give thought about that prophecy. I just didn't put much stock into it since Vrabazard didn't give it to the Gold Dragon, at least that's what Yuuno said."

"So, what are you going to do?" Shiro asked as Lina shrugged at him. "You don't know?"

"Not at all. I mean, it almost sounds like we'd have the Dark Star weapons circle around someone who would cast a spell, using the power of Cephied and Shabranigdo and then fire a single arrow that would defeat Dark Star." She blinked at the looks she was getting, before rubbing the back of her head and chuckling. "Guess that's what we have to do, huh?"

"What do you want us to do then?" Nanoha asked and Lina chuckled softly.

"Run interference if he decides to attack." Nanoha nodded and looked at Fate, Chrono, her father and Sirius. "We need the power of Shabranigdo and Cephied..."

"Riksfalto and I will supply you with the power of Shabranigdo. But as for Cephied..." Xellos looked at Yuuno, then Lyos, then Filia. "It would have to be one of them."

Lyos stepped up. "I'll do it."

"You sure?"

Lyos chuckled and nodded. "I haven't done much, I think I can help out here at least."

"I'll help too." Yuuno stepped up beside him. "Um, so what do we do?"

"Just draw out the raw power of Cephied. Since you two can use Holy magic, it should be easy." Xellos said as he and Riksfalto took up positions on the other side of Lina.

"You all ready?" Lina asked as she looked at her friends. They nodded, the Dark Star weapons all glowing brightly.

Lyos and Yuuno nodded and charged up power as Riksfalto and Xellos did the same.

_"Power born from the Lord of Nightmares, we now call forth the Darkness Beyond Twilight and the Brilliance Beyond the Dawn, to call forth a single arrow of light that will split the heavens."_

**"You shall all be destroyed and this world will be purified of all the pain and suffering that it has caused. The eternal strife between the light and dark will come to an end."**

Lina closed her eyes for a moment. "That's a nice thought, I admit, but... That's not a world an imperfect being can create. We're all flawed, all of us. Because of that, none of us can make an ideal world. Only a perfect being could." She pulled on the string, before letting loose. "AAAH!"

Amelia, Gourry, Zelgadis and Sylphiel all let out cries as they swung their weapons down, the attacks from them merging with Lina's attack, before it became a single beam of power that struck out against Dark Star's attack, overwhelming it, before the attack consumed the entity that was in front of them.

"The power of light and dark can only be wielded by a human who exists between them." Xellos spoke up as he watched the events unfold. "The chaotic power of the Fusion magic is turning nothingness into creation. Look there."

Seeing the body starting to split apart, Lina sighed as she slumped to the ground as the entity was breaking apart. "It's over..." She sighed softly.

* * *

Lina: WOW! What a rush! It's over now. Man, I hope everything's okay. Next time, on Blood That Flows - Try, the Final chapter! Read it, or I'll really cause some trouble.  
Sirius: It's time to go home.

Man, what a rush, huh? I FINALLY found my Try DVDs when I got towards the end so I could get the spell that Lina used properly. So, afterwords, I spent a few days re-watching Try. MAN, I messed up on some things.

Still, over-all, I think I did pretty good incorporating Try, the novels and Knight of the Aqua Lord together with Nanoha.

Only one part to go, then this arc is over. See you then!


	54. Try End

Try End

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Here we go, final chapter of this arc.

Hope you've enjoyed the story.

I doubt I'm going to go to the Revolution/Evolution-R story.

You'll find out why here.

* * *

After a major battle, there was always calm. Always. It didn't matter if one side completely steam rolled the other side or the fight was even.

Things were always calm, even nature seemed to give pause when a fight had just ended.

"We won..." Zelgadis, looking human again, said as he sat on the ground. For some reason, he didn't feel like celebrating. He wasn't sad, but there was a melancholic feel to everything.

"Yeah..." Filia said as she sat behind Chrono. Putting a hand on his shoulder, she wasn't surprised to see him turn to look at her, his face a mask of nothing but pain and sadness. She had no idea what was going through his mind at that moment, but it couldn't have been good.

_"My father died when I was really young."_ She blinked as she heard his voice in her head. _"And now... Now my mom... And my oldest friend... All gone..."_ He blinked as Filia wrapped her arms around him from behind and hugged tightly.

"Lord Valgaav!" Jillas was sobbing loudly. "He... He wasn't a bad person! He saved me life. He was a good person when you got to know him." He fell to his knees as he let his tears flow freely.

"I got that feeling too." Nanoha said as she sat next to the sad fox-creature. "When we fought, he was angry and sad, but I didn't sense evil from him. Just pain." Needing to kill, being able to kill. Until this mission, she had never killed anyone, heck, until this mission she had never really seen a dead body.

Of course, her mind was completely ignoring the fact that she did not kill anyone. Maim and injure people, but she didn't kill anyone.

Sighing, Lina sat next to Shiro, resting her head on his shoulder, before sighing. "Sorry."

Wrapping an arm around her shoulders, he gave her a squeeze. "For what? Kissing me then using the Giga Slave?" He shook his head and kissed her on the forehead. "I love you, Lina. I'm not going to get upset just because you did something stupid."

"Well, all's well that ends well, I say." Xellos smiled as he leaned against a rock. "Though, I have to admit, I am rather glad that Huraker got killed." He honestly had the feeling that she manipulated everyone. When he thought back on the events that unfolded, it made sense, that she manipulated the events that happened.

It wasn't fair. He was the one who was supposed to manipulate people, not the other way around.

Riksfalto stretched, her chest bouncing as she looked at Yuuno. "Well, kid, I'd love to stay, but I'm sure that Lord Dolphin's going to want to know why I fought against Huraker..."

"Yuuno." She blinked her one good eye at him. "My name's Yuuno Scrya."

Riksfalto laughed. "I'll remember that, Yuuno." She smiled and disappeared.

Xellos shook his head and chuckled. "I think she understands better than even Dynast did..."

"Understand what?" Sirius looked at the Mazoku, who smirked at him.

"That... Is a secret." He laughed as he disappeared. "Sorry that I can't stay, but Beast Master needs an update as well."

Fate, sitting next to Yuuno, sighed as she saw the Mazokus disappear. "They... Were weird. I thought Mazoku were evil." Yuuno just shrugged and Lina laughed softly. "What?"

"Sorry, it's just... Even Mazoku, who prefer negative emotions and the like, aren't all evil like you think. Xellos will gladly kill you if it furthers his goals, but he's just as likely to save your life if you're useful to him."

"So..." Yuuno looked at Lina in confusion. "He's not... Evil? Just..."

"He's evil enough to laugh at you while slaughtering your whole clan, while leaving you alive. I think Riksfalto there just loves a good fight and doesn't care about much else." Lina shrugged at that. Most Mazoku that she had encountered _were_ pretty evil. And you could never trust them fully. But then there was Gaav, who would have left her alone had Hellmaster not been sending Gaav's spies bad intel about her working with him. And Xellos was just nutty. Riksfalto seemed odd as well.

And there was Sherra, who could have killed her back when she was on the ground and weakened, but she didn't. And Zelas gave her an assist in killing Dynast. Who knew what Dolphin was like.

* * *

"I want some chocolate..." Dolphin whined as she looked at her empty box.

"Lord Dolphin." She blinked as she saw Riksfalto appear before her. "Huraker's dead."

"Huh?" Dolphin sat up, staring. "Speak now!"

As Riksfalto explained everything that had happened, from Huraker getting her, Sherra and Valgaav to work together, to Huraker stealing the power of the Aqua Lord, to Dark Star appearing and threatening the world.

Dolphin sighed and rubbed her forehead. "No more chocolate then..." Oh well, it was for the best. Huraker really shouldn't have over-stepped her boundries like that.

* * *

"Nnngh..." She cracked an eye open and blinked as she felt someone running their hand through her hair. "What?"

"About time you woke up, Sherra." Zelas said softly and smiled at the Mazoku. "So, tell me something, how do you feel?"

"Um... Weird... I mean, my head's in your lap... But other than that..." Her eyes widened. "Dynast? Where is Lord Dynast?"

"Dead." Zelas said, her eyes hardening and the younger Mazoku stared at her, trembling. "Lina Inverse killed him with a Ragna Blade fired through the Bow of Light. I don't think any of us could have survived that."

"Lord Dynast..." Sherra shuddered and squeezed her eyes closed, trying to fight back something that she had never felt before. "You knew, you KNEW that Lina Inverse was on the top ten list of people you don't want to be around." Why would he go after her then?

"Yes, well... I'm glad that he did... I've been wanting to kill him for years now." Sherra gasped and looked at Zelas in shock. "Don't get me wrong, Sherra, my hatred for him was because of something he did to me a long time ago, nothing more. Now, my question for you is, what will you do?"

"Huh?" She blinked as Zelas smiled at her and gently cupped her face.

"You're in shock, I'm sure, but close your eyes for a moment."

Confused, the Mazoku did so, and her eyes snapped open as she realized what Zelas was getting at. "What?"

"Dynast always gave his name to his General and Priest, because he could use them later if he had to." Her eyes widened as Zelas nodded. "All Mazoku Lords have ways to survive a lot. Dynast had a plan for his underlings, should he fall... They would gain his power, memories, experiences..."

"He'd... Erase me... Just to survive?"

"Yep." Zelas nodded at the shocked look on Sherra's face. "Now, it's up to you. What do you want to do now?"

"I..." She closed her eyes. "Why am I still me then?"

"Oh, that?" Zelas smirked at her. "I happened to... Purge his memories and experiences from you, couldn't do anything about the power however."

"You're being... Candid... Considering Xellos..." Sherra grumbled softly and Zelas laughed at her. "What?" She pouted and blushed as Zelas patted her on the cheek.

"You're too cute. Anyway, what reason would I have to hide information from you?" Zelas chuckled as Sherra blinked at her. "You now have a choice, you don't answer to anyone directly, so, what do you want to do?" That was a lie, they both knew it, but without a Lord telling her what to do, Sherra was a free agent as far as the rest of the Mazoku were concerned.

"I..." Sherra took a breath. "Is it normal to feel nothing because your lord died?" Zelas just shrugged and she groaned, knowing that the older Mazoku wasn't going to tell her anything. "...I need time to think." She got up and looked around. "...Where am I?"

"My personal sanctum." Zelas said as she stood up. "I'd appreciate it if you... Kept quiet about being here."

"Ah..." Sherra nodded and shivered at the look that Zelas was giving her. "Well, um, I'll let you know in the future." She disappeared in a flash, leaving Zelas alone.

"Heh..." She smirked and walked over to a stone that stuck out of the ground. "Of all the people I met, you were the only one I ever made that promise to..." There was a name on the stone, but time had weathered it away to nothingness.

That was fine with Zelas.

She was the only one of the Lords that understood why Gaav had been so upset after Ragradia had died, after all.

* * *

"So, that's it then?" Lyos looked around at the group. "I guess it's over."

"Yeah." Amelia nodded as she sighed. "Still feels like something's missing..."

Before anyone could say anything more, the sky was filled with white feathers. "What the?" Everyone blinked before gasping as a figure of a woman appeared and a small ball dropped down in front of Chrono and Filia.

Reaching out, Filia took it and her eyes widened. "Valgaav... It's Valgaav." She could see inside the egg, at the small creature inside. She closed her eyes and smiled softly.

Chrono wondered why she was holding it against his chest, but supposed that it didn't matter, it was nice that something good came out of it.

There was a hissing, crackling noise that had him looking up in surprise. "...on? Hey! Can anyone hear me?"

"Mary?" Chrono gasped as several screens popped up, the images were kind of staticy and unstable, but everyone could see Mary, behind her, Lindy and Amy looked fine, well, kind of beaten up, but fine. "How?"

"Oh, the beam missed us by about fifteen centimeters, but our engines kind of exploded so we ended up crashing down in the forest..." She turned her head to look at someone off screen. "Where are we again?"

"Hmph!" A woman with long purple hair, a slim figure wearing a bikini, spiked shoulder guards, a cape walked into view. The most noticeable thing about her though, was her breasts. Large just didn't describe it. They were like someone grafted watermelons onto someone's chest and caused them to stick there. "You're near Atlas City..." She looked at the group and gasped. "Lina Inverse! I knew you'd try to kill me, Naga the Serpent, one day! I just never expected you to do it with a flying ship! OHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHO!"

"N...NAGA?" Lina's eyes widened in shock. "What the hell?"

"I should ask you the same question!" Naga crossed her arms under her breasts and let out a "hmph". "And just WHY is your left eye gold? Is there something wrong with this scrying thing?"

Lina just stared blankly at the screen.

"GRACIA?" A voice had Naga stop and turn her head to one of the screens she was looking at and gulped as she saw Amelia looking at her, tears welling up in her eyes. "Is that you... Sister?"

"WHAAAA?" Lina felt like falling over. "NAGA'S YOUR SISTER?"

Naga gulped and waved her fingers nervously as she looked at Amelia. "Hey sis... Um... How's dad?"

"Looking everywhere for you!"

_"Hey, mom, how's the Arthra?"_

_"Totaled, we can barely get this transmission to you, never mind getting home, we're kind of stuck here for a bit."_

He nodded, well, at least they were alright.

Lina shook her head. "Well, might as well..." She stood up with Shiro and looked at everyone. "I have an announcement to make." She grinned as everyone looked at her seriously. Lina then grabbed Shiro's hand and put it on her belly, causing his eyes to widen. "I just want you all to know that Shiro and I are going to be parents again."

"Oh, you're pregnant..." Gourry nodded, before blinking a few times, his eyes widening and his jaw falling to the ground.

**_"WHAT?"_** The screams could be heard around the world.

Lina rubbed the back of her head as she giggled and stuck her tongue out at them.

"Bu...But... Miss Lina..." Amelia's fingers were twitching up and down as she looked at the woman with a freaked out face. "Ho...How?"

"I'm pretty sure that it's obvious HOW, Amelia." Zelgadis spoke up, twitching at the thought of a pregnant Lina. "What I want to know is, how long?"

"Um... Six weeks." Lina's face was starting to match her hair.

Sylphiel blinked, she had thought that there was something off about Lina awhile ago. "But, wait, you have only been here..." Realization dawned on her. "You were pregnant the whole time you were here?"

"Uh, yeah..." Lina nodded at that question. "I only suspected that I was pregnant when I realized that I missed my last period, so I had the doctor check me out when we were staying in that village."

"Why didn't you tell me?" Shiro looked at her seriously and Lina looked down, shame flooding her.

"I... I didn't want you to worry about me any more than you already were. And I wasn't sure if I was or not."

Nanoha suddenly ran up and glomped her mother. "Whee! I'm going to be a big sister!" Fate was there a moment later, also hugging Lina. The two parents smiled at their kids and knelt down to hug them tightly.

Sirius just shook his head in amusement. This world really was interesting.

* * *

"Thanks for giving us a lift here, Sirius." Amelia said as she saw the ship. "Gracia!" She gasped as she saw her sister leaning against the hull of the ship. "GRACIA!" She jumped forward and hugged Naga for all she was worth. "I missed you so much!"

"Huh, you know, in all the time that I knew her, I never thought that she was a princess." Lina shook her head as she looked at Naga.

"I'd like to thank you, humans from the Flare and Blue Dragon worlds." Sirius said as the Dark Star weapons floated around him. "But I need to go home now."

Lina nodded and looked at Filia, who had opted to come with them. "What about you?"

"I... Don't have any home to go back to..." Filia sighed. "To all Dragons, I'm always going to be a part of the Gold Dragons that murdered the Ancient Dragons. And to the Gold Dragons of my clan still alive, I'm the one who helped kill several Dragons, so, I have no home anymore."

"What about you, Jillas?" Zelgadis asked the fox person.

Jillas smirked and crossed his arms behind his head. "Knowing that Lord Valgaav's alive is more than enough, besides, people on this continent don't know anything about gunpowder. I could make a fortune in marketing the stuff to royalty."

"Just make sure you sell to the right people." Zelgadis nodded at him.

"Gourry-dear..." Sylphiel patted the blond swordsman on the back. "Are you sure about letting the Sword of Light go?"

"Yeah." He nodded and smiled at her. "Besides, it came from his world originally."

"Okay." She nodded and sighed softly.

"Before I forget!" Lina snapped her fingers and grabbed the sheathed Blast Sword from her husband. "We won't be needing this where we're going, Gourry."

His eyes widened as he looked at it. "You're giving the Blast Sword to me?"

"Nope." She shook her head and grinned at him. "I'm selling it to you, for five hundred fifty."

Gourry blinked for a moment, before he saw the look on her face and it suddenly dawned on him. The two of them started laughing.

"I... Don't get it." Lyos scratched his head. His confusion doubled as Zelgadis started laughing as well. "What?"

"That was the price that Lina offered to buy the Sword of Light from Gourry."

Lina smiled, before giving Gourry a hug. "Take care of yourself, Gourry." She let go of the hug and handed the sword to him. "And, Sylphiel..." She grinned at the priestess's stunned look. "The next time I stop by, I better hope that my next kid has some playmates." She winked at the suddenly flushed priestess.

"Well, I need to get going." Sirius nodded and looked at the ship. "I can make a detour to your world if you want me to."

"Only a god would consider going to a world not his own as a "detour"." Zelgadis shook his head.

Filia sighed as she saw the outsiders start to go into the ship. She still was holding Valgaav's egg, but she really didn't know what to do with her life. She yelped as she felt a hand on her shoulder. Chrono smiled at her softly. "I had a talk with Admiral Lindy. If you want... You're welcome to come with us, at least until you know what you want to do in life."

"Really?" She blinked, before hugging him tightly. "Thank you."

"What about you, Mr. Lyos?" Amelia asked, getting a shrug from him.

"I dunno. I mean, I was used by someone I thought I trusted, so... I'm not sure anymore." He crossed his arms behind his back.

"Well, I don't have much to do, and I'm sure that the Gold Dragons of Dragon's Peak would love to know that Ragradia's still alive in a sense." Zelgadis shrugged at the young boy. "Besides, I'm sure that they'd want to know what happened here as well."

"Well, if everyone's ready..." Sirius said as most of them got onto the ship. "Take care of yourself, people of Cephied's world." He nodded as he got onto the ship himself.

A moment later it disappeared.

Naga gulped at the look Amelia was giving her. "Um..."

"I'm glad that you're wearing mom's outfit, but you really should have sent a letter home at least!" Amelia stomped her foot on the ground. "Now, come on, you're going to at least come home and say hi to dad."

"You really grew up, kiddo." Naga ruffled Amelia's hair, but nodded. "Fine, I guess I can come home for a little bit."

* * *

"What happened?" Huraker gasped as she saw Riksfalto and her master glaring at her. "Um..."

"You decided that you would take the power of the Aqua Lord and dominate the entire race, Huraker?" Dolphin took slow steps forward that had the Priest gulping as she stepped back slowly. "You decided that you would replace Lord Shabranigdo as our master? And kill all those who stood in your way?"

"Bu... But..."

"You attacked me, Huraker..." Riksfalto shook her head. "Can't believe you would."

"I saved your life!"

"I know." Riksfalto nodded. "I'm grateful, but..." She narrowed her good eye. "You threatened Yuuno, that was going too far."

Dolphin blinked and shook her head. "I'll... Deal with that later, as for you, Huraker..." She snapped her fingers and Huraker screamed as her body was being torn apart from the inside out. "You forgot what we Mazoku truly desire, didn't you?"

"Wh...What?" Huraker gasped in pain.

"Freedom to make our own decisions. Had you just used the power to become a Lord, I wouldn't have cared, but you tried to take over and order us around. For that, you must die."

The last thing either of them saw was Huraker on the ground, screaming in pain as she disappeared.

"Now, as for that human..." Dolphin turned to Riksfalto, who gulped. "Just make sure that he's worth going after." She chuckled as Riksfalto stared at her. "What? Mazoku interact with humans on all sorts of levels, Riksfalto, go and have some fun, just report back to me when I have a mission for you."

Riksfalto nodded and grinned as she disappeared from her master. This was going to be fun.

* * *

Days later...

"MOM! DAD!" Miyuki hugged her parents and squeezed hard. "You guys were gone for so long that we were getting worried."

Lina chuckled as she hugged her eldest daughter. "We ended up going on vacation... And had to save every universe." She did find it interesting that Filia was living with Lindy, Chrono and Amy here on Earth, but mentally shrugged it off, whatever happened over there was their own problem.

"You'll need to tell me about it." Miyuki smiled as she saw Nanoha, Fate, Arf and Yuuno walk into the house, letting go of her parents, she hugged the kids tightly. "Missed you kids too."

They didn't say anything as they hugged her back, they didn't have to.

It was good to be home.

-Try End

* * *

Some final comments here.

1: I am going to take some time off from posting this story here. So I can get ahead of it. When I come back, I'll be able to post chapters like this again.  
2: I need to work on some of my other projects as well. Can't neglect them, now can I?  
3: What Dolphin said to Huraker is basically what Xellos said to Shabranigdo at the end of Evolution-R.  
4: You really thought I had Lina have troubles for no reason at all? Are you guys crazy?  
5: Naga! OHOHOHOHOHOHOHO! Couldn't help it, I just HAD to have that cameo!  
6: I dunno about you, but, for some reason, having things come full circle with Lina and Gourry just seemed appropriate.  
7: The hardest part of the story? Managing ALL of the characters that I had. Ugh. SOOO many characters. I think I did okay, what about the rest of you?

What happens next? You'll find out soon enough when I come back here and start posting up the next arc.

What? You thought the story was finished? HA! There's still 8 years until StrikerS, right? PLENTY of material to cover!

Here's a sneak peek at the next arc, Shine.

* * *

"REIN!" Vita dropped her shield and rushed back to grab Rein, gasping as the shots exploded against her back. Ignoring that, she gave Rein a gentle shake. "Come on, Rein... Snap out of it."

The small device shook her head and her eyes gained a clarity that had Vita sighing in relief, only to let out a scream as a powerful beam struck her in the lower back, sending her crashing into the wall.

"VITA!" Rein gasped as she saw smoke coming from behind Vita. Looking down, she gasped as she saw some blood. "You're hurt."

"I'll live." Vita muttered and turned around to put up a barrier. Zwei gasped as she saw the back of Vita's dress was burned horribly, leaving her backside completely exposed. The redhead's back was bleeding from several open wounds that were caused by the hits. "What are these things?"

Zwei gripped her fist in anger. It was all her fault. If she just hadn't gotten distracted, then Vita wouldn't have gotten hurt. Looking at her sister, she paled at the effort Vita was putting into blocking the shots. She chanced a glance at the larger metal creatures and paled as one, completely white in color, where the others were either black or orange, a touch larger than the rest with a large cannon on its right arm. The assault didn't stop, but Rein could feel the power being built up in the large cannon and knew that Vita wouldn't be able to stop the attack. "VITA!" She touched her sister.

At that moment, a powerful blast from the big metal creature was fired, smashing into and through the shields in an instant and causing an explosion that covered the air in black smoke for several moments.

During that time, the creatures stopped firing to see what happened.


	55. Shine Start

Shine Start

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Hey guys! It's been awhile, huh? Well, I'm back! And it's time for a new arc to begin!

But, before that, how about a quick recap, Nanoha?

Nanoha: Okay! Hi, I'm Nanoha Takamachi. I was supposed to be an ordinary third grader, but then something happened. I met a boy named Yuuno who introduced me to the world of magic. At first, it was just to help him collect the Jewel Seeds, but when I met Fate and found out that my own mother was a sorceress, I knew that things were going to get interesting. There were several days of hard training and some fights between myself and Fate, but in the end, it worked out okay. Sadly, Fate, Arf, her familiar and Precia, Fate's mother, ended up having to leave for awhile because of some bad things that they did. It's okay, Fate and Arf got to come back a few months later.

Nanoha: Not a moment too soon. Right before she got back, there was this really powerful girl who challenged me to a fight. If it wasn't for Fate and Yuuno, I would have been in real trouble. A major fight broke out after Arf showed up to help fight against Vita, Signum and Zafira. I was a bit too injured to help, but I was going to break the barrier we were in, but then my Linker Core got stolen, which woke up a hidden power that I had, and caught the attention of a new enemy. There were more fights after that, but eventually we managed to stop the Book of Darkness and free Reinforce and Hayate's Knights from their dark fates.

Nanoha: Unfortunately, the mastermind behind Alicia's death and the Book of Darkness showed up and kidnapped myself and Hayate and planned to use me to destroy the universe. Thankfully mom, Chrono and Reinforce managed to stop him.

Nanoha: Then we ended up going to mom's home world to meet her family and friends. When we got there, however, we found that all of the universes were in danger. Joining up with mom's old friends, and some new ones, there were more hard battles and sad destinies revealed. Fate and myself got new power modes to help fight against such creatures, but even then, we had a lot of trouble. Thankfully, with some luck and powerful weapons and spells we managed to defeat enemies that would have destroyed all of us. At the end of that trip, mom announced she was pregnant again and miss Filia, one of our new friends from that adventure, decided to come along with us.

Nanoha: Filia's been fitting in pretty well. Fate and I still have some mental hang-ups. Arf's a neat sister and I just can't wait for mom to have her baby!

Um, Nanoha, I said a quick recap.

Nanoha: Nyahahahahahaha...

Well, there you have it, folks, a quick run-down by Nanoha. Let's get to Shine, shall we?

* * *

A baby boy opened his eyes and saw nothing but water around him. There were some shapes around him that were weird through the water.

"He's coming along fine." A voice from outside of the tube was saying, but the baby couldn't understand it. "He'll be ready by tomorrow."

There was a clicking sound from a door being closed.

It was too bad, had anyone been in there a moment later, they would have noticed a faint glow surround the boy, before it turned into nothingness.

* * *

On another world...

An older man looked into the sky and frowned as storm clouds gathered. "Odd..." It had been clear just a moment ago. "What is..." His words died as lightning started flashing in the sky. The color and the ferocity was completely different than any he had seen before.

**"RAAAAHHH!"** The sounds of several Dragons in the distance all crying out at once resonated loudly and clearly throughout the lands. Even the storm, with strong winds that suddenly picked up, lightning crashing into the ground, did nothing to quiet the roar of the Dragons.

"An omen..." The old man mumbled and shivered as rain started to fall. Oddly enough, the water wasn't cold, it was hot and almost painful to be under.

Interestingly enough, as soon as the storm started, it ended, revealing a clear day. "That... Was weird." He then smiled as he heard the crying sounds of a new born baby.

Oh well, at least their summoner tribe had another child that would, hopefully, grow up to be a powerful summoner.

He just wished that he knew what the storm was about.

* * *

Three months later...

"Gah..." Vita, wearing a white shirt and a dark skirt with thigh-high stockings, felt like banging her head on the table. "Not again..." She had tears falling out of her eyes freely as she looked ahead. "I hate this! How do people put up with it!"

"Learn coping mechanisms." Reinforce, dressed in white pants and a blue sleeveless shirt, said as she put a bowl of chocolate ice cream in front of Vita. The way that the girl's eyes sparkled and she perked up while picking up a spoon was always humorous. "Don't eat too fast, you'll get a headache."

"No I wn't." Vita said around mouthfuls of the delectable sugary-sweet cocoa-flavored goodness from the gods themselves.

Reinforce shook her head and bit back laughter as Vita grabbed her head and started cursing as she fell out of her chair and started rolling on the ground up and down on the floor. The Silver-haired device resisted the urge to tell Vita that she warned her.

Oh well, the sight never got old.

"Eat too fast again?" Signum asked as she stepped over Vita, who was just groaning in pain and wondering why the ice cream had betrayed her so.

"Yep." Reinforce nodded and handed Signum her own bowl.

Signum's face reddened slightly as she took it and left the room. One of these days she was going to ask just _how_ Reinforce knew how she knew that Signum needed her own ice cream.

Or how Reinforce knew that Signum's favorite flavor was cinnamon mint.

Shaking her head, Reinforce just smiled as she saw Zwei float into the kitchen. "Hello."

"Hi, mommy." Zwei grinned as she waved at Reinforce. "Huh, did big sis run face-first into Signum's butt again?"

Reinforce bit her lip as she started chuckling. Vita had been playing out in the yard and was using the hose while running after Fate and Nanoha, the three were having fun when Vita slipped on the wet grass and slid straight into Signum, who was bent over grabbing something from the ground.

It was made even funnier by the fact that Reinforce had never seen a face-plant into a butt like that before.

Face-plant into breasts? Well, Hayate gave her plenty of that in bed.

"Not quite." Reinforce shook her head and pointed at the ice cream.

"Oh!" Zwei nodded and crossed her arms. "Why does she do that? I mean, she knows that it hurts. And where's Zaffy?"

"Zafira's staying over with Lindy for the next few days." Reinforce still didn't know how that dog knew when Vita was going through her period even before she did. Still, it made it easy to know when to pull the ice cream out of the deep freezer.

"Aww..." Zwei pouted. "Can I go over to Lindy's, mommy?"

"Only if you take daddy with you, she needs to work her legs more."

"Stop calling me daddy!" Hayate's voice was heard from the living room, causing both silver-haired devices to giggle as Hayate, using crutches to keep herself from falling over, hobbled into the kitchen. "I swear, Reinforce, you keep calling me "daddy" and people will think that... EEEK!" She let out a scream as Vita rolled under her feet, which caused her to lose her balance and fall straight down on top of Vita. "Oww... Vita-chan!" Hayate gasped as she saw the swirls in Vita's eyes. "Are you okay?"

"Hayate..." Vita groaned and Hayate leaned in.

"Yes?" Her face turned bright red as Vita leaned up and gave her a quick kiss on her cheek. "Vita-chan?"

Vita giggled and hugged Hayate. "Mmm... Soft and..." The redhead trailed off as she felt a chill run down her back for some odd reason. Looking past Hayate's blushing face, she gulped as she saw the unamused look on Reinforce's face. Well, that and the way that she was starting to glow slightly while her long silver hair wafted in the breeze.

Which was odd, as there was no breeze in the house.

"Vita-chan, what?" Hayate blinked as Vita let go of her and helped her up.

"Um, I was drunk off ice-cream." Vita laughed nervously as Reinforce seemed to calm down. Or at the very least, she wasn't giving the redhead a death glare anymore. Still, the large Unison Device turned around roughly. "Um, Zwei wants to go to Lindy's and you're supposed to go with her if she can go."

"Mouuu..." Zwei pouted as she crossed her arms. "It's not fair! I'm a big girl! I can use spells too!"

"But most people aren't used to seeing you yet." Reinforce said as she moved some stuff in the shelves. "I'd suggest being with Hayate, since if something happens, you can be there to protect daddy."

Zwei got a determined look on her face as she saluted Reinforce. "Right, mommy!" She spun and held her arms wide as she grinned at Hayate. "Come on, daddy! Let's go!"

"I swear..." Hayate hobbled off after Zwei. "If you two don't stop calling me 'daddy' soon, people will think that I AM a boy!" She was a girl! She knew it!

It wasn't her fault that she liked breasts. They were all just so comfortable and relaxing to rest her head on, and soft and full to grab and they came in so many sizes!

Really, it wasn't her fault.

After the door closed, Vita gulped as Reinforce turned and gave her a look that had her pinned and unable to move. "Now then... Iron Hammer Knight Vita..." Vita went pale and blue at the same time. Reinforce _never_ used her full title and name unless she was mad. And the way she said it this time...

Well, Vita would have rather fought against Nanoha when she was in her Chaos mode than this. Reinforce was _scary_ when she was angry.

"I'd rather... You stop trying to get into Hayate's pants."

"I..." Vita found her voice disappearing when Reinforce held up a hand and walked towards her slowly.

"You have your own room now, you need to use it. I'll get you a large stuffed bunny if you need to sleep with someone, but I share Hayate's bed and I'd like to keep her romantic involvements with anyone to a minimum."

"That was a kiss of gratitude..." Vita whimpered as Reinforce was close to her. "Please don't kick me out of the bed..."

Reinforce knelt down, sighed and pulled Vita into a hug. "You're getting taller, Vita... That bed's barely big enough as it is now, you need your own."

Vita shivered and hugged Reinforce tightly. "I'm sorry..." She sniffled as Reinforce rubbed her back, the tension in the Unison Device was gone now. "I just..."

"I know..." Reinforce nodded as Vita buried her face into Reinforce's shoulder. "Hayate's the best thing for any of us, that's why I don't want you to influence her."

"...Do I still need to leave the bed?" Vita gawked as Reinforce picked her up and carried her out. "H...Hey!" She yelped as she felt Reinforce's hand give her butt a swat. "What?" She yelped as Reinforce sat down in the living room and put the small redhead over her lap and hiked up her skirt and pulled her panties down slightly.

"Bad little girls need a spanking."

Vita whimpered as Reinforce started to do just that.

Watching that, Shamal shook her head. She'd step in if Reinforce went too far, but it didn't seem like Reinforce would do that.

Plus it seemed like Reinforce really did like the "mother" role of the household.

Thankfully, Reinforce stopped after only a minute, before standing Vita, who had tears falling down her face, up and telling her to go stand in the corner. The little redhead fixed her skirt and underwear before walking over to the corner and doing just that.

Idly, Shamal wondered just where or who Reinforce was picking up tips on being a mother from.

* * *

Lina sneezed lightly and blinked, wondering what that was about.

"You okay, mom?" Nanoha looked at her in concern and Lina rolled her eyes and nodded. "But..."

"Trust me, Nanoha, I might be pregnant," she rubbed her belly, which was starting to swell slightly, "but I'm not made of glass."

"Oh..." Nanoha perked up. "Can I feel the baby?"

Lina rolled her eyes. "The baby hasn't fully developed yet, Nanoha, it won't start moving for a few more months."

"Awww..." Nanoha pouted and sighed.

Lina just shook her head and smiled as a customer walked into the bakery. Nanoha really was getting excited about being a big sister. Well, big sister to someone who wasn't her age, since Fate was, by their best estimates, at best three weeks younger than Nanoha. Oh well, it really didn't matter, Fate was happy, Nanoha was happy, and last she heard, Filia was adapting fairly well to this world. Cars still freaked her out at times, it was funny.

"Hey, mom, do you know when Val will be born?" Nanoha asked after she put some fresh rolls in the display case.

Lina shrugged at the question. "Never seen a Dragon get born myself, so I have no clue." She smiled as the door chime went off again. "Welcome to the Mid..GAH!" She felt like falling over as she saw the person who just walked through the door. "What are you doing here, Xellos!"

The Mazoku Priest looked surprised as he tilted his head and looked at the two. "What? Can't I come in and say hello?"

"Not that..." Lina muttered as she looked at him. "What are you doing on this world? Shouldn't you be terrorizing some Dragons back home?"

"Oh!" Xellos smiled happily at that. "Well, you see... I'm on vacation."

"...Vacation?" Nanoha stared and Xellos nodded.

"Oh my, yes. Lord Beastmaster, now the strongest of our kind back home decided that..." He trailed off as he looked at the people, before walking close and whispering to the two of them. "It seems that Lord Beastmaster decided on a truce between the Mazoku and the rest of the world."

"A truce?" Lina hissed. "Seriously?"

"Yes... Seems that Lord Dolphin and Lord Dynast agree with her on this matter as well." Xellos nodded, before tilting his head at the confused looks on Nanoha and Lina's faces. "What?"

"I killed Dynast with the Ragna Blade, how is he..?"

"Oh!" Xellos slapped an open palm with his fist. "I guess you wouldn't know, would you? It seems that Sherra, the old Dynast's General, managed to gather enough power for herself that she became the new Dynast. Mazoku Lord Dynast Sherra. She decided that the name "Dynast" is now nothing more than a title." Of course, that was mostly because Sherra had absorbed almost all of Grausherra's power before he died, so the position was just shifted on over to her instead of becoming vacated.

"Oh... So, a truce? And you're on vacation?"

"Well..." Xellos chuckled and rubbed the back of his head. "Lord Beastmaster decided to announce to the various Dragons that the Mazoku were on a truce with them. It's a bit uneasy back home right now, tensions are running a little higher than normal, but no Priests or Generals are allowed to attack or slaughter Dragons or humans for no good reason." He shrugged at the looks of disbelief. "Well, far be it for me to go against my master's wishes. Anyway, yes, after the truce was announced, Lord Beastmaster and Lord Dolphin decided to go on vacation. Lord Dynast is collaborating with her forces still. Seems that some of the Mazoku under Grausherra won't listen to her as freely and she needs to hunt a few of them down."

Lina shook her head, a truce was weird enough, but something was bothering her. "So... Why come to this world?"

"Ah!" Xellos grinned at her. "You see, I didn't come alone... Lord Beastmaster... Well, she found this nice little city called... Um..." He started grabbing around in his pockets for something and frowned slightly. "Wow, I had it a moment ago..." Sighing, he hung his head. "I can't remember the city's name, honestly... This world is so loud, Miss Lina, how the heck can you put up with it?" Xellos grimaced as he heard several cars honking outside.

"You get used to it, and I think that paper you were looking for is on the floor there." Lina pointed at his feet, before smiling as a customer walked up and asked for some sticky buns.

"Yes, well..." Xellos muttered as he picked the paper up. "I do admit, when I saw you working here, I was surprised that you weren't eating everything."

"Couldn't make a living if I ate all the product, Xellos." Lina said as she took the customer's money and gave him change. "Have a nice day."

"Ah, here we go..." Xellos nodded. "Hong Kong... Weird name."

"You're in China?" Nanoha blinked at the Mazoku, who shrugged at her. "I heard that it's a really violent place."

"It is, actually." Xellos chuckled in amusement. "All that violence, passion, anger and other emotions? I've never seen such a buffet like that in my life. If it wasn't for the fact that everything was so loud, I could enjoy just spending time in the more populated areas. All that food just laying around... Well, in any case, I just stopped by to say hello."

"So, where are you going now?" Nanoha asked and the Mazoku Priest just shrugged as he walked to the door.

"That... Is a secret." Nanoha groaned as Xellos laughed and left the building.

"Great, a Mazoku Lord and her Priest are taking a vacation on this world..." Lina muttered softly. "Nanoha... When we're done here, we're going to tell Lindy to have the Bureau keep an eye on Hong Kong. Xellos isn't one to lie, but I'd prefer to know if Hong Kong gets wiped off the map before the rest of the world so I can prepare."

"Okay." Nanoha nodded and wondered when she accepted weirdness like this as normal.

* * *

Outside, in the air, Xellos frowned as he looked at his map. "Huh, this world really is heavily populated, huh?" His eyes snapped open in shock as he saw the population count. "Six... BILLION?" He scratched his head in confusion. "How can this planet support that many people?" Shrugging, he decided to go looking for answers. After all, if there was feast in one portion of the world, another portion of the world had to suffer from famine.

At least, that's what he thought.

Oh well, at least he could have some fun. If the noise didn't cause him to murder something first. Just _how_ did Lina put up all this _noise_? Even Dragons when mating were quieter than this.

"Bah, maybe Beastmaster's right... I have gotten too used to the quiet." He muttered as he disappeared.

* * *

Lina: Sadly, I'm not going to be doing much in this arc, so other people will be taking over for the previews on upcoming chapters.  
Hayate: Next time, on Blood That Flows... Eh? Lindy? Do you... Oh my.


	56. Shine 2

Shine 2

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

* * *

Sighing softly as she looked at the egg, Filia felt like crying, screaming, hitting something and doing nothing at all.

It wasn't because Val's egg was causing her problems, and she sure was glad that she didn't need to sit on it like a chicken did, it was because she couldn't help but remember, so often, just how... _Alone_ she felt at times. It wasn't the lack of companionship, Chrono, Amy, Lindy and any visitors that showed up gave her plenty of that.

It was the lack of familiar presences in the world. This world was so... Weird and dull. Magic was almost non-existent, though Lina assured her that there was more than she knew, and all this technology made her jittery at times. Lights? Television? Computers? Cell Phones? Hot and cold running water?

...Okay, that last one was pretty nice, she would admit.

"Hey, Filia." The blonde blinked as she heard Chrono's voice. Turning, she smiled as he walked in. "What's wrong?" He sat down on the bed next to her and smiled softly.

"Huh?" She blinked in confusion. "What do you..."

"You've spent all day in here and you don't do that unless you're upset about something." Chrono looked at Val's egg and tilted his head. "He's okay, isn't he?"

Filia nodded at that question, before sighing softly. "It's just... One day, Val's going to wonder how come there's no Dragons his age to play with. And why my Dragon form looks different from his. What do I tell him? "Oh, sorry, my people killed yours off years ago and I'm looking after you to keep you safe from them and make up for what they did." What would he say?" She gasped as Chrono, who was starting to go through a growth spurt, hugged her suddenly. Before, she would have been pulled down if he hugged her, now he was as tall as she was when both were sitting down, well, maybe he was a tad taller, but not much. When standing up, she was still taller.

"Dunno... The best you can do is just hope that he cares for you enough not to be so angry." Chrono mentally cursed as he felt Filia shudder and hug him tightly. "Sorry, I... I don't know what to say."

"Just... Just shut up." Filia said as she twisted her body and pulled Chrono down onto the bed. "Just shut up and hold me right now."

Chrono nodded and gulped as Filia lay on top of him partially, which he was thankful for, if she was on him entirely, he would probably be crushed due to her weight. Her tail was moving around behind her in an agitated fashion. Chrono did wonder why she decided to go with blue jeans and a blue short-sleeved shirt, but he wasn't complaining, they did mold to her body in just the right way.

Though, she did have to wear her pants a bit low for her tail to peek out, or cut a hole in the back.

He wasn't sure if he should be thankful that she was wearing them low this time around. When it moved in just the right spot, he could see the curvature of her rear and...

"Just what are you looking at?" Filia asked him, her eyes narrow.

Chrono gulped, he knew that she could do crazy things when upset, though thankfully she kept most of her more violent tendencies to a minimum. She let Amy do anything violent. "Um... Your pants are low."

"I know that!" Filia hissed as she sat up, practically straddling him, and put her hands on her hips. "I don't like cutting holes in the back of my pants for my tail, because when I hide my tail, people get a free look at my underwear and I don't like that." Her face turned red and she looked down. "Um..."

Chrono looked down too and blushed as well. "Uh... Sorry..."

It was at that moment that Amy popped into the room. "Oh, hey, there you two..." She trailed off as she saw their flushed faced and the position that they were in. "...If you two were doing _that_," she huffed irritably, "you should have at least locked the door."

"Um, we weren't..." Filia said, still, she wasn't moving and Amy blinked, before shrugging, walking in and closing the door behind her. "Amy?" She yelped as the brunette tackled her onto the bed, thankfully it was reinforced, since Filia was a lot heavier than she looked, and hugged the two of them tightly. "Um..."

"If you're going to do that... You should have invited me." Amy grinned as the two of them blushed heavily. "Now then... Just _what_ were you two doing if not that?" She might have liked Filia a lot more than she did back on that mission, but she wasn't going to lose Chrono to her. Not without a fight.

At least Chrono wasn't so serious all the time these days, it made it a lot more fun to tease him.

* * *

Lindy chuckled as she heard a thump come from upstairs. "Oh my... It seems that Amy's having fun with Chrono and Filia." Both Rein and Hayate looked at her in confusion. "Don't worry about it, so, why did you two come on over here?"

"Daddy needed to work her legs and I wanted to play with Zaffy!" Zwei threw her hands wide before zipping over to the wolf and hugging him. "Wolfie ride! Wolfie ride!"

"You do know that I'm not a wolf, right?" Zafira asked her, though he wasn't angry about what she said, just curious.

"Zaffy is Zaffy." Rein stated as she got to his head. "I wanna ride in the back yard."

Hayate and Lindy both laughed and Zafira rolled his eyes, but got up and walked to the back yard for the youngest girl in the family.

"So, um, Lindy..." Hayate looked at her and the green-haired woman blinked in confusion. "Lately, I've not felt too good... Um, I think something might be..." She trailed off as Lindy just smiled at her. "What?"

"Well, Hayate, I think you might need a few things explained to you..."

When Lindy was done, Hayate was blushing red, before she fell over, her eyes swirling. Lindy blinked and wondered if maybe she should have held back the explanation about how sex really worked.

* * *

Later...

"Is daddy okay?" Rein Zwei asked after coming back into the house with Zafira and seeing Hayate on the couch, out cold.

"Hmm?" Lindy popped her head into the living room. "Oh, she'll be fine, I said something that was shocking to her, she just needs time to recover."

"Oh." Rein nodded before moving to Hayate and sitting on the sleeping girl's belly and smiling as she lay down and closed her eyes. "I love my daddy."

Watching that, Zafira and Lindy both smiled as Zwei let out a soft sigh of contentment. The little Unison Device was rather relaxing when she wanted to be.

Of course, when she was feeling energetic, it was hard to keep up with her.

Lindy was about to say something when the phone rang. "Hello?" Her eyes widened, before narrowing. "Alright." Hanging up her cell phone, she sighed and looked at Zafira. "We may have a problem." Seeing his confused look, she clarified. "It seems we have at least two powerful Mazoku running around on Earth, maybe more." Zafira winced, the last time there was a powerful Mazoku running around...

"What should we do?"

"Keep an eye on Hong Kong and keep a look out for any powerful magic that may get used." Lindy sighed and hoped that what Nanoha had told her was true, and that they were just on vacation, and not here to cause trouble.

"That's all?" Zafira looked at her critically.

"Yes, one of them helped us defeat Dark Star, so, we keep an eye out for weird things, but do nothing unless he does something to warrant it."

Zafira nodded, but grimaced. He didn't like this plan, not at all. Who knew what these Mazoku would do if they were allowed to roam free?

* * *

Meanwhile...

Zelas blinked, she felt the sudden urge to sneeze, before shrugging it off and leaning back to enjoy the show before her.

It may have taken her more than a few hours, but she managed to get the television on. These news shows that were on all the time were quite entertaining. Seeing so much misery, corruption, and greed in the world...

"If our world was like this back home, even low-level Mazoku would have become a threat to people." She muttered and shook her head. The sheer miasma from this city alone was nearly getting her drunk, she couldn't imagine what it was like for Xellos, wherever he was right now.

Picking up a small square box with a bunch of buttons on it, she pushed one. Her eyes widened as she saw the images on the television change from news to...

"Oh yes! Oh yes! Oh yes!"

Zelas blinked several times and tilted her head. "Humans on this world watch other humans have sex for entertainment?" A small grin came to her face. She was liking this world more and more.

* * *

"Well, anyway, we'll be keeping an eye out for any unusually large spikes of power and just hope that the Mazoku aren't trying to destroy the world." The _only_ reason Lindy wasn't having the Arc En Ciel fire on Hong Kong was because of Xellos helping them save everything back in that world.

She just hoped that she wouldn't come to regret this decision.

* * *

Elsewhere...

Yuuno groaned as he flopped, face-first, down onto the ground. "Ugh..." Getting a handle on his Holy power was easy. Figuring out how to use it without shutting off access to the rest of his power was an entirely different matter. The problem was that Holy magic behaved differently from everything else, being a force of nature, it didn't want to be controlled, it wanted to move freely. And trying to force his will over it just caused it to slip away on him, but just using it left him vulnerable. Sure, he was stronger with it, but the loss of his other spells made it harder for him to use magic the way he was used to.

Fate looked at him worriedly. "Come on, you don't need to..."

"I need to figure this out..." Yunno muttered as he pushed himself up. "At the very least, I need to be able to swap between Vrabazard's power and my own power at will."

Fate smiled softly and helped him up. "I'm sure you'll figure it out. After all, if it wasn't for you, none of us would have ever figured out how to use mother's style of magic as well as we can."

Yuuno smiled at her softly, before blinking as she looked into the air with a slightly wistful expression on her face. "...Anything wrong?"

"Just thinking... What it would be like if Lina-mama hadn't gone up against Precia-mama back then... Would she have made it to Al Hazard? Would Alicia have killed me horribly back on Mid-Childa?" Fate sighed and shook her head. "I don't know, I'm just thinking out loud."

Yuuno shrugged. "Does it matter? Nanoha and Lina saved the two of us and because of them we've seen and done so much in less than two years."

Fate giggled as she looked at Yuuno trying to be serious. He really was growing into a handsome boy. "Your hair is getting longer."

"Just a little." Yuuno admitted as it was brushing against his shoulders. "Nanoha's upset that her hair won't grow back as fast as she wants it to."

"I wouldn't tease her about it." Fate giggled softly. "She's still upset that she can't feel the baby kicking yet." Then again, Fate felt no differently, she wanted to feel a baby before it was born too!

"Ack!" Yuuno yelped as he felt a small body grab him from behind and someone start biting his head. "Hi, Arf..." He muttered as she gnawed on his head. "Just what are you doing?"

"Saying "hi", that so wrong?" She asked after pulling her mouth from his head.

"When you gnaw on my head, yes..." Yuuno muttered, before yelping as Arf jumped off of him. Turning around, he balked as she whapped him in the face with her tail. "What was that for?"

"I wanna play!" Arf whined and pouted at the two of them. "Watching you two train all the time is kind of boring, I wanna play!"

"Play what?" Fate asked, though she could admit, it had been hours, maybe it was time to call it quits for the day.

"TAG!" Arf laughed and bopped Fate on the nose gently. "Fate's it!" She laughed and ran, as did Yuuno as he realized what happened.

"Oh, I'm "it", huh?" Fate grinned as she ran after them. "Just wait till I catch up with you!" She wouldn't use magic, that would spoil the fun after all.

* * *

Later...

Yuuno groaned as he stumbled into the bathroom and rubbed his eyes before stripping out of his clothes. He had gotten to the house early, mostly because he wanted to relax in the bath before the others got home. "Lina, Shiro and Nanoha are at the bakery.." He yawned and shook his head. "Arf and Fate are playing with Suzuka and Arisa..." He thought he saw Kyouya there, so he figured that he had the house to himself. "Just need to wash down." He was just so tired that he didn't think that being in the bath for very long would be a good thing.

He didn't want to drown if he fell asleep after all.

Walking into the washroom, something seemed off, there was steam in the air and it was a little hard to see, then again, maybe Miyuki had just gotten done with a bath. He hadn't seen her around, so he wasn't sure where she was. Shrugging, he walked over to the stool and started washing himself off.

After rinsing himself off, he shook his head. "Ugh..." Okay, he was far too tired to do anything, just hop into the bath, rinse off, then get to bed, that was his plan.

As he got up, he turned to the bath and slipped on a bar of soap and would have hit his head on the floor if he didn't quickly fly forward. At least this way, the worst that he'd crash into would be the water.

At least, that's what he thought. He did crash into something, and it was wet. But there was warmth, and softness undercoated with something solid, not to mention the hands that had suddenly grabbed him.

"Wait..." Yuuno muttered softly and pulled his head back, blanching as he saw what he did. "Um, hi..."

Miyuki looked back at him and chuckled softly. "Say hello to all the women after slipping into the bath with them?"

"Uh..." Yuuno's face was turning red as he turned around and tried to get out before Miyuki grabbed him and pulled him against her body. "I shouldn't be here! I mean, you're a girl and I'm a boy and..."

"So?" Miyuki shrugged and leaned back into the bathtub. "I don't mind if you wanna take a bath, Yuuno."

Gulping, Yuuno nodded and blinked as she put a finger on his forehead and forced him to lean against her chest. "Um..."

"What?"

"Aren't you mad? All the girls in those shows..." Yuuno trailed off as Miyuki laughed at him. "What?"

"Yuuno... Those girls get upset because it's funny to see them beat someone up. It's not cool to beat someone up just because of a mistake." Miyuki rolled her eyes. "Besides, I'm sure that Nanoha and Fate would be upset with me if I hurt you." Smiling, she patted his chest. "So, just relax, okay?"

"Um..." Yuuno gulped, the warm feeling of her breasts against his skin was rather... Distracting and it was doing weird things to his body and... "Eeep!"

"Oh dear." Miyuki chuckled softly. "Well, at least I'm attractive to you." It was a bit awkward, but at least he wasn't trying anything. Seeing his whole body stiff, she sighed and put her hands on his shoulders. "Come on, Yuuno, it was just a joke..." She frowned as he didn't relax. "I'm not going to bite, Yuuno..."

"But... Your mother..."

Miyuki pursed her lips slightly. "She won't get upset at you, Yuuno... It's my fault anyway... Forgot to lock the door."

"Oh..." Yuuno nodded, before yelping as she spun him around and pressed his face into her chest. "Myki?"

"So, we're going to just sit in her and relax." She grinned as he pulled his blushing face away from her chest. "Alright?"

He nodded, though he was still nervous and still having trouble moving around.

"Having trouble relaxing?" She moved slightly and he nodded. "Hmm... Might need to fix that somehow..." She trailed off and Yuuno gulped, wondering what she meant.

* * *

"See?" Miyuki smiled as Yuuno lay on the bathroom floor, face down, as she rubbed his back. "This is better, right?"

Yuuno's face was completely scarlet as he nodded. The two of them were completely naked still, and Miyuki's suggestions to relax was her doing things to his body that he didn't know was possible. Heck, just after they had gotten out of the tub, the things she did to him made his mind go completely blank. And that was just a rubdown of his chest!

Compared to what she did to him after that, it was pretty hard to think clearly at the moment.

Still, he did finally manage to relax and the way her fingers pressed into his body were just magical.

Miyuki chuckled as Yuuno fell asleep. "Falling asleep, huh?" She chuckled before grabbing some towels and wrapping herself up, and then putting one around his body, before taking him to the guest room and tucking him in.

Walking out of his room, still in her towel, she gasped as she saw her father walk into view. He looked at her, looked at Yuuno's room, then back at her with a raised eyebrow.

"He fell asleep..." Miyuki chuckled and Shiro gave her a look. "Look, nothing... Um... Well, it didn't go _that_ far, dad, I was just helping him relax and..."

Shiro shook his head. "I don't think I want to know what's going on in your mind, Miyuki, but, just take care of yourself... I'll let your mother talk to you about this."

Miyuki gulped and ran for her room when Shiro told her to get some clothes on.

* * *

"Well..." Lina looked at Miyuki, who was in her sleepwear, with an unreadable look on her face. "You were sneaking out of Yuuno's room in only a towel? Seriously, Miyuki, he's not even eleven yet." He would be in a few days, however. "I never minded that you had a crush on Kyouya, or that you sometimes snuck into his room when he was getting changed, but Yuuno? He's far too young right now."

"But mom..." Miyuki gulped as Lina held a hand up.

"Look, if he was fourteen, I wouldn't have that much of a problem with it. If you still want him when he's fifteen, that's fine, but I'd rather you and him _not_ push things, he's still developing and I don't want him screwed up because you decided to 'help' him out." Lina sighed as she saw Miyuki blushing more. "Just what were you thinking?"

"We didn't even do _that_ mom, he was just so nervous that I wanted to help him relax and he fell asleep and..." Miyuki gulped at her mother's look. "I was in the bath and he came in, I forgot to lock the door and he slipped on some soap and he crashed into the bath... I wasn't going to kick him out just because he's a boy."

"You're a lot calmer than I was at your age." Lina sighed, before turning to leave. "Miyuki, just... I don't want either of you two to get hurt, okay? In a few years, sure, but right now? I'd rather you two take it easy." She turned and smiled at Miyuki softly. "I want my family to grow up healthy and happy, okay? That includes Yuuno."

"Mom, I..." Miyuki started to say before Lina gave her one last serious look. "Um..."

"If you wanted to have a lover that badly, Miyuki, at least have one that's not so young." If Yuuno was a few years older, she wouldn't have minded the implications of what happened, but she didn't want the two of them to get screwed up horribly by doing something so stupid.

After all, if she was going to be a grandmother, she wanted Kyouya to give her grandchildren before Miyuki, Nanoha or Fate did.

As Lina left Miyuki's room, she looked at her belly and sighed. "You better not date until you're at least fifteen." She knew that the baby wouldn't hear her, but that was fine.

* * *

Xellos: I really don't see why it's so much fun to do these. Lina really doesn't have any, huh, what do you mean by that? Next time, Blood That Flows - Shine, you should read it.  
?: It's been a long time, Precia.


	57. Shine 3

Shine 3

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Was the last chapter not that good?

* * *

Sneezing, she wondered if she was coming down with a cold, again. She probably was, knowing her luck these days. "Why?" She asked no one in particular as she shivered.

"Well, well, well..." Her eyes widened and she turned her head, that familiar voice... Standing in the doorway was a man she never thought that she'd see again. "I can't say that I'm surprised, Precia." Chuckling, he walked forward and shook his head. "To go from incredibly sick to healthy... I'm sure that your immune system decided to take a nap."

"Jail..." Precia groaned and saw the two women behind him. "Who are they?"

Jail smirked at her. "I'd like you to meet Uno and Due..." He gestured to each one in turn. "The first two of my Combat Cyborg program."

"You..." She coughed again, "you managed to get that to work?"

"Not without problems, I admit." Jail admitted as Uno and Due walked into the cabin and looked around curiously.

Due picked up a framed picture and tilted her head. "Hmm... Guess your daughter was pretty bad off, huh?"

"Don't talk about my family." Precia growled as she sat up in bed.

Or tried to, as she shivered, groaned and fell back onto the bed. "Ugh..." Her body felt so weak and her head was spinning.. She frowned as she felt a hand on her forehead.

"Doctor..." Uno turned to Jail. "Her fever is incredibly high. The flu?"

"Perhaps." Jail nodded as he gave Precia a serious look. "I need something from you."

"Of course." Precia muttered and started coughing again. "You always needed something, you never could do anything on your own."

Jail chuckled as he walked over to her desk where Due was looking at various pictures. "Ah, the good old days..." He trailed off as he saw the picture of Precia and her co-workers. "To think that some of our experiments back then would bare fruit now, hmm?" He turned to her and smiled. "So, how _is_ that darling little girl of yours doing?"

"Alicia is dead and Fate not under my care anymore. I couldn't be a mother, to either of them... Alicia became a monster and Fate needed to live a life where she's not abused by someone as horrible as I am." She narrowed her eyes at Jail. "Just what do you want, Jail?"

"Just some information." A serious look came to his face. "I was hoping that you'd bring up what happened on Mid-Childa about a year ago, actually..."

"Why..?" She wondered what was going through his head, before shivering as a chill went through her body and she coughed. 'Darn cold...' She thought to herself.

"Because... You did more research into ancient technologies and magic than I have, I'll admit. I need your notes." He told Due to put down the picture she was looking at.

"I never found anything." Precia looked at Due and Uno and couldn't help but feel a little put out. "So, you decided that normal women weren't enough?"

Jail chuckled and shook his head. "These two are genetically related to me, Precia... Now, your notes. Anything on Al Hazard technologies and magic you might have... Stumbled across in your lifetime."

"I didn't discover anything..." She looked at the dresser that Due was by. "But, if you want to know, just get that blonde to move her butt out of the way and it's in the top drawer."

Due gave her a rather nasty look. "Can I suffocate her?"

"No, Due..." Jail put a hand on her shoulder and opened the desk drawer. "You can't sit on her face and suffocate her, she's just upset, ah!" He pulled out a data pad and grinned as he turned it on. "All your research for so many years... Project F... Lost Logia... AH! This is what I wanted..."

"What?"

Jail started chuckling as he pulled out another data pad and hooked the two up. He wouldn't _dream_ of stealing Precia's work completely. It was all she had left to be remembered by at this time after all. Copying it was always better, besides, if he needed to, he could always come back and get the notes again, in case his got corrupted or lost. "The Knight Valkrye Armor... I thought it was destroyed back during the fall of Al Hazard..."

"The doctor," Uno spoke to Precia, "is a clone of the people of Al Hazard. The incident with the Ground Forces HQ and the Mazoku caused him to remember several key elements of what happened in the past. Including weapons designed to kill them."

"The spear, the mantle, the wings, the shield, the armor and the heart..." Jail grinned as he finished the file transfer. Putting her research notes back, he pocketed his own copy. "Even a single piece can make even the weakest of magic users into a power house. The whole armor together was said to make a person into a god. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if the Ancient Belkan Royalty found a way to mimic the powers of that armor."

"Now what, doctor?" Due asked as Jail told them to leave. Her hands ran over her rear-end. It wasn't that big, was it?

"It's going to take me some time to find if any of the pieces still exist. And if they do, I then need to find where they are..." Oh well, he had some time. "By the way, you didn't forget, did you, Due?"

"Of course not." She smiled at him. "I'll get you everything you need for my cute little sisters soon enough." Due blushed as Jail caressed her face softly.

"I know you will." Jail nodded to her. She was a heck of a masterpiece, all of the Numbers were.

* * *

"There you three are." A female voice spoke up as Uno, Due and Jail walked out of Precia's cabin. "Took you long enough."

Jail just chuckled at her. "Don't worry about it, Tre..." He trailed off and looked at Uno. "Oh, do make sure to arrange for a nursemaid to take care of Precia... On the Bureau's dime, of course."

"Of course." Uno nodded, smiling softly. "But, might I ask why?"

Jail chuckled, his shoulders shaking. "It's simple... We were colleagues and partners, I would like to think that she wouldn't mind an old friend helping her out."

"Tre..." Due whined as she suddenly glomped the taller woman. "I don't have a big butt, do I?" She pouted, getting a flustered look from Tre and laughter from Uno and Jail. "That mean old lady said my butt was big!"

"No," Tre said flatly, "your butt is still small and pert, Due, now let go of me."

"Okay!" Due grinned as she let go. "Come on, doctor, I wanna go see my other sisters!"

Jail chuckled as he pulled out a remote and touched the big button on it, causing the four of them to disappear in a flash of light.

* * *

Meanwhile...

"Lord Dolphin..." Riksfalto sighed as the two of them walked through the open field. "While I'm sure that this is the stuff to make chocolate, it doesn't taste good until it gets put together properly, right?"

The long-haired Mazoku pouted at what her General said. It was true. "I know, but we're in Chile, I think..." She scratched her head and shrugged. "Anyway, we're in Chile, and that guy with the donkey said that they had cocoa beans here! I want to eat them!"

"But, if it's beans, then it's not turned into chocolate yet..." Riksfalto looked around the field. "Besides, this stuff, it's more likely to cause a human to go through some weird effects." She turned her head and smirked as she heard yelling from people. "Oh, would you look at that, the locals are mad at us." She tilted her head and concentrated for a moment. "Weird how this world has so many languages... How the hell do they communicate with each other?" Still, it didn't take her long to figure out what they were saying. Something about opium, but she wasn't sure what that was. "Can I kill them?"

"Ah, go ahead, it looks like there's no cocoa here." Dolphin pouted and started walking off. "The next person we see, I'm going to find out if they know where the best chocolate around is!"

Riksfalto grinned as she looked at the humans. "Come on, boys... Let's see if any of you are interesting."

The grin slipped from her face as the men went down easily, none of them were using any sort of magic to fight back, and the weapons that they used, while interesting, didn't do anything for her. "Che... Why can't more men be like Yuuno, huh? You're all... SO PATHETIC!" Riksfalto growled before blasting the whole group with a large fireball, incinerating them.

Dolphin looked back as she saw the dark aura snapping around Riksfalto, before shaking her head. The poor Mazoku seemed so... Irritable when she wasn't talking about that boy that nearly killed her.

She supposed that it wouldn't hurt to let Riksfalto go and find him again. 'Might be good for a laugh.' She chuckled to herself. It might also cause the General to actually start relaxing, they were on vacation for crying out loud! Being wound up would only lead to problems.

"Riksfalto!" Dolphin yelled, catching her General's attention. "Go ahead and find that boy of yours." Seeing Riksfalto's face practically light up as she disappeared, Dolphin couldn't help but think back to a long time ago. "...Just what did happen back then?" She shook her head and disappeared, going for the next town over.

It was easier to find chocolate than try to think about how Gaav and Zelas both were different just before Shabranigdo was reborn during the Koma Wars after all.

* * *

Xellos frowned as he looked around. This place was far quieter than the rest of the world was, but it was also incredibly... Depressing, violent, sad.

In other words, he loved it here. Though, he wasn't sure why everyone spoke such a weird language, or why their skin colors were completely dark, but it was a nice place to relax, if a bit sparse on things compared to the other places he had been already. As he walked into a village, he looked down as a small child tried to walk, only to fall down because of the incredibly small arms and legs couldn't support him. Looking around, Xellos frowned as something seemed wrong about the amount of hopelessness and depression.

It was almost as if none of these people had anything to hope for in the first place.

Xellos grimaced, such feelings were enjoyable, but in such quantities, with no good experiences, they could taint some Mazoku, even he might have had some problems with the emotions as they were. After all, if one didn't have any good emotions and only put out negative emotions, it was just no good.

Walking on, he just shook his head in disgust. Even the bandits back on his home world weren't this bad, even if some of them did give into the urge to rape women from time to time. Heck, killing off this whole village would probably be a mercy to them all.

As he came close to a rather nice looking house, Xellos found himself surrounded by armed men on all sides, pointing weapons of some sort at him. "Yes?"

"You're not from around here." One of them said slowly to him. "What are you? Some freedom fighter?"

"Why would I fight for freedom? I'm just a Mysterious Priest." Xellos said in their native tongue. It was actually a little difficult, but he was _very_ thankful that he could learn how to speak languages easily. Reading them was a different story all together.

"Don't look like any priest I know." One of them said and Xellos just grinned at him.

"Oh yes, you see, I am affiliated with the Church of Shabranigdo under Lord Beastmaster." Xellos chuckled softly. That was such a fun religion back home, too bad that some of the members decided to try and make that Zannafar armor so often.

One of them snorted and jerked his weapon at Xellos. "I bet he's some sort of Westerner or something... He's no priest." He ignored the way Xellos' eye twitched slightly. "Even if he was a priest, he's not dressed like one and he probably isn't good at carrying out his duties."

"Yeah, and that "Beastmaster"? Ha! Probably just a crazy person."

Xellos' smile was tight as the men laughed at him. "Tell me something... Have any of you ever thought about becoming immortal?"

"See? Just a crazy person."

Xellos opened his eyes, his facial expression was grim. "You really think so, huh? Who's the leader among you?" The one in front of him jerked his gun. "Well then..." Xellos pointed at him. and just grinned. "Raugnut Rushavna."

The men wondered what he meant, until the leader started screaming as snakes poured out of his skin and started biting him, causing his flesh to start swelling tremendously. In a blind panic, the leader tried shooting at his body, until the snakes bit into his throat, his crotch and his face, causing them all to swell as his body became misshapen and grotesque.

"Shoot him! SHOOT!" The men started firing on their leader, trying to kill him.

"Well, I did tell you, didn't I?" Xellos grinned at all of them as his body started glowing purple. "I think... That you really shouldn't piss off a Mazoku." The men screamed as some of them were turned to stone, another one found himself unable to breath as small cones tore through his lungs, and others found the fluids in their bodies evaporating from intense heat from nowhere. "Oh dear, I guess I over-did it a little bit." Shrugging, he shattered the stone statues and took the hunk of flesh with him into the house.

"Who are you?" A portly man asked as several men pointed their weapons at Xellos. The women in the room took off in sheer fright. "To come into my house and cause problems like that."

"Well..." Xellos smirked as he looked at the man. "You see, while I don't really care about you humans, you, however, are a poison..." He wondered if Lina rubbed off on him at all, before mentally shrugging it off. "You think only of yourself and can't see anything around you. It's interesting that I knew a young girl who was feared by everyone, and yet, despite how badly the world treated her at times, she had a heart larger than any I have ever seen in a human." He held up a finger and shook his head. "Guess I should stop remembering the past, I don't want to play with any of you anymore." Swinging his finger across his body, he started laughing as all the people in the room exploded into nothingness. The fear and pain that they all had before they died was just delicious.

Seeing the women peek out and scream at the blood and guts all over the walls, Xellos just laughed. "I wonder what you'll do now, all your masters are dead, their bodyguards as well..." He turned around and started to walk out. "And there's this village full of angry people... What will you do?"

"Thank you!" Xellos blinked as he turned to look at the women, most of whom were still trembling. "These... Pigs... Came to our village, stole all our food, drink, left most of us with scraps, and took us, as the most beautiful people of the village, as slaves. Thank you for saving us."

"Um... I didn't do it to save you or be nice." Xellos admitted and grumbled as he was ignored. At least the pain that the human who was suffering was still delicious. "They annoyed me."

Feeling the raw gratitude coming from them, Xellos shuddered and disappeared, nearly throwing up as he heard one of them call him an angel of mercy.

The words meant nothing to him, the emotions that were behind the words, however, did.

* * *

Chrono: This makes things interesting, but not nearly as, huh? What do you mean, Filia? Next time, on Blood That Flows - Shine, read it or I'll use binds on you. Amy, stop drooling!  
Vita: Eeek! Hayate! Stop doing that in public! Whaddya mean no?


	58. Shine 4

Shine 4

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

* * *

Two months later...

Chrono looked at Filia as the latter paced up and down the hallway. "Come on... Just... Come on..." The Dragoness wouldn't hear him as her tail lashed out side to side. "Trust me, it'll be okay."

"What if it's not okay?" Filia spun on him, tears welling up in her eyes. "This is insane! I should be in there! What if something bad happens? What if..."

"Filia!" Chrono stood up and grabbed her arms. "Val's in the best of care right now. Those doctors are excellent."

"I know, it's just..." Filia pulled Chrono into a tight hug, her tail sticking straight up behind her as she trembled. "His egg is starting to hatch, I know nothing about taking care of children and..." Her eyes widened as Chrono shut her up the only way he knew how to...

By putting his lips on hers and holding the kiss for several moments. His face was red as he broke the kiss, but at least Filia seemed to have calmed down with it, her face was just as red as his was though. "Listen, Filia... I know that you're not an animal, but there are vets that have taken care of Dragons before in there, I'm sure that Val's going to hatch just fine." It felt a little weird not to call him Valgaav, but considering that was his Mazoku name, it was probably for the best.

Filia nodded and let go of Chrono, still blushing. "I know, thank you, I just..."

Chrono sighed softly. "You know, it might be a good idea to get a check-up yourself. You still haven't seen any doctors since you got to this world."

Filia sighed and nodded. "I know... But they..." Her eyes teared up and she sniffled. "Want me to get naked and stuff..."

"They'll only ask you to take your shirt off so they can get a better feel for things, Filia..." Chrono trailed off. "Actually, they might want to do deeper scans than that, since there aren't a lot of disguised Dragons running around."

"But, I want to be in there when Val hatches..." Filia muttered, but knew that it was better for doctors and vets to look Val over when he came out of the egg. They could keep an eye on him just in case something came up suddenly.

"Well, if that's the case." The doctor came out of the room smiling. "Why don't you go see him?" He nearly laughed as Filia disappeared from sight and into the room. "Oh my... Seems that she was really anxious."

Chrono shrugged, grateful that he wasn't on a mission right now. If he didn't know any better, he could have sworn his mother was trying to set things up so that he had maximum time with either Amy or Filia. But that was just crazy. She wouldn't do that... Would she?

* * *

Filia blinked as she saw a blonde nurse nod to her. "What were you..?"

"Just getting his vitals, that's all." The nurse said as she handed over the small Dragon to Filia. "He seems quite healthy, and, woah!" She had to adjust her hands so that she didn't drop the little scaly creature. "I think he wants to see his mother." She chuckled as Filia took Val from her. "Have a good day." She patted Filia on the shoulder, before walking to the door and stopping. "Oh, miss Filia, if you don't mind, the doctor would like to do a battery of tests on you as well. Just to get a baseline of what you're like when you're healthy, nothing more."

"Of course." Filia said as the nurse ducked out of the room. "Hello, Val... Welcome back."

"Krreee..?" The young Dragon tilted his head as he looked at her. Sticking out a long tongue, he licked Filia's cheek, getting a laugh from the Gold Dragon.

"You're cute, Val... No one will hurt you here, I promise you." Filia rubbed his back softly and gently, getting a content purr from the Ancient Dragon. "I'll keep the promise... That my ancestors broke with Vrabazard... To protect something."

"Kree..?" Little Val titled his head as he looked at Filia. She knew it wouldn't take him long at all to be able to shape-shift. A few days maybe, a couple of weeks at most. And that was if he was going to be lazy.

"You'll be okay... Mama will make sure of it." Filia said, smiling softly.

* * *

Meanwhile...

Vita felt like banging her head on the wall as she, Hayate and Reinforce walked through a clothing store.

"You okay, Vita-chan?" Hayate asked. She was able to actually walk normally for limited periods of time lately. The doctors had reassured her that it would only be a little longer, as long as she kept up with what she was doing, to walk normally. It was annoying to be reminded by the doctors and Reinforce that she needed to rest at times, she just wanted to walk all the time. So many people didn't understand just how incredible it felt to be able to move by moving their legs, to not be limited by ramps, flat areas and smooth surfaces, to be able to walk up and down stairs, to run and jump, well, she hadn't gotten that far yet, Zafira and Reinforce both got upset at her the last time she tried to jump and her legs gave out on her, causing her to fall to the ground on her butt.

"Why am I here again?" Vita grumbled as Reinforce grabbed her arm and nearly dragged the redhead into the underwear section. "Hey!"

"You need a new bra." Reinforce pointed out as she looked at Vita. "At least Hayate told me you do."

"Hey!" Vita pouted as she looked at a giggling Hayate. "Traitor!"

"You're growing so fast these days, Vita-chan." Hayate giggled softly. "If you're not careful, you'll have bigger boobs than Signum soon." Her eyes went blank white for a second as she held up a finger to her cheek. "I wonder if Vita-chan will get taller than Signum?"

"You're just saying things." Vita mumbled as she was shoved into a changing room. "Reinforce?"

"Off with your shirt and bra, Vita." Reinforce pulled out some measuring tape. "We'll need to measure them."

Hayate's fingers started flexing as her eyes got a sparkle to them. "I can measure even better, Reinforce."

"I'm sure you can." Reinforce muttered as Vita, red-faced, did what was asked of her. Standing topless in front of Hayate and Reinforce had her crossing her arms over her small breasts out of embarrassment. "Enough of that." Reinforce pulled the curtain closed. "Drop your arms, Vita. You don't want to hurt yourself if you wear the wrong size."

Reluctantly, Vita did drop her arms and shiver as her chest bounced slightly. "This is embarrassing." She muttered and Reinforce shook her head. "Yes it is!" She yelped as Reinforce put the measuring tape around her chest.

"I'm sure." Reinforce said as she took the measurements down in her head. One of the good things about being a life-like device was that she had a near photographic memory.

It was near because she couldn't recall much from before she became Hayate's device. It was for the better anyway, most of what she could recall was war, violence, death and pain. Pain that she caused others, pain that was caused to her former masters, and pain that the knights had to suffer for in her name. "Not even twelve yet..." She said as she patted the redhead on the back. "I'll be right back." She stepped out, leaving Vita and Hayate alone.

"I kind of miss how I eeek!" Vita stiffened as she felt hands on her breasts, massaging, squeezing and fondling. "H...Hayate..?"

"Mmm... Vita-chan's boobs are soft and squeezy." Hayate nuzzled Vita's back.

Vita's face was red and her body shivered slightly. "Come on, Hayate..." She started panting softly. "That..."

"Shamal's are full and soft, Signum's are big and firm, Reinforce has the right mix of soft and firm... I wonder what Vita-chan's boobs are going to be like when fully grown?" Hayate squeezed Vita's chest a bit more before letting go just as Reinforce came back into the changing room.

Reinforce looked at Hayate, who was grinning, and at Vita, who's face was red, and shook her head. "Hayate, please stop trying to seduce Vita."

"Wh...What makes you think that Hayate...EEEK!" Vita yelped as Reinforce flicked one of her hard nipples. "What was that for?"

"It's not cold in here." Reinforce stated matter-of-factually. "Anyway, try these on, and try not to poke an eye out."

Pouting, but trying on several bras, Vita wondered why some of them felt so loose, even if they fit slightly. When Reinforce mentioned that she didn't want to go bra shopping again in three weeks, it made sense.

_"Reinforce is just teasing you, Vita-chan."_ Vita blinked as Hayate spoke to her mentally. _"She tells me how she's worried that you, Signum, Shamal and Zafira are going to get hurt when you're on a mission."_

_"She's always picking on me though."_ Vita mentally pouted and blinked as Hayate hugged her from behind. _"Hayate?"_

_"She's not mad, Vita-chan... She loves you, Shamal, Signum, Zafira and Zwei... You're her family too, she just... Finds it easier to tease you. She's the same with me. But she doesn't mean anything. Reinforce keeps talking to me and asking me how to be nicer to all of you."_ Hayate smiled as she patted Vita on the back. The redhead was really starting to grow. Hayate was beginning to worry that if she didn't start growing herself soon that Vita was going to be more than a head taller than she was.

"How about we grab some pizza to take home?" Reinforce suggested as the three of them walked to the car, surprising Vita. "I think... I think we should just buy some pizza, rent a good movie and all of us sit in front of the television today."

Vita smiled and nodded. "Yeah." She picked up Hayate, bridal style, much to both Hayate and Reinforce's surprise, and ran for the car. "Come on, Reinforce."

Reinforce smiled softly as she walked towards the car. It was nice seeing Vita so lively after all. Not like that sullen girl who fought in the past and yelled at her for being forced to fight and come home covered in blood.

Closing her eyes, she had a flash to the past and comparing Vita then to the Vita who was smiling and laughing now...

"This is where we were meant to be, with Hayate, here in our new home." She said softly, a warm feeling enveloping her.

* * *

Reinforce: That was heartwarming. What do you mean we're not in the next chapter? ... Okay. Next time, on Blood That Flows - Shine, read it, it's good.  
Lina: Never thought I'd see you again.


	59. Shine 5

Shine 5

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

This chapter is probably going to make you scratch your heads in confusion.

But, to me, it makes a lot of sense.

* * *

"Welcome to the Midoriya Cafe, how can..." Miyuki trailed off as she saw the person who walked into the store. "Um..." She looked the person up and down. "What's with all the pink?" She chuckled nervously as the person looked at her seriously.

"I'm looking for a Lina... Takamachi." He said, shuffling something from under the cloak he was wearing.

"Someone want me?" Lina asked as she walked out, before stopping and staring at the person. "Sirius? What are you doing here?"

"...I need a place to stay." A rather uncomfortable look came to his face as he said that.

Lina blinked and nodded. "Sure... Miyuki, why don't we close up a little early tonight?"

"Sure." Her daughter nodded, glad that they were closing down. It had been a slow night and anything was better than just standing around doing nothing after all.

A few minutes later and Sirius was sitting at one of the tables and looking at Lina curiously. "I see that your son is growing well." She blinked at him in confusion. "You don't know?"

"Well, no, I was going to go in for a sonogram tomorrow..." Lina rubbed her belly and smiled softly. "A boy, huh? How do you know?"

Sirius shrugged at her. "I am a god, after all. Things like this aren't too hard for me to figure out. as for why I am here..." He trailed off. "Remember the spell that you cast to stop Dark Star?"

"How could I forget?" Lina muttered softly as her mind drifted back to that day. "I'm just glad that it stopped Dark Star."

"Yes..." Sirius trailed off. "Sadly, the spell destroyed my universe." Seeing the shocked looks on Lina and Miyuki, he nodded. "It was surprising. When I returned, I found my world going through... What was it called? Ah, yes, the "Big Crunch" as I heard it."

"Isn't that when the universe collapses in on itself?" Miyuki asked, getting a nod from Sirius.

"Yes... When I returned, my world was already suffering from it. In our attempt to stop Dark Star... We destroyed our world."

"I'm sorry..." Lina said softly as she looked at him sympathetically. "He would have destroyed all of the universes. I wish that your universe didn't get destroyed in the process."

"I know. I am not upset at you, not after what I saw." Sirius couldn't believe that everything was the way it was because of that reason, but, it made a lot of sense.

"What did you see?" Miyuki asked and Sirius closed his eyes. "What was it?"

"The Golden Mother." Sirius said, causing Lina's eyes to widen in shock.

*Flash*

"No!" Sirius stared as he saw the universes starting to darken and collapse. "Why? We did everything we could to stop Dark Star! This... How could this..."

**"Your world was doomed to die."** A voice, a beautiful and horrifying voice, spoke up. Spinning around, the Dark Star weapons floating around him, Sirius stared at the form of a little girl, who had a shovel and a long golden hair. **"Regardless if you would have succeeded or not, my children left this universe in such a state that the only thing that can be done is... Reset the whole thing."**

"Who are you?" Sirius asked, before gasping in shock as she looked at him, her eyes open to reveal golden depths that were visible, even from how far away he was.

**"Darkness Beyond Blackest Pitch, Deeper than the Deepest Night. That is how you describe me."**

When she stopped looking at him, Sirius found himself able to move again. "The Lord of Nightmares!" He gasped as she disappeared, only to shudder as he felt her hand on his shoulder from behind. "Tell me something, why? Why allow something like this to happen? Why do the Mazoku and Shinzoku fight?"

**"Curious, aren't you?"** Her voice was both amused and bored, scolding, yet gentle. **"Even if you found out, you couldn't change it. If you were to find out the truth, what would you do?"**

"I don't know. I just want to find out why Lord Vorfeed merged with Dark Star."

**"My children... Naughty to the core. I decided to punish them for their actions. Sadly, this universe had no time left, so, I sent them to another universe."**

"You would let them go on a rampage again?" Sirius asked, shocked that the Lord of Nightmares would allow that, before groaning as he felt his shoulder, both physical and astral, squeezed hard.

**"Of course not... I have sealed them away... Into humans, similar to what Cephied did to Shabranigdo."**

"They'll eventually be reborn..." Sirius said and blinked as she laughed at him. "What?"

**"Unlike Cephied, my seal is a lot stronger. They will not be reborn as Darabringdu and Vorfeed until their punishment is done. For the next few centuries, they shall be reborn, over and over again, into humans, until they learn some humility."** She let go of his shoulder and Sirius resisted the urge to rub it. **"Love is not a reason to destroy everything."**

"Love?" Sirius was shocked, even more so when she started giggling. "What?"

**"Love, yes... The two of them were in love. After centuries of fighting, they did, in fact, fall in love with each other."**

"But, that's not possible... Mazoku can't feel love."

The Lord of Nightmares shook her head and moved to right in front of him, her eyes were closed, thankfully, as she put her forehead against his. **"My poor child... The truth... Do you want to know the truth about Mazoku and Shinzoku?"**

"The truth..?" He blinked as she caressed his face.

**"The four worlds... The pillar... I made them... By complete accident."** His shock was so palatable that she nearly bust out laughing at him. **"When I realized what I had done, I was going to destroy them... But, there were these creatures... Humans... On all the worlds... Something was interesting about them."**

"What..?" If Sirius had been human, he would have found his throat very dry at that moment.

**"A concept... Good and Evil. It was something that I had never even thought about before. As I studied humans, I wondered... If there were forces of Good and Evil in the world given physical form, what would happen?"**

"So, you created the Shinzoku and the Mazoku... Because you were curious?" Sirius couldn't believe it. "Why? All this suffering... Because you were CURIOUS?"

She just smiled softly at him. **"Shocking, isn't it? That the reason that this happened... Is because humans gave me the idea."**

"But then... What... What have we... We just fought for your amusement?"

The Lord of Nightmares shook her head. **"Not at all. I created Shinzoku and Mazoku to influence the worlds, to shape and change the worlds and see which path humans would take. But the four Mazoku and the four Shinzoku I made decided it would be easier to fight each other, than influence the world. Destruction of each other, instead of influencing the world. Mazoku desired destruction instead of destabilization and chaos. Shinzoku desired the Mazoku's destruction, rather than order and protection."**

"We... Were wrong..?" Sirius asked her as she shrugged.

**"While I could tell you, I could see this coming if I wanted to, but then, how would I be surprised by anything?"** She smiled as she floated backwards, her hands trailing over his jaw softly. **"Mazoku and Shinzoku... The reason humans exist between dark and light... Is because humans caused me to create the Flare Dragon, the Night Dragon, the Blue Dragon, the White Dragon, as well as Ruby-Eyes, Dark Star, Chaotic Blue, Death Fog... I made them as the purest essences of Good and Evil in the world."**

Sirius looked as she started to retreat. "Wait! What will happen to this universe? Me? The weapons? Dark Star and Vorfeed?"

**"Curious, aren't you? This universe will be absorbed by this... Big Crunch... And then be reborn. Without Mazoku or Shinzoku to influence it this time around. As for you and those weapons..."** She pointed at him. **"Take them and go to another world. Do what you wish to do, you're free from any obligations to this world now. My naughty children shall live as that. Children, until such a time that they have learned true humility."** She paused and turned back to look at him. **"If you wish to see them as humans, look for two children, a boy and a girl."**

"What do I look for?"

She closed her eyes and smiled softly. **"The source of their magic will be far too dense for any human to have."**

Sirius just stared as she disappeared.

*Flash*

"And that's what happened." Sirius finished recounting the tale.

"That... Is pretty odd..." Lina admitted, before something came to her. "Wait a second... Why come here? Why not the White or Red worlds?"

"Because, having been here, this universe is closer to home than the other ones are." Sirius admitted to her.

"Ah... What about the Dark Star weapons?" Lina asked and she and Miyuki both gasped as Sirius pulled his cloak back and the weapons started floating around him. "I see..."

"Mine!" Miyuki grabbed the sword sheath. Seeing the bemused look of Sirius and Lina, she chuckled. "What? I said that I wanted a magic sword of my own, and this is a sword, right?"

"Sword of Light." Lina shook her head. "If you want to use it, call out "Light Come Forth"..." She frowned slightly. "Just make sure that you train with it, it's quite a bit different than your normal swords."

Miyuki nodded, glad that Lina wasn't stopping her.

"So, why do you want it?"

"The next time an adventure pops up, I want to be able to help out." Miyuki sighed softly. "I hate how you, Nanoha, dad, Fate and Yuuno are out there risking yourselves all the time, I just want to help too."

"Don't get in over your head." Lina sighed and giggled softly. "You don't want your little brother to not have a big older sister when he's born, do you?"

"Of course not." Miyuki nodded and blinked as Sirius handed the weapons to Lina. "What are you..?"

"I would rather that the Dark Star weapons remain in the hands of the one who stopped him." The god said to her. "As for me, I would like to explore... I hope you don't mind me leaving them in your hands."

"Not at all." Lina had a small grin on her face. It wouldn't be too hard to convince people that these were decorative pieces, rather than magical weapons.

Still... Lina wanted to grab them hand have some fun. If she wasn't pregnant, she probably would have hunted down some criminals and... Test them out.

* * *

Meanwhile...

Filia rubbed her arm as the nurse smiled at her softly and left the room, telling her that she could put her shirt back on. "You can see your wife now." The nurse said, getting a flush from Filia and a sputtering from Chrono, who was just outside the room.

"She's not my wife!"

"Oh?" The nurse sounded confused. "I apologize, most men wouldn't bring in a woman when her baby is being born and convince them to see a doctor as well. I guess I was wrong, I'm sorry."

Chrono walked in, twitching. The thought, well, it didn't disgust him, he would admit that, Filia was quite attractive, it was just that he didn't think that he was going to get married anytime soon.

She wasn't even in the same species, he didn't know if anything would or could come of it. In his hands was Val, sleeping soundly and Filia couldn't help but smile as she saw him carrying the little Dragon. "Sorry, guess the nurse was confused." Chrono chuckled nervously as the blonde Dragon just continued to smile at him. "Um..."

"You'll be a good father." Filia said suddenly and Chrono found himself suddenly stiffening and paling, getting a laugh from her in response. Filia had to admit, Lindy was right, teasing a guy about being a good father and they just went stone stiff. "I'm sorry." Filia said as she walked up to him and hugged him gently. "You're good with Val though."

"I wonder if he's alive..." Chrono admitted as the baby Dragon just slept, dead to the world. If it wasn't for his tail twitching, he could be confused for dead.

* * *

"Ah, excellent..." the doctor said as he looked over the reports that his nurse had given him.

"I'm taking a half-day, remember?" She smiled at him and the doctor nodded in remembrance.

"Ah, yes, well, have a good day." He nodded to her as he took another look at the papers and tilted his head in confusion. "Did I order blood work for that woman?" He must have, his signature was on the papers, but he couldn't recall saying that he wanted it done.

(-)

As the nurse got into her car, she patted a metal briefcase before driving off. As she drove, her form changed, her short dark hair becoming long and blonde, her frame toned itself, her eyes went from brown to amber even as her clothes changed from a nurse's outfit into stylish pants and a shirt.

Due might have followed Jail's orders, but that didn't mean that she liked the bodysuit all that much. Not when she wasn't on missions. Now if she could just convince Tre to wear something other than that suit when not on missions... Oh well, if she couldn't get Tre to lighten up somewhat, she would just have to make sure that all her cute little sisters didn't end up like her.

"Darn frowny face..." Due muttered as she stopped the car near a cliff and grabbed the briefcase, and getting out.

"What about my face?" Tre asked as she walked out from behind a rock. She smirked slightly as Due shrieked in shock. "I might not smile that much, Due, but you don't need to point it out all the time."

"Meh, you're just frowning all the time." Due made an exaggerated angry scowl on her face. "One of these days I'm going to tie you down and torture you until you stop frowning."

"You'd have to catch me." Tre shook her head and looked at the car. "So, now what?"

Due rolled her eyes and pulled out a small cylinder from her pocket before throwing it into the car, shattering the glass and causing it to start lighting up. "Pure magnesium."

Tre kicked the car over the edge and the two cyborgs watched as it flipped, end over end, on fire. "How did you get that stuff? I thought you couldn't get it in the hospital."

Due rolled her eyes. "The doctor gave it to me. Now, let's get back, I need to give him this stuff."

Tre looked at it in confusion. "Just what's in there?" She asked as the two walked over to the designated teleportation spot.

Due grinned. "The DNA of a baby Dragon and the DNA of a Dragon that can turn into a human woman. Even that baby Dragon can turn into a human, at least according to her." She then threw her free arm around Tre's shoulders, much to the taller cyborg's shock. "When we get back, you and I are going to take a bath."

"Huh?" Tre blinked as the teleportation energy started to surround them.

"You stink, and I'm sore." Due stuck her tongue out at her before the two disappeared in a flash of light.

* * *

Fate: So, that was the truth of the world? Weird. Huh? Whaddya mean we're going there? Next time, on Blood That Flows - Shine. Read it, or things might explode.  
Nanoha: Zen Ryoku Zen Kai!

Notes, nearly forgot...

Anyway, I always found it weird that Shinzoku/Gods and Mazoku/Demons, despite being superior to humans, need the emotions we give off to survive. Why was that? Why is it that humans exist between light and darkness? So, the answer that came to me was simple...

The reason that humans exist between light and darkness and can draw upon power all the way up to the Lord of Nightmares, is because they existed BEFORE the Shinzoku and Mazoku. It's even shown in Try that there are artifacts from when Shabranigdo and Cephied fought each other 4000+ years ago.


	60. Shine 6

Shine 6

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

I'm not shipping ANYTHING regarding the younger kids, regardless of what you see in this chapter. Chrono's a special case, since he got married in canon, that fact alone allows me to play with him a bit more. Any shipping I'm going to do is just teasing for now.

BTW, how many references can you spot in the chapter?

* * *

It was just after breakfast and Yuuno, Fate and Nanoha all were looking at Lina and Shiro oddly. "You want us to what?" Nanoha asked, making sure that she heard her mother correctly.

"School's out for the winter break." Lina repeated to the children. "And Lindy's been talking to us, you three need some extra training."

"But, six months..?" Fate said confused and Lina shook her head, smiling.

"After a couple weeks, as long as you don't screw up horribly, you'll be allowed back home on weekends." Shiro continued for Lina. "We agree with Lindy on this. You three could use some fine-tuning and refining of your Mid-childa magic. Plus, Yuuno, Lindy said that Mary could craft an Intelligent Device for you if she got a better idea of your magic."

"But, what about my brother?" Nanoha looked at Lina's belly and her mother laughed at her. "What?"

"Family situations such as that allow for you to make an emergency trip home for a few days." Lina smiled softly. "I already talked to Lindy about everything about that. As for your school, Shiro and I have talked to your teachers and, well..." She slid some papers across the table to Fate and Nanoha, who blinked as they read them over. "The official story is that you're going to be living with some relatives of Fate's in Italy for six months and experiencing the culture over there."

"But, I was adopted by you, so..."

"Officially, you'll be living with some cousins that only just found out that you're alive and they want to get to know you and your sister more." Lina smiled at the girl gently. "If you don't want this, we can come up with a different cover story to tell everyone."

Fate shook her head. "No, it's fine... But, can you at least name one of them Linith, please?"

"Sure." Lina smiled softly.

"Hey, mom." Lina blinked as Miyuki walked into the room. "You tell them that I was going with?"

"HAUH?" The kids all gaped at Miyuki, who shrugged.

"Someone has to make sure that Fate's skill with the sword is kept up, if all she's going to do is practice magic..."

"And I told you, there probably won't be time for you to work with her, she's going to be worked hard by trainers." Lina grumbled and wondered how her own parents put up with her being so stubborn. And Miyuki wasn't even her blood daughter, but some days it was hard to tell. Her whole family was stubborn as hell when it came to certain things.

Miyuki shrugged. "Well, I still wanna go."

"I know." Lina grumbled and looked at Shiro, who looked on, amused. "Oh sure, it's easy for you to be amused by the fact that our eldest daughter wants to run off to some alien world just because she has the Sword of Light now."

"I seem to recall a woman with red hair, only slightly older than Miyuki, who wanted to explore the Amazon when we were in Belgum on our honeymoon." Shiro chuckled as Lina's face turned red. "Though, I have to admit, crashing in on the Pope was rather funny." Seeing the kids all look at him funny, Shiro laughed. "Oh, that was fun, though I'm sure that the Swiss army was less than amused."

"We spent three days in prison." Lina chuckled at the memories. "Oh well, at least John Paul was pretty cool about it when he talked to us later." It could have been worse. The old man was pretty tough as well.

"You... Crashed in on the Pope?" Miyuki sat down at the table and grinned. "What else happened on your trip to Europe?"

"Remember the Leprechauns?" Shiro laughed as Lina's face darkened. "I'm sure that they didn't mean anything by it." At least they apologized for what they did later.

"They called me a boy! They're lucky the only thing I broke was their mech." Lina grumbled, but calmed down when she felt her baby kick her. "Then again, the Oompa Loompas were worse."

"Still can't believe that they were all real." Shiro shook his head in amusement. Those were some fun times.

"Oompa Loompas..?" Yuuno said slowly, trying to make sense of what he heard.

"Leprechauns with mechs?" Nanoha continued, though she was more interested in that last bit.

"It was just five pairs of shoes, but then they combined." Lina chuckled softly. "I think I got interested in mecha anime right after seeing that."

"Shoes... that combine?" Miyuki was beginning to wonder if that actually happened. Even if her parents never lied to her, they tended to exaggerate things at times, or at least she thought so.

It sounded too unreal. Then again, magic seemed fairly unreal, but considering that her sisters and mother could use magic and she had a freaking magic laser sword, it might be real.

Lina shook her head. "Anyway, you three will be heading out by the end of the week. As much as I can teach you about magic, Lindy is right, you three could use some fine points on your original style of magic, and I can't teach that to you." She smiled at Yuuno. "Plus this will let you see your family again."

Yuuno smiled at that. It had been a long while. "I do miss them."

"But, why can't we just train here?" Nanoha asked in confusion. "We're doing fine, aren't we?"

"We're not saying that you aren't." Lina shook her head. "But there are things that can only be taught by teachers who can pay more attention to what you're doing and note mistakes. My magic's fine for blowing stuff up and slaying gods, demons and monsters. But what if something comes up and you have to use your magic and you don't want to kill your opponent? I admit, it's a long time, but this way you can get some new spells out of it, and share the spells you know among the Bureau's mages." Lindy had confided that most of the people who heard about this hybrid style almost dismissed it outright, saying that it was too flashy and wasn't for most mages.

It probably wasn't, Lina would admit, one had to have magical talent to use magic after all.

Lina sighed as Miyuki gave her a look that was both stubborn and annoying. "Alright, alright... You can go with, Miyuki..." She held up a hand to stop any cheering. "But, I don't want to hear any complaints from anyone about you causing trouble while you're there and I don't want you to overwork Fate if she wants to practice... If they let you stay, of course, if they want you to leave, you'll come back right away, do you understand?"

Miyuki nodded. The biggest reason she wanted to go was because she wanted to at least be near if another adventure cropped up. And with a magic sword like the Sword of Light, well... At least she wouldn't be a liability if something did happen.

Lina sighed, but smiled as she felt Shiro pull her into a hug. She knew that her kids would be like this, she was no different.

It didn't stop her from worrying about them and hoping that they would be come home in one piece.

* * *

"So, you're going to leaving in the next few days?" Suzuka asked as she, Arisa, Nanoha and Fate sat in Suzuka's room, all of them in pajamas as they sat around, relaxing. After hearing the real reason, the two girls wouldn't let their friends go off to alien boot camp without spending at least one night relaxing with them.

"Yeah..." Nanoha nodded and sighed as she ran her hand through her hair. It was still so short compared to what it had been before getting burned off partially. "Mom and dad are on Lindy-san's side, but you can't tell the school the truth." The girls nodded at her. "So, yeah, we're going to Mid-Childa to learn more magic and get some fine-tuning of our devices."

"Why is Miyuki coming with?" Arisa asked, getting a soft blush from Fate. "What?"

"She thinks that my skill with a sword will decrease if she isn't there helping me out. Plus she has a magic sword and wants to try it out where people won't freak out from seeing it." Fate couldn't see the appeal, herself, being able to use magic had been something she could do ever since she came into the world, she really didn't get why Miyuki would be so excited about having a magic sword herself.

"Yeah, well, good luck..." Arisa nodded, before leering at the two. "So... Going away with Yuuno-kuuuun?" She sing-songed, causing the two girls to look at her oddly, their faces slowly turning red. "Going to be with him, all alooooone?"

"Kya!" Suzuka's face was red as she put her hands on her cheeks. "That's _sooooo_ romantic!" She found a pillow in her face, courtesy of Nanoha.

"It's not like that!" Nanoha was blushing as she shook her head. "We're just going to learn some new magic, that's all."

"Suuuuure... Alone, with Yuuno, for six months?" Arisa really had no idea what people did when alone like that, but the books she had been reading gave her some... Interesting ideas. Plus it wasn't often she got to tease her friends.

One really couldn't blame the girls for acting the way they were. They were starting to get older and boys were starting to catch their interest.

It didn't help that Yuuno was pretty cute, strong, brave and a nice guy.

Fate was trying to look anywhere but at the other girls as she poked her fingers together, her face red with embarrassment. Being alone with Yuuno... wasn't a bad thought, but the little blonde had no idea just _why_ it made her feel funny.

* * *

A few days later...

"Ah, welcome..." Nanoha, Fate, and Yuuno all felt a little out of place among the various older people that were standing around paying attention. It wasn't as if the other people were much older than they were, but it felt weird, considering that most of them were in their teens and the three of them hadn't quite yet made it to puberty. Thankfully none of the older people had made a big deal about them being there at all.

If they thought about the fact that Chrono likely went through this training around their age, then it wouldn't be as surprising, but as it was, they felt out of place.

"As many of you know, you will be training with some of our best instructors soon. Many of you are here to learn the skills you need for the fields you are going into. Some of you are here to refine your skills. But all of you are skilled and powerful. You have the weekend off, but we require that you stay here, get to know others that you'll be training with, explore the grounds for those who want to see where you'll be training. Be back on Monday at 0600, dismissed."

As people started to shuffle around, Yuuno looked at Nanoha and Fate. "So, um, what are we going to do?"

"I wanna go check out the training grounds." It was still early in the day, after all, she didn't see any reason to not go check them out.

Fate shrugged and looked at Yuuno. "You want to go look around as well?"

"Sure." He nodded, before blinking. "Oh, right, I need to meet with Mary today, she was going to discuss some things with me."

"I'll come with you, I need to ask her about that new mode she installed into Bardiche." They waved goodbye to Nanoha and started walking towards the offices.

As she watched them leave, Nanoha turned and wondered how Miyuki was doing, and if she convinced the main office to let her stick around. Shrugging, she walked off, wanting to see the training grounds.

* * *

"You're saying I can stay?" Miyuki wasn't sure she heard the Colonel right.

He nodded, smiling at the girl. "It's not often we allow those without any magical talent to stay and train, but Admiral Lindy put a good word in for you, and, as you said, you can't train with a magic sword on Non-Administered World #97 without taking precautions." He pulled up a computer screen and nodded. "It shouldn't be hard to get you some trainers to work with it."

"I already know how to use a sword, this just has a different handle and feel to it..." Miyuki shut up at the look he gave her. "Sorry."

"Even if you know how to use a sword, like you said, this feels different to you. Don't worry, I've got a few people who are interested in helping you out."

"If it's alright, the real reason I came wasn't just to practice with this thing..." Miyuki held the hilt of the Sword of Light up to him. "It's also to help out my little sister, Fate. She sometimes uses a sword to fight and, well... She's not that good with it." She didn't want to talk badly about her family, but it was pretty obvious that Fate didn't really get how to use her Zambar form very well.

"We'll see, we try to make it a habit of not over-working our trainees." He chuckled. "But, anyway, welcome and enjoy the day, we'll get you a room shortly."

Miyuki nodded and stood up. "Thank you."

The colonel shook his head as he watched her leave. "Well, I hope the instructors are ready for kids that Harlaown recommended..." Idly, he wondered if it would be anything like when Lindy had gone through the training herself.

Those were some wild and fun times after all.

* * *

"Come on, everyone." An older woman looked on at her recruits and shook her head. She had them running laps around the training field. "The sooner you get done, the sooner you get to go eat lunch." It wasn't harsh, it was just motivation.

She turned to look at the slowest person and blinked as she saw a girl in pants, a white shirt and short red hair sitting in a nearby tree giggling softly. "Hmm... You there," she walked over to the tree as the cadet took off running, "what's your name?"

"Ah..." The girl blushed and rubbed the back of her head. "My name's Nanoha Takamachi, and I'm going to be training here on Monday."

"Ah yes..." The woman nodded to her. "I heard about you... The one Lindy found. I just hope you're not like she was." The girl blinked in confusion as the older woman laughed. "Don't worry about it. My name is Mizetto Crowbel." She smiled at Nanoha. "You're here for some refining training, correct?"

Nanoha nodded and blinked as Mizetto pulled out a staff and pointed it at her. "How about a quick match then?"

Nanoha shrugged. "Sure. Raising Heart, set up."

**"Standbye ready."**

Mizetto just smiled at the young girl. "Shall we have some fun then?"

Nanoha nodded and grinned, this could be fun.

* * *

"This place is beautiful." Miyuki muttered as she looked around, before smiling as she saw two familiar blonds heading her way. "Yuuno! Fate!"

"Miyuki." Fate smiled at the older girl. "How did it go?"

"Pretty good." Miyuki nodded, smiling. "I'll be able to stick around and..." Whatever else she would have said was cut off as a rather large pink explosion happened in the distance. "...I think Nanoha got into a fight."

"Oh no..." Yuuno and Fate both groaned, knowing just how bad Nanoha could get with her magic. It was even worse since Lina often times encouraged them to make larger explosions when they trained.

* * *

Mizetto coughed as dust flew into the air. "That was impressive." She said as she floated backwards. Such power so quickly, most people who had large amounts of power, and there weren't that many, had trouble collecting it so fast.

Nanoha smiled up at her. "Thank you."

**"Divine Buster."**

Mizetto raised an eyebrow, that was a strong attack, still... Closing her eyes, she concentrated her magic to the tip of her staff and swung up, smashing into the end of the ball of energy and, with some effort, causing it to arc over her body and smash into some trees, destroying them instantly. "Oh dear, seems that you don't hold back." She held up a hand and squeezed. "I guess I can't either than."

Nanoha tried to move, but found her arms, legs and even body all bound up. "Nnngh! Raising Heart! Excellion Mode! Drive!"

**"Ignition."**

The boost in power was what Nanoha needed as the bonds shattered while a large white beam came right at her. Throwing up her barrier, she blocked it but gasped as she took a shot to her back.

"There is a time and place for blocking, Nanoha." Mizetto said as she watched the girl tumble slightly before pointing her staff up at the old woman. "There are times it's far better to dodge than to block, and parrying is better than dodging, as it puts you in a better position to counter at times." Mizetto found herself bound up by the young girl, who was pointing her staff at her. "Oh my... I shouldn't talk to much against you."

Nanoha smiled at her. "Raising Heart... Divine Flame Buster!" A gout of pure white flame rushed right at the old woman and Nanoha hoped that she wouldn't get burned too badly. She held back most of the power that she normally used for that spell.

Nanoha gaped as the woman disappeared from where she was. The gaping didn't last very long before she was forced to physically block an attack from the older woman as she appeared right in front of her, behind Nanoha's attack. "Nnnah!"

Mizetto shook her head. Using Movement Magic from that position had been risky, she was just lucky that she didn't tear an arm or leg off attempting to do it. Still, it seemed like this girl was a bit wild with her magic and not very good at close-range at all. And Mizetto knew that she couldn't win at long range, not against that level of power. 'I wonder if she's really AAA rank or if she's higher than that.' She thought before following the girl down.

Nanoha shook her head as she got her bearings and yelped slightly as the older woman appeared in front of her, slamming her staff against Raising Heart. The older woman smiled for a moment before Nanoha gasped as the older woman drove a knee into her body, forcing the younger girl back. "Nnagh..."

"For someone so strong, you have several flaws to your style." Mizetto commented as she bound up Nanoha again. "Mid and long range are good for you, but your close-range isn't that good." Not that there was anything wrong with that, there were plenty of people that couldn't fight at close range. "If fighting someone who challenges you to close range, your best bet is to either retreat to a bit of a distance, or use quicker spells to push them away."

"Raising Heart... Assault mode!"

**"Activation."**

Mizetto blinked as the staff broke apart, before wrapping itself around Nanoha's body, the gem coming to a rest on her chest and several "wings" on her back pointed downwards. A visor slipped over her face as a large cannon appeared on her left arm and something, she wasn't sure, appeared on her right arm. "That's an interesting choice."

"Supreme.. Buster!" Nanoha wouldn't use her Chaos mode, but she wanted to prove that she was good, she didn't want to look pathetic, not after all the training that her mother put her through. It just wouldn't be right!

Mizetto flew straight up and stared as the beam twisted and followed her into the air. "Nice." She nodded, knowing that if this went on she was going to lose easily. Especially since the girl was pushing at least high S rank in power right now. As she moved around the beam, she stared as it twisted in the sky and rushed right at her. At the rate this was going, someone was going to end up hurt. Her eyes widened as she caught a glimpse of something metal heading right for her. Turning her head, she saw that the girl had a whip coming from her right arm and was swinging right at her.

Mizetto closed her eyes, she hated to do this but... "Reflect." She whispered as she threw up a barrier to block the attack.

Nanoha grinned, that was what she was waiting for. "Alright, let's..." She trailed off as the beam glanced off the barrer and went straight for her. "Eeek!"

**"Protection Enhanced."**

Nanoha crossed her arms and closed her eyes as her barrier came up and she grunted from the effort of having to block her own attack. She cracked an eye open as the attack was finally abating. "Nnngh..."

"I think we should stop." Mizetto said as she floated over to the girl. "Otherwise one of us is going to get seriously hurt." She patted the confused girl on her shoulder. "You're very good, skilled with your magic and it doesn't take long to use your spells, but it seems like that's all you can do, throw big spells around. I think I see why Lindy wants you to go through this training now."

Nanoha just blinked owlishly as the older woman just smiled at her. "So... I did good?"

"Very good." She nodded at Nanoha and looked around, grimacing slightly. "Though, from now on, you shouldn't use that armor of yours in training."

"Nyahahahaha..." Nanoha giggled nervously.

* * *

Fate: What the heck were you thinking? Next time on Blood That Flows - Shine. I'm very upset at you, Nanoha.  
?: No, I am not going to do that for you, so stop asking.

Notes: Before anyone complains about the girls seemingly liking Yuuno too much, remember, they're kids, they're growing up and things are happening to them that they react to without fully understanding. So, if they end up liking him more than a friend, that'll happen on its own time. Heck, when I was their age, I was noticing girls, so, it's not like it's unnatural.


	61. Shine 7

Shine 7

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

* * *

"Nanoha!" Fate gasped as she saw the destruction and then narrowed her eyes at the suddenly nervous redhead, who was back in her civilian outfit. "Just what happened? Mom said not to destroy stuff unless we're training or under attack. There better have been a robbery or something."

"Uh, no, I was just sparring..." Nanoha chuckled as Yuuno and Fate both groaned while Miyuki shook her head in amusement. "Really, I kept it simple... Kind of..."

**"You went Assault Mode on an old lady."**

"You traitor!" Nanoha looked at Raising Heart, her eyes white and blank as she started to sweat from the aura of doom coming from Fate at that moment. "Um... Fate-chan... It's not... As bad..."

"Nanoha... I am... Not happy right now." Fate's eyes were covered by her bangs as lightning started to crackle around her hands.

"Enough of that." Mizetto spoke up, smiling at the young blonde. "I asked Nanoha to spar. If I had known about her other armor modes, I would have made sure to set limits to what she could use." Mizetto chuckled at the group and turned to see a couple young cadets just staring at what they had seen. "If you two have time to gawk, then I suppose another ten laps around the grounds will be good for you. And then you can spend the weekend fixing the damage, by yourself with no tools." She smiled as they turned and ran. "You need to be strict with recruits sometimes. Excuse me, it's time for lunch." She nodded and walked off.

"Seriously, Assault Mode?" Yuuno gave Nanoha a dumb-founded look as the girl felt rather small in front of the three of them. "Nanoha! Come on! That's for fighting beings like Mazoku and Dragons, using it on someone who's human? What were you thinking?"

"I... Wanted to impress her?" Nanoha said meekly as she dug her shoe into the ground slightly as the other three groaned at her.

"So... Did you win or lose?" Miyuki asked and Nanoha started to really sweat.

"I... I'm not sure." She yelped at the look Miyuki gave her. "I think I could have won, but we stopped before then and..." Nanoha gulped as Miyuki jumped her and put her into a headlock.

"Dummy! You know what mom says about this! If you're going to use all your power, you better make sure you win!" Miyuki pulled on the headlock tightly, causing her younger sister to swing her arms up and down comically.

Seeing how things turned out, Fate just felt like rubbing her temples and idly wondered who was going to be the voice of reason this time around.

Still, seeing the small smile on Miyuki and Nanoha's faces... It reminded her why being silly wasn't a bad thing and sometimes just being childish was good.

* * *

Meanwhile, back on Earth...

Xellos twitched as he sat on the back of an Elephant. The people of this continent were so... _Grateful_ for everything he had been doing lately. First that local Warlord decided to try and mess with him, then he found a diamond mine and thought it would be hilarious to make the diamonds disappear and replace it with something completely worthless. Oh, it had been funny, until he found himself surrounded, again. This time, he just let his body become incorporeal and let the projectiles go right through him and hit each other. It was interesting, these projectiles, none of them had magic, and they were all small, yet incredibly lethal.

To humans at least. He was another matter.

Leaving that place, he felt rather amused by the conflicting emotions he felt. He went back only last week and discovered that they were STILL mining that mine. Apparently transmuting diamonds into coal wasn't the worst thing ever, since people of this world _used_ coal for fuel and other things.

Out of sheer frustration, he blasted a port town on the Eastern side of the continent, just to feel better.

Less than an hour later, foreigners showed up and told him that he was a wonderful person for destroying the local pirate gang.

"What is up with this world?" He asked no one in particular.

Still, it wasn't as bad as what he did the other day...

Tears started to fall down his face and he started whining. "And I thought I did a good job too... I killed bunnies! Humans LOVE bunnies! I erased an entire continent's worth of rabbits!"

And the people were THANKING him for doing that!

"This world is *SO* messed up!" Xellos felt like banging his head on his staff, and wondered why the people of that continent had warned him about Dingos eating his babies.

"I swear, if I do one more good deed, I'm going to need to kill a couple dozen puppies just to feel better about myself." He grumbled before disappearing and heading North. Maybe the negative emotions he was feeling from up there would make him feel better.

* * *

Dolphin sighed as she sat on a throne made of ice and looked at the map she had in her hands. "Didn't that rabbit say to make a left turn at Albuquerque?" She had, but now she was on some sort of continent with no people, no chocolate and nothing... But some weird bird-like things that squawked at each other. She sighed and folded the map and looked at the birds. "So, why can't you fly?"

"Quark!"

"I see... Must be tough."

"Quark."

Dolphin nodded and leaned back. "Well, at least you don't have to worry about much down here, huh?"

"Quark!"

"Huh, I guess you could freeze to death. Dynast was the one who liked it cold, I prefer the ocean myself."

"Quark!"

"...No, I am not making myself naked just to go sliding down the snow on my ass." Dolphin sat up and glared at the bird. "Just what are you?"

"Quark!"

"...A penguin that was once a dirty old man and you think I'm pretty?"

"Quark!"

"...That's probably the nicest thing anyone's ever said about a demon lord." Dolphin shrugged and picked up the penguin and hugged it to her. "...You weren't kidding... Stop nuzzling my breasts."

"Quark."

"...Fine.. But I can't turn you back into a human, you know."

"Quark!"

Dolphin was about to say something when she saw a whale pop out of the ocean. "Whee!" She threw the poor penguin into a far mountain and ran for the whale. "Hey! Wait up!" She frowned as it let out a whine. "Well, yes, it is unusual for me to not wear heavy stuff, but I don't have a real body." She tilted her head. "Well, it's easier to say that I just like this form." She blinked and grinned. "What's that? You want to get revenge on some mean people? Sure, why not?" She had no reason to help the whale.

Yet, she had no reason not to help the whale. And the sea WAS her domain after all.

* * *

"Arrr..." An old man wearing a gray hat and a gray suit grinned as he looked out at the ocean. "Tis a good day fer huntin..."

"White whale off the port bow, captain!"

"Good!" He grinned and signaled to his men. "Get the harpoons ready!"

"Sounds like it could hurt." A woman's voice spoke up and the captain turned to look and gaped as he saw a woman, who had curves in just the right places, long, flowing black hair with two ornaments on the top of her head and eyes that were deep in color and seemed to be expressive and playful. "You probably shouldn't be using harpoons in the ocean." She turned to look out at the waters. "To taint the ocean with the blood of such an animal..."

"Lady, you have no idea who yer talkin' to!" The man stood to his full height. "We be huntin' the white whale for what he did to me years ago."

"That's funny, the whale told me that you killed his mother and he was upset." The woman looked at him, her eyes narrow. "So... Tell me, just why do you hunt whales?"

"They've got good stuff that people want." The captain frowned at her. "You're one of those thar... Animal lovers?"

"Not at all, but I don't really like it when people poach in my seas for no good reason." The captain could have sworn the the air itself was starting to freeze. "Then again, these aren't my seas, but I still rule the water."

The captain's eyes widened and he turned to see his men crying out, some of them falling over and shattering into pieces, others having ice jutting out from their eyes and body parts. "What are you?" He spun as she started to laugh and disappear, only to for her to reappear, but in a different form.

She was HUGE! If he was to recount this tale later, the best he could say was that it was some sort of large lizard that stood on its back legs as its front legs were octopus tentacles and the wings, the beautiful technicolor wings on its back had a shine that was both mesmerizing and terrifying.

Terrifying because a moment later, light beams came from them that tore the metal ship apart.

"Ahhh!" The captain ran from such a horrifying monstrosity. If he was one to watch movies, he would probably say that the creature was a mix of Godzilla, Mothra and a Kraken.

The poor captain, the crew and the ship lasted only as long as it took to freeze the water around the boat completely, keeping it from moving.

As the ship sank to the bottom of the ocean, completely frozen in ice, Dolphin shifted back into her human form and looked at the whales that came up to her. "Hmm... Do any of you know where I can find chocolate?" She sighed as they just whined in confusion. "Figures, alright... Hmm... I think I'll just leave then."

"Quark!"

"No, I am not going to show you my breasts." The Mazoku turned to look at the Penguin.

"Quark."

"...Well, that's nice, but..."

"Quark."

"No, I am not going to show off my goods, now good day!" She turned and disappeared into thin air, leaving a disappointed Penguin alone again.

"Quuuaarrrkkk..."

* * *

Reinforce: That was distracting. Yes, Lindy? I see. Next time on Blood That Flows - Shine, read it, or I'll tell Vita that you ate all her ice cream.  
Vita: What the heck are THESE things?


	62. Shine 8

Shine 8

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

* * *

Days later...

Reinforce sighed as she sank into the bath waters. It was always so nice to take a bath in the morning before the others woke up. Well, most of the others, she mentally amended as Hayate slid right up next to her and practically buried her face into the silver-haired device's chest. "Must you do this every morning?" She asked without heat in her voice. She had long gotten used to the way that Hayate liked to use her breasts as pillows.

Not to mention the way that she liked to squeeze when she could.

"You're comfy."

"You use my chest as your pillows every night, Hayate." Reinforce rolled her eyes, but rubbed the girl's back.

"Mmm... Reinforce's boobs are nice." Hayate rubbed her face into the device's bare breasts, getting a sigh from Reinforce. "Can't I enjoy what I like?"

"Yes, you can, but it does get a little tiring." Hayate gave Reinforce a hurt look and the taller device sighed. "You can keep doing it then..."

"You don't like it?" Hayate looked hurt and confused and Reinforce shook her head.

"It's not that, Hayate... Breasts are very sensitive to touch, and touching them too much can... Overstimulate them." Reinforce explained to the girl. "It feels nice, but there's a reason I want you to stop." When Hayate just blinked for a few moments, before her face turned a deep shade of scarlet. "...I see you have some idea..."

"Lindy-san, uh, explained things." Hayate buried her face into Reinforce's chest to hide her embarrassment. "I'm sorry." She got out softly and Reinforce just shook her head.

"No, it's okay, you can grab, but just don't squeeze for too long." Reinforce smiled softly as Hayate nodded against her body.

(-)

Later...

Vita rubbed her eyes as she walked into the kitchen.

"Morning, Vita-chan." Hayate, dressed in pants and a sweater smiled as she moved around the kitchen, helping Reinforce, who was wearing pants that seemed molded to her body, showing off her rear-end and a white short-sleeved shirt that hugged her body in just the right places. One couldn't go wrong with looking good at any time, even first thing in the morning. The two of them were just about done getting breakfast ready for the household.

"mmnng..." Vita mumbled and went to the table to sit down, her shirt moving in rather interesting ways as the redhead scratched her head.

"At least she remembered to put a shirt on before coming out here this time." Reinforce muttered, remembering a few days ago when Vita had walked out in just her panties and nothing else. Thankfully Reinforce managed to get her into a robe before Hayate saw her. However, Reinforce understood just where Vita was coming from. Sometimes it was uncomfortable to wear shirts, or any clothes for that matter, when one slept.

Heck, Reinforce slept in only a pair of panties most nights because she didn't like how her clothes got tangled up around her if she rolled over at all. Plus there was the fact that Hayate liked to squeeze and snuggle Reinforce's breasts in her sleep, a shirt would only make things... Difficult for both of them.

"Good morning, mommy, daddy, sis." Zwei floated into the room wearing her tiny pajamas, followed by Signum and Shamal, both wearing robes as they took their places around the table. On the floor, Zafira looked up as Hayate brought him food while Reinforce took the rest of the breakfast to the table.

"Morning, Zwei, Signum, Shamal." Reinforce smiled pleasantly as she and Hayate sat down and the family went to eating. "Sleep well?"

Zwei nodded. "Yep yep! I had a dream of this pool! Lots of chocolate pudding and we were all swimming in it, even Zaffy, but Zaffy wasn't a wolf and it was lots of fun, can I have pudding today?"

"Perhaps later." Reinforce nodded at her before blinking as a knock came to the door. "Excuse me."

"I can get it." Hayate stood up, smiling at Reinforce and moving towards the door. Her legs were better now, sure, she couldn't run very fast and her stamina wasn't that great, but being able to walk around the house at normal speeds, it was something that she never got tired of. "Chrono-kun?" She blinked as she opened the door. "Lindy-san?"

"Hayate..." Lindy smiled at the young girl. "I hope I'm not interrupting anything."

"We were going to have breakfast."

Lindy nodded and smiled at her. "Well, when you're done, we need to talk to you and your family."

Hayate just blinked in confusion.

(-)

Later...

After getting everyone changed, washed up and into the living room, Lindy turned on a screen, revealing a rather wide open area with mountains in the background and several hills.

"Nice, but, what's with this place?" Vita asked and Lindy smiled at her and nodded to Chrono.

"There have been reports," Chrono began, "that there's some dangerous Lost Logia on this Non Administered planet. However, our readings have been pretty inconclusive. So, we need some reconnaissance done to see if there is any signs of Lost Logia or not. You were the first people that came to my mind when I was told that I needed a team for this."

"Hmm..." Signum looked at it. "Any sign of hostiles?"

"None, but there's no sign of friendlies either. This is just an information gathering mission. They're generally pretty safe." He looked at Hayate and Zwei pointedly. "It would be a good way to get you into working active missions."

Hayate nodded and smiled softly. "Well, I have been wanting to go with my family on missions."

"Pack some clothes, it might take awhile." Lindy said as she stood up. "We'll be back in an hour."

(-)

Later, on board the Arthra...

Chrono sighed softly as the ship was nearing the end of the jump. He was mostly aware of what was going on. Mostly. He was partially worried about leaving Filia alone with Val, but then again, he always seemed to get worried for her when she was left alone.

Oh well, this wouldn't be too hard of a mission at least.

Looking back at Chrono, Amy let out a soft sigh and shook her head. They were on a mission, she could worry about Chrono when he was on the field and after the mission was over. She did have her own reasons for being worried about him, but that was neither here nor now.

A few moments later, Amy turned back to Lindy. "Captain, we've arrived."

Lindy nodded at her, before turning around to view Hayate and her family. "We've arrived, as you know. I want to remind you that this is just for information gathering purposes. If there was a dangerous Lost Logia down there and something happened however..."

"We would be more equipped to handle it than the average Bureau mage." Signum spoke up, getting an uncomfortable nod from Lindy. "Don't worry, we all know that we would be forced to undertake rather dangerous missions at times."

"I didn't want to sound heartless." Lindy shook her head. "Anyway, from what we can tell, there's some under-ground portions around here. We've discovered four separate doors that seem to lead down."

"Unfortunately, our scans can't go too deeply." Chrono took over as he looked at them.

"So, what? Split into pairs and each one take a door?" Vita asked and grumbled as Chrono nodded. "So, who's with who? One of us would have go alone if we all went."

"I'm going with, so there would be four pairs." Chrono pointed at the screen. "Now then, we need to decide who will be paired with who. It might be a good idea to make sure that a more offensive person has someone who's better at defensive support, just in case something happens."

Reinforce looked at Hayate with concern in her eyes. _"I can fight well enough without being Unisoned with you, Hayate, but neither of us are at full ability unless we're together."_

Hayate nodded and looked at her family. "Well, Reinforce and I are strong on our own, but we're strongest if together, but that wouldn't make it very fair to anyone else..."

"Anyone who went with you or Reinforce would be well protected." Signum spoke up softly. "Shamal and I work well together."

Zafira cleared his throat. "If Hayate and Reinforce work best together, it would be rather stupid to have them be split apart."

"I wanna go with sis!" Zwei suddenly glomped onto Vita's chest, nuzzling herself as close as possible.

Vita's face flushed even as the other chuckled softly.

"Actually, Zafira..." Reinforce spoke to the wolf. "I think I would feel better if Hayate was with you this time. I know that I can trust you to make sure that she would be kept safe in case something happened down there, and if we are in enclosed spaces, flight isn't the best option."

"Aww... Mommy and daddy aren't together?" Rein pouted as she sat on Vita's chest, crossing her arms.

"Um, kiddo..." Vita muttered softly. "Can you not sit so hard?"

"Sorry!" Rein got off of Vita's chest and floated towards her sister's shoulder.

Hayate looked at Reinforce and gave her a curious look. _"Are you sure?"_

_"Yes. If there is something bad down there, I trust Zafira to make sure you are safe."_

_"Okay."_ Hayate nodded at Reinforce. "I guess I am going with you, Zafira." The wolf nodded at her while Chrono looked at Reinforce and shrugged. He didn't mind anyone in this family, they were nice enough.

(-)

A little later...

Vita looked at Rein as the smaller girl floated in front of her. "Hey, Rein..."

"Yes?" The young girl looked at her in confusion. "What is it, sis?"

"How come you call me "sis" and not Shamal or Signum?" Not that Vita complained about it, but it was something that she was curious about.

"Because Vita is sis. Signum and Shamal are Signum and Shamal, just like Zaffy is Zaffy and mommy and daddy are mommy and daddy..." Rein felt like trying to dig her foot into the ground, even though she was in mid-air. "They're family too, but..." Rein glomped onto Vita's chest, trying to hug her again. "You're my sister..."

Vita smiled softly and patted Zwei's back. "Thank you, sister." After a moment, she pulled Zwei away from her. "Come on, let's make sure that there's nothing down here."

Zwei had a serious look on her face as she nodded. "Right."

"You know, while we're down here, I can teach you some magic that you probably don't know." Vita smiled as Zwei squealed in delight and zipped along.

(-)

Hayate looked at Zafira as she rode on his back. "You don't need to..."

"I told you before, I would rather you save your strength in case we need your magic." Zafira spoke up. "If something happened to you because you were too tired to move or use magic, I would never forgive myself." Neither would the rest of the family, he was certain.

Hayate smiled softly and hugged him. "We're family, Zafira... No matter what happens, we'll always be there for each other. You, Shamal, Signum, Vita, Zwei, Reinforce... I made a promise that I would look after all of you, because you're all my family, and I love all of you so much."

Zafira said nothing, he didn't think he could say anything to that, as he walked down into the underground. It was words and gestures like that that reminded him why he fought so hard for her when they were gathering Linker Cores, and why he wouldn't let her get hurt now.

Not now, not ever.

He would rather die than let her get hurt.

(-)

"Hey, Signum..."

"Hm?" The pinkette turned to her friend. "What?"

"I'm glad that Hayate and Zwei are with us..." Shamal smiled softly. "It was getting hard to leave them at home all the time."

Signum nodded at her. "Hayate can finally walk normally and Zwei has no experience, it's only natural that we would leave them home until Hayate recovered fully."

"I've been wondering something though." Shamal had a thoughtful look on her face. "Just what... What _are_ we to Hayate-chan and Zwei?"

Signum shrugged. "Cousins, perhaps? It does not matter to me. You are all my family." And that, right there, meant more than anything else to her.

Shamal patted Signum on the shoulder and smiled. "I know, Hayate-chan is our family, we are hers."

'And no one can take her from us, never again.' Was the thought shared by the both of them, Vita, Zafira and Reinforce every time they went on a mission.

(-)

"Reinforce?" Chrono asked as they turned a corner. There was no time limit and they had opted to make sure that everything was secure, not flying unless needed. "Can I ask you a question?"

"What?" The tall device asked as she scanned the hallway for any threat. So far, there was nothing, but one never could be certain.

"You like Hayate, right?" Reinforce missed a step as Chrono spoke. "I mean, you want to make her happy and everything, right?"

"If you are asking about relationship advice, forget it. My feelings for Hayate are strictly that, feelings for Hayate. I cannot help you with your own problems concerning Linette and Ul Copt." When he sighed, she awkwardly patted him on the back. "For me, it is simple, I want Hayate when she gets older to see me as more than a simple partner. We are partners in that I am her device and she is my master. I want more than just that, thanks to the way Zwei looks at us as her parents. I cannot tell you how to resolve your own problems."

Chrono shook his head and cleared his throat. "Thanks, but... It wasn't that... I... I'm just wondering how things are different with her."

Reinforce blinked and thought about it for a little while. "If I were to put it into words... I think I could describe it as a light feeling enveloping me everytime she is nearby... And I never want that feeling to disappear." Her face was slightly flushed as she turned and continued to walk down the hallway. "However you feel about Linette and Ul Copt is your own business. If I might make a suggestion however..."

"Huh?" Chrono felt like gulping when she turned back to look at him with an amused look on her face.

"Find some romance manga and novels to read. They'll show you what not to do at the very least." Of course, Reinforce found most of that stuff to be blown out of proportion, especially the way that the female protagonists tended to react. If anyone had those levels of strength, they would likely kill the person by accident.

(-)

On Earth...

Suzuka sneezed so hard that she kicked her feet up, sending the table she was sitting at straight into the ceiling.

Arisa looked up at the ceiling as the table went up, then crashed back down in front of them, then at her friend and raised an eyebrow. "Your strength get away from you again?"

Suzuka giggled nervously as others around them at the cafe looked on nervously.

* * *

Vita: Well well, looks like we finally have a mission together now, huh? Let's find out what secrets are down here. Rein, are you okay? Next time, on Blood That Flows - Shine. Read it, or I'll break stuff!  
Rein: Vita... VITA!


	63. Shine 9

Shine 9

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

I believe this is the chapter that many of you were waiting on.

* * *

Zafira was the first to notice something was wrong, it didn't take long for Hayate to figure it out herself. After all, when metallic spider-like creatures with a single eye started popping out of the walls and surrounding them, it was pretty easy to figure out that something was wrong. When a door slid down, blocking their access out, it became pretty clear that something was going on.

Suddenly, the creatures made a loud noise and jumped at Zafira and Hayate, only to find clear blue-white spikes crashing through the walls and floors, piercing a majority of them.

"This isn't good." Zafira muttered as his Steel Yolk spell dissipated.

Hayate nodded and took a breath. "I can get off, Zafira." She tried to slide off of his body, but the stubborn wolf shifted with her. "Zafira!"

"I can fight just fine, even with you on my back, Hayate. You aren't that heavy." Heck, for some reason, he could recall a time that he had to carry Shamal, Signum and Vita on his back at the same time and still had to fight. Hayate's weight was negligible in comparison.

Before Hayate could say anything, both felt a soft pulse fill the room and the metal creatures started to pull themselves together. "We should move." Zafira muttered and took off down the hallway. He could stay and fight them as long as he needed to, but things like this never ended well.

Hayate frowned as she looked behind her as the metallic creatures suddenly screeched and raced towards them. "Zafira, keep moving, I'm going to stop them." She spun around and called out her staff, before chanting softly. A ring appeared in front of her, forming a ball of energy in the process. "Scatter Burst." She whispered as the ball scattered into small balls of light and arced straight for each one of the metal creatures, smashing through them before changing direction and smashing into others, leaving the hallway behind them a mess of scrap and smoke.

"Impressive." Zafira muttered as he glanced a look back.

Hayate giggled at that. "Not really. I just made a bunch of loose magic come together then shot it off in parts. Reinforce has been helping me use smaller bits of magic." She still had trouble with it, but Reinforce did have a point, big spells were good for only two things, destroying large amounts of enemies in wide open spaces and terrifying people. They had other uses, but Hayate remembered a conversation a couple of weeks ago.

***Flash***

"Using large spells, Hayate, aren't good for enclosed spaces, because the destructive yield of spells like the Hræsvelgr and Diabolic Emission are incredible and could cause you harm when in areas such as buildings." The less said about the Nemesis Breaker, the better.

"So, I need to use smaller spells?" Hayate blinked as Reinforce nodded at her. "But, I'm not good with smaller spells very well."

"I know, that's my fault. However, you can use the Bloody Dagger, correct?" Hayate nodded and Reinforce smiled softly. "Then, what I'm going to teach you is simple. Just gather magic in front of you, into a ball, then will small pieces of it to go flying at the targets."

Hayate nodded and focused, a ring appeared in front of her as magic gathered in it. She gasped as she fired a small bolt of magic across the field and into the far target. It wasn't a perfect bulls-eye, in fact, it barely hit the target, but it was still better than her last fourteen tries, three of which accidentally destroyed two skyscrapers and a US Aircraft Carrier.

Both Hayate and Reinforce were glad that their barriers kept the destruction out of phase, otherwise it would be a pain to explain to everyone what happened.

***Flash***

"I'm still not good at it." Hayate admitted to Zafira. "I can only give general directions to them, Nanoha-chan can control her Axel Shooter precisely, right?"

"You aren't Nanoha, you are Hayate Yagami." Zafira said as he turned a corner. "Just be the best you can be with your own magic, that's all we ask." He suddenly stopped and Hayate was flung forward, the back of her head meeting Zafira's.

"Oww! Zafira! Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, but we have another problem." Hayate turned to look and gasped as several larger metal creatures, these ones looking like giant preying mantises, appeared in front of them. "Hang on tight, there's an open room behind them, if I can get past them, we'll both have room to fly."

Hayate nodded as Zafira growled and barriers appeared around him. He blinked as several nearly clear swords suddenly materialized around him, one at each shoulder and four around his head, all pointing at the creatures. "Hayate?"

"I'm not letting you fight this alone, Zafira, we're a family, we fight together!"

Zafira smiled and rushed forward, a blue blur trailing behind him as his barriers and the swords that Hayate's had created smashed into and through the creatures, knocking them over. Once inside, Hayate jumped off of Zafira's back and the wolf in question shifted to his human form as the creatures, looking no worse for wear, suddenly burst in. "Hayate."

"I see them." Hayate gulped as the small creatures started coming through holes in the walls. "What are they?"

"No clue." Zafira's eyes widened as the small ones all started to fire laser beams at them. They weren't enough to pierce his barriers, but there was enough that he couldn't do much while he was blocking.

"Scatter Burst." Hayate got in front of him as she let her attack fly in all directions in front of her. The small metal creatures were destroyed, but the larger creatures easily withstood the attack. Hayate shrieked as the creatures suddenly _moved_, bouncing off the walls in a blur and smashing into Zafira's shields.

"I can't attack them like this." Zafira muttered, though that didn't stop him from kicking one that was cutting through his barrier. "What the heck?"

"Keep the barrier up then, Zafira." Hayate muttered and closed her eyes as a triangle appeared under her. "I can keep this small enough..."

Zafira looked up and his eyes widened at the black ball that was appearing overhead. His arms wrapped around Hayate and held her close as he held his barrier as hard as he could. He nearly dropped it when Hayate mumbled out two words that had him stiffen in slight terror.

"I hope." She looked up and snapped her staff down. "Diabolic Emission!"

The shock wave, pressure and magic expanded, engulfing the two of them, as well as the machines, shattering their frames and sending their broken remains crashing to the ground below.

When it was over, Zafira let go of Hayate. "Well, there's one thing that's certain, there has to be something here worth defending if these creatures are attacking us."

"Technically, we attacked first." Hayate pointed out and Zafira sweat-dropped at the truth of her words.

(-)

Vita frowned as she knocked her iron balls through several of the creatures. At least they were small and mostly looked like insects, except for the eye on thier head that was. "I wonder, we should.." She trailed off as the creatures started to pull themselves together. "Rein! We have to go!" The small device nodded as she threw blue-colored daggers at the reforming creatures, either splitting them further, or exploding and freezing them. "Nice."

"Mommy helped me make Icy Daggers." Rein said as she and Vita raced through the hallways. The spell was basically her mother's Bloody Dagger, but blue, but it was mixed with an ice spell that made it even worse than normal. It could chill to the touch as it cut into an enemy, or explode and encase them in ice.

Zwei was rather proud of it. It was one of her first spells after all.

Vita and Zwei stopped as several large round objects rolled towards them, before stopping and suddenly shifting and becoming more human like. "Hey! Who ordered the Transformers?" Vita grumbled and rushed them. Her eyes widened as they seemed to react in an instant, cannons forming from their hands as they fired balls of energy at her, forcing her to block and be driven back. Grunting, Vita cursed the fact that there was no room to dodge, before her eyes widened as she heard Rein gasp "Rein!" She turned her head and saw the small device looking around in a trance. "Rein?"

"Can't you hear it, sis?" Zwei said softly, almost as if she wasn't there. "That voice... So beautiful... Wants..." Her hair started to waver around her. "To destroy... You... War... End of all."

"REIN!" Vita dropped her shield and rushed back to grab Rein, gasping as the shots exploded against her back. Ignoring that, she gave Rein a gentle shake. "Come on, Rein... Snap out of it."

The small device shook her head and her eyes gained a clarity that had Vita sighing in relief, only to let out a scream as a powerful beam struck her in the lower back, sending her crashing into the wall.

"VITA!" Rein gasped as she saw smoke coming from behind Vita. Looking down, she gasped as she saw some blood. "You're hurt."

"I'll live." Vita muttered and turned around to put up a barrier. Zwei gasped as she saw the back of Vita's dress was burned horribly, leaving her backside completely exposed. The redhead's back was bleeding from several open wounds that were caused by the hits. "What are these things?"

Zwei gripped her fist in anger. It was all her fault. If she just hadn't gotten distracted, then Vita wouldn't have gotten hurt. Looking at her sister, she paled at the effort Vita was putting into blocking the shots. She chanced a glance at the larger metal creatures and paled as one, completely white in color, where the others were either black or orange, a touch larger than the rest with a large cannon on its right arm. The assault didn't stop, but Rein could feel the power being built up in the large cannon and knew that Vita wouldn't be able to stop the attack. "VITA!" She touched her sister.

At that moment, a powerful blast from the big metal creature was fired, smashing into and through the shields in an instant and causing an explosion that covered the air in black smoke for several moments.

During that time, the creatures stopped firing to see what happened.

A moment later, the smoke cleared as Vita rushed down, Graf Eisen in its large form, and smashed into the large machine that had the big cannon. "Let's go, Rein!" She said to no one as her newly repaired white outfit fluttered in the air as she looked at the creatures she started slamming into with her bright blue eyes. Twisting out of the way of a metal strike at her, she watched as several orange hairs were cut free from her scalp. "JERK!" She slammed through more of the metal creatures, quickly reducing them to scrap.

Panting, Vita turned, only to gasp in surprise as the first one she smashed into grabbed her in its hands and started squeezing. "NNNGH! HEY!" She yelped as she felt the metal fingers crushing her rather sensitive chest. "You... JERK!" She screamed and flexed her body, smashing out of the hand with ease before slamming Graf Eisen onto the head of the creature and smashing him into the wall, she then slammed it down on his giant cannon, shattering it.

Vita grumbled and turned to fly further in. It wasn't possible to head back at that moment, and she wanted to make sure that the others were okay. For some reason, telepathy just wasn't working.

"Are you okay, sis?" Rein's voice asked from inside her head and Vita couldn't help but smile softly.

"Yeah, I'm okay..." She rubbed her still developing chest and grumbled. "Can't believe I miss the days when I was flat-chested." At least her chest wouldn't be hurting right now.

"I'm sorry... It's my fault, I got distracted and..."

"Hey... We're family." Vita said as she turned a corner. "If I blamed you for what happened, I'd be no better than when I was just a program in the past."

"Huh?" Zwei's voice was confused and Vita smiled sadly.

"I was a brat, I always yelled at Reinforce and Signum and snapped at them, threw tantrums whenever we weren't fighting..." She remembered one time she almost attacked Shamal after a rather bad mission. "Anyway, you got distracted, learn from it and don't let it happen again." At least her outfit was fixed and the bleeding had stopped with the Unison.

"Right!" Rein's voice was determined and Vita couldn't help but smile.

* * *

Vita: Oww, back hurts, fine, I'm okay! Seriously! Time to get to the bottom of this! Next time on Blood That Flows - Shine! Read it, or I'll fix the broken robot and send it after you!  
Signum: Never let your guard down.


	64. Shine 10

Shine 10

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

* * *

Reinforce seemed to move in a daze and Chrono was cursing the fact that she was too distracted to help him out. "Reinforce!" Rushing towards her, he smacked her on the head with S2U, causing her to blink and rub her head. "Sorry, but what's wrong?"

"There's... Something... Calling to me." Her eyes widened and she paled. "Zwei."

"I'm sure she's fine." Chrono said and yelped as his shoulder was struck by a thin laser beam. "We have other things to worry about right now." Groaning, Chrono grabbed his shoulder and paled slightly as he felt a warm and wet liquid starting to pool out of it.

Reinforce spun and blasted a black beam at small creatures. Grabbing Chrono, she raced down the hallway. While doing so, she put a hand to his shoulder and started chanting. "Sadly, my ability with healing spells is minor, but this should limit the blood loss."

He nodded, though his eyes widened as the ceiling seemed to crumble apart, before forming hands and trying to grab at them. "Move!"

"I see them." She said and spun around so she was flying on her back, and holding Chrono tight as her healing spell continued to work. Using her free hand, she fired several black beams, cracking the hands and destroying them. "Photon Lancer, Genocide Shift." She muttered, several golden lances appearing in mid-air and launching at the hands, piercing them before exploding. Rolling over, Reinforce picked up speed and raced through the hallways. "How is your shoulder?"

"Better." Chrono admitted as he got free from her grip and flew after her. "Where are we going?"

"There's still a voice calling me. It wants... Everything... Nothing... Destruction... End." Reinforce shook her head, feeling dizzy. "You can't hear it?"

"No, I can't." Chrono said as they entered near the top of a very large room.

Actually, very large was a misnomer for the sheer SIZE of the room. There was almost nothing there, a giant dome sphere. Heck, Chrono estimated that they could probably fit at least eight ships the size of the Arthra each in the room and still have enough room to move around. Near the middle was a giant tube that led straight down.

"Reinforce!" She looked to the side and sighed in relief as she saw Vita and Zafira, in human form, flying towards them. "You're okay."

"Hayate, I..." Reinforce grabbed her head and groaned. "What's going on?"

"I'm not sure." Zafira muttered. "It took us almost twenty minutes to get this far over." He looked down and grimaced. "Might be easier to just drop straight down." At least it would be faster than standing around like they were.

Chrono nodded at him. "There's something here, but what?" The four started to drop to the ground. Chrono looked at Hayate, who was looking on nervously. _"Hey, you okay?"_

_"I haven't heard from anyone yet, are they okay, or..?"_

_"I'm sure that they're fine, Vita, Reinforce Zwei, Signum, Shamal, I'd be more worried if Fate or Nanoha was alone than those four."_ Chrono mentally shot to her, getting a gratified nod from Hayate.

"I've fallen far enough." Reinforce said and grabbed Hayate, holding her close and taking off like a rocket for the ground, quickly followed by Chrono and Zafira. The silver-haired woman's eyes were narrowed in annoyance as she got closer to a round object in the center of the room.

**"So, you've come."** That weird voice, it was beautiful, melodic...

And it was distracting. Every part of her body wanted to drop Hayate and go to the thing. "What are you?" She asked herself, before blinking and looking down. "Hayate?" Her face flushed slightly as Hayate nuzzled her face against Reinforce's chest. "Um... Why are you..."

_"You're distracted, Reinforce."_ Hayate said to her, getting a blink in response. _"I don't know what's going on, but I want to help you."_

_"Thank you."_ Reinforce closed her eyes and smiled softly, before looking up and narrowing her eyes. She had no idea what was... "Vita?" The girl in question turned as she heard her name. "You look different."

The now orange-haired girl shrugged. "Rein's a good partner." She waved at Zafira and Chrono before turning back to the big round screen in front of them. "Looks like an ancient computer system is controlling this whole thing."

**"Leave."** Everyone's eyes widened and they all took a step back in shock as the computer spoke to them. **"To seek my data, for war... For information... To steal what I was guarding."**

"What are you talking about?" Chrono yelled at the thing and yelped as several large white humanoid metallic creatures seemingly came out of the ground. They were larger than Zafira and all of them had a large cannon on their right arms.

Vita's eyes widened. "Oh no..." She could barely hold off one of those while unisoned with Rein, now there was at least eight of them?

**"To take the gift of the rulers, is death."**

"What are you talking about?" Chrono yelled at the screen. "We only came today! There was a signal that was coming from here for the last week that was thought to be dangerous."

**"To take the treasure and the data... One must die."**

Vita growled. "It's not going to listen." She swung Graf Eisen to the side and then up, where its size continued to grow. "Giganto..." She didn't get to finish as several cannon beams were launched at her.

"VITA!" Hayate cried out in shock as the girl stared at the beams of death as they raced at her.

The instant before they hit, a pair of strong arms wrapped around her body and pulled her straight up. "Zafira." Vita gasped as the beams smashed through the walls behind where she was. "Thank you."

Zafira nodded. "They're strong, and fast." The two had to dodge out of the way as more beams headed their way. The creatures down below started walking and firing either bursts of energy or streams of power.

"Leave them alone!" Hayate yelled, her spell complete. "Mistletein!" Several spears appeared above her and launched at the creatures below. Her eyes widened as they seemed to gain rockets and moved out of the way.

"Look out!" Chrono yelled and fired several Stinger Blades at Hayate, catching those metallic mantises from getting Hayate from behind.

Hayate looked behind her and her face had a look of dread as she saw more of them rushing towards them. "I thought I broke them." Twisting away, she flew back and up and gulped as a black beam passed right through where she was a moment ago, blowing up the metal creatures and making another hole in the wall.

Vita growled and rushed towards the one that attacked Hayate. "Rein!"

"Got it!" Rein's voice was heard in her head. "Grant unto me... The power of lightning to the palm of my hand..."

"Thunder... CRACKER!" Vita yelled as Graf Eisen was covered in lightning, before slamming into the cannon of the one that attacked Hayate, shattering the arm, she then spun her body and the hammer, slamming the head of it into the creature's chest and sending it flying into the ground.

"Vita! Above!" Rein called out and Vita's eyes widened as she looked up. Gasping as she saw what Rein saw, it's cannon only three feet from her head and about to fire, Vita wasn't sure if she could get her barrier up in time, and even if she could, she wasn't sure if it would hold the attack. Everything seemed to move in slow motion, she should see the energy about to discharge from the cannon itself.

A moment later, two arrows of flame streaked out, one striking the creature in the arm, the other in the head, both exploding and causing it to fire wide, missing everyone.

"If you stand around, you're going to be hit." Signum commented as she rushed in with Shamal. Both of their outfits were slightly messed up and they looked like they had either run a marathon while carrying a house or fought off hordes of enemies.

It didn't account for the slightly flushed faces though, but seeing as how the two of them stopped to take a breath, it was written off as exertion to get there.

**"What are you doing?"** The computer asked.

"Trying to stop you!" Chrono yelled as his hands flew over the keyboards. "Why are you attacking us!"

**"To end you... The war..."**

"There is no war!" Chrono yelled at the computer. "It's been over for more than a century now!"

At first it seemed like there was no reaction, but the machines in the air stopped moving as Chrono declared that.

**"Why bring weapons of war here? Those devices?"**

Reinforce looked at the computer. "We were brought here to make sure that nothing bad happened to anyone. Why did you call to us?"

**"To destroy you... You who would steal the garment of the gods, left here by the rulers."**

"What do you mean?" Hayate asked as she floated towards the screen.

"Hayate!" Her family yelled in concern and tried to move, but the mechanical creatures stepped in their way.

"We aren't here to cause problems. There is no more war."

**"You use those devices of war."**

Hayate shook her head. "They aren't devices. Reinforce, Reinforce Zwei, they're my family, along with Vita, Signum, Shamal and Zafira. I would never use them to fight a war."

The computer seemed to go quiet, before the screen lit up. **"You are different than these ones."**

"These ones?" Hayate and Chrono looked at the screen and gasped as they saw two women on the screen. One had short purple hair and was wearing a body suit while the other one had glasses, long brown hair done up in twin pony tails and was wearing a cape.

_"Hurry up, Quattro." The taller one said gruffly._

_"Oh please, this is easy for me. The security of the ancients is no match for Un-nee and my own abilities." She smirked at the other one. "Really, Tre, having second thoughts about raiding this factory?" The one named Quattro shook her head and smirked as she grabbed some sort of cloth object. "The first of the Knight Valkrye Armor... The mantle was here... Next is the spear?"_

_"If it exists, yes. What are you doing?"_

_"Just downloading the information." Quattro said as she held up a small box-like object. "I'm sure that the doctor will love this... Done, now," her grin became malicious as her hands flew over the keyboard, "time to delete all your history and make sure that the Bureau sends people here."_

_"Why?" Tre asked sourly._

_Quattro turned and smirked at her. "To get rid of the... Pests." When Tre gave her a disgusted look, Quattro snorted. "Stupid big sister, it's easier to get rid of pests when you have something fight them then fighting them yourself."_

_"Even so, I prefer to fight my enemies straight up." Tre grabbed the cloth and started to leave. "I would rather die fighting than like a coward."_

_"Bah! Due let you read too many books about knights and honor." Quattro grumbled as she finished up her work. "Should have been more like me and studied up on ways to kill your enemies easier."_

_"Sometimes I wonder if we're even related." Tre shook her head as she walked off._

_Quattro narrowed her eyes and snorted as she walked to Tre, who grabbed her and sped off._

The screen turned off and Hayate just blinked in confusion. Who were those people? What did they do? And what was it that they took?

**"Now... You can all die."**

"I think not." Reinforce said, a blue sphere in her hands. "Hayate, Chrono, get away from there, Vita, Signum, Shamal, Zafira, you ready?"

The four of them nodded as they had their spells read.

"Then go!"

"Dimensional Transfer!" They called out at once as Reinforce cast her spell.

"Nemesis Breaker!" She called out, firing the spell down towards the computer. Even as the metal creatures got in the way of the attack, the explosion would engulf a good portion of the room.

(-)

Amy blinked as Hayate, Reinforce, Signum, Shamal, Zafira, Chrono and Vita, the last one sporting a new look, appeared on the Arthra. "Um, what's going on?"

Chrono shook his head and looked at his mother, who walked onto the bridge. "We need to destroy that."

"You sure?" Lindy asked, getting a nod from Chrono. "Very well... Bombardment barrage."

"Look!" Vita pointed as she gasped. "It.. It's opening."

"Mother!" Chrono looked at Lindy seriously. "If that thing opens up completely, the Bureau will have to deal with automations that are at least strong enough to push a AAA to their limits."

Lindy nodded as the Arthra crew got to work. "Fire all weapons, do not let anything out."

The ensuing light show was both beautiful and terrifying. When it was done, the dome had collapsed in on itself after a massive explosion from under ground.

"I'm going to need your reports." Lindy said as she looked at the group seriously.

(-)

Later...

"Where's Vita?" Reinforce asked as she walked out of the meeting room with Lindy.

"She mentioned something about being tired." Hayate said as she stood up from her chair. The two of them were the last ones to talk to Lindy about the mission and what happened. Vita had been the first to finish up her report. "I think Zwei went with her."

Reinforce nodded and made her way to Vita's room. "Vita, are you in there?" She asked as she knocked on the door.

When no answer came to her, she and Hayate looked at each other and shrugged before opening the door to make sure everything was alright.

What they saw had the both of them smiling.

On the bed was Vita, sleeping on her back while Zwei slept on Vita's chest, using the girl's chest as soft pillows.

"We should let them sleep." Hayate whispered, getting a nod from Reinforce as they let the two sleep.

* * *

Lindy: That was one heck of a mission. Now comes the fun part. Next time on Blood That Flows - Shine. Read it, or I will make you drink overly sweet tea.  
Amy: Um, that's not really a threat...


	65. Shine 11

Shine 11

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

* * *

"Reinforce." The device blinked and looked at Hayate, who was looking a little nervous after leaving Vita and Zwei to sleep. "What happened back there? Why were you so distracted?"

Reinforce closed her eyes. "The computer... It called to me... It wanted to end things, to end everyone." She took a breath as she remembered that thing inside of her head. "I could see into it... It wanted me... It wanted to plug into me and use me as a power source for its drones... Just like it used others."

Hayate's eyes widened. "You mean... All those creatures..."

"Were being powered by Unison Devices like myself." Reinforce opened her eyes, showing deep regret.

"Then... we..." Hayate trembled, imagining people like Reinforce or Zwei that were being used against their wills and suddenly just wiped out. "We...I..."

"They weren't alive anymore." Reinforce said, getting Hayate to look at her suddenly. "All that was left was their bodies and power, their minds, personalities, memories, all wiped out. That would have happened to me and Zwei if the computer got to us."

Closing her eyes, she could see how those devices were set up, tubes around their arms and legs, on their chests and inserted into their bodies through any opening on their bodies. It was... Quite unpleasant, but at the time, the computer made it seem like it was a good thing for her and Zwei.

Reinforce's eyes opened and she blinked as she felt someone hug her. Looking down, she saw Hayate, tears falling down her face, squeezing her. "Hayate..?"

"I don't... I don't want you to hurt because of that. I won't let you get taken from me like that."

Reinforce smiled and knelt down, pulling Hayate into a hug. "I won't. Not as long as I have you, I will never leave you." She patted Hayate on the back.

"You mean it?" Hayate asked, squeezing tightly.

Nodding, Reinforce closed her eyes. "I promise you, Hayate, there is nothing in this universe that will take me from you as long as I live." Hayate's only response was to hold tighter. "Come on, let's go lay down." Hayate nodded, but didn't let go, forcing Reinforce to pick her up and carry her to their room on this ship.

(-)

Elsewhere...

"Un-nee..." Quattro pouted as she saw the taller cyborg. "Tre's upset at me for some reason."

Uno shook her head. "What makes you say that?"

The glasses wearing cyborg grumbled and sat down, pouting. Uno thought it was hilarious. "Tre and Due are spending time with Cinque to make sure that she's adjusting properly. I wanted to show Cinque something cool and the two of them just gave me a mean look!" She started kicking her legs up and down. "That's not cool! I'm supposed to look after my little sisters too! How can I teach them how to deal with their enemies if Tre and Due won't let me?"

Uno raised an eyebrow and mentally frowned. Things really did change between the cyborgs after Jail had gone completely insane with worry. That attack on the Ground Forces' HQ had done a number to him. Due and Tre both had spent a lot of time with him shortly thereafter. The next time she had seen them, Tre was a bit more distant to Quattro and Due seemed almost crazy when not on missions. Jail had taken Cinque afterwords and did something to her body almost right after what he did to Tre and Due.

When Uno had asked, Jail had just assured her that what he was doing was for the better in the long run, if Mazoku were running around again, he was determined to be prepared this time.

The only time she had asked what a Mazoku was, he went into a rant that didn't end for hours saying how evil and twisted they were and that one needed complete secrecy with working technology and magic, otherwise they would descend upon your world and destroy it without mercy.

Uno wondered what happened in Al Hazard if Jail was like this now.

(-)

"I feel weird." She looked at her taller, older sisters. "I don't understand what he did."

Due shrugged and ruffled Cinque's hair. "Messed around with your DNA about..." She tapped her chin and frowned, "about a year ago, right?"

"Really?" The short silver-haired girl blinked in confusion. "I don't understand, why would he..?" She thought she had only been out for a few hours, but to find out that it had been almost a year?

"I think that Jail went insane." Tre said as she took a sip of some tea. "I wouldn't worry about it, Cinque. If something comes up from this, your sisters will help you adjust."

Smiling softly, Cinque nodded her thanks to Tre. "So, um... What happened while I was out?"

"We went grave robbing!" Due cheered, before pouting. "Well, Quattro, Tre and Uno went grave robbing, I had to help the Doctor with his genetic experiments on some of our sisters."

"Some?" Tre raised an eyebrow and Due nodded at her. "Well, I hope it's not harmful to them."

Due shrugged at her. "Well, I'm not sure, but he said that all the new stuff he's gotten, between the blood samples and this Knight Valkrye Armor stuff, he should be able to deal with nearly anything."

Tre scratched her head and looked up at the ceiling, sighing softly. "I'm still not sure about this... Speeding the process up to awaken our sisters sooner."

Due shrugged at that. She didn't know what Jail was thinking, she doubted even Uno knew what was going through his head.

(-)

Meanwhile...

Lindy looked at the screens in front of her. "So, are we in agreement?"

The others nodded to her. "What you gave us is most distressing. We'll make sure that this information gets to all forces." One of the Generals of the Ground Forces said in thanks to her.

"My recommendation is that if any of our forces come across similar sites in the future, we try to see if there's any way to salvage any of the "power sources" that may be inside. If not, destroy it."

After clearing a few more points up, the screens turned off and Lindy sighed as she leaned back against her chair. "Things were easier back in training." She muttered to herself, before blinking as she heard Hayate's voice in her head. _"Yes?"_

_"Miss Lindy, I've been thinking... This last mission... Are they all like this?"_

_"Some are."_ She admitted and closed her eyes. _"Do you need to talk?"_

_"I... I think Reinforce is hurting badly, knowing that she could have been like the other devices... I don't want that, Miss Lindy. I... I want to stop this."_

Lindy blinked at hearing that. _"What do you mean?"_

_"I want to join the Bureau, not because my family committed crimes and I want to make amends, but because I want to make sure that the pain of the past does not cause problems anymore."_

Lindy smiled softly. _"If you mean it, Hayate, I want you to talk to your family. If they agree, we'll put you through officer's training so that you can get your wish."_

_"Thank you."_

(-)

"Reinforce..." Hayate looked at the device, who, as usual, was laying in bed in only a pair of panties. "Come on, Reinforce." The silver-haired device was looking up at the ceiling, staring at nothing in particular as Hayate, still in her normal clothes, looked at her in concern. "Please, say something."

"Weapon..." Reinforce finally, after several minutes, said softly. "That's all I am... Just..." She didn't get any further when Hayate finally had enough and sat down on her breasts and crossed her arms, frowning at her. "Hayate..?"

"Didn't I tell you before?" Hayate leaned in and tapped Reinforce on the forehead lightly. "You're not a book, a weapon, or a cursed tome, you are a member of my family. A sword is a weapon, a book is a book, this ship is a weapon, you..." She cupped both of Reinforce's cheeks with her hands. "You are Reinforce Yagami, a member of my family with Vita, Zafira, Signum and Shamal, you are the mother of our child, Reinforce Zwei Yagami."

"Hayate..." Reinforce said, breathlessly as she saw tears starting to fall down Hayate's face.

"Regardless of what you were before, created as a weapon to fight a war that you and the others didn't want, you're not that anymore. You and the others are my family."

Reinforce grimaced slightly. "Can... You stop sitting on my breasts, please?" It wasn't that Hayate was heavy, but the weight was uncomfortable.

Sliding off of Reinforce, Hayate helped her sit up partially. "You are the Sacred Wind of Blessing, Reinforce. Nothing about that is for death or war. I will never make you fight if you do not want to."

"Thank you." Reinforce said softly and hugged her. "Thank you so much." She clung tightly, desperately to the young girl. "I am supposed to protect you, and you end up saving and protecting me."

"Because we're a family, and that means we help and protect each other." Hayate said, ignoring the way that Reinforce was shaking lightly. She could feel tear drops on her shoulder, but said nothing about it, after all, she was crying herself. "Being a family means that we don't need to be strong all the time. Those kids need us to be strong for them, but around each other..." Hayate pulled back and smiled, putting her forehead to Reinforce's. "Around each other, we don't need to be strong, right?"

"To be weak is to be human..." Reinforce whispered softly. "I think... I think I like that. I want... To protect you fully."

"You do." Hayate whispered to her. "By being here... You protect me from the worst of the world, and I want to protect you from the worst of your past."  


* * *

Vita: Ahhh! Long missions suck! Even if they aren't long, they suck, I just wanna go home now. Rein, stop using my boobs as pillows. Next time on Blood That Flows - Shine... What do you mean I'm not going to be in it?  
Yuuno: Oh dear, it's our turn again?


	66. Shine 12

Blood That Flows

Shine 12

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

* * *

Two weeks later...

Mizetto smiled as she looked at her trainees. "Good job, everyone, you've done well." She nodded as they seemed to straighten up in pride. "Now then, go take your lunch break everyone." As the trainees nodded and started to walk off, she blinked as she remembered something. "Oh yes, Yuuno, can you, Nanoha and Fate wait a moment, please?"

When the rest were gone, the older woman shook her head when they asked if something was wrong. "Oh, nothing's wrong, I just thought that Yuuno would like to know that Mary told me that she has his device ready for him now."

"Really?" Yuuno blinked, feeling excitement run through his body. He had to admit, it would be nice to have some help casting some of his stronger spells. Never mind actually using his Holy power normally.

Mizetto nodded and then looked at the other two. "As for you two, there's a couple of people here who agreed to... Ah, there they are." She nodded to the trio that walked up to the group.

"Considering that we're getting our devices upgraded with some sort of new tech today, it would be rude not to help out the heroes of Mid-childa." The dark purple-haired woman said, smiling at the kids. "Remember us?"

"Ah!" Yuuno's eyes went white as he recalled two of the three of them. "You were the people that were stuck outside! Quint..."

"Nakajima." She smiled at him. "This is my best friend, Megane Alphine and this is my commanding officer Zest Grangeitz." The other two nodded at them, though Megane was smiling as well. "Just a word of warning, don't ask about Megane's daughter, she never shuts up about how cute Lutecia is."

"Quint!" Megane's face went red as Quint looked back at her and smirked. "It's not my fault that Lutecia's just so darn cute! All my summons just adore her!"

"More like they adore you and because Lutecia's your daughter, they like her too." Quint chuckled and turned back to the kids. "Don't mind her, she's just upset that she had to miss out on the action when HQ got taken over."

Zest shook his head and looked at Fate, who was looking on bemused. "I hear your intelligent device can take the form of a sword."

The small blonde looked at the tall man and nodded at him. If it wasn't for the fact that he saved them from before and what she remembered of him was that he was pretty much like Signum, just scarier in looks, she probably would have been scared stiff of him right now.

"Well then, I'll be helping you develop your technique."

Fate just blinked at the gruff man, but nodded. Miyuki did say that she wasn't that good with a sword, and compared to Nanoha's sister, she really wasn't.

Then again, Miyuki did say that when she got older she'd be able to use her Zambar form better, since it was pretty awkward for her at times since she was still rather small. At least Miyuki was helping her with her swordsmanship so that she could use her sword forms more easily. The last time she tried to swing down with all her might with the Zambar blade, she had trouble lifting the thing.

"Hey, Nanoha, where is Miyuki?" Fate asked, now that she thought about it, she hadn't seen the older girl. Usually she was helping Mizetto give the Belkan practitioners tips on how to use their weapons, but she wasn't around today.

Nanoha's eyes went white as she tapped her chin. "Um... Hmm, I don't know... I think Mary wanted her for something, but I'm not sure."

Quint laughed softly, for some reason, she really liked this girl. "Who knows? Maybe they're creating something that can bisect a planet but they need someone to test it?" She blinked when Nanoha pouted. "Something wrong?"

"If they're going to bisect the planet, I wanna see it."

"I don't think it'll go that far." Yuuno and Megane deadpanned as they looked at the two more excitable girls.

"I hope not." Zest muttered and shook his head. "Well, since it is lunch time, why don't we go eat?"

"Sure!" The kids nodded, their stomachs all growling at the same time and getting a laugh from Quint.

"You three are like my girls, always eating everything in the house." She rubbed the back of her head as Megane muttered something about the pot and black kettle.

(-)

"Ah! Colonel Regius!" Mary smiled at the large man. "How are you?"

"Could be better, just why did you call me down here?"

Mary smiled and held up a ring. "See this?"

"I'm not interested in marrying you."

Mary face-faulted, causing the containers around the room to jump slightly.

"I don't think that's what she meant." Miyuki shook her head as she grabbed the ring from Mary. "This is that guy, Zest, right?" Mary stood up and nodded. "Yeah, this is his spear." Though, it looked more like a halberd or a glaive to her, but she wasn't going to correct that, not now. "Anyway, Mary added a new feature to it."

"Yep!" Mary grinned and grabbed some over-sized gloves. "Did the same to Quint's device. This is just the prototype of a new form of armor modes for the Bureau. I thought you'd like to know that we're giving them to your Ground Forces before spreading them out to the rest of the Bureau."

Regius raised an eyebrow. "Don't you usually give new technology to the Air and Naval forces to better benefit their mages?"

Mary shrugged at him and ignored the way his fist clenched in anger. "Normally, yes, but this stuff's really good and I thought that you'd enjoy the fact that your men and women have an advantage for a little while." Despite being a mad scientist, or so Reinforce claimed, she did know that the Ground Forces were quite upset and disheartened with the loss of their HQ at the moment. "Anyway, the point is, it's a new armor mode that should not only give added protection to your forces, but allow them to deal with enemies that they couldn't before."

Regius nodded, he liked the sound of that. Plus it would let him stop working with Jail if new technologies and weapons were being developed. "What's that?" He asked as he saw a sword hilt floating in a column of light.

"Ah!" Mary grinned at him. "It's a powerful weapon that I'm studying. If I can figure it out, I might be able to outfit every member of the Bureau with copies of it."

"Just remember, I get to keep the original." Miyuki said, getting a nod from Mary.

"Oh, don't worry. I'd rather not take the sword away from you permanently and get the gods upset at me."

Regius raised an eyebrow. "How powerful?"

"Strong enough that it can reflect, repel and dispel all sorts of magic that it comes into contact with." Mary said as she looked at the specs she was getting. "Man, even if I can only get the ability to block and cut through magic spells for a few minutes before it needs to shut down, it would be a great boon to the Bureau." She looked at Miyuki. "And you say that your mom has four more weapons like this?"

"An axe, a lance, a trident that becomes a claw when activated and a bow and arrow." Miyuki counted off each one. "I can probably get mom to loan me all but the bow if you wanted to make weapons for the Bureau."

"Why not that one?" Regius was curious. If these weapons were powerful, he'd want more made.

"It's too powerful." Mary shook her head. "That thing can warp reality if it got going. I wouldn't want ANY copy of it made." She had read the reports, she had SEEN that thing in action before the Arthra got shot down. "It's almost like a miniature Arc en Ciel." And at least as powerful. Hell, it was probably _more_ powerful than that even!

"That powerful?" Regius raised an eyebrow, but nodded when Mary reiterated her statement. "Very well then, but I'd like for you to get ahold of the others if you could. A sword is nice, but it would be nice to have some variety for the weapons."

"I'll see what I can do." Miyuki muttered and Mary just beamed at the thought of being able to study more of the Dark Star weapons.

"Anyway, this armor mode, what is it called?" Regius looked at the ring and the gloves that the women where holding.

Mary grinned at him. "Blast Mode. Named after the metal and abilities that the Blast Sword had. Anyway, if things go well, then our strongest forces would be even _more_ protected when they go on missions. Plus, if things go right, I might be able to outfit our ships in the future with this stuff." Though, it was fairly hard to make. A sheath for the Blast Sword? That was easy, enough of it for a person's Barrier Jacket and Armor, not to mention their weapon? A little harder, but doable. Right now, she lacked the funds and manpower to outfit more than a couple of people. Never-mind an entire ship right now.

"Hmm..." Regius nodded at her. "Very well. So, this is what you wanted to show me?"

"More-or-less, yeah." Mary nodded and put down the gloves. "You'll be happy to know that even the Navy and the Air Force don't know about this armor mode or the replicas yet. Anyway, we should go to lunch."

"I can't, unfortunately." Regius shook his head. "There's a new transfer coming to my squad and I'm going to go meet her."

"Ah, too bad." Mary shook her head. "Too bad, I might have enjoyed eating lunch with you. Oh well, have a good day, Colonel."

After Regius left, Miyuki shuddered softly. "For some reason, I don't like him."

Mary shrugged. "He's a stickler for rules and regulations, I admit and he's pretty hard-line for a lot of stuff, but he's just looking out for the people of the Bureau. I cut him some slack on things."

"I guess..." Miyuki said softly as the two left the lab and made sure to lock it.  


* * *

  
Nanoha: Fighting time? It's fighting time? Yay! Next time on Blood That Flows - Shine!  
Yuuno: Uh, not for all of us, not yet... Nanoha? She's not listening is she?  
Fate: Nope.


	67. Shine 13

Blood That Flows

Shine 13

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

* * *

Later...

Mary smiled at Yuuno as he, Zest and Quint came into the room. "Hello everyone. Zest, Quint... here you go." She handed their devices back to them. "The new modes are called "Blast Mode", an enhanced armor mode for you. It has an added bonus on top of that."

"Oh?" Zest looked at his ring while Yuuno just blinked in confusion.

Mary grinned at the large man. "Yep. For you, Zest, the Blast Mode will be able to cover your weapon, adding durability and sharpness to the blade. Sadly, Quint, at this time, I can't do the same for your gauntlets."

She shrugged Mary off. "I'd like to test this out as soon as possible."

"Well, good thing you have that practice match with Nanoha then." Mary grinned more, getting a startled look from the three of them. "Oh, I keep up on everything around here."

"Why can't you do what you did for my spear for her gauntlet?" Zest asked as he put his ring on.

"Moving parts." Mary shrugged. "The last time I tried to do this to stuff with moving parts, it shattered them, so, I think it's a good idea not to put them on anything with moving parts. Anyway, a little tip for your Blast Mode. The stronger you are personally, the stronger the armor will be." The three nodded, that made sense. "The armor is made out of a similar material to the Blast Sword that I got to study awhile back, so it can not only absorb magic, but deflect and diffuse on-coming magic as well." That was the hardest part about making the stuff was making sure that magic still worked for the user. "There might be some problems still, if you have trouble using your magic, bring it back and I'll see if I can fine tune it."

Quint left after that, saying she wanted to try out that girl's full power. Zest looked at Mary a bit longer. "Is there anything about this I should know? Any downsides?"

Mary shrugged. "It's possible that your magic won't be as strong as you're used to with it active, but the point of it is to make sure that you survive against things that would normally kill you." She wasn't sure on everything. "Look, the original use of this was to sheath an unsheatheable, unbreakable sword that could cut through anything, and I found out that this metal I made based on the sword can absorb the magic fast enough to become hard enough to sheath it."

Zest nodded and turned to leave. "Might be interesting to test out."

"Oh!" Mary had a stunned look on her face. "Never mind, Zest, just something came to me." The tall man nodded and left. A moment later, Miyuki came into the room.

"Huh, what was that... Oh, hey, Yuuno." Miyuki smiled at the younger boy, getting a smile in return. "She show you the new device yet?"

"Not yet." Yuuno admitted to Miyuki and blushed as she grabbed his right arm. "What?"

"Huh, no matter how much I look at it, I still say that this tattoo on your arm looks like it will come to life and eat me."

Yuuno pulled his arm from her grip and blushed, it wasn't his fault, Vrabazard put the tattoo on his arm when he got the god's blessing. "Anyway, what new device?"

"Ah, before that, Yuuno, have you seen Fate using her Blitz mode?" She sighed when Yuuno shook his head. "Good, I need to talk to her, I found something out about it and I'm sure she'll want to know. Anyway..." She pulled out a box and opened it up. "Here it is." Opening it up, she revealed a fingerless glove that extended back to cover the person's arm more fully, and on that was some sort of gadget that was round on one side with a screen on the top that seemed to narrow and thin down a little bit.

"Huh, looks like a watch a Kamen Rider would use." Miyuki scratched her head and Mary chuckled softly.

"Got the idea from a video clip that I caught while on Earth." Mary chuckled and Yuuno gave the two a flat look as he put it on.

"If you think that I'm going to say "Henshin Yo", forget it."

Miyuki pouted and hugged Yuuno from behind. "Aww... It would be really cool to have you say that." Yuuno blushed as he felt her large breasts pushing into his back. Despite what people might have thought by looking at her, Miyuki did have a nice pair of breasts, she just wore loose shirts to hide that fact.

Mary chuckled softly, it was nice seeing this. "Anyway, the device doesn't have a name yet, you'll have to give it one. It's pretty much a blank ID right now."

"A name?" Yuuno looked at the device on his wrist before blinking curiously. "Why are there buttons on it?"

"Because it doubles as a watch!" Mary grinned and pushed the button on the bottom for him, causing a display of numbers to appear. "Well, that, it can also bring up maps and other stuff."

"Other stuff?" Yuuno sweat-dropped as Mary had a scary glint in her eyes.

"Well, it's not really an Intelligent Device, but it might be better to call it a Support Device." She tapped the screen for him. "Not sure how we'd classify this right now. Anyway, it's not activated just yet, you'll need to come up with a name for it before it will activate." She shrugged at the look she was given. "Hey, would you respond to someone who wasn't calling you by name?"

"Uh, good point." Yuuno sweat-dropped and wondered what he should call his device.

(-)

Meanwhile...

"Ah, Regius..." Jail smiled as he saw the Colonel on the vid screen. "Please tell me that you're not upset about my lack of progress with the combat cyborgs. I assure you, things are going swimmingly well."

"Jail..." He grumbled, his face showing some irritation. "Do I really need to work with you anymore?" His eyes were narrowed and his voice low, threatening. If any of his men other than Zest had been in the room, they would have been sweating and hoping that they weren't the target of his ire.

"Probably not, all things considered. I hear that the Bureau is coming up with some new weapons." He chuckled softly. "It's fine with me what you come up with, just don't interfere with my plans."

"Which are?" Reigus narrowed his eyes at the smirking man.

"Oh, that would be telling, but if things work properly, the event that happened with the Ground Forces HQ won't ever happen again." Jail then smirked at him. "Speaking of which, how IS the Ground Forces doing now that they don't have a home base?"

"We're working out of temporary ones until the new one is fully built." Regius took a deep breath.

"Ah, that's interesting, interesting indeed. I suppose that you want to break off our working relation, hmm?" Jail chuckled at him. "You know that the Brains chose you to keep tabs on me, do you really think that they'll let their investment in the both of us go to waste just because you've got new toys to play with?"

Regius growled before sighing. "You're right..." Oh, why oh WHY did he get involved with this man in the first place?

Jail smiled at him. "Well, if it helps you any, after dealing with a few things and collecting weapons, I can scale back my operations for a few years so that you won't have to send anyone after me."

"What will I tell the Brains?"

Jail chuckled as he turned away from the screen. "That's mostly your problem, but if I had to tell them anything, tell them that I'm working on new weapons that will make most of the Bureau's forces completely useless, but it will take some time before I can deploy them for testing."

"Fine." Regius sighed heavily. "I can't support you at all though."

"Oh, I know." Jail grinned at him. "Hopefully, if things work right, we'll both be free to do what we want within the decade."

The screen turned off, leaving Regius confused as to what Jail meant by that.

(-)

Elsewhere...

Yuuno gave Miyuki a flat look as he walked out the training field with her right behind him. "I told you, I'm not calling it that."

"Well, at least make sure the name has "Driver" in it, no Kamen Rider would be caught dead without having a Driver." She giggled at the way he groaned. "Come on, it's gotta have a cool name at least. Maybe something with fire?"

Yuuno grimaced slightly, he had thought that himself, but if he thought about it, it was a bit... Off. His device really wasn't meant for using his Holy power, he thought it was so that he could use his normal spells while using his Holy magic. 'I could be wrong though.' He thought to himself. "A name, huh?"

Miyuki looked at Yuuno and took a step back as his body seemed to light up, his device suddenly beeping as it came online. "Yuuno?"

"Your new name is... George."

"George?" Miyuki and the Device said at the same time, getting a laugh from Yuuno.

"Nah, I was joking, I'm thinking Thoth for you, what do you think?" He looked at his device, who bleeped a few times.

"Thoth Driver, accepted."

"Wait, what?" Yuuno's eyes went white as he looked at it. "Why would you come up with THAT?"

"Make sure the name has Driver in it, no Kamen Rider would be caught dead without having a Driver." The device spoke in a perfect mimicry of Miyuki's voice. "It's gotta have a cool name at least."

Yuuno sweat-dropped and gave Miyuki a flat look. "Thoth Driver, huh?" Well, he could live with that.

"Now we just need to work on your poses and speeches when you make dramatic points and..." She laughed at his expression. "Oh come on, I'm just teasing. I wouldn't make you do that unless you wanted to."

"Sometimes I wonder..." Yuuno rubbed his forehead, recalling what happened a few weeks ago when Lina borrowed Graf Eisen. "Lina's gone crazy since she got pregnant."

Miyuki sweat-dropped, recalling her mom's crazed look as she tried to make wood turn into light before giving the hammer back to Vita and wondering if there was any chocolate. "To be fair, she was worse last time she was pregnant."

"Remember how she wanted Fate to do a "Fate Kick" when Fate and Nanoha were sparring?"

Miyuki sweat-dropped and nodded. "In the future, we keep mom from watching anime when she's pregnant." Yuuno nodded and quickly ran to the training field.

Watching him go, Miyuki shook her head. "Damn, he's starting to really fill out." She couldn't imagine what he'd look like when the training was done.

(-)

Fate stared at the large man as she gripped Bardiche. "Are you sure?"

He nodded as he held his spear to the side. "I'd like to see your full power in this spar." He wanted to know why Mizetto asked for him, Quint and Megane specifically to spar with these kids this afternoon. One thing he did find interesting was the fact that several powerful barriers had gone up shortly after that Yuuno kid had gotten back to the training field.

"Bardiche, Rubin Blitz Mode."

**"Yes sir."**

Zest raised an eyebrow as the young girl's black body suit seemed to almost come undone, before solidifying and hardening, around her arms and legs was bright red metal that looked pretty flexible. Her neck up to her jaw line was covered in the same red metal, her hair was in that familiar twin ponytail design and her device she had shifted from a pole-arm weapon into a thin, hand-sized sword. "Interesting, I heard that you preferred larger swords."

"I do." Fate said softly, her body glowing yellow. "But for the speeds I'm moving, it would likely rip my arms off."

Zest nodded and swung his spear to the side. 'Alright, let's see if this is as good as she made it out to be.' He thought to himself and narrowed his eyes slightly.

**"Böe-Modus."**

Fate's eyes widened as Zest's brown jacket, pants, gloves and boots were all suddenly changed to a silver color, even his spear seemed to dull and turn gray.

"Interesting." Zest muttered and tapped his arm. "I don't feel any heavier, but this is metal." He then looked at her. "Very well then, come at me with everything you've got."

She nodded. "Right!" The next instant, she disappeared and Zest took a step forward as he felt a powerful blow to his back. He caught a glimpse of her before she disappeared again, this time striking his front, then his sides, and even his legs, each one was strong enough to have him stumble slightly.

"Impressive." He muttered before swinging his spear straight up. An instant later, Fate's form materialized in front of him as the young girl grit her teeth as she tried to cut him again. "You're good with that speed, but you waste a lot of movement. When you're that fast, you should only strike a couple of times to get them off balance, before going in and striking your enemy down before they can recover."

Fate's eyes widened as Zest put a little more effort into his swing and sliced right through the magical blade, missing Fate's face by mere centimeters. Flying back, she narrowed her eyes and called up several smaller spells, launching them at him and causing an explosion before disappearing from sight again.

"Not bad." Zest muttered as the smoke cleared. Other than some singe marks on his armor, he was completely unharmed. He took a step forward, only to stop as he felt a bind around his leg. "What?" There were four yellow magic circles around his body and, when he looked up, one above him.

"Plasma... Rage... FALL!" Fate called out as she reappeared above the one in the air.

Each circle let out a powerful yellow blast of lightning that slammed into Zest's body with tremendous force.

"Did I over-do it?" Fate asked when the spell abated, only to gasp as she found Zest's fist in her gut, causing her to gasp hard as she was punched away from him.

"Never forget that I still have barriers, girl." Zest pointed out, not looking the least worse for wear. Even if he looked in good condition, he knew that he would have still been on the ground if it hadn't been for this new armor mode. He still felt concussive forces and even that last spell was strong enough that with his barriers and the armor, he actually was slightly hurt by it.

Floating in mid-air, Fate grabbed her sore belly and nodded. That punch _really_ hurt. If she was in her Sonic Form, she probably would have been beaten right then and there.

"You're fast, girl." Zest charged her, slashing through where she had been a moment ago before she disappeared. Zest couldn't even see her, but he was starting to figure out her patterns when she fought. He threw up his left hand and created a barrier that blocked Fate's fireball. "Interesting, you have a neat style."

On the ground, Fate materialized and started panting softly. She looked at Bardiche and grimaced, the blade was nothing more than a 2 cm stump off the hilt now. "Sorry, Bardiche."

**"No problem."**

Fate looked up and snapped her fingers. "Aqua Create." When Zest looked around in confusion, she smiled. "Dunno if this will work, but.. Dolph Zork!" Her eyes widened as several water torpedoes rushed at Zest. "Alright, now... Photon Raging Bolt!"

As the yellow bolts rushed with the water torpedoes towards him, she clapped her hands together. "Plasma... SMASHER!" A large yellow beam collided with Zest's unmoving form, exploding and Fate fell to a knee, panting. "I... I hope he's okay." She chuckled nervously and looked up and stared as the smoke cleared to reveal Zest, unharmed, though his armor was dirty and he was smoking.

"Very impressive." He nodded, both to the girl and to his armor. This was what he wanted to test after all. Still...

Fate's eyes widened as he appeared right in front of her and knocked her onto her back, pointing the tip of his spear at her. "You did good, you need some work with your technique, but you did good."

Fate smiled softly before her eyes rolled into the back of her head and she flopped down, unconscious, a moment later, her armor dissolved, leaving her in her civilian clothes.

Zest stared for a second before pulling up a vid screen and calling the infirmary. He didn't know what happened to her.

He suspected that Mary might have known for some reason.

* * *

Nanoha: What? Where's my fight scene? I wanna fight too! Next time on Blood That Flows - Try, I wanna fight too!  
Yuuno: Uh... Nanoha, you're destroying the forest.

So, what can I say? Uh, if you wanted Nanoha's fight, check back later? Well, I hope Zest vs Fate was a pretty good fight at least.

And, yes, Miyuki is _totally_ geeking out over Yuuno's new device. Thoth, BTW, was the Egyptian God of Knowledge. Thought it was appropriate for Yuuno to have a device named after that.


	68. Shine 14

Blood That Flows

Shine 14

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

* * *

Nanoha looked at Quint and smiled nervously. "You sure?"

"Yeah." Quint nodded as she called up her Barrier Jacket. "I have to admit, I'm kind of curious. We're not usually called in to help train newbies."

"Those gloves are kind of neat." Quint chuckled as she put them on. The girl's enthusiasm was rather interesting.

"Yes, they are. Revolver Gauntlets." The older woman winked at Nanoha. "I plan on passing them onto Subaru and Ginga when they get older, if they want them."

"Who?" Nanoha blinked as she activated her Barrier Jacket as well.

Quint chuckled softly. "My daughters. You'd like them. Subaru can be a little nervous and whiny and Ginga's pretty outgoing, but they're good kids."

Nanoha smiled at her. "Might be nice." Grabbing Raising Heart, she twirled it in her hands a couple of times. "Alright, let's go, Raising Heart!"

**"Alright."**

Nanoha smiled as she took off into the air. "You sure you can keep up with me?"

Quint chuckled and stamped her foot down, a purple road appearing under her and shooting up into the air. "Can't fly, but my Wing Road's more than enough to deal with tricky flying people."

Nanoha was a bit surprised at the speed that Quint put on as she rocketed through the air on the road. "Looks fun!" Swinging her staff to the side, several pink balls appeared around her. "Shoot!"

"Nice." Quint smirked and held up her right hand as she passed by, the spells hitting her barrier with no ill effects. "How about you try this... Revolver... SHOOT!"

Nanoha threw up a barrier as Quint punched forward with her left hand. The attack wasn't too powerful, but Quint was experienced and knew how to make the most of her magic. The attack was still enough to push her back in mid-air.

"Come on, girl, I wanna see what you can do." Quint yelled as she jumped at Nanoha. "Revolver... Cannon!"

"Barrier..." Nanoha held her hand up and grunted as Quint's fist smashed into it. "Shock Burst!"

"Huh?" Quint's eyes widened as Nanoha's barrier shattered and pushed her away, it wasn't the first time that Quint had someone do that to her, so she was more prepared for that, but the barrier having an elemental attack hidden in a barrier was something she had no idea was possible. But, as it was, she found herself being flung across the air crackling with lightning. "Yeeow!"

"Freeze... Shooter!" Nanoha called out as several more balls of energy appeared, this time they were blue in color as they rushed at Quint.

Gritting her teeth, Quint held up her left hand, a barrier forming and blocking most of the shots.

All but one that got to her leg and exploded, leaving her left ankle frozen and unable to move as she landed back on her Wing Road. "Brrr!" She shivered, her hair was frazzled, her skin slightly burned, but there was a grin on her face as she punched down, shattering the ice. "Nice moves, girl, though, I think if we kept at this level, it would take us all day to settle this." Clenching her fists, she smacked them together. "Blast... Mode!"

Her eyes widened as her body was covered in a silver-colored metal that seemed to cause her outfit to tighten around her. "...I think that Mary's got a pervert working on her team." She never thought that metal could be so form-fitting, especially around her butt and breasts. "Well then..." She punched her fist into an open palm. "Lemme see what you can do, go full out."

"You sure?" When Quint nodded, Nanoha grinned. "Okay! Assault Mode... Drive!"

**"Ignition."**

Quint blinked as Nanoha's arms and legs were covered in a metal, her device's gem became centered on her chest and partially covered in metal while she had down-pointed metal wings on her back while some sort of shield adorned her right arm and a giant cannon formed on her left arm, on her face was a pink-tinted visor. "Wow, that's impressive."

Nanoha grinned and swung her shield arm out, causing Quint's eyes to widen as she saw a whip extend from the tip and lash out at her. Smirking, the older woman took off on her Wing Road, keeping ahead of Nanoha as she lashed out at her in. "A game of chase, I won't lose, girl."

Nanoha frowned, Quint was good enough to keep ahead of her whip and even reversing direction when Nanoha would strike her. "Darn."

**"Suggest moving to the ground, the trees will keep her speed down."**

Nanoha nodded but blinked. "How can I move fast then? The trees would stop me." She twisted out of the way as Quint shot an attack right at her.

**"Use your wheels."**

Nanoha felt like slapping herself as she dodged an attack. "Okay, how about... THIS?" She yelled as she swung down, her whip turning pink as it cut through and shattered the Wing Road, causing Quint to stumble as she lost her balance and fell straight down, Nanoha flying right down after her.

"Nice try." Quint said as she regained her balance just before she crashed to the ground. She turned and slid backwards on the grass until she came to a complete stop. Nanoha landed a few feet away from her. "You're not used to using that power, huh?"

Nanoha shook her head. "Nah uh... I don't even like the whip, it looks cool, but it's hard to use."

Quint smiled at the girl, nodding. "Too bad you can't get the links to stick together and act more like a sword, huh?"

Nanoha blinked, her eyes going white as data became available to her over her visor. "Uh... Apparently I can..." She swung her arm up and the links came down, connecting to each other until the metal was solid. It receded into her shield a bit and Nanoha took some practice swings with it before grinning. "This is better."

Quint blinked as Nanoha suddenly took off like a rocket and slammed the whip forward, crashing it against her body, slashing diagonally and sending the older woman back a few feet. "Wow..." She chuckled softly and blinked as Nanoha went far past where she was and nearly crashed into a tree. "You need to work on your brakes."

The girl nodded, her eyes dizzy. "Yeah... Raising Heart, I think we'll need to practice this mode more often, I'm only good with the cannons right now."

**"Understood."**

"Speaking of cannons..." Nanoha snapped her left arm out, pointing the cannon at Quint. "Extreme... BUSTER!"

The pink beam that escaped from the barrel was smaller than Nanoha's supreme buster, but it came out at a much faster rate. Quint never had a chance to dodge as she took the shot straight to her gut, sending her sliding back.

"Nnngh... That would have hurt." Quint smiled before narrowing her eyes. "Time to stop playing with you."

"I thought we were fighting." Nanoha said as she took off to the side, Quint following her.

"True, but I'm having a lot of fun." She chuckled, before increasing her speed suddenly and slamming a fist into Nanoha's side, causing the girl to bounce off the ground and into a nearby tree. She blinked as Nanoha flipped in mid-air and her wheels slammed into the tree, causing her to glance off the trees until she landed on her feet again. "You're something else."

"You should try my mom." Nanoha smiled, though she had to admit, she was enjoying this as well. "Confined combat mode, Raising Heart."

**"Ignition."**

Quint shook her head as the large cannon and whip disappeared and smaller hand guns replaced them. "Shee... You have a lot of tricks, huh?"

"Yep!" Nanoha smiled brightly and shot the thin beams at the woman, who dodged what she could and grunted as the slammed into her body. "Wow, that's really tough."

"Tell me about it." Quint grinned as she got an idea and took to the air. "Doubt you can keep up with me on my Wing Road."

"Let's find out!" Nanoha called out and raced after her into the air on the road. Looking through her visor, she narrowed her eyes. "Raising Heart, can we mix and match the standard Assault Mode and the Confined Combat Mode?"

**"If that is your wish."**

"Then I want the big cannon on my left arm and the small cannon in my right hand."

**"Alright."**

Nanoha grinned as her cannon reformed. "Supreme Buster, full power!" A large ball of energy started to form in front of her cannon as the magic in the air was seemingly sucked into the newly forming sphere of power.

Quint looked behind her as the girl started forming a powerful attack. "Well, this could hurt..." She muttered softly and took a defensive stance, wondering what the girl was going to use."

"Supreme Buster... SHOOT!"

Quint's eyes widened as she saw the large pink beam heading right for her. "Well then..." A purple triangle appeared under her feet as she drew a large circle in mid-air. "Phantom WALL!" A powerful protective barrier appeared in front of her, stopping the attack. Quint grunted as she struggled to hold it up. Even as strong as she was, the girl was putting out power that was on par with what Zest could do with his Full Drive active. Her eyes widened as she felt a build-up of power behind her. Turning her head, she gasped as she saw Nanoha powering up another attack. 'Damn.'

"SHOOT!" Another powerful wave of energy rushed at Quint and the older woman just smirked before cancelling the Wing Road just under her feet and dropping straight down, letting the powerful attacks collide into each other.

"Well then, if we're going to be going all out, guess I better do it as well." Quint muttered as she created a branch that would let her appear right in front of Nanoha. "Shooting Arts, ultimate technique..." She held her hands to the side as one glowed red and the other one yellow. "Earth... And Sky..." Bringing her arms forward, she found herself grinding her teeth together as she tried to force her hands to clasp together.

The technique was powerful, extremely powerful. So much so that Quint wasn't going to teach it to her daughters until they were older. She was a AA rank mage, and this attack was borderline S rank. On top of that, her arms tried to push themselves apart as she tried to clasp them together.

As her fingers laced together, Quint knew why she developed this skill. It was just incredibly powerful.

**"Warning!"**

Nanoha looked down as her screen lit up, only to find herself suddenly surrounded by a vortex that seemed to paralyze her. "What?"

**"Effects are similar to Excellion Barrel Shot."**

Quint let out a yell as she rushed forward, her hands held in front of her until she got close to Nanoha, where she pulled them back slightly before thrusting forward and slamming them into the girl's chest and sending her flying backwards where she slammed against the Wing Road and bounced a few times before going still.

"Oh crap!" Quint's eyes widened as she rushed forward. She felt horrible, both physically and for what she might have done to the girl. The real downside to the Earth and Sky spell was that it had to be a guaranteed kill, otherwise you were too spent to do much else afterwords.

Even holding back like she had been, it was still a powerful attack.

As she got over Nanoha's downed form, she looked at the girl, her armor and visor were cracked all over. "Are you okay?" She gasped as Nanoha suddenly pointed her smaller gun at Quint's head.

"Yep." Nanoha grinned. "Raising Heart and I were able to enhance our personal barrier just before you hit, so you only cracked my Barrier Armor." She was tired, but that was mostly because of the Assault Mode taking its toll on her body.

Quint laughed as Nanoha's Assault Mode canceled out into her Excellion Mode. "You're good, Nanoha, if you had more experience with that mode, you probably would have been knocking me all around the field."

Nanoha smiled at her. "I would have rather fought in Excellion Mode." She took the offered hand as Quint helped her to her feet.

"Well, we're going to be here for a couple of days, I can help you out."

Nanoha smiled and nodded. "Thanks!" She blinked as Quint groaned slightly. "Are you okay?"

She nodded and chuckled. "That last attack I did was pretty powerful, Nanoha, it puts a lot of strain on my body." She slumped down to one knee. "Um, care to give me a hand to the ground? I need to recover."

Nanoha and Quint both laughed as the younger girl helped her down to the ground.  


* * *

Nanoha: Yahoo! Fighty fighty fighty time! That was fun! Whoo, I'm spinny, next time on Blood That Flows - Shine. Yuuno-kun, your turn.  
Yuuno: Ah... Nanoha, why are you, stop charging that spell up, you'll destroy everything!  
Nanoha: Aww... Okay, I'm tired anway.


	69. Shine 15

Blood That Flows

Shine 15

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Sorry about the delay on this one. Just been tired.

* * *

Megane smiled at Yuuno as he came onto the training field. "So, I hear that you helped save Mid-Childa." She stretched as Yuuno nodded at her. "Well then..." Smiling pleasantly, a Belkan Triangle appeared under her feet. "This should be a fun match."

Nodding, he looked at his device. "Ready for this, Thoth Driver?" When his device gave an affirmative, a green circle appeared under his feet. "Alright then." Closing his eyes, his device activated, causing his body to flash as a new outfit wrapped around his body. He gained pants that were a darker brown and his arms were covered in a black wrap, his shirt from when he met Nanoha was the same as before. Over-all, Yuuno couldn't complain too much, at least it wasn't something silly like a spandex body suit.

"Don't worry about holding back." Megane smiled at him. "I got asked to come here to let you go full out after all."

Yuuno blinked and nodded. "Alright then..." Jumping back, he held an open palm at Megane. "Fireball!"

Megane quickly lept away from the attack and blanched as several ice spears were pointed at her. "Well then... Garyuu." A humanoid insect appeared behind her, before rushing at Yuuno as Megane created a few barriers to block the attacks.

Yuuno's eyes widened, a summoner? "Damn." He knew that even the most basic summoners tended to have powerful creatures they could call to aid them. Even though summoning in and of itself was a bit of a rare skill, it was stupid to not respect the power that a summoner could call up if pushed.

When the creature struck towards him, a green barrier went up, blocking the piercing strike.

"Oww!" Yuuno slapped his neck, wondering what that was.

**"Warning, boss, lots of bugs, can we get some Raid?"**

Yuuno looked at his device. "What?"

**"Look around you, boss."**

Turning his head, Yuuno gaped at the bugs that were buzzing around him before throwing up another barrier, blocking Garyuu's attempt to get him from the side. "Sorry, but Lina's always doing stuff like this to me."

On the ground, Megane grimaced slightly, he was this good with barriers? Holding up a hand a purple magical beam rushed at him, only to stop when it connected with his barrier that was now surrounding his body. "Yeesh! It's like trying to beat up a mountain." There had been no give with that barrier field.

**"Just going to stand here and block or are you going to attack?"**

Yuuno growled slightly. "I'm trying to think, here."

**"Can't you keep your barrier up and attack? Or maybe use some sort of bindings on the big bug at least?"**

"I was TRYING to figure out how many there were!" Yuuno growled and threw his hands out. Green chains snapped out from his finger tips and through his barrier as they snapped through and around the various bugs, stunning them before wrapping around Garyuu and holding him tightly.

**"Oh, good one!"**

Yuuno smiled softly before yelping as much larger beetles appeared on the field. "What the?"

"Jiriao." Megane smiled at the boy as they launched several powerful lightning bolts at him.

Yuuno grit his teeth as his barriers were bombarded. 'Well, this might take awhile.' He really didn't want to hurt the summons.

After all, he heard tales about summoners who could summon up skyscraper-sized creatures.

He did _not_ want to face off against something like that if he could help it.

(-)

In the infirmery, Zest looked at Quint as she was brought into the room. "She over-did it, huh?" It was rather amusing to see a small girl basically carry Quint bridal style into the room, but seeing the soft glow around her body, it made sense that she was using some magic to help her.

Nanoha nodded and looked at him as he took her and put her on the open bed. "Is Fate-chan okay?"

"She's fine." Zest said gruffly. "The doctor said that she'd recover fast enough." The girl in question had her eyes closed and looked to be in a peaceful rest. "I wonder what happened to her though."

"That's my fault." Mary said as she walked into the room. "Nanoha, I'll want to see Raising Heart, I heard you took a really strong attack in Assault Mode." The young girl nodded and she looked at Fate. "It's my fault, I'll need to do some readjusting to Bardiche, but I never should have given her that mode without fully testing it. Then again, we didn't have time."

"What do you mean?" Nanoha asked in confusion and Mary smiled at her softly.

"Well, when I installed the new mode, I made sure to reinforce Bardiche's frame, but I didn't think about how the changes would affect Fate herself." Seeing the confused looks, she clarified for them. "Her Ruby Blitz Mode super compressess her magic, making it more potent so that it can at least harm Mazoku. Normally a mage's magic is around their body and surrounds them, when fully visible, it can make them look much larger than normal, but it's partially transparent. Fate's mode causes her aura to compress onto herself. It might not look larger, but it's far more dense."

"So, her magic was crushing onto her body and it couldn't handle it?" Zest raised an eyebrow and Mary nodded. "You really should be more careful with that. You could have had her heart explode if she kept it up for too long." Seeing both Mary and Nanoha flinch, he nodded. "My suggestion, dial back the compression to half strength until she gets older and can handle the stress better."

He left the room, stating something about wanting to see how Megane was doing.

Nanoha looked at Mary. "Is that true?"

"Possibly, yes." The older woman had an embarrassed look on her face. "I wanted to talk to Fate before she used that mode again, but it never came up and now she's here and..."

"I'm okay." Fate said softly, her eyes still closed. "But, yes, I think that man was right, it got hard to concentrate at the end of that match, I don't want that to happen if something serious happens."

Mary nodded at her. "When you're better, come see me, I'll go about adjusting Bardiche for you."

"Thank you." Fate said softly.

(-)

Zest stared as he looked at the fight as it was wrapping up.

Quite literally, as Yuuno was pinned under Garyuu, and Megane had green binds wrapped around her, surrounding her torso, breasts and neck while forcing her arms and legs to the side, leaving her spread eagle in mid-air. He coughed slightly and turned away. It wasn't too bad, but the way that the binds were pushing against Megane's clothes caused her curves to be more prominent than usual, especially her breasts.

And despite everything else, Megane _did_ have a nice body.

Zest blinked as he caught Miyuki looking on with undisguised interest, blushing heavily as she looked at Megane, then back at Yuuno, before he shook his head and decided that, no, he really did _not_ want to know what was going through the girl's head at that moment.

* * *

Nanoha: Fighty time is over now? Awww... Next time on Blood That Flows - Shine  
?: Yes, you'll do just nicely.

In other news, I'm happy to state that there's fanart of this fic. Yay!

gonzotheanime. deviantart. com/ art/Slayers-MGLN-Fanfic-fancov-201274556

Get rid of the spaces to see it.


	70. Shine 16

Blood That Flows

Shine 16

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

* * *

Quattro frowned as she looked at the doctor talking to her newly awoken sister. The girl was rather petite, had a small chest, though her rear-end was a touch too large in Quattro's eyes, the new cyborg also green eyes, blue-green hair that was short in the back but longer on the sides. "What's so special about this one?"

"Sein?" Uno looked at the new girl and shrugged. "I'm unsure, but she's one of the unmodified ones if my data serves me correctly."

"There's already five of us, how many does the doctor plan on activating?" Quattro looked at Uno seriously, her older sister shrugged. "Shee, I wanna help too, why won't he let me?"

"He won't even let me near the new ones until they've had time to adjust, Quattro." Uno patted her younger sister on the shoulder. "I wouldn't feel too bad about it right now. When I get some time, I'll see if I can't get him to let us spend time with our sisters. I'm sure that he's just making sure that nothing goes wrong with the assimilation process of their DNA." Though, Uno did wonder why Jail said he was going to be stepping up his work and having the rest of her sisters activate earlier than planned.

"Excuse me." Quattro turned and started to leave. "I need to do something in my lab." Quickly vacating the area, she frowned deeply. "Just what is going on here? Why won't they trust me?" She hated to sound so whiny, but she just wanted to be treated with the respect she deserved. Was that so wrong?

"Interesting." A voice in the back of her head whispered. Turning around, her eyes wide, she looked left and right. "Yes, you'll do just fine."

"Who are..." Quattro gasped and fell to her knees and let out a silent scream.

"I only need your body until I can recover fully." The voice said to her. "Don't worry, I won't kill you, you'll just be a passenger for now." The voice had gotten strong and clear enough that Quattro could tell that it was a woman's voice. "As for who I am..."

Quattro stood up, her eyes flashed red as she grinned. "Call me Levi, dear Quattro." Looking at herself, she flexed her hands a few times and grimaced. "You're telling me that your enhancements are this limited?" She sighed and shook her head. "Ah well, can't be helped, I guess."

'What do you want with me?' She smirked as she heard Quattro's voice in the back of her head.

Shrugging, she walked off and stood in front of a mirror. "Hmm... Not a bad body, but as for what I want, well, it's simple. I was badly hurt awhile ago and I need a host until my strength returns. It's easier in a human body." Cupping her breasts and squeezing them slightly, she sighed and shook her head, letting go of the fleshy orbs. "Well, could be worse, I could be in the body of a flat-chested little tramp."

'My sisters will know that there's something wrong with me.'

Levi smirked. "Are you sure? I look and sound just like you do, and I've been following you around for months now, I'm pretty sure that I can get your act down. Sadly, my power is just barely above a normal human's right now, it will... Take time." She chuckled before throwing her head back and laughing. "This is too rich! I can get stronger this way and there's no way that anyone will be the wiser!"

'You bitch, you... When I get free, I'll...'

"Oh, don't worry, you can have your body back when I'm done with it." She smirked as Quattro's mind calmed down. "Think of me as the driver and you don't have to do a thing for the next few years until more of my power returns. Your body was just perfect, so suited to hosting me, well, your breasts are smaller than I'd like, your butt's pretty flat, and your hair, ugh... But it's your mind that suits me... Yes, so filled with dark feelings. I can feed off of it for awhile."

'Feed, what... What are you?' Levi smirked as she heard Quattro's voice in her head.

Her glasses glinted dangerously. "A Mazoku, dear Quattro. A Mazoku. You really should have paid more attention to Jail's ramblings." She threw her head back and laughed sinisterly as Quattro screamed in the back of her mind.

(-)

Stretching as she walked behind Tre, Sein looked at her older sister and smiled. "Hey, Tre... How come I'm so small compared to you?"

Tre shrugged and looked back at her sister. "If I had to say, I'd guess it's because I'm a front-line fighter and you're not."

Sein nodded and yelped as she saw a large flash before a powerful explosion. "Wagh! Cinque!" She swung her arms up and down as she saw the devastation caused by the short girl. "That was so _cool_!"

Cinque ducked her head, blushing as Sein jumped through the protective upper wall to glomp onto her. "Sein?"

"So cool!" Sein's eyes were sparkling. "I mean, you just threw one knife and it went ka-boom and it was so awesome! Do it again!"

Cinque blushed more, though she wasn't sure if it was because of the praise or because Sein's hands were grabby, but nodded. "Uh, sure, but I'd rather you let go of me first." Despite being out cold for, apparently, a year, her power hadn't decreased at all. Heck, Cinque thought that her power was even stronger than it had been before, though it felt weird to her. "I need to talk to the doctor after I'm done training though."

"Aww..." Sein pouted as she detached herself from Cinque. "But that's not as much fun."

Walking up to them, Tre smacked Sein on the back of her head, though she made sure to hold back most of her strength so that Sein only felt a small tap. "What if she had been about to throw another knife? You could have gotten both of you blown up."

Sein rubbed the back of her head and nodded. "Sorry, Cinque-nee..."

"It's okay." Cinque just found Sein's antics amusing. Especially the way she would try to dig her foot into the ground.

Tre cleared her throat, catching their attention. "Since I'm the most combat capable of your older sisters, I am going to teach you two how to fight a superior opponent." Seeing the two of them look at her seriously, Tre had a small smile, or the beginnings of one, form at her lips. "So then... Try to keep up with me."

(-)

Seeing Sein and Cinque face off against Tre, Quattro shook her head. "Pitiful, really..." Oh well, it couldn't be helped, they were all just human after all. "Though, I have to admit, Tre does have the right idea for what a body should look like."

'Stop ogling my sisters.' That same annoying voice came to her and she rolled her eyes.

"Please, if I was ogling them, I'd make sure to wait until we were taking a bath together." She looked at Cinque and narrowed her eyes. "Hmm..." Turning, she walked away from the scene. Shaking her head as she came across Jail, she looked at the various robotic creatures and snorted. "Doctor... Just what are you going to use these things for?"

He shrugged as he looked at her, an eyebrow raised. "Well, I was thinking of using them as a distraction while I have you girls do things for me, but any real mage would tear them apart easily, well, except for those ones." He gestured to some that had sharp legs. "They're far more dangerous."

"Ah." Quattro nodded and smiled at him. "So, are we going to ineffectually deploy these things against S rank mages with their ability to make some sort of anti-magic field and watch as they get destroyed by even trained C rank mages? And the only time that they're effective is when they're teamed up with one of my sisters and in massive droves at once, otherwise they're not even cannon fodder?"

Jail shrugged at her. "I might have thought of that as a good idea once, but I was thinking that I could do much better than that. They'll still have uses, scouts, distractions, or, as you said it, cannon fodder, other than that, I'm not sure that I'll need them as much."

"Distractions? What? You mean, make sure that they're on one side of the planet and shooting people while we sneak around and steal something on the other side?"

Jail looked at her curiously. "Just what do you have..." He trailed off as she snapped her fingers and one of the walls shimmered slightly, revealing a line of large humanoid robots. "Those things?"

"I thought they were interesting back at that site, so I brought a few with us." Chuckling she tapped one and it opened up its chest cavity to reveal a small naked body inside. "Plus, being powered by a Unison Device, they're plenty powerful. Think of those ones as cannon fodder while these things are the heavy grunts." The device was female, well, she was certain, considering the tubes that were going into it's ass and crotch. The device had a visor over its face while its arms and legs were held to the side, leaving it spread-eagle in mid-air while the two tubes between her legs and backside slowly moved in and out of her body.

"Uno said that the computer was powered by the devices."

Quattro just smiled at Jail and shook her head. "Oh no... It was these things..." She touched the small device in the chest, getting a moan from the small body. "They're nothing but power sources to these machines now." She chuckled as she stepped back and the chest cavity closed up again. "Anyway, if there are more sites like that one, I suggest that we get as many of these things as possible before destroying the place. After all, they have enough power to threaten a AAA class mage, I'm sure that they'll be more than useful against the Bureau after you get the Knight Valkyrie Armor."

Jail had a neutral look on his face as the wall shimmered again. "I do hope that you'll... Be discreet about them for now."

Quattro nodded as Jail walked away. "Oh yes... Discreet indeed... I need more time, you decayed remnant of that time." She muttered as she turned and walked in the opposite direction. 'As soon as my power returns, fool, I'll make sure that you're the first to go, and possibly Uno as well. I will make sure that my master's work isn't undone for no good reason.' Her glasses glinted in the light as she turned a corner and snorted as she saw her other sisters that were being worked on. "Six left..." She wondered who was next to awaken before shrugging it off. 'How come you wear glasses anyway?'

'Like I would tell, aaaahhh!'

Quattro closed her eyes and shuddered in pleasure. 'What you feel as pain, I feel as pleasure, girl. Work with me and I'll show you the true delights about being a Mazoku. Nothing humans have can compare. So, why the glasses? You don't need them.'

'A... A disguise... So that people think I'm harmless.'

Quattro chuckled as she heard the voice in her head talk like that. 'Well, that's interesting at least.' Oh well. 'As soon as I recover more power, I am _so_ going to fix this body's flaws.' She thought to herself as she entered her room, before chuckling softly. "Dear doctor, what would you do if you knew who I was?" She asked as the door closed behind her.

* * *

Hayate: Hey, it's been awhile everyone! We're back now! Whee! I bet meeting this person will be lots of fun. Next time on Blood That Flows - Shine. Read it, or I'll grope all of you.  
Signum: I think some of them might enjoy it.

If you're curious about modifications, I'll tell you right now.

For the Numbers awake, here are how they are.

Uno - Normal  
Due - Normal, err, crazy-normal  
Tre - Normal  
Quattro - Possessed by Levi.  
Cinque - Modified DNA  
Sein - Normal

As for the rest, you'll find out soon enough.


	71. Shine 17

Blood That Flows

Shine 17

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

* * *

"Hey, Signum..."

"Yes, Hayate?" The pinkette asked as she drove up to the building in the distance.

"Thank you for coming with me today." Hayate smiled softly. "I didn't want to come alone."

Signum nodded as she slowed the car to a stop. "I understand." As they got out of the car, Signum felt a little out of place as she looked at the building. "Mind if I be honest?"

"Signum, you don't need to hide anything from me." Hayate smiled at her. "If you're feeling weird, it's okay. I can't imagine being here would be normal."

Signum shook her head. "Being on Mid-Childa is one thing, but... The Saint Church for the Saint Kaiser..." She trailed off, unsure how to phrase her next words. "I might not have many memories from before you became my master, Hayate, but I'm sure that I was alive when Saint Kaiser Olivie Segbert was alive." She stopped and frowned while Hayate looked at her in confusion.

"How did you know her name?" Hayate didn't even know the Saint Kaiser's name like that, she knew that the Saint Kaiser was a woman, but not much more than that. Mostly because she hadn't read any history books on the subject.

"A memory... I think, maybe I met her, I do not know." Signum shook her head and frowned softly. "I suppose it does not matter right now. You're here to meet people and understand more about Ancient Belka, correct?"

Hayate nodded, she did wish that Reinforce had come with, but she understood why Reinforce didn't want to

***Flash***

"Why don't you want to go with?" Hayate looked at Reinforce in shock as the device took a deep breath.

"Because, while the rest of our family could be looked at as victims for what happened, I was the reason so much pain was caused over the years. Maybe I am being irrational, but I do not want to go to Mid-Childa at this time." Reinforce got off of the couch and smiled softly. "Besides, Vita's got a cold, this gives me an excuse to stay home."

Hayate gave her a flat look, but didn't press the issue. "Alright, but you are going to have to go there sooner or later." Reinforce nodded at her as she went to check on Vita.

***Flash***

"I understand that she's nervous, but she can't expect people to be upset at her for something she had no control over." Hayate pouted as they walked into the building.

"Often times, people are worried about how others view them when things happen, even if it is beyond their control." The two blinked as they saw a woman with short pink hair in a nun's outfit standing at the door. "Hello, I am Schach Nouera, nun of the Saint Church. You must be Signum and Hayate of the Yagami family?" She smiled as they nodded. "Welcome then, I'm sure that you'll want to meet Carim Gracia."

Hayate blinked and thought about it, before nodding. "Yes, I believe that Miss Lindy had set things up for a meeting?" She blinked as Schach started laughing softly.

"You don't need to be so formal. I'm sure that you and Carim will get along just swell. She recently became a Knight of the Church, so let me take you to her office."

As they walked down the hall, Signum looked at Schach curiously. "You're a fighter?"

"Ah, you can tell?" Schach turned and blushed softly. "I try to hide it so that people don't feel threatened by me."

Signum nodded at her. "I can understand."

"Signum..." Hayate turned her head and smiled at the tall pinkette. "If you want to spar with miss Schach, feel free to."

"Ah, thank you." Signum nodded and looked at Schach, who had a weird glint in her eyes.

It was a glint that Signum understood immediately. The younger woman wanted to test herself against Signum. It wasn't something that Signum did very often, but she understood. After all, she still wanted to have some rematches with Testarossa, since none of their fights were ever completed.

She also wanted a match against Testarossa's adopted mother, but that would have to wait for awhile at least, but it would probably be interesting if it ever happened.

Signum did hear about what happened back on Lina's home world. And, quite frankly, it left her interested. If she could, she wanted to see about visiting that planet sometime.

The two were led to a large office and inside was a blonde haired girl and a green haired boy, the latter of which had his back to them. "Carim, Verossa, I'd like you to meet Signum and Hayate Yagami."

The blonde stood up and smiled at the two. "Welcome, Admiral Harlaown said that you'd be stopping by today."

The green haired boy coughed slightly. "Sis, I think you're overwhelming her." He winked as Hayate blushed softly. "We're supposed to help her understand more about Ancient Belka, not spook her out with your charisma."

Schach rolled her eyes. "At least she has charisma, Verossa." The boy crossed his arms and gave her a sour look.

"Unlike my sister, I know how to turn it off when it's not needed." He smiled at Hayate, who was giggling at the two of them. "Though, considering how cute Hayate is and how pretty Signum is, I can see why she wouldn't turn it off." It had an added effect of causing Hayate's face to turn scarlet.

Schach slapped herself on the forehead. Really, Verossa wasn't that old, he was just starting to notice girls, though, she did suppose that Hayate was pretty cute and Signum was rather lovely looking.

Signum coughed into her hand. "If you'll excuse me, I don't feel too comfortable with sitting in meetings."

Carim nodded, smiling. "Schach, why don't you show Signum around?"

"Of course." Schach said as she bowed and left the room with Signum.

"Schach's rather nice." Hayate said as she walked up to the table. "So, you're in charge of the church?"

Carim shook her head. "Not yet, I'm afraid. I am a Knight, but I am not fit to lead the church just yet."

Verossa rolled his eyes. "Wasn't that because old sister Gradiouse got upset at you for dressing Schach up in those weird clothes?"

Hayate's eyes seemed to sparkle at that. "You like cosplay?" When Carim blinked, she clarified. "You know, dressing people up in costumes that make them look like someone or something else? It's really popular on Earth."

"Really?" Carim leaned in, grinning. "Tell me, do you like cosplay?"

The grin on Hayate's face reached from ear to ear. "If you give me a bed sheet, a scissor and a needle with yarn, I can turn your brother into a princess." The two started giggling while Verossa looked on nervously.

"Well, I just hope that the Church doesn't become a fashion show later..." He muttered and gulped as the two narrowed their eyes at him. "Hey, look, it's okay to have fun, but this place _is_ to celebrate the Saint Kaiser, after all."

"Figures that my brother would quote the older ladies now, of all times." Carim sighed and blinked as Hayate shook her head. "Yes?"

"Well, I'm not a member of the Church, so..." Hayate giggled and pulled out a small notebook from her pocket. "Sorry for the small look, but you can see some of my designs. I really wish that Nanoha-chan and Fate-chan would let me design their clothes too." She pouted as Carim looked through the drawings.

"Wow... You're good. Oh my... I like this one. I'm going to have Schach use it as her Knight Armor from now on." Carim giggled softly. If Hayate was this much fun all the time, then they were really going to be good friends in the future.

(-)

Verossa blinked as he walked past his sister's office again. "You two still talking?"

Carim blinked and looked at the time. "Oh! I guess you should..." She trailed off at the explosion in the background. "Oh no... Is Schach fighting again?"

Hearing another explosion, the two got up and hurried outside. "I think she might be fighting against Signum." She just hoped that Signum wasn't causing too many problems for them.

A few more explosions later and Hayate and Carim ran out of the Church and through a group of cheering people and gaped at the sight in front of them.

The two pink haired Belkan fighters were standing shakily, their clothes were in tatters and barely holding together as they breathed heavily.

Carim frowned as she saw someone taking pictures. "Just what..." She trailed off as there was a tearing sound. Turning her head, she stared as several people started whistling and taking pictures of the two completely naked women.

Hayate's eyes twitched, she didn't mind seeing Signum naked, but she was sure that Signum wouldn't want others to see her like this. Plus the pictures...

"Alright!" Carim yelled, catching everyone's attention, most of the people started gulping, though Signum and Schach looked on with dread at the irritated looks on Hayate and Carim's faces. "I want ALL cameras turned over to me, right now! Or I'll let my brother practice his mind reading on you after I turn you into a dress up doll!"

Carim wasn't surprised as a small pile of cameras were dropped in front of her as the others ran back into the church. "As for you, Schach... Hayate and I have been... Discussing costumes and outfits, I'm sure that you'll gladly try them on for us."

"As will Signum." Hayate gave the naked, gulping Knight a grin. "And there's not a thing that she won't try on, pose with and let us take pictures, isn't that right?"

Schach and Signum looked at each other and gulped. Being naked outside was bad enough, the way that Carim and Hayate were looking at them made it worse.

(-)

Later...

Hayate grinned as Signum and Schach, both in bunny girl outfits, smiled as they knelt on the floor. "Good, smile for the camera." After a few more pictures, she looked at Carim. "What's next?"

The blonde grinned as she pulled up a nurse outfit and a french maid outfit. "I think this... Naughty Nurse, you called it?" Hayate nodded and grinned as the two warriors groaned and stripped out of their clothes.

"Hayate, please..." Signum practically begged her master. "I'm tired of changing in and out of these clothes."

"Hmm..." Hayate looked at Schach, who had a pleading look, before looking at Carim, who shrugged. "Alright, last one, I promise."

Signum sighed and looked at Schach. "At least she locked the doors when we were in the Hadoku aprons."

Schach shuddered at that and imagined if people had seen her at that point. "Yeah, you put up with this at home?"

"She's usually not this bad, but we did kind of go too far for a sparring match." At least Reinforce wasn't there, she tended to be a bit more strict with her punishments.

Signum wasn't sure if Reinforce would punish her like she did Vita, but she wasn't sure if she wanted to find out.

As the last pictures were taken, Signum sighed as she was able to put on her normal clothes. Looking at Schach, she mentally chuckled as the nun had the same expression of relief on her face. "That was a good match."

Schach nodded at her. "Indeed. Though, next time, we should make sure that we're more alone when we spar."

Signum chuckled softly before blinking as Hayate cleared her throat. "Ah, yes?"

Hayate closed her eyes and smiled. "If you're going to spar like that again, make sure to get a video recording of it. I need to know how much your Knight Armor can take in case I need to redesign it in the future." When Signum nodded, Hayate grinned and turned to Carim. "You'll send me the pictures when they're all developed, right?"

"Of course." Carim grinned as the two chuckled while Schach and Signum paled.

For some reason, they felt that this wasn't going to come back and haunt them.

* * *

Signum: That was... Embarrassing. Especially the Hadoku apron. I do not like being naked like that, Hayate.  
Hayate: You weren't completely naked, besides, only Carim and I saw you.  
Signum: ...Yes, well, next time on Blood That Flows - Shine, read it, or Hayate will play dress-up with me again.  
Hayate: Fufufufufufufufufu...  
Signum: ...Help?

...Was the naked Apron too much?


	72. Shine 18

Blood That Flows

Shine 18

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

* * *

Meanwhile, back on Earth...

"Sure has been a mild winter." Suzuka commented idly as she and Arisa walked down the street. Sure, it was still chilly, and there was snow, but at least it hadn't been a rampant blizzard around there.

"Compared to what I've heard about the United States and Canada's winters, it is." Arisa nodded, shivering slightly, both at the thought of getting hit with anywhere from one to three meters of snow in less than a month, and at the errant breeze that got under her coat. The two girls turned a corner and ran into a solid wall, or at least something that felt like a solid wall, and fell onto their backs. "Oww!" Looking up, Arisa frowned as she saw a busty, well muscled, woman with green hair, a bandage on her nose and one eye missing. "Are you crazy, lady? It's cold out here!"

She shrugged at Arisa. "Not really, when you've been around people that can drop temperatures so cold that even the Astral Plane freezes, a little chill like this isn't even noticeable. Plus I knew a Dragon God who could freeze things permanently, this, this is nothing."

"Even so, you stand out." Suzuka said softly to her. "If you were trying to not..." She trailed off as the woman started laughing. "What's so funny?"

"You humans." Her shoulders shook as she looked at the two rich girls. "You really are something else, anyway, I've been looking for Yuuno Scrya, but I can't find him." She seemed to be rather upset about that fact. "I thought he lived around here, but I can't find him."

"Um, he's not on this planet." Suzuka spoke up and blinked as the woman's face showed dismay and her shoulders slumped. "He's off planet training with Nanoha-chan and Fate-chan."

Suddenly she perked up and looked at the girl. "Training?" Suzuka and Arisa both nodded and a gleam came to her eye. "Well, if he's off getting stronger, that's better. I thought he just ran away." Looking at the two, she tilted her head. "I don't know why, but you," she pointed at Arisa, "remind me of Yuuno, and you," she then pointed at Suzuka, "have something weird going on with you too."

The two girls looked at each other in confusion before looking at her again. "What do you mean?"

She shrugged at Suzuka's question. "Heck if I know, I just noticed you two feel different than most people do."

"Wait," Arisa's eyes widened as she pointed a trembling finger at the woman, "are you a Mazuko?"

The woman's eye twitched. "MA.. ZO..KU, you stupid human! If you can't pronounce it right, then at least call me a Monster, shee! As for your question, yes, I am. Name's Riksfalto, General to Lord Dolphin... Who apparently got lost in the Carribean Islands last time we talked, though she seems happy there for some reason."

(-)

"This chocolate's great! What's in it?" Dolphin looked at the orange-haired boy who was sitting next to her.

"Weed." He nodded to her. "Hey, Foreman, how'd you get this vacation anyway?" He turned his head to look at the person on his other side.

"Well, Hyde, that's a very good question and I... Oh, topless dancers." Turning, he frowned. "Guess not, darn."

"You know, you can be a real jerk..." The last woman of the group narrowed her eyes at him before turning to look at Dolphin. "So, what's your story?"

"Demon Lord from another dimension who's on vacation and looking for good chocolate." Dolphin answered seriously, getting a stunned look from the group. "Come on! Let's have some fun!"

The other three shrugged and decided to just go with the flow.

(-)

Riksfalto shook her head. "Let's just say that my master can be a little weird." She then sighed as she looked around at the snow. "Damn! I was really hoping Yuuno would be around, but he's not even here? What a let down."

"You're not going to harm him, are you?" Arisa frowned as she looked at the Mazoku, who looked down at her and raised an eyebrow.

"So, what if I am? You're just a human, I'm a Mazoku, fighting you would be easier than using Miasma to slaughter a village of babies." She smirked at the shocked looks on their faces. "Wouldn't be the first time that a Mazoku's done that." Riksfalto started laughing softly. "Humans fear us, so they made that Zannafar thing, and look how that turned out! It destroyed its own creators and nearly destroyed humanity for us."

Arisa trembled as she looked at Riksfalto. "How can you... Talk about killing so easily?"

"I'm a Mazoku, girl." She grinned at the two kids. "Death, destruction and chaos are things that we can cause with ease. The pain and suffering you humans feel is just a delicious treat for us." She licked her lips as she looked at them. "In fact, the anger you two are feeling is just nice... Too bad that's all you can do." She turned and started walking away, laughing. "Maybe, just maybe if you two had any real strength, you could," Riksfalto found herself suddenly face-down on the side walk from a book bag that hit her in the back of the head.

"Suzuka!" Arisa was surprised that her friend would react that way.

"Stop it!" Suzuka yelled at Riksfalto, who was getting up. "You can't talk about people that way! I won't forgive you." She growled as the Mazoku sat there, chuckling at her. "You... STOP LAUGHING!"

Arisa stared as Suzuka ran forward and landed a punch on Riksfalto's jaw, causing the Mazoku to go tumbling down the street, through a telephone pole, a light pole and into a parked car, where she ended up stopping.

"Yeeow!" Riksfalto stood up and rubbed her jaw. "Gee! If I was a lesser demon that would have killed me!" Shaking her head, she stood up and grinned at the two. "Well, I never met a little girl as strong as you before." Not to mention that punch, Riksfalto was almost certain that the girl had no magic abilities, so how the heck did that punch hurt so much?

Suzuka gulped as Riksfalto walked up to them and smirked. "So, got any more tricks, or are you two just little girls who have a quirk about you?" Sure, she was on vacation, but her idea of a good time was a good fight.

Well, that and finding Yuuno again, she really wanted to see him again.

"You know, it's interesting that I don't feel any local gods." Riksfalto grinned at the girls. "Oh well, you two aren't any threat." Turning, she walked away, this time waving to the two as she disappeared.

Arisa shivered, her eyes unfocused and unseeing. "What..." Her whole body shivered as she fell to her knees, her head throbbed in pain, before she fell forward, passing out.

"Arisa? Arisa!" Suzuka yelled, shaking her friend before grabbing her phone and making a phone call.

(-)

Stretching slightly, Lina groaned and looked at her belly. "You think it's funny, huh?" She couldn't be mad at her unborn son, but he just had to be kicking and moving at that moment. Oh well, at least he wasn't too hungry compared to Nanoha.

Of course, considering what happened the last time she was pregnant, it wasn't really a surprise that some of her friends in Europe sent boxes of chocolate to her, if only to keep her at home this time around.

"I wonder how Elizabeth is doing, I should call her sometime." Lina muttered softly, before blinking as the phone rang. "Yes?" She asked as she picked it up. "Suzuka? Suzuka, calm down, what... What happened? Okay, thank you for telling me, I'll... Wait, what?" Lina's eyes narrowed slightly. "Alright, I'll be there." Rubbing her forehead, she walked out of the office. "Shiro! I need a lift to the hospital."

"Is everything okay?" The alarm on his face was kind of cute, but she didn't want him worrying about her.

"I'm fine, our baby is fine," she rubbed her belly and smiled to reassure him, "but it seems that Arisa and Suzuka had a run in with a Mazoku and now Arisa's in the hospital."

Shiro nodded. "Alright." He looked at Kyouya, who was looking in concern. "Can you cover..?"

"Not a problem, I'll make sure that Shinbou knows." Kyouya waved his parents off as they took off out the door.

(-)

"You're here." Suzuka smiled in relief as she saw Lina and Shiro come into the hospital room. Other than Arisa, who was on the bed, and Suzuka, Arisa's butler was there, bowing to the two.

"Thank you for showing up. The doctor's can't find anything wrong with her."

Rubbing her head, Lina looked at Suzuka. "Okay, so, explain in detail what happened."

Suzuka nodded to the older woman.

After the explanation, Lina rubbed her forehead. "Ugh... I don't know what the heck is going on. You said that she said that Arisa reminded her of Yuuno?" Suzuka nodded and Lina blinked in confusion. "Weird..." She looked at Arisa's butler, who had a confused and hopeless look on his face. "I wish I could help her."

He shook his head. "I'm just glad that she has people who are worried for her."

Lina nodded and frowned. 'How the heck does Arisa remind Riksfalto of Yuuno?' Mazoku could see people physically, but they also saw a person's Astral Body at the same time. So, how could Yuuno and Arisa be similar?

Those thoughts cleared from her head when Arisa stirred and cracked an eye open to look at them.

(-)

Sitting on top of the Tokyo Tower, Riksfalto frowned as she thought back to those two girls. The one that punched her was interesting for sure, but the other one...

"Just what was I sensing?" If she was back on the red world, she would have just thought that the girl was a seal for Shabranigdo or a Knight of Cephied and reported to Dolphin and kept tabs on the girl until later and be done with it.

Oh well, she'd find out soon enough, she didn't have anything else to do on this vacation after all.

* * *

Arisa: Gosh! Suzuka! What the heck?  
Suzuka: Um, I'm sorry, I don't know what came over me.  
Arisa: Ugh... Next time on Blood That Flows - Shine, huh? Whaddya mean we're not in it? The plot finally starts focusing on us and now we're out of focus again?  
Vita: There are other people you know.

Gee, what DID Suzuka do? Find out later, huh? Anyway, for those who have been going "Mazuko", there, Riksfalto spelled it out for ya. As for Arisa and Suzuka, well, we'll find out, won't we?


	73. Shine 19

Blood That Flows

Shine 19

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

* * *

Sitting on a love seat in a pair of blue pants and a sweater, Reinforce looked at Zwei as the smaller Device pouted on the table. "Is something wrong?"

"Sis is sick and she can't play. Zaffy and Shamal are out grocery shopping and I'm bored!" The small device flopped onto her back on the couch and started kicking her arms and legs up and down. "Bored, bored, bored, bored!"

"Zwei." Reinforce's tone of voice got the young device to stop thrashing about. "If you're bored, I can put in a video game or a movie for you, okay?" Zwei nodded as the taller, silver-haired device pulled out some DVDs. "Here, this is a good one." She smiled as she turned the player on. "So, sit and enjoy." She nearly laughed as Zwei rolled around so she was holding her head in her hands and watching the movie.

Leaving Zwei alone, Reinforce went to the kitchen and grabbed some soup, juices and some aspirin, putting them on a tray, she walked back to Vita's room.

"Hey..." Vita sniffled, before blowing her nose. "Ugh... You don't want this."

"I probably won't get it." Reinforce stated as she put the tray over Vita's lap. "So, here, have some soup."

"Thanks." Vita's voice was so raw that Reinforce couldn't help but feel bad for her. Vita ducked her head away from Reinforce's hand.

"...Sorry." Reinforce pulled her hand away before Vita shook her head. "Vita?"

"Don't want you getting sick because you touched me." She mumbled as she drank her soup and sighing as it warmed her body.

Reinforce nodded and just sat there until Vita was done eating her soup. "Here... I'll take that." She pulled the tray away from Vita. Putting it on Vita's dresser, Reinforce turned around and sat on the bed, causing Vita to blink until Reinforce pulled the smaller redhead into a hug.

"Reinforce?" Vita blinked, though she returned the hug. It wasn't a desperate hug from Reinforce, it felt soothing, relaxing and Vita found herself closing her eyes and resting her head on Reinforce's chest as the taller device rubbed her back with one hand and used her other hand to pat Vita on the head.

Pulling away from the hug, Reinforce smiled and gave Vita a soft kiss on the forehead. "Now you get better, okay? I get worried about all of you." Vita nodded sleepily as Reinforce helped her lay back down and tucked her in. "Sleep well, Vita." Reinforce gently rubbed Vita's face before getting up, grabbing the tray and leaving the room.

As she walked into the living room, Zwei looked at her. "Is Vita going to be okay, mommy?"

Reinforce nodded at her. "Yeah, she just needs her rest, that's all."

"Kay." Zwei smiled at Reinforce before going back to the movie.

As Reinforce put the dishes away, she smiled softly as she thought about Hayate, Signum, Zafira, Shamal, Vita, and, of course, her daughter, Zwei. "I thought I was the happiest magical tome in the world when Hayate gave me a name. My family..." Closing her eyes, a warm feeling enveloped her. "I never want to lose them."

"We're back." Shamal's voice rang into the house as she and Zafira walked into the living room. "Zwei, where's Reinforce?"

"In the kitchen." Zwei smiled and pounced at Zafira, clinging to his large body. "Zaffy!" She let out a small coo of enjoyment as she buried herself into his mane.

Zafira chuckled and jumped up onto the couch so the two of them could enjoy the movie.

Smiling, Shamal walked into the kitchen and blinked as she saw Reinforce standing in front of the sink, looking at it, seemingly lost in her own world. "Reinforce?" Touching Reinforce on her shoulder, she blinked as the silver haired Device spun around and hugged her tightly. "Reinforce?"

"I'm so sorry." Reinforce said softly as Shamal hugged her awkwardly. "I... I wish that I could make the past go away."

Shamal smiled and closed her eyes, hugging Reinforce tighter. "I understand, Reinforce, it's not your fault. None of us blame you."

"I know, but... I look at Vita, you, Signum, Zafira... I think... I ruined your lives, you shouldn't have had to go through..." She blinked as Shamal pulled away and put a finger on her lips.

"If not for you, we wouldn't have met Hayate, nor would have Zwei came into our lives, and we wouldn't be human now. So, I think that I speak for the others when I say this, Reinforce... You are a member of our family, just like Hayate and Zwei are, and we love you, very, very much." Shamal smiled as Reinforce hugged her again. "So, stop thinking about the past, Reinforce, and think about the future, with us."

"I do, I just... Sorry, I guess I was being stupid."

Shamal smiled softly. "It's okay, we all are stupid at times." Hearing Reinforce laugh softly made Shamal feel better. "Come on, you promised to help me cook."

Letting go of the hug, Reinforce nodded at the blonde. "Sure."

(-)

Meanwhile...

Lina scratched her head as she looked at Arisa. "So, you don't know what happened, either?" Arisa shook her head and Lina sighed before jumping. "Hey..." She looked at her belly. "Stop kicking there mister, or you won't get any chocolate." She pouted as her baby didn't listen. "Shiro! Your son won't listen to his mommy!"

Chuckling softly, Shiro hugged her from behind and looked at Arisa, who looked like she was trying not to laugh, which got harder as Lina let out a pleasant sigh and dropped her head onto his chest, cooing cutely. "I don't know why a Mazoku would find an interest in you and Suzuka. I'd say that it was a coincidence, but it's hard to believe in that some days."

"That's okay." Arisa sighed softly as a nurse came in to check up on her. "My head just hurt for some reason, like I really wanted to hurt her and it was so sudden, I don't know what happened."

"We'll keep her overnight for observations, but it looks like she's okay." The nurse smiled at everyone. "I'll ask you to leave now, if there's any change before tomorrow morning, I'll make sure that you get a call." They nodded, except for Lina, who was looking at her belly and pouting.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Shiro asked as he and Lina left the hospital. The redhead nodded and sighed.

"Just that my back, breasts and belly hurts having to lug your son around." She stuck her tongue out at him and put his hand on her belly. Lina nearly laughed at the way Shiro's eyes lit up in delight as he felt his son moving around. "If I didn't love you so much, this wouldn't be worth it."

Shiro chuckled softly as they got to their car. "But you do."

"Yep." Lina laughed softly, though she was privately worried. She couldn't really perform much magic at this time, but she knew someone who could help out.

She just hoped that the person in question could make a trip to see her.

(-)

"Interesting." He looked at Xellos, the Mazoku was uncharacteristically somber for some reason. "I never thought I'd see you on this world."

"Vacation from our world, Shinzoku." Xellos turned back to looking at the building in the distance. "It's an interesting place."

"The decaying ruins?" Sirius looked at the building. "Or are you talking about the souls that still wander this land?"

"Both." Xellos took a deep breath as he stood up. "Even one such as I cannot look at such a place so casually."

"I would have thought that your kind would enjoy this site. Even now, decades after it happened, I can still feel the pain and suffering that the humans endured from the hands of other humans."

Xellos gave the Shinzoku a dirty look. "Even so, these are just echos, old ones of souls who were tormented before finally killed. For you and most humans, this would probably be a place of horror, I assume."

"Not so much horror as a reminder of what humans are capable of."

"Indeed." Xellos nodded as he started to walk towards it. "You're welcome to come with if you want to."

Looking at Xellos' retreating back, Sirius shrugged inside of his cloak and followed the Mazoku. "So, why aren't you giddy with excitement?"

Xellos didn't answer right away as he carefully walked down the path to the decayed prison. "This place is far different to me than it is for you." Sweeping his staff out, both he and Sirius could actually see shadows of the past as they came to life that only the eyes of Shinzoku and Mazoku could see. "What do you see?"

"Cruelty of the highest order, torture before death for some, the others starved and were forced to bury their dead friends and family. What do you see?"

"The same, but for you, it's disgusting, for me... It's as if I were a human, one who walked into a Holy place of worship to a supreme being and was awed by what I felt."

Sirius looked at Xellos with disgust. "You Mazoku..."

"We both need human emotions to survive, Shinzoku. We Mazoku survive off of negative emotions, you need positive emotions, and humans are capable of experiencing both in extreme amounts." The two were looking at each other seriously as the air around them intensified. "Didn't you ever find it weird that even though we are superior to humans, we need them to survive?"

"Until recently, no, I didn't." Sirius narrowed his eyes at the Mazoku Priest. "Don't tell me you knew the reason?" He growled as Xellos shrugged his shoulders. "You..."

"Lord Beast Master once commented to me that Love is the most complex of all emotions, that it can be both positive and negative, that one can still be angry while loving someone. I only understood as I spent time with humans. They are complex creatures, ones that exist between us Mazoku and you Shinzoku, never following one or the other. All would claim to follow the Shinzoku, but considering what I've discovered of them on this world, that seems to be an excuse to commit acts that would have even Hellmaster impressed. This place, Auschwitz-Birkenau, itself was created to help purify the world of one race of people." Both of the two otherworldly beings looked over the decayed ruins as shadows of the past ran through various hallways.

"...How did you know the name of this place?"

"I just listened to the spirits and the yells."

Sirius frowned as he looked at the place before turning and leaving. "It still is a terrible sight to behold."

"Indeed." Xellos turned to leave as well. "Humans with no magic have created weapons of power that are as terrifying as any spells that people on my world or power from your world."

"For such a low level of technology and magic, I agree." Sirius shuddered and looked around. "This whole planet is rife with strife and struggle, the strong subjugating the weak, murdering people just to get a bit further in life. To think that these people can live with it..."

"To them, it's normal." Xellos said as he disappeared. "They've lived their whole lives knowing such acts, the current society is built on the blood of the previous one after all."

Sirius looked at where the Mazoku had been, before leaving. As much as he didn't like the thought, Xellos had been right.

* * *

Zest: Well, I think it's time. What? A new mission? Very well, next time on Blood That Flows - Shine.


	74. Shine 20

Blood That Flows

Shine 20

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Warning: Long chapter is long.

* * *

Back on Midchilda...

"So, this is where you are." A bemused voice spoke up as the doors opened. "I got a little bit worried when I got a call at work..."

"WAHHH! Mommy's broken!" A young girl started wailing and tugged on the pant legs of the person she came with. "Daddy! Mommy's broken!"

"I'm sure that mommy's fine, Subaru." He smiled at her and looked at his other daughter. "Ginga?"

"Wow! Someone beat mommy up! Is that person the strongest?" While Ginga was wondering who was strong enough to beat her mother up, Subaru ran to Quint and climbed onto the bed.

"Mommy! Don't be broke, mommy!" She started punching her small fists onto Quint's chest, trying to get a response.

Quint smiled and opened her eyes to look at Subaru. "Silly Subaru, mommy's not broke." She winked and lightly tapped her knuckled against the young girl's forehead. "Mommy was just stupid and went too hard in a sparring match and needed a nap." Chuckling, she caressed the small girl's cheek. "I'll be fine." She looked at Ginga and her husband. "Hello, Ginga, Genya." Smiling, she pulled her other daughter into a hug when Ginga ran to her. "Sorry that I didn't call."

Genya shrugged at that. "It's fine, though, if you're going to end up training and hurting yourself more often, should I be bringing dinner here?"

"Not on your life." Quint rolled her eyes as she sat up. "See? Mommy's fine." Seeing the girls nod and get off of her, she got up before finding it suddenly hard to stand up. "Or not..." She would have fallen forward had Genya not grabbed her. "Whee... Everything's spinning."

"You okay?" Genya looked at her in concern and Quint nodded before shaking her head to clear it.

"I'm fine, just a touch of dizziness." She laughed and gave Genya a quick kiss on the cheek. "See? Perfectly fine." Looking down, she smiled and grabbed her daughters. "So, come on, you two! Have any of you eaten yet?" Getting negative responses, she grinned. "Good! We'll go out and eat today then!"

"Okay!" Her girls yelled happily as as Quint put them down. Taking Genya's hand, the family walked out the door.

* * *

"Sir..." Looking up at the voice, he smiled at his secretary as she led in a thin brunette with shoulder-length hair. "Here is the transfer, sir."

"Ah, good." He nodded to her. "Leave us, I'd like to get to know her first."

"Of course, Colonel." His secretary bowed, leaving the two of them alone.

"So, what's your name, private?"

"Private Duo Lon, sir!" She saluted and got a nod from him.

"Good... Unfortunately, you won't have much time to adjust to your teammates." Seeing her confused look, he clarified. "I got a notice that a site of interest was discovered and you'll be heading out with your commanding officers at 0600 tomorrow."

"A site of interest, sir?" She blinked as he shook his head.

"It was recently discovered that there are old factories left over from the last major wars. The mission that we of the Bureau have right now is a simple one, check it out to make sure that none of the relics inside are a threat to the Bureau and bring back what we can."

She gulped slightly and nodded. "Sounds serious. What should we do if we can't secure the site?"

"The orders are, if we can't secure the site, to retreat and destroy it. If the weapons come online, they're far too dangerous to be allowed to run free." She nodded at him. "If that is all, dismissed. I expect you and the others to be here in the morning."

"Yes sir!" She saluted and left him behind.

* * *

Meanwhile...

Sein looked around as she and Cinque walked down the hallway to meet up with Jail and their other sisters. "What do you think the doctor's next assignment is?"

"I'm not sure." Cinque nodded and blinked as she saw Tre, Uno and Quattro already in the room. "Where's Due?"

"On an infiltration mission." Tre spoke to the shorter two. "The Bureau, apparently, has some sort of new weapons being made and Due's going to be seeing about getting some of it for the doctor."

Jail smiled at Tre's explanation before nodding to Cinque and Sein. "Glad you could join us, anyway..." He pulled out a small remote and tapped a button and a screen popped up. "It seems that I've discovered where the next piece of the Knight Valkrye Armor is located. Unfortunately, we don't have the same luxury of time that we did last time. The Bureau's discovered this site as well. I want all of you to go to the site and secure the Knight Valkrye Armor piece that's located inside. If you're fortunate enough to retrieve any of the weapons inside, make sure to bring them back to me." He looked at Quattro, who smiled at him. "Quattro, here, has found some use of the larger ones, so if possible, bring a couple back."

Quattro just smiled at her sisters. "Don't worry, they'll be very useful to us." Mentally she was smirking. 'And to me, if the power outputs I was reading is correct, these things might even be able to put down those annoyances that nearly killed me last time.'

'You're paAAAAHHHH!'

'Don't forget, Quattro, that I'm in charge of your body and I can make you feel pleasures and pains beyond your wildest dreams.'

'Yes... Levi...' Quattro's voice was bitter and Levi nearly broke out into laughter.

"We should be careful, though." Cinque said softly. "How large is this place?"

"Large enough that enough of them can hide most of the Bureau's fleet." Jail explained as he brought up plans. "Thanks to the data Quattro got me from the first site, I can tell you that most of these sites have the same basic design. Four tunnels to a large central sphere where a main computer that controls the entire site and all the defenses exists. The top opens up so that the weapons inside or ships on the outside can come and go. You won't need to worry too much about the confined spaces, since Uno and Quattro will keep the defenses of the place busy."

Uno smiled softly. "Thankfully, I've figured out how to control them from a distance, so I don't need to get anywhere near as close as I did last time."

"Good." Jail smiled at her. "Your job is to first, secure the site, Uno and Quattro will take care of that with ease. Second job is to get to the center and get the piece of the Knight Valkrye Armor. Finally, if possible, secure the weapons of the site, starting with the strongest ones."

The cyborgs all nodded.

"I'd like you to head out as soon as possible, dismissed." Jail smiled as most of them left right after that. "Cinque, are you okay?" She nodded and took a deep breath. "What's wrong?"

"I am a little worried, I've not gotten full control over my power since I woke up." She blinked as Jail knelt down to look her in the eyes. "Doctor?"

"You'll be fine, Cinque, I'm sure. Your job is to make sure that the rest of your sisters come back alive. Have you tried on the new coat I got for you yet?" She shook her head. "You should. It will create a fairly strong Anti-Magic Field to help protect you in case a Bureau mage or knight shows up. I'm sure that you and all of your sisters will be fine, just do your best out there."

She nodded at him. "Thank you, doctor." Impulsively she gave him a hug, before blushing and pulling away. "Ah..."

Jail chuckled and stood up fully. "It's okay, Cinque, it's not uncommon for people to give hugs when they feel happy about something." He nearly laughed as the small silver-haired girl blushed hard, turned around and ran down the hallway to catch up to her sisters. "Good luck, all of you."

* * *

Later...

Sein stretched, yawning as she, Quattro and Cinque walked down one of the tunnel hallways. "How come Tre didn't come with us down this hallway?"

"The Bureau's on their way," Quattro explained as the group turned a corner and came to a door. "Though, I do wish she was here, since you two can't fly." Grabbing Cinque by her arm, she was about to do the same for Sein when the green-haired girl slipped through the floor. "...That's one way, I guess."

Flying down, Quattro mentally smirked. 'Your body does have its uses, though, I wonder what your other sisters have as powers. Maybe I should have taken Sein's body instead?'

'She's too cheerful for nnnnngh...' Quattro's voice groaned out the last words.

'As soon as this mission is over, I'm going to show you your proper place, Quattro.'

'What? Being, aaaah!'

'Don't forget that I can wipe your soul out with a single breath. I'm being nice and letting you live.' Touching down on the ground, she let go of Cinque and jumped as Sein popped out of the ground underneath her and driving her head into her crotch. "Oww! Sein!"

"Sorry." The petite girl blushed heavily. "I didn't mean to do that to you, Qua-nee."

Rubbing her crotch to get rid of the pain, Quattro just snorted at her. "Well, we're here, looks like between Un-nee's abilities and my own Silver Curtain, we were able to avoid being detected by the computer system." Walking over to the computer, she snorted as it looked exactly like the previous one. "Now I just need to disable the computer's defenses and we'll be able to get whatever it is that the doctor wanted and..."

"Got it!" Sein grinned as she popped out from the inside of the computer. On her right arm, just below the wrist, was some sort of circular object. It wasn't that large, but it did cover the width of her arm easily. "Tre-nee told me that it was in a compartment inside of the computer." She looked at the device on her arm. "I thought Tre-nee said this was supposed to be a spear."

"The doctor hasn't found that location yet, but he did find the Body Armor and the Shield, so that leaves the Spear, the Wings, the Mantle and the Heart to get." Quattro shrugged at her as she hacked the computer. "Plus the Bureau was going to get here before us and we might have lost the shield."

Cinque looked at the shield. "It doesn't look like much." She was hesitant to admit that, since she herself didn't look like much, yet she knew that her knives were powerful.

Sein shrugged at that. "I think it looks kind of cool. So, what's next, Qua-nee?"

The taller cyborg turned to smile at the two of them. "Sein, I need you to go and collect these for me." The screen lit up, showing off the robots in question. "They're the strongest defenders of these sites." She threw Sein a small bag. "Inside are nodes that Un-nee will use to send them back to base."

"Alright!" Sein grinned and ran for the wall before jumping into and through it.

"Why do you want these weapons, Quattro?" Cinque looked at them in confusion.

Quattro smirked softly. "I don't want the Bureau to get them, plus they're far more powerful than all of the Gadget Drones that the doctor has put together."

_"Bad news everyone. The Bureau's here."_

_"Already?"_

_"Makes sense, Tre-nee, they do have better ships than we do."_

_"Yeah, I get that, Sein. I'm going to intercept the strongest ones. Quattro, if they split up, make sure that the defenses of this place go after the others."_

_"Not a problem."_ Quattro said over the radio. "Now, let's see if these things are as strong as I hope they are."

* * *

Zest walked down the hallways, Duo Lon behind him. "This is an interesting place." She spoke up before wilting at the look he gave her. "Um, sorry."

"Keep your voice down, we don't want to attract attention. I heard that the last time someone came to a place like this, it took an entire team of AA to S rank mages and knights to deal with it." He sighed softly when she nodded, looking terrified. "I just don't want to lose anyone on this mission."

"Yes sir." She nodded as they went back to walking down the hallway. "Look out!" Her eyes widened as a purple streak rushed in and slammed into Zest, knocking him into her.

Grunting, Zest looked up as the purple streak reformed into a rather tall and attractive woman with short purple hair who was wearing a skin-tight blue body suit that left nothing to the imagination and really showed off her prominent breasts and ass. If Zest was more crass, he might have made a comment about her ass being the size of a small moon.

On her ankles and wrists were small purple wings that seemed to flap a couple of times as she looked down him with a stern face and narrowed eyes. As Zest got up, he narrowed his eyes. "Another speed user, huh?"

**"Böe-Modus."**

Flying into the air, Zest was surprised as she suddenly barreled into him, sending them both down the hallway.

Duo Lon frowned as she watched the two going down the hallway. "What is Tre doing here?" She asked herself softly and ran after them. At the very least, she needed to make sure that nothing bad happened.

* * *

Megane grunted as the insect-like machines slashed at her barrier. If she didn't have her own insect summons, she would be quite disgusted by them. "Who the heck has mechanical Preying Mantis as defenders?"

Behind her, Quint laughed softly as she and Garyuu made a mess of them. "Oh, come on, Megane, it's not..." She trailed off as they started pulling themselves together. "Okay, it is that bad." She punched at the group that was quickly reforming itself. "Revolver... Cannon!" Smashing her fist into the pile of scrap, she nodded as it was blown apart and sent all over the place.

Megane blasted a few more and frowned as a rumbling sound was heard. Turning, she and Quint gaped as large rolling balls were heading right towards them. "I dunno about you but..." Whatever Quint was going to say was cut off as the balls stopped and shifted into a humanoid form before pointing their arms out at the two and shooting various lasers at them.

"Garyuu!" Megane called out, thankful that her summon was able to avoid being shot and was even able to get close to them. "Quint..."

"Give me a boost up, I can't get close otherwise." Quint grunted as her barriers were pelted with strong attacks.

"Right, speed... Up!"

Quint grinned and rushed down the hallway, weaving in and out of the attacks as if they weren't even there. "Revolver... STRIKE!" Smashing one in the head, she grinned as it fell down while Garyuu jammed its spike into the arm of one that was about to shoot her from behind. Getting off of that one, she used her left hand to slam another one down while her right hand held up a barrier. "At least there isn't a lot of them." Quint said as she and Garyuu were making quick work of them.

* * *

Quattro narrowed her eyes and sighed. "If you want a job done, you have to do it yourself it seems like." She pushed a button and grinned. "Let's see if those two can deal with this one." She then turned and grabbed Cinque. "I have things mostly set up now." Taking off into the air, she tapped the radio in her ear. _"Sein, did you get them?"_

_"There's like forty of these things down here! I got thirty of them, but one just turned on and walked out."_

_"That's fine, get the other nine and contact Uno to send them back to base, they won't turn on."_

_"Okay!"_ Sein chirped happily as the radio shut off.

Quattro mentally shuddered at the perkiness in Sein's voice. 'How in the name of Lord Chaotic Blue can anyone be so... Cheerful and happy?'

'I don't know... Why does that repulse me so much, Levi?'

Levi mentally smirked. 'The joys of being bonded to a Mazoku... As soon as I get enough power, I'll be able to split off of you for good.'

When they got back up to the tunnel door that they entered the room in, Quattro blinked as she put Cinque down. "What the..?" She stared as Tre slid across the floor, bleeding out of her side.

"Tre." Cinque whispered and looked down the hallway, narrowing her eyes as she saw Zest, bleeding from his face, standing up. "Identify yourself." She held up some knives.

"Zest Grangeitz, of the Time-Space Administration Bureau's Ground Forces." He pointed his spear at the three of them. "These sites have been deemed off-limits by the Bureau and you are hereby ordered to withdraw immediately." He closed his eyes for a second. "I will allow you to take your comrade to get help if you leave right now." Opening his eyes, he sighed as the small one seemed to get more upset. "Very well, if we must fight, then let us fight."

"Quattro, help Tre out." Cinque said as she threw several exploding knives at Zest, who flew at her and cross his arms to protect his head.

Zest grimaced as the knives came into contact with his body. They didn't do much, though the explosion that followed them was enough to make him grunt slightly and get pushed back in mid-air.

Cinque's eyes widened, even with her enhanced power that she had, the explosion did so little?

"Qua...ttro..." Tre looked up at her younger sister, who looked at her dispassionately. "Nnngh... A hand, please?"

Quattro looked at Tre as she raised a hand feebly, before rolling her eyes and grabbing it. 'You feel the pain she's in?'

"Yes... Why does it feel so...'

'Good?' Levi let her smirk crawl to her physical face. 'Because pain of all sorts is a delight to a Mazoku.' As Tre got to her feet, she tapped her ear-piece. _"Sein, how goes the preparations?"_

_"All done here. Un-nee just got the last of the big ones out. I'm coming up to help you all out."_

_"Good, Uno, Tre needs a pick-up here."_

_"Can't, Quattro, the teleportation matrix is going to take some time, just hold him off for a little longer."_

Quattro sighed as she watched Zest and Cinque literally dancing around each other, Zest trying to get close and Cinque staying back as far as she could without getting out of position. Her eyes narrowed as she looked at Cinque. 'What kind of power is that..?' She couldn't get a good look at it, and it was starting to bubble up from underneath the surface. Well, whatever it was, Cinque's explosions were getting stronger. "Careful or you'll bring this whole tunnel down on us!"

Cinque nodded as she danced away from another stab from Zest and surrounded his body with smaller knives, all of which launched at him at once. She grimaced as he swung his spear in a circle, cutting through her knives in an instant, leaving only a few that hit him.

As the smoke cleared, Cinque was forced to throw her own personal barrier up when Zest rushed forward to block his attack. Getting a good look at his face, Cinque could only see some sweat and a couple of new cuts covering him. "You're strong." He commented and her eyes widened as his blade started cutting through her barrier. "It's too bad we're enemies."

"Yes." She jumped back and made the floor in front of her explode, gasping slightly as she looked at her leg. Even just a nick was enough to cut down to her bone.

Quattro just smirked as she watched.

* * *

Quint panted softly as she and Garyuu finished off the last of the mechanical ball creatures. "Megane, how.." She trailed off as a large, nearly three meters in height, white in color with a giant cannon on its right arm appeared a few feet behind Megane. "LOOK OUT!"

Megane turned as the thing pointed its cannon at her and fired. Megane threw up a quick barrier and let out a cry as her barrier was pierced and the energy slammed into her shoulder as she twisted to avoide a direct shot to her chest, which sent her crashing to the ground with a groan.

"Megane!" Quint and Garyuu were already on the move towards her position. Garyuu, being able to fly, was able to get there ahead of Quint. The creature grabbed Garyuu's arm and slammed the summon down onto the ground hard enough that the whole tunnel shook partially.

"Megane, you okay?" Quint looked at the summoner, who nodded painfully as she gripped her shoulder.

"Help, Garyuu, please?" Quint nodded and rushed at the mechanical creature. It looked at her and threw Garyuu at her.

Catching the insectoid summon, Quint jumped out of the way of another energy attack and flipped in mid air to avoid the follow up strike. "Shit, what..." Her eyes widened as a gout of flame suddenly erupted from the cannon. "Hold on!" Calling up her Wing Road, she drove down quickly, barely avoiding the flames and getting close to Megane. "Get him out of here, Megane, I'll stop this thing." She dropped Garyuu down and spun to face the creature as it pointed its cannon at them. "Blast Mode!" Slamming her right fist into her left open palm, her body was quickly covered in a protective metal cover. "Now... Earth..." She held her hands to the side. "And Sky! Give me cover for a few moments." She started chanting in something that Megane didn't know as she brought her hands together.

As she clasped her hands together a vortex was created and lashed out, quickly surrounding the creature, who was forced to step back. "AAAAAAHHHH!" She screamed and rushed forward. Unlike against Nanoha, she wasn't holding back this time as her hands slammed into and through the chest armor of the creature, easily pushing through the inner workings as if they weren't there. Quint's eyes widened as the top of her thumbs brushed against something that felt out of place. Grunting she moved her hands up slightly and loosened the grip her clasped hands had, before pulling back out, a bunch of wires coming with. "NNnnnnghhhaaaahhh!" With a final twist, she turned her body away from the creature, where the wires pulled free.

"Quint!" Megane quickly teleported Quint to her as she saw the machine start to crack up. A moment after Quint appeared next to her, the large mechanical creature exploded, sending the two of them down the hallway several feet where they bounced along the floors before skidding to a stop. "You okay?"

Quint nodded and groaned as she canceled her Blast Mode. "I think I'd be dead if not for this... Where's Garyuu?"

"Sent him back." Megane, a large gash on her forehead bleeding freely, nodded and looked into Quint's hands. "What the?" She and Quint both gasped.

In her hands was a naked female who had red hair and four wings. "Pull those things out of her." Megane grabbed the tubes that were in the small creature's lower holes and pulled them out slowly. "What the hell? Who could do this?" She asked and gently pulled the helmet off of the creature's head.

At that moment, things went straight to hell.

* * *

Zest let out a growl as he swung his spear down at the prone Cinque.

There was a spray of blood, a female groan and a look of surprise on more than one person's face.

"Duo Lon?" Zest looked at the woman who saved Cinque, her left side had a huge gash in it just under her ribs where blood flowed freely.

"Forgive me." She smiled softly as her form shimmered. Her hair turned from brown to blonde as her eyes turned from brown to yellow. "But I can't let you hurt my sister."

"Due..." Cinque gasped as her older sister groaned and passed out. "Due... Tre..." She looked up at him and growled. "You... Hurt... My... Sisters!" She closed her eyes to fight off the rage she was feeling, without any success.

Zest's eyes widened as Cinque let loose a scream, her hair and jacket started billowing in a breeze that didn't exist as she glowed with a tremendous power. Taking a step back, he watched as her hair and eyes changed color as well. "What the hell?"

**"DIE!"** Cinque yelled, several knives appeared around him, all crackling with dark energy before snapping forward and slamming into his body, exploding painfully and causing him to cough up blood as he fell to his knees.

'Such power!' Quattro was impressed. 'So _that_ is what the Doctor did to her! Impressive!'

Cinque took one step forward and growled out at him. **"You..."** Blood suddenly seeped from her lips. **"How... DARE YOU!"**

Zest grimaced and closed his eyes. _"Alphine, I need an emergency rescue."_

_"On it."_ She sounded upset as he disappeared, but he'd find out soon enough.

**"GET BACK HERE!"**

Quattro blinked as Cinque disappeared in a flash of black. "Since when could she do that?" She looked at Due and sighed as she grabbed the blonde. "Still alive?"

"Barely..." Due muttered as she grabbed her side. "Cinque... She's mad... Help her."

"Oh, I intend to." Quattro smirked as the whole group disappeared. It wasn't hard for her to bend space and move around after all.

* * *

Quint groaned as Zest appeared near them. "Zest, we..." She trailed off as a small girl appeared behind him who was glowing with a lot of power.

**"Due... Tre... YOU HURT THEM BOTH!"** The way she was talking had Quint shuddering nervously.

Zest rushed at her, growling as more knives appeared. The powerful explosions against his body were painful, and even the Blast Mode wasn't able to nullify the effects fully. "Enough!" He called out, slashing down at her body, hoping she'd jump back to avoid the attack.

She didn't and the spear caught her in the right eye, cutting her face and eye before more knives appeared and a powerful explosion threw the two of them away from each other.

Cinque fell to one knee, blood was coming out of her mouth freely now as she looked at Zest with her one good eye as he crashed down right next to the two women.

"Alphine..." Zest groaned painfully. "Get us out of here!"

Megane nodded and closed her eyes as a magic circle appeared under her feet to get them out of there. She panted as the circle disappeared. "Damn, what's going on?"

Quattro smirked as she finished whispering her spell. "Not so fast." It had been a bit hard to chase after Cinque, but seeing _this_ was more than she could have hoped for.

Zest growled and threw up a barrier as more knives were launched at them. "Damn, Nakajima..."

"On it." She closed her eyes and concentrated. "Got them." She sighed as the ship outside started to teleport them all away.

**"No you don't!"** Cinque yelled as black lightning surrounded the knives she threw at them. She gasped and fell forward as more blood was coughed up from her body.

Behind Cinque, Quattro raised an eyebrow as more knives appeared and were launched at the summoner and two knights. The knives connected with the array and exploded just as the people inside started to disappear, causing at least one of them to be knocked away from the teleportation array. "Hmm..." She blinked as Tre got off of her shoulder, walked over to Cinque, grabbed the small girl and turned her around before punching her in the face hard enough to knock her out.

Quattro shook her head and blinked as Sein popped up under where the explosion was. "What took you?"

"Got lost." Sein grimaced and looked at her feet. "What the?"

By her feet was a purple haired woman and a small redheaded creature, both out cold.

Quattro shook her head and tapped her ear piece. _"Un-nee, care to do a pick-up and get us the hell out of here?"_

_"Not a problem. What happened?"_

_"Due, Tre, and Cinque are all injured and it seems we have a couple of new... Toys for the doctor to play with."_

_"Of course, get them close to each other."_

Quattro nodded as Sein dropped the small creature on top of Due and the woman near Tre. _"Ready."_ She frowned in confusion as the redhead glowed and disappeared into Due, causing the blonde's hair to change to a red tint as the group disappeared. 'What the hell happened?'

* * *

Arf: Lots of stuff happened that can cause one to feel regrets. And if mom doesn't stop playing dress-up with me, I might regret something soon. Next time on Blood That Flows - Shine.  
Lina: Oh please, I'll make you sleep outside in the rain if you're not quiet.  
Arf: Sorry, mom.

Uh... Remind me NEVER to get Cinque upset.

I dunno why, but Subaru going "don't be broke mommy"... I'm not sure, but it's kind of funny and sad at the same time, when you remember what happened in canon.

GRRR! Darn it! This site keeps taking away ANY formatting that I do.


	75. Shine 21

Blood That Flows

Shine 21

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

* * *

Meanwhile, on Earth...

Arf looked at Lina in confusion. "You want me to do what?"

Lina rolled her eyes at the pup. "Look, of everyone I know, you're both the only one who's fully trained in magic and the only one who can be around her without raising suspicions."

Giving Lina a flat look, Arf would have been pouting if she was in her human form. "I have dog ears and a tail in my human form, I don't think that people at the school are going to over-look that." She yelped as Lina grabbed her and pulled her to eye level, giving her an irritated look.

"Listen, I can ask her to withdraw from school, but right now, I'm not in the best of conditions for casting magic to deal with her. The only other ones that could are Filia and Chrono, and they're both too old to be around Arisa all the time, you're the only one who can look her age, be in her class and look after her."

Arf shuddered slightly, the irritation on her face was pretty obvious, and even with that glamor up, Arf was pretty sure that Lina's eyes were glowing. "I can only cast the Blam Blazer! Remember the last time I tried to use the Ra Tilt? I passed out and Fate complained about feeling her body going cold. And I can't even use the Nemesis Breaker. How the heck am I supposed to help?"

"Well, at least you have good complaints." Lina nodded to her. "One, you can teleport, provided you remember the Astral Bind that Yuuno taught you," Arf nodded slightly, that was one of the things that Yuuno had taught her back on Lina's home world, "okay then, you should be able to get out of there if things get really bad. Two, if that fails..." Arf blinked as Lina held up a fancy-looking hilt and grinned. "Use Bodigar to smack her around."

"The Axe? But..."

Lina rolled her eyes at the confused pup. "First, turn into your human form." She let go of Arf, who turned into her child form. "Hmm... Can you make yourself a little older than that?" Concentrating, the small girl grew slightly. "Perfect, you look like you're about her age, now..." She twitched and looked at her belly. "Calm down, huh?" Rubbing her belly, she sighed as she knelt down slowly.

"Are you okay?" Arf was understandably worried, Fate was so happy at the thought of being an older sister, as was Nanoha, that she didn't want anything to happen to Lina or her son while the redhead was pregnant.

"I'm fine." She patted Arf on the head, ruffling the small girl's hair. "Anyway, you need to hide your ears and tail." Nodding as Arf sighed but complied, Lina clapped her hands together. "Excellent, now, let's get you into a school outfit."

"Uh..." Arf blinked at Lina. "What?"

"You're going to be going to school," Lina groaned as she stood up, she had forgotten how much of a pain it was to carry around a baby in her belly, "you're going to need a different name though."

"Uh, mom, what are you doing?" Arf yelped as she tossed the hilt of the weapon to her. "But... I never..."

"Look, Miyuki has the Sword of Light, this is the next easiest to hide on your body." Lina rolled her eyes at Arf. "Arf, I'm worried that Arisa and Suzuka are going to be attacked by that Mazoku again, I can't ask Chrono to look after them, since he might get pulled away at any time. And Filia would have to pose as a teacher if she was to be at the school, you're the only one I can ask."

"Why not ask her to just get out of school until Nanoha, Fate and Yuuno get back?"

Lina smiled at her. "I've thought about it, Arf. And, yeah, it would be a good idea, but I don't have the authority to do that. I can't just ask Arisa and maybe Suzuka to leave school and expect people to go along with it. At the very least, I'd like you to keep an eye on them until Nanoha, Fate and Yuuno come back, okay?"

Arf sighed and slumped, nodding. "Sure." She found herself in a hug a moment later. "Mom..?"

"You're a good girl, Arf." Lina smiled as Arf practically nuzzled her belly. "Come on now, let's get you into an outfit, I need to make some calls too..."

Arf nodded and looked at the axe handle in her hand. "...Light come forth?" She yelped as the thing lit up. "Woah..." Taking a few swings forward, she grinned as she heard the thing hum in her hands. "This might be interesting."

(-)

"Good morning, class." The teacher smiled as she walked into the room. "Before we begin, I'd like to introduce a new student who will be here for the next few months."

Arisa blinked, it wasn't often that a new student was enrolled in class. Though, considering that Hayate wasn't going to join school until next year, and Nanoha and Fate were off-world with Yuuno, who didn't even go to school with them, it would be nice to have a new person in the class. Behind her, she heard Suzuka gasp, and it wasn't hard to guess why, as she saw the person who walked into the room. 'What's Arf doing here?'

The redhead smiled and bowed to the class. "My name is Kara, I'm studying abroad this semester and my parents thought it would be a good thing to spend some time in Japan."

"Excellent." The teacher smiled at her. "It says here that you're staying with the Takamachi family?"

Kara nodded at her. "Oh yes, very nice family."

Smiling more, the teacher gestured to an open desk near Arisa. "You can sit down there."

"Thank you." Kara smiled as she walked to the seat in question. "I hope that we can all be good friends."

"Yes, well," smiling as she sat down, the teacher began the day's lessons.

(-)

Later...

Arisa looked at Arf as she and Suzuka finally managed to get the familiar away from the crowds. "Just what are you doing? And Kara?"

Kara blushed heavily. "Mom wanted someone to watch over you two in case the Mazoku showed up." She said softly to the two of them. "And Arf's not a good name for girls, so I chose Kara out of a book mom had. It's simple, easy and I'm less likely to screw up with it."

Suzuka frowned softly, but nodded. "Okay, but what do we do if she shows up again?"

"Hope that she doesn't do anything." Kara sighed heavily. "I can't do any spells that would leave a mark on her anyway, mom gave me a weapon to fight her if I had to, but let's just hope that she's not doing anything.

The two girls nodded.

(-)

Meanwhile...

"I see, it's too bad that our gym teacher got sick so suddenly." The principal looked at the green haired woman in front of him. She was dressed in sweat pants and a tight white t-shirt "You can cover for him? What are your credentials for teaching kids physical education?"

The woman smirked as she adjusted her sunglasses. "I can rip doors off their hinges without any effort and I know the perfect way to motivate children to doing their best."

"Well, I dunno..." The principal trailed off as she leaned forward, letting him see down her shirt partially.

"Trust me, when I'm done with them, those kids are going to be a lot... Healthier... Or extremely traumatized, I'm not sure which."

"Well..." He trailed off and shook his head. "I can't just have you fill in on the spot, but there needs to be a gym teacher today, so, I'll have one of the teacher aides supervise, if things work well, then you can substitute, if not, then I'm sorry."

"That simple?" She sounded surprised and the principal shook his head.

"Not quite, but you seem willing and able, if you're as strong as you say you are, and I'm not one to turn down someone who's willing to substitute for a little while."

She shrugged at that. "Alright, works for me." 'Can't believe how easy that was, mental manipulations were never my strong point, surprised he fell for it.'

Still, she _was_ supposed to be on vacation, and Lord Dolphin _did_ say to avoid bringing as much attention to herself as possible.

Oh well, this was... Going to be fun.

(-)

"Ah, hello." Lina smiled as she saw Lindy walk into the Cafe. "What can I do you for today?"

"I don't know, I hear that there's a slight problem running around town. Not enough dark chocolate." Lindy nearly fell over laughing as Lina's eyes started watering up.

"Not my precious dark chocolate. I heard it went all the way down the block before being run over by a car."

"Indeed, Filia's quite upset about the current problem, but she doesn't trust it to not come and harm young Val." Lindy lost the smile and looked at Lina seriously. "I could get those two taken to Mid-Childa and put under guard if it would help."

"Maybe, maybe not, she hasn't technically done much of anything other than irritate the kids, but I want to know why she's even interested in them." Sighing at Lindy's look, Lina explained. "For some reason, Arisa, excuse me." She smiled as a customer came up and placed a quick order. "Have a nice day." After the customer left, she turned back to Lindy. "As I was saying, Arisa passed out after meeting her. I didn't sense any psychic attack used on her, but it feels like there's something there. I can't tell right now because I don't trust my own magic senses."

"So, what do you want me to do?" Lindy blinked as Lina smiled at her.

"I need you to get someone who's both able to see what might be going on with Arisa and also be able to keep the Mazoku in line."

"Who?" Lindy blinked in confusion.

"My sister."

(-)

Riksfalto smirked as she watched the kids gathering up the balls. "Remember, kiddies, treat this like war and show no mercy!" Blowing her whistle, she laughed as the kids started throwing the balls at each other. "Dodge ball, huh?" It looked fun, plus the way that the kids were complaining about how hard she was working them throughout the day was just hilarious.

Not to mention delicious.

Who knew tormenting kids was so much fun?

Smirking, Riksfalto picked up one of the balls that was by her feet and grinned as she threw it, slamming a kid in the back. "Better pay attention, kids! In war, you never know where or when an attack will come from!"

"But, sensei, it's not fair!" The one she had hit whined and Riksfalto just rolled her eye.

"Let me tell you something, kiddo. Life isn't fair. You can do two things, roll over and die or deal with it. And I'll tell you right now, if you just roll over and die, no one's going to care about you. If you don't care enough about yourself, why should they?"

Riksfalto found it interesting that the entire class stopped to look at her. "Listen, one of the greatest strengths humans have, despite being incredibly weak and squishy, is the fact that they don't give up, they never surrender and fight to the end." She smirked as they looked uncomfortable. "In fact, I knew of a little redheaded girl that would send entire armies running for the hills with how terrifying she was. For better or worse, she was someone that was remembered."

"But, what if we don't wanna fight in life?"

Riksfalto shrugged at the kid that asked that question. "Well, I hope you have no plans for the rest of your life then, because if you don't want to fight for something, you won't get far."

Seeing the kids look in confusion, Riksfalto felt like groaning. "Doesn't anyone teach you anything? Whether you fight in the military, run a business, become a mercenary, or work for the government, you're going to have to fight someone for something, and no one's going to play fair. You can either complain about it or do something about it."

Kara looked at Arisa and Suzuka, who were staring at the Mazoku in shock. "For an evil demon, she's got a good point."

"So, no more complaining or I'll make you run 1000 laps before hitting the showers!"

"Yes, sensei!" The kids yelled and went back to their game.

Riksfalto shook her head. You couldn't manipulate people to get stronger and give you a good fight if you didn't learn a few things about them, after all.

In her experience, manipulating people like Huraker or Xellos did was just boring. Pushing them to get stronger and fight, on the other hand, was more fun.

Rubbing her head, she wondered just why she even bothered giving these kids lectures, for the most part, nothing that they did would matter. Oh well, humanity was weird like that.

Later...

Arisa groaned as she showered off the sweat from her body. "Ngh... She's evil, I hate her."

"That's..." Kara pouted as her tail suddenly popped back into existence. At least no one was around to see it other than Arisa and Suzuka. Willing it away, she continued with what she was going to say. "That's what she wants you to think. Mazoku like negative emotions like that."

"Ugh, I think she's crazy." Suzuka said and Kara nodded at her. "She is?"

"She's a Mazoku, they're crazy by default."

"Now that's not nice." Riksfalto said as she appeared in front of the three kids, smirking as they yelped and jumped away from her in the shower. "And I'm going out of my way to be nice."

"Nice? You nearly took my head off!" Kara growled as a magic circle appeared under her feet.

Riksfalto frowned and snapped her fingers after chanting something quickly, causing the circle to shatter. "Enough of that, girl." She focused on Arisa again. "Huh, you are interesting, girl." She shrugged and looked at Suzuka. "What? Not going to punch me again?" The Mazoku chuckled at the anger that came off of her. "Oh well, I think I can have a lot of fun with you three until I get what I want." She started laughing and disappeared as Suzuka started to move. "The sooner you give me what I want, the sooner I leave you alone."

"What do you want?" Arisa yelled at where she was a moment ago.

"When you give me what I want, you'll find out."

"Arrrgh!" Arisa yelled in frustration. "That doesn't even make any sense!"

Arf scratched her head in confusion, she didn't know what it was about either.  


* * *

Quattro: Well, that was an interesting distraction, now it's my turn. Next time on Blood That Flows - Shine. It really is too bad about the little things in life.


	76. Shine 22

Blood That Flows

Shine 22

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

* * *

Meanwhile...

Cinque let out a scream as she thrashed against her binds. After she had gotten back, her power resurfaced again and it was causing enough of a problem for her body, considering the amount of blood that she was coughing up every few moments, that Jail was trying his hardest to do something to help her.

Something, because the way power radiated off of her body was making it hard to get close without burning his hands. "Sein, are you sure you have her?"

"She's partially phased through the table." Sein hissed, her hands were bleeding and cut up from the power that was bleeding off of Cinque. "Un-nee, help!"

"Almost..." Uno finished mixing up something, before putting it in a syringe. "If this doesn't get her to pass out, then there's nothing else we can use short of killing her."

Nodding, Jail took it and grabbed Cinque's left arm before sticking it in and pumping the concoction into her veins. "Quattro..."

"A little busy making sure Due and Tre are alive, plus I had to put that woman in a stasis tube." Quattro looked at the man. "Tre will recover pretty quickly, but I can't figure out Due, she's looking different than before, and I'm not talking about her hair, it's like she's younger, but she's otherwise healed." Quattro frowned at Jail and ignored Cinque's screams that were starting to die down. "She can't shape shift if unconscious can she?"

"No, she can't." Jail looked at Cinque and sighed in relief as the glow subsided and she passed out. "Alright, Sein, push her up."

Doing so, the petite cyborg groaned as her hands bled freely. "Owwie... It hurts."

"Uno, help her out." Jail looked at Cinque and grimaced at the blood that was covering her face and wrists. Sighing, he took a rag and gently washed the blood off of her body. "If only I had known." He muttered softly as Uno led Sein over to get her hands bandaged up.

Unnoticed to Jail, Quattro smirked slightly. 'Interesting, I wonder just what the doctor did to Cinque.' Oh well, it didn't matter to her. 'Could be interesting.'

'What are you planning, Levi?'

'Hmm?' Levi questioned the voice in her head. 'I have no idea what you mean, Quattro.' The Mazoku chuckled. 'Besides, can't you feel it? The pain that your sisters are going through, the pain and remorse that the doctor feels and the suffering that the device inside of Due has gone through? It's just... So delightful, isn't it?'

She didn't get an answer, she didn't expect to, but the fact that she could feel a flash of delight from Quattro's soul was more than enough of an answer for her.

"Excuse me, doctor, since Tre and Due look like they'll recover..." Quattro looked at the two cyborgs as they floated in their tubes. "Do you mind if I take care of a few things?"

"Go ahead." Jail nodded to her. "Sein, can you watch over their vitals?"

"Sure!" Sein grinned as her hands were bandaged up. Sure, it was painful, but she wasn't going to let her older sisters down. After all, they wouldn't let her down if she needed help.

Jail sighed softly. "Sein, did you see what happened?"

"Nuh uh..." Sein shook her head. "I wasn't around for most of the fight, sorry."

Jail shook his head. "It's fine... Uno, can you get the readings now?" She nodded and Jail bit his lip softly. "Well then, let's find out just what happened to your body, Cinque."

(-)

Levi chuckled as she looked at the large mechanical creature in front of her. "There are so many of you in those sites..." When the chest plate opened up to reveal the Unison Device powering it, she nearly laughed as she touched it. The thing was so desperate for any sort of sensation that it tried to bond with her. "Sorry," she poked it rather hard before pulling her hand away, "but it's crowded enough in here." She turned away and laughed as the chest plate closed again. "Oh, I meant to say, not sorry for you being in such a situation." It was too bad that she hadn't been able to do this herself.

Idly, Levi wondered if maybe Death Bringer had been the reason for all the Unison Devices to disappear into weapons like this. 'What made the Tome of the Night Sky so different from other devices?' She shrugged and wrote it off as unimportant. 'Now then...' She smirked as she looked her terminal over. Chuckling, she turned off the terminal and disappeared.

(-)

Blinking as she appeared over a sparse wilderness, Levi looked at the flying Gadget Drone before looking at the run-down shrine at the bottom of a ravine. "Hmm..."

'What?'

Levi smirked at Quattro as she closed her eyes. "There... Can't you feel it? A concentrated source of Black Magic. My master had no need of it, but me, on the other hand..." She floated down and smirked as she walked through the ruin. "Pathetic, really." She snorted as several zombies rose up to meet her. "Seems that this place really fell into disarray since the last priests died." Her eyes flashed as fire collected in her hands before lashing out and frying the zombies in an instant. "Ah fire, is there nothing you cannot kill?" Taking a step, she stopped for a moment. "Well, I suppose you can't kill a Mazoku."

'...What's the point of that anyway then? Why can't you be killed by fire?'

"I suppose..." Levi kicked a door down. "Since I'm in a physical body, I'm technically only half Mazoku, I mean, lesser demons can't even physically be in the world without bonding to some sort of physical object, they can be killed by normal weapons and spells. But then again, I don't have to worry, magic cancellation is too easy for me." She just lacked the power to do it as quickly as she had before.

As she broke into the last room, she smirked as she saw a black cube in the center floating with tiny black balls surrounding it. "Can you feel that?"

'It... It's powerful.' Quattro's voice was in awe of what she was feeling. 'This... It's impossible.'

"This is the essence of a Mazoku, Quattro. This is the power all high level Mazoku have. It's far more pure and powerful than anything any human can have." Wrapping her fingers around it, she pulled it against her chest and closed her eyes as the power enveloped her. Her eyes snapped open as a pillar of black light shot out from her and into the sky. "Power... So... Much... Power..." She gasped before shuddering as the power stopped and was absorbed into her. "...Less than I thought." Still, it would have taken her at least a decade to get this much power on her own.

'So... We just need to find more sites like this?'

Levi smirked as her eyes turned magenta for a little while. "Yes..." She looked at her breasts and snorted. "Now, about your body's flaws..." Closing her eyes, she smirked as her breasts increased to a level close to what she had before. "Much better... I can't wait to get in front of a mirror and see what I look like now."

'How did you end up so injured if you're so much stronger than a human?'

Levi frowned heavily. "A lucky shot. Just because you're strong doesn't make you unbeatable. Only "mother" is unbeatable, the rest of us aren't as lucky. And no matter how strong I get, I'll never be more powerful than Lord Chaotic Blue. Remember that, Quattro."

The anger Levi was feeling manifested itself in black flames that quickly spread out of control and consumed the remains of the temple, destroying it around her as Levi disappeared.

She knew that Jail would get suspicious of her if she was gone for too long.

In her weakened state, even a mid-level astral spell would be able to do her in.

(-)

A few days later...

Stretching, she blinked as there was a knock on the door. Opening the door, she blinked at the two people on the other side. "Well, I never expected to see you again, kiddo." She chuckled at him. "Man, you grew taller, didn't you?"

"Luna Inverse..." He looked at her with a lidded gaze as the woman behind him chuckled. "May we come in?"

Luna looked at the green haired woman behind him. "And you are?"

"Lindy Harlaown, Admiral of the Time-Space Administration Bureau." She smiled at Luna. "We have need to speak with you."

(-)

Luna sighed as she listened to their problem. "I see. Considering the tense situation around here, it might put some of my... Comrades at greater ease if the Mazoku were being more closely watched." She blinked as Chrono seemed distracted by something. Turning her head, she smirked slightly. "Interesting staff, huh?"

Chrono twitched and looked at Luna. "Just... What is that? It looks like it's made of bone or something, but there's a lot of power, I don't understand what..."

"It's called the Staff of Bone." Luna stated calmly. "It's an artifact made from the body of Ruby-Eye Shabranigdo himself."

"Interesting." Lindy raised an eyebrow. "Lina told me that you're the Avatar of Cephied, I doubt you'd have a weapon of his enemy so easily."

Luna chuckled softly and moved her auburn hair out of the way of her eyes. "You'd be right about that..." She trailed off, remembering how she got that weapon. "It was about two months after the events with Dark Star ended, I got word from Airlord Valwin that Beastmaster Zelas Metallium called a meeting among the five strongest from both sides."

Seeing their surprise, she recited what happened.

***Flash***

Rangort, in her human guise as a dark skinned woman with dark eyes and short, white hair that framed her face, making for an extremely exotic and striking contrast, her body was fairly well endowed for her height, narrowed her eyes at the Mazoku across the table. "So, you called us here, Beastmaster..." The lazy smirk she received caused her to twitch slightly. "What is it that you want?"

"Let's get to the point." Zelas said as she looked at Vrabazard, Luna, Lyos, Rangort and finally Valwin, who took the form of a thin man with long white hair. "None of us care to be around each other longer than we have to, so, I'm not going to waste time with formalities. What I'm after is a truce between the Shinzoku and Mazoku."

Vrabazard slammed his fist on the table and narrowed his eyes at Zelas, who merely raised an eyebrow. "You can't be serious, since when do Mazoku want peace?"

"I'd rather think of it as both sides taking time off from fighting to regain their strength. Look at your own side, Vrabazard, you have no followers anymore, your powers are probably at their most vulnerable right now. Cephied and Ragradia are both dead and only those two," she gestured to Luna and Lyos, both of whom narrowed their eyes at her, "are all that's left, a faint echo of their real power."

"And your side has lost three lords and one piece of Shabranigdo is frozen in ice." Valwin spoke up, but tilted his head as he looked at Sherra. "However, that one seems different."

"I am Lord Dynast." Sherra said as she looked at the Air Dragon Lord cooly. "Believe me when I say that I'm every bit as powerful as the previous Dynast was."

Lyos smirked at her. "Too bad it didn't help him out, huh?" Sherra's eyes narrowed at him for that remark, the air around her was starting to crackle with power before she calmed down from a gesture from Zelas.

"I would watch your tongue, Knight of Ragradia..." Zelas narrowed her eyes. "Unlike your side, we still have Lord Shabranigdo that we can awaken. Tell me, how does fighting against five fragments of our Lord at once along with us sound?" She nodded at the way their eyes widened. "I thought not."

"You know where every piece is?" Vrabazard hissed at her, causing her to chuckle at him.

"I've known where most of them were for several months now."

"The former Dynast found another piece himself. It would be... Incredibly easy for us to release the pieces onto this world." Sherra spoke up, smirking at Lyos, who was shuddering.

"Now now..." Xellos spoke up from behind his master. "We can make threats against each other all day if we needed to, but all we would do is start another war. If Death Fog or Chaotic Blue decided to do what Dark Star did, then our world would fall. Especially since the one who stopped Dark Star is no longer here."

Luna twitched slightly. "As... Loathe as I am to admit it, I have to agree. Even if we could defeat them, Ruby Eyes would be too much for us to deal with." While she didn't doubt that Zelas knew about one fragment, she doubted that Zelas knew where all of the fragments were.

"If that is the case." Rangort looked at Xellos and narrowed her eyes. For some reason, she thought he was looking at her breasts.

Granted, what she wore didn't leave anything to the imagination, but that didn't mean he had to look at her like a pervert after all. "Why shouldn't we attack you right now and end you?"

"The same reason we don't attack you right now." Zelas said as she looked at the assembled gods. "A pointless war doesn't appeal to any of us right now."

Xellos mentally chuckled at the glare that Rangort was giving him. It wasn't his fault that she was wearing something that drew attention to her large breasts after all. If he had a better clue as to what it was, he would have called it a bikini of armor that only covered the front of her chest, the sides and underside of her breasts were quite visible.

Maybe he had been spending a lot of time among humans lately, unlike what most people thought, he could appreciate a beautiful woman, even if they were an enemy like Rangort was.

"You've made your point, Zelas." Valwin tried to calm the room down somewhat. "Even if we agreed to the terms of a truce, how long would it last, and what proof do we have that you won't go back on your word?"

"Ah, Valwin, you always were different." Zelas chuckled and snapped her fingers. Xellos pulled out a long item in a cloth, before unwrapping it, causing the three Shinzoku to gasp in surprise. "You three know what this is, the Staff of Bones."

Luna jerked in surprise. "Impossible. The only one who could make that is..."

"Lord Ruby-Eye, frozen as he is in the north, can still use his power in a limited way, creating this staff was not impossible for him." Xellos smiled at the Knight of Cephied. "As you probably guessed, we would not normally turn this over to your side."

"Considering that it's one of the few things that can't be broken unless its creator is destroyed, I can't imagine why you'd be hesitant to turn it over." Luna grimaced slightly. Unlike the Sword of Light, this weapon was made from Shabranigdo's own body, which meant that it was stronger than the Sword of Light. Heck, she'd put good odds on it being strong enough to hold off the Blast Sword with no effort.

The only weapon she knew of that could break it was the sword that she, herself, had on her, and there was no way in hell she was going to let that out of her sight unless she had to.

The Flare Sword was not something that anyone but her could touch, much less wield, but if the Mazoku had it near them, they could find a way to use it, she was sure.

"As for how long... How does thirty years sound?" Zelas grinned lazily at their surprised looks. "I'll be honest, I doubt that any of us can keep our sides from attacking each other any longer than that. However, despite that, I would like something from your side as well."

"How dare..." Rangort stood up, her breasts bouncing heavily and causing Xellos to look even more intently at her.

"Calm down, Rangort." Valwin waved her down. "I do agree, however, why should we?"

"I wonder how the rest of the world would react to knowing that the Gods were given the chance for peace and turned it down." Sherra smirked at the Shinzoku.

Vrabazard snorted at her. "Whatever..." A sphere of fire appeared on the table, and when it was disappeared, a metal gauntlet was on the table. "The Gauntlet of Ages." He slid it across the table until it rested in front of Zelas. "I'm sure you know what that can do."

Zelas picked it up and nodded to Xellos, who walked across the table and handed the staff to Luna before backing away from her.

"So then, we're in agreement?" Zelas grinned at them. "As for the truce, our forces won't go after your servants," the grin on her face disappeared as she continued, "however, as our forces do need to survive off of emotions..."

"Torment the humans as you wish." Vrabazard snorted. "If you want to kill any of the Golden Dragons who used to worship me, feel free to, you'd be doing the world a favor."

"If that is all..." Rangort felt like covering her chest from the way Xellos was looking at her. "We're done here then, correct?"

"Of course." Sherra nodded and disappeared, followed by Dolphin, Riksfalto, Xellos and finally Zelas.

***Flash***

"So, that's what happened." Luna shook her head. "Still feels weird, the whole world is tense right now, and I'm still not sure why Beastmaster was so... Eager for a truce."

"She's on vacation on our world." Chrono shook his head. "And, honestly, your sister asked for you to show up, we're having a small problem with a Mazoku. She hasn't done anything, but she's making life interesting for some friends of your niece."

Luna closed her eyes for a moment. "I honestly prefer my job as a waitress over saving the world, but... Lina is my sister, if she needs my help, I'll give it." Standing up, she stretched slightly. "I need to take care of a few things, but I'll be ready shortly."

***Two hours later...***

"Everything taken care of?" Lindy asked Luna, who nodded as she swung a bag over her shoulder.

"Yep. Considering who I am, the restaurant gives me time off if or when I need it. And family matters is pretty important. Anything I should know about your world?"

Lindy chuckled softly as a teleportation field started to cover them. "The technology is several hundred years more advanced than this world's technology and it's very loud apparently."

Luna raised an eyebrow. "Sounds fun." She wondered how her sister adapted to everything.

* * *

Luna: So, this is Lina's new home and, uh... This stuff is weird, I have no clue what this is. Next time on Blood That Flows - Shine, um, help?  
Filia: Uh... It's you... Hello...


	77. Shine 23

Blood That Flows

Shine 23

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

* * *

Later...

Filia blinked as the door to the apartment opened up. "Welcome back, how did things go, Chrono?" She smiled as he walked in followed by Amy.

"Pretty good, overall." Amy nodded to the Dragoness. "Didn't take us long to get what was needed done."

Filia smiled at her. She was lucky Val was taking a nap, he got so needy when he was awake sometimes.

Amy blinked as Filia's face suddenly went stark white and she started trembling. Blinking, she turned and looked behind her. "Is there someone..."

"M...Miss Luna... I..."

Luna blinked as Filia fell to one knee and trembled slightly. "Yes?"

"You've been sent to punish me, haven't you? For what my people did in the past, for me abandoning the world, for..."

"Enough, Filia Ul Copt." Luna narrowed her eyes at the Dragoness. "Rise, I, the Knight of Cephied command you." When the Dragoness stood up, Luna chuckled softly. "Relax, I'm not here to mete out any punishment for what your people did in the past."

"But, I..."

Luna sighed heavily. "Listen, I'm not here because of you, I'm here because of my sister." She winced slightly. "Damn, sounds like thunder outside."

"I know." Filia muttered softly. "They don't believe me though."

"You get used to it." Lindy said as she walked into the apartment. "Miss Luna, if you'll come with me to the guest room, I'll get you situated before I take you to see your sister."

Luna nodded, but looked around the room and frowned in confusion. All the things on the wall were confusing her. "What's with all the glass boxes?"

Lindy smiled at her. "There's a reason we kept you in that room on the way here, we didn't want to overwhelm you so much." Even Filia had trouble with the technology that was around. The poor girl still couldn't figure out how to work the television remote outside of being able to turn the thing on.

And she had been on Earth for nearly six months now.

"I see..." Luna winced as some alarms were heard from outside. "How do you people deal with this?"

Lindy smiled and held out two small objects. "Put these in your ears. They'll keep the background noise to a minimum."

"Plugs?" Luna blinked as she did what Lindy asked her to do. She sighed in relief as the loud noise finally died down. "How did you know?"

Lindy giggled softly. "Poor Filia had trouble sleeping for awhile."

Luna blinked at the green-haired woman. "Weird... I can still hear you."

"It only blocks out background noise, it doesn't stop all noise."

Amy shook her head as the two went to the back room and looked at Filia, who was still spooked. "You okay?" Filia shook her head slowly and Amy sighed. "Chrono, come on, help me get her to the couch."

Nodding the teenager helped lead Filia to the couch and sat her down. He nearly yelped as she suddenly turned and hugged him tightly. "Ack, Filia..."

"Just hold me, please." Both Amy and Chrono blinked at the desperate plea in Filia's voice.

As Chrono held her and Amy rubbed her back to get her to relax, they both had the same thought of wonder in their heads.

Was Luna Inverse really that terrifying?

(-)

Sighing as she sat down, Lina shook her head at her employees. "I'm not completely helpless you know." She raised her hands in defeat at the dirty looks that she was given from practically everyone. "Okay, okay, sheesh, I have had a kid before you know."

"But you're pretty far along boss, you should take it easy."

Lina rolled her eyes at the cook who popped his head out of the kitchen. "Listen you, I'm only seven months along, even if my back hurts and my legs are sore, I can work just fine until the last three weeks, you know."

"Oh, we know, boss, we just want to make sure that you're okay." The girl at the cash register smiled at Lina. "Besides, Nanoha would get upset at us if her brother was hurt."

Lina chuckled and shook her head. Even when she was little, Nanoha could get the staff to get in line just by popping her head into the back. It was amusing, that was for sure. It made her wonder about her daughter's future slightly, before shaking her head. Whatever happened to Nanoha was going to happen, not to mention Fate, Miyuki and Yuuno.

She sighed and her shoulders slumped. It wasn't fair, she missed her girls. Kyouya spent most of his time with Shinobu when he wasn't at home and with Yuuno gone, the house was pretty empty. "I know it's only for six months, but it still feels so empty." She shivered slightly, wondering if that was what it would be like when her children were all grown up.

The sound of the door chime had her turning her head and gasping in surprise. "Sis!" She stood up carefully as Luna walked over to her. "Missed you!" Hugging Luna tightly, she held the hug for a few moments before letting go and letting her sister breath. "I'm surprised you came."

Luna chuckled as Lina let go of the hug. "Oh, it wasn't hard. Mom and dad would have come, but they couldn't get anyone to cover them for a few days." She looked at Lina's belly and gave her sister a flat look. "When's the baby due?"

"Two months from now." Lina smiled as she rubbed her belly. "He's getting restless."

"He?" Luna blinked in surprise. "How..."

"Technology's pretty interesting." Lina chuckled softly. "Do you know why I called you?"

As they went over to the table to sit down, Luna shrugged slightly and gestured to Lindy, who had walked in after her. "Your messengers said something about Mazoku causing problems."

"Yeah." Lina nodded to her. "There's some friends of my daughters that are being harassed by a Mazoku General and I'm not sure why. If you mind sticking around here for a few hours, I can get them to show up here and you can take a look at them."

Luna shrugged, it sounded good enough for her. "Fine." She then smirked at Lina, who blinked in confusion. "So... You enjoy taking it easy when you're pregnant or are you lazy?"

Lina rolled her eyes and gave her employees a flat stare. "Shiro had to deal with some things today and my employees have committed mutiny on me, forcing me to sit down. I tried to tell them that I'm alright, but they don't believe me."

Luna just shook her head. She and Lindy would have been over quicker, but all the things that were different on this world were so different that it was hard for her _not_ to stop and stare at everything.

She had to wonder how her sister handled living on this world, it was just too weird.

(-)

Meanwhile...

"So, why are you afraid of her?" Amy asked Filia after the latter had finally calmed down somewhat.

Somewhat because instead of hearing Chrono's bones threatening to crack from her hug, they were merely creaky every time he took a breath.

"She's got Cephied's soul in her. The god of our world, if she wanted to do something to me, I would have to take it."

"Why?" Chrono managed to get out while rasping for air.

""I was always taught..."

Amy put a hand on Filia's shoulder, causing her to shiver slightly. "Look, Filia, even if she wanted to do something to you, we wouldn't let her, okay?" It had taken Filia nearly four months before she stopped having nightmares every time she went to sleep. She had no idea how bad this was going to screw her up. "You live here, you're not subject to your old world's rules anymore. You did nothing wrong, back then, Filia."

"But, I... I'm seen as an abandoned traitor by everyone and..." She gasped as Amy growled and pulled on her shoulder, causing her to let go of Chrono, who gasped as he finally was able to breath normally.

"Dammit, Filia! You live here! Not there! Who cares if you're an abandoned Dragon? You live with us, you're not a traitor to us." Amy was practically glaring at Filia, who was gulping slightly.

"Amy, I think you're scaring her." Chrono spoke up as he tried to get her to calm down. "Filia, she's right. You don't have to go back, you're not a traitor to us."

"But... What do I have?" Filia knew that she was still, technically, subject to the whims of the gods of her world, which was why she was glad that she had gotten the offer to come to this world. At least any Dragons wanting to harm her or Val wouldn't have an easy time with it.

"Us." Chrono said softly, before stiffening.

Amy looked at him dumbly, honestly, she was surprised he said that to Filia. "Um, yeah, Chrono's right, you do have us, we'll always be your friends."

"Just friends?" Filia asked softly, disappointment in her voice. She, Amy and Chrono all knew about the hints Lindy had been dropping, about making sure to be married before starting an intimate relationship and it _had_ been getting the three of them thinking, heavily.

"Well, um..." Amy looked at Chrono, who was blushing. "It's not like we can all be in a relationship like that together."

Filia blinked a few times. "...We can't? Why not?" When the two of them stammered a few times, she pouted. "I mean, it's a bit uncommon, but not unheard of for Dragons to have multiple partners. For men, it's a sign of virility and for women, it's a sign of how much they love their man... I heard stories of one Dragon who had fifty wives."

"FIFTY!"

Filia nodded at their stunned looks. "Uh huh... Besides... If I had stronger connections to this world, I wouldn't worry as much... And Val is going to need a father, right?" Seeing the two of them blush and stammer, she sighed and shook her head. "It's okay, I was mostly just trying to keep myself from feeling more upset. You're humans, I'm a Dragon, it wouldn't work even if we were closer partners." She started chuckling softly. "I mean, we're not even the same species, even if I look human, I'm not, it wouldn't work and I..." She buried her face in her hands as her shoulders started shaking. "I guess it's okay, after all, I'm not anyone important."

"Filia, come on..." Chrono patted her back softly and looked at Amy, who was trying to help her too. "Even if we're not Dragons, we can still be close to you, right?"

"Excuse me." Filia got up. "I'm going to go check on Val."

As they watched her walk away, Amy turned to Chrono. "I'll talk to her some more." She patted him on the leg and followed the Dragoness into her own room.

Chrono just sighed, sure, he was almost sixteen, but he didn't understand why his mother kept bringing up that he had to be careful.

Tilting his head, he couldn't help but stare at Amy's rear-end as she walked out of the room before nearly slapping himself. Why the heck did he get a sudden mental image of Amy bent over and naked?

And for that matter, he wondered why he suddenly thought about Filia and Amy both naked.

(-)

"Filia, what's wrong?" Amy asked as she got into the room.

"Nothing..." The Dragoness sighed as she sat on her bed. "I over-reacted I guess. I mean, Val will probably look up to Chrono regardless of anything else."

"...Luna's visit really is bothering you, huh? Why?" Amy sat down next to Filia and gently coaxed Filia into putting her head on Amy's lap.

Filia sighed as Amy ran her hands through her hair. "She's the Avatar of Cephied, has a soul fragment of him inside of her and can talk to Vrabazard, Rangort and Valwin almost freely. I was once a priestess of Vrabazard... So, I guess... Even if I was abandoned and betrayed by my people, a part of me still wants to be in the gods' favor."

"...Are you worried that they'll be upset that you left your world?" Filia turned so that her face was buried against Amy's belly, before letting out a whimper and nodding. Amy sighed softly. "Filia, it's okay, we can think of something."

"But what? I thought, you know, if I was in a relationship with someone, or at least faking one, the gods would be mollified and not care anymore. I mean," she started laughing weirdly and Amy started to worry about her, "it's not like I want to force you or Chrono, you're both wonderful people that deserve someone better than me."

"And you're worried that if you weren't in a relationship that they'd force you to return to your home and face the wrath of your people?" Amy asked, getting a nod from Filia. "And what do you mean we deserve better?"

"I was going to be used as breeding stock, Amy... Maybe that's all I'm good for? Just letting some men take me and make me..." She stopped when Amy let out a yell of frustration. "Amy?" She yelped as Amy pulled her up and looked her right in the eye.

"Dammit, Filia! If you were worthless Chrono NEVER would have asked Lindy if you could come with us!" Frowning and poking Filia in the chest, the Dragoness gulped at the look on Amy's face. "Sometimes I wonder why he thinks you're special if you don't."

"...He thinks I'm special?" Filia blinked at her. "But, he likes you."

Amy sighed softly. "Maybe, but look, Filia, you can't keep dwelling on the past, Luna didn't do anything, so, stop feeling like the gods are out to get you!"

Filia nodded slowly. "I'm sorry, I guess I'm still not over..."

Amy sighed and gave her a hug. "I'd be more worried if you were completely over what happened. Even Nanoha still has trouble sleeping at times, and it's been almost two years since then. So, just try not to let it bother you, okay?" Amy pulled back and smiled at Filia.

Filia nodded and smiled at Amy. "Thank you, Amy."

Amy smiled back. "Welcome."

"So, can I come in now?" Chrono asked by the door, getting a yelp from the girls as he walked in. "I didn't want to interrupt, but, are you okay now, Filia?"

The Dragoness nodded, before smiling weirdly as her tail slipped out and wrapped around Amy's waist. "You know, I've decided to have Amy here." She pulled the shocked woman down and hugged her protectively. "Maybe you can convince me to let her go?" She giggled as Chrono sighed and rubbed his forehead.

"I think my mother corrupted you." He muttered and walked over to her. "What if I said that her face is turning blue?"

Filia scooted back on the bed until her back was against the wall corner. "Not good enough, I can loosen it up, but I'm not going to let go."

"Don't I get a say in this?" Amy asked as Chrono crawled onto the bed. She was enjoying the attention, plus any chance to tease Chrono was good in her books.

Filia shook her head. "Nah uh... Chrono hasn't convinced me to let you go yet."

"Val will wake up if you don't." Chrono threatened, getting a shake from Filia as she looked at the little Dragon's crib, the sounds of Val's deep breathing hit her sensitive ears.

"Try again." Filia was starting to feel better. It wasn't the teasing of Chrono that made her feel better, though it didn't hurt, it was the fact that she was focusing on something else.

Chrono gave her a flat look before leaning in and kissing her on the lips quickly.

Filia's face turned bright red as she let go of Amy. "Uh, buh, huh?"

Chrono's face was just as red as he chuckled at the two of them. "Well, it got you to let go of Amy."

Filia frowned and grabbed Chrono, pulling him down. "You sullied my lips!" She whined as she held him against her. "You both need to take responsibility!"

"For what?" Amy yelped as Filia's tail pulled her close.

Filia blushed hard as she looked at them. "...For making me feel weird when I'm around you both."

The two blushed as they looked at her. Well, that was one way to put it.

(-)

Arisa groaned as she slumped against Arf. "Kara..."

"Yes?" The familiar asked as the two of them were trying to recover from the rather... Intense work out that had the two of them and Suzuka nearly out cold. The poor familiar could never remember a time where her muscles felt so cramped up and sore. Well, except that time when she broke that vase and Lina made her work so hard that she did pass out from exhaustion.

Being of magic she might be, she still had some limits to her stamina. If she pushed beyond that limit, she could drain too much of Fate's magic to do more.

"Who would have thought basketball could be so tiring?" Suzuka said softly as the three were taking a shower.

"When she decided to throw balls at our legs and told us to keep moving because life doesn't wait for anyone." Arf shook her head. "Don't fall asleep, you might drown."

"You're telling me. Kara, aren't you supposed to be magical?"

"I was originally a wolf, Arisa." Arf said softly. "Fate saved me from death, so, even if I am magical, I have some limits. I don't want to push myself further than what I should be able to do, because then I have to use more of Fate's magic."

Arisa nodded tiredly. "You'll need to show off what you can do later, wash my back."

Arf rolled her eyes and did just that. She'd complain about it, but Suzuka slid up to her and started washing her back, so, it wasn't a big deal.

(-)

Riksfalto frowned as she looked in at the girls from the Astral Plane. "What is it about you?" The girl's astral body was weak, incredibly so, but there was something weird about it, hints of something much deeper.

"If I didn't know any better, I'd say someone put some sort of seal on your soul years ago." But that wasn't possible, even the best seals left traces, things that indicated something was off, but the girl didn't have anything visible, even to her astral eye.

"Ah, screw it." She growled and snapped an attack at the girl. It was a weak blast, even a Minor Demon could shrug it off, but she needed to know if there was anything special about the girl.

(-)

Arisa suddenly stiffened, her body shivering and shaking.

"Arisa?" Arf blinked as the girl grabbed her head and screamed in pain. "ARISA!" Arf grabbed the girl and tried to get her to calm down before yelling at Suzuka to call the nurse.

It was a good thing adrenaline had kicked in, otherwise they wouldn't be able to move like they were.

(-)

"What the heck?" Riksfalto frowned as she saw the results of that little experiment. The girl did have something going on with her, her astral body flared suddenly, before being pulled back in tightly. "What kind of weird seal is that?" She had never seen a seal that could actually do something like that before.

Most seals on humans were attached to their souls, not their minds on top of that.

Whatever it was, Riksfalto could see that the seal was damaged now, as raw power started leaking out of it. "This... Will be interesting." She chuckled before phasing back into the teacher's lounge, where she sat and smirked. "What are you hiding little girl?"

It was only a matter of time now.

* * *

Arisa: What's wrong with me? Does anyone know? Next time on Blood That Flows - Shine. Read it, or I'll send Suzuka after you.  
Suzuka: Rawr!


	78. Shine 24

Blood That Flows

Shine 24

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

* * *

Lina blinked at the person who walked into the restaurant. "Aren't you Arisa's butler?"

The older man nodded to her. "Yes. As you were there when Miss Bannings was hurt, I thought you should know..."

"Huh?" Lina blinked before turning her head and sighing as she saw Luna trying to work the radio and being about as successful as she had been with a calculator when she first arrived. "Luna..."

"I think I figured it out already... Yes, this rolling thing here turns it off." She rolled her thumb over the dial and let out a scream while everyone else winced at the sudden increase of static that filled the restaurant.

"Miss..." One of the cooks came out and made Luna leave the radio as another one quickly dropped the volume and get some real music on. "Please, you may be the boss's sister, but you really don't know much, do you?"

Luna twitched heavily and Lina fought back a laugh. "...Why can't I fry them?"

"Because then insurance premiums would go up, I'd have to pay for court fees, I'd have trouble hiring replacements and I'd have to pay off the hospital stay." Lina said flatly as the cook started sweating heavily. "Look, just go back and cook, okay?"

He nodded at her. "Sure boss!"

"And, Luna, you really don't know anything about this world, so, please, don't try anything with the technology, you might accidentally do what I did once."

"What?" She blinked in confusion as she sat down next to Lina.

"I put a metal pan in the microwave, nearly destroyed the kitchen by accident." Lina sweat-dropped at the looks she was getting from her employees. "Hey, I'll have you know I never used a microwave until that point, okay?"

"Aren't you from Europe?"

Lina rolled her eyes. "Very poor section of Europe, they don't even have running water, okay?" She turned back to the butler. "Sorry about that, so, what was it you wanted to talk to me about?"

"Ah, yes..." He sat down at the table and looked at Lina seriously. "After Miss Bannings spent time in the hospital, I took a look into her past. I found something interesting just before she moved here to Japan."

"Wait, you haven't been her butler forever?"

He shook his head. "No, I only became her butler after she and her parents moved here to Japan."

"So, what did you find out?" Luna asked, curious.

"It seems, that just before coming to Japan, her parents spent a lot of money on something, but I can't get all the details without them around." He looked apologetic and Lina sighed softly.

"Don't worry about it, if it comes down to it, we'll need to..." She trailed off and frowned softly. "I think we may need to continue this conversation at the school." Both Luna and the butler blinked and Lina turned to look in the kitchen just as Shiro came out. "Honey, I need to head to the school, seems that our problem just got worse."

Shiro nodded to her. "Do you want me to drive you, or..."

"I can take them." The butler said as he stood up. "I have the limo outside."

"Well, it is getting close to the end of the school day." Lina stood up slowly, before grinning softly. "A limo? Haven't rode in one of those since our wedding."

Shiro chuckled and waved them off. "Just don't go picking up weird people."

Lina smirked at him. "I only did that once, dear, though, that reminds me, we need to send the pope a letter."

Shiro sweat-dropped, he remembered when Nanoha was born, the Pope had given them a personal visit and had given Nanoha a blessing. When he asked why, the Pope said that he felt that the child would have a long, hard life ahead of her and she would need all the help she could get.

Who knew that old guy was right?

As they got to the car, Luna looked at it in slight confusion before the butler opened the door for her. "Thank you." She nodded as she got inside. "Woah..."

Lina chuckled as she was helped into the limo as well. "Yeah, it's comfy." She sighed as she relaxed into the seat. "Surprised you didn't ask to fly to the school."

"Even if you pointed me in the right direction, I'd likely miss it." Luna chuckled softly. "I need to know, Lina... How do you put up with all this weird stuff?"

"Technology?" Lina sighed and looked up, gently patting her belly. "I got used to it, really. But there's still things I don't know how to use properly." She laughed softly. "Kyouya still teases me about not being able to use a computer for more than Solitaire." Seeing Luna's confused face, she shook her head. "Don't worry about it." She shook her head as the car started to move. "I don't even like to drive."

"Oh?" Luna blinked a few times as Lina shook her head and tapped her chin.

"Not at all, I prefer biking though." When Luna gave her a confused look, she laughed softly. "I can travel on a bike so fast that I've had flying machines chase me down and try to stop me." She never knew why Shiro wanted to her wear cat ears when she went biking though.

Luna's eyes were swirling in confusion and she nodded slowly. "I'll... Take your word for it."

Lina sighed softly. "How are mom and dad doing?"

"They miss you." Luna was grateful for the change of topic. Thinking about machines that could fly was hurting her head. "They want to be around for their grandson's birth."

Lina sighed softly. "I don't know if they could handle the technology. Luna, I nearly had a freak-out when I saw the stuff originally, I'm surprised..." She trailed off as Luna started twitching. "Well, that's pretty much how I was when I was around the technology at first." She sighed softly. "I don't want mom and dad to freak out when they see this stuff." Seeing her sister's look, she slumped. "Alright, but please, try to prepare them for what they're going to see, this stuff's not on that world yet."

"Yet?" Luna blinked and Lina laughed at her.

"Trust me, that world will catch up in a few hundred years." Lina sighed as she closed her eyes. "Just sit back and relax, sis."

Luna just blinked and nodded slowly.

(-)

"Momma? Daddy?" She looked around, whimpering. "Where are you?" Her eyes widened as she saw some men she had never met before just grinning at her. "Who... Who... No, stay... Stay away... STAY AWAY!" She screamed before everything went to white.

Arisa jolted awake with a scream. "That was..." She panted and shivered. "What was..." She looked at her hands and her face turned green as she saw it.

Blood. So much blood on her hands.

She started swiping at her hands, but she couldn't get it to go away. "Get off, get off..." She whimpered, before getting out of the bed and stumbling for the sink. Turning on the water to full blast, she ran her hands under it, scrubbing hard. "Get off, go away!" She pulled her hands away from the water and trembled. "Why..?" She suddenly felt ill and lurched her head into the sink, expelling the contents of her lunch as her head got soaked in the warm water. "Why won't it..." Closing her eyes after finally being unable to throw up anymore, she slumped to the ground and curled into a ball. "Go away... Go away..." Why wouldn't it go away?

"She's right in... Arisa!" Suzuka gasped as she saw her friend trembling on the floor. "Come on, Arisa..."

"Blood, won't go away, why won't..."

Suzuka blinked and looked at Arisa's hands and touched them, which caused Arisa to scream and start scooting away. "Arisa!"

"No more... Stop, no more..."

"Sleep." Luna's voice carried through the room and Arisa suddenly slumped over, out cold. "Shee..." She grabbed the girl and put her back on the bed. "What the heck is she talking about, blood? There wasn't any that I saw." Nor smelled, but she didn't need to mention the rather repugnant smell from the sink. Though the sight of running water without someone to work a pump was interesting. Clearing her mind, Luna touched Arisa in the middle of the forehead and closed her eyes.

"What is she doing?" Arisa's butler asked Lina, who shrugged slightly.

"Not sure exactly." Luna suddenly lit up like a sun and the occupants in the room had to shield their eyes.

"Interesting." Luna said as the glow faded. Turning to the others, most of whom were blinking the spots out of their eyes. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say that she's got a fragment of Cephied inside of her... Except that Cephied's dead and from my world, so..."

"The Blue Dragon then." Lina supplied, getting a nod from Luna.

"Okay, then the Blue Dragon. Heck, if I didn't know any better, I'd swear that what happened here was the opposite of our world."

"You mean, Chaotic Blue either died or was completely sealed away, but as a last act of revenge managed to slice the Blue Dragon up into several fragments and then both made servants afterwords?" Luna nodded to Lina's question. "Then maybe Death Bringer was right..." Lina muttered to herself, getting a shrug from Luna.

"Anyway, the point is, apparently the power was waking up, but someone put an additional seal on top of the one that's already on her soul, so it wouldn't wake up."

"Um..." Suzuka spoke up as she raised her hand. "What do you mean? Is Arisa not human?"

"She is." Luna nodded to the young girl. "She just has part of the soul of a powerful god inside of her. Heck, if I wasn't Cephied's Knight I wouldn't know that it was the Blue Dragon."

Lina frowned softly as she looked at the girl on the bed. "Hmm... Can you remove the seal?"

"The second one, easy enough, but if the power wakes up fully, well... We both know what will happen." Lina sighed softly and nodded.

"What will happen?" Arisa's butler asked in confusion.

Lina gave him a serious look. "Arisa will cease to exist if the Blue Dragon fully manifests itself." Suzuka, Arf and the butler all stared at her in horror.

"Bu, but..." Suzuka whimpered and Lina shook her head.

"It may not happen, we'll have to be careful when helping Arisa out, okay? I'm pretty sure that Luna can talk the Blue Dragon's soul down a bit so that it doesn't consume her completely."

Luna chuckled and nodded. "Won't be too hard, so you won't need to worry about that, it might take some time though."

Suzuka nodded and closed her eyes, praying to anything that would listen to her, to help Arisa out.

"Heh heh heh! I _knew _it!" Riksfalto materialized in the room, laughing at the group. "I KNEW that there was something unusual about her!" When Luna stood up and started to glow, she held up her hands. "Hold it there, Knight of Cephied, I'm not here to fight you, I was just checking in on my new pet project."

"You..." Suzuka growled at her. "This is your fault!"

Riksfalto shrugged. "Yeah, well, whatever kiddo, she's like Lei Magnus then, if you want her to not turn into the Blue Dragon, you just gotta keep her from giving into complete despair like Lei did."

Lina frowned at the Mazoku. "Why are you telling us this?"

Riksfalto smirked at her. "Because, it's more fun to fight a human who draws on the power of a god, rather than the god itself. Besides, I wanna see what someone can do with that much Holy power running through them." The grin on her face was threatening to split it apart. "Maybe she'll be like Yuuno? I don't know, but I can't wait to find out." She laughed as she disappeared. 

* * *

Arisa: So we find out that I'm a vessel of the Blue Dragon, so now things can... What do you mean that we're not part of the plot right now? GAH! Next time on Blood That Flows - Shine, read it, or Luna will torture me.  
Luna: Oh, I'll do that anyway.  
Arisa: Help?


	79. Shine 25

Blood That Flows

Shine 25

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

* * *

Meanwhile...

Jail rubbed his forehead as he looked at Due tiredly. "Incredible." After dealing with restructuring and modifying Cinque's body to deal with her power better, he was grateful that she was sleeping off the drugs right now, because he really wasn't sure he could handle looking into her eye without feeling tremendous guilt crash down on him. "If only I had known."

"Sir?" Uno looked at him. Sein had left to relax for the rest of the day. Tre would be fine in a couple of days, but Due looked to be in pretty bad straights.

"I had no idea that the DNA I spliced into Cinque was so volatile." There was a look of sadness on his face as he looked at her. "I know that I said that I would do anything, but if I could take it back..."

"Sir... Sometimes mistakes need to be made in order to advance science. And, like you said, you had no idea how dangerous that DNA was." Uno interrupted him. "Perhaps, instead of blaming yourself, you should work on finding ways for the cyborgs you did modify to harness their power more properly without any severe drawbacks?"

Jail nodded, he already knew that. "How is she?" He gestured towards Due.

"From what I can tell, she's recovering, but..." Uno looked confused as she looked at her sister. "She looks younger to me, almost like she lost a decade of physical age."

Jail chuckled softly. "Heh, amazing, it worked... The reincarnation mode actually worked."

"Reincarnation Mode?" Uno blinked as Jail nodded. "What the?"

"It was an experimental mode I put into Due. But then I realized that it was stupid so I stopped there." Jail shook his head. "Looks like it works, but since she didn't regress to a child, I think that the blow wasn't strong enough to kill her right away... Then again... What's with the hair?"

Looking at Due's new reddish hair, Uno nodded. "It seems that one of the Unison Devices that was powering the more powerful robotic creatures bonded with Due for some reason, she was also unconscious."

"Interesting." Jail nodded slowly. "See if you can't figure out more about the devices from Quattro." From what he could tell, the devices were being kept in the chest area without being able to see, hear or even move from their position.

In short, it looked like a form of torture, but he couldn't deny just how powerful these things were. "Also, make sure to give the robots a tune-up. They're strong, but they're several centuries out of date. Let's make sure that they're fully tuned up and able to do what they're supposed to do."

"Of course." Uno nodded to him. "What about the others? You've sped up the process for them."

Jail chuckled softly. "The DNA that I spliced into their bodies is making the process go faster than anticipated. With any luck, I'll have all of your sisters awake in less than a year."

Uno raised an eyebrow. "Indeed. It might be a bit crowded in here." She looked at the tank where that purple-haired woman was floating. "What are we going to do with her? Her vitals are very weak right now."

"Do what you can to keep her alive." Jail nodded to her and looked at Due again, sighing in relief as current scans revealed that she was going to be just fine.

"Sir... I have discovered that she has a daughter, a young one at that." Uno looked at her computer screen and frowned softly. "You know how the Bureau is putting pressure on you to produce some artificial mages... Since she's so young, she would be a good test subject."

Jail nodded at her. "Make it so."

"I can do that, doctor." Quattro smiled at him as she walked into the room. Jail blinked and tilted his head. "...What is it, doctor?"

"Either I'm tired, or your body has changed slightly."

Quattro chuckled softly. "Don't worry about it, doctor. I can go and collect the girl, it will be my pleasure."

Jail nodded to her. "Very well, Uno, give her the directions."

"Of course." Uno nodded and tossed a small object to Quattro. "That should be everything you need."

Quattro smiled before turning and leaving. 'This will be fun.'

'Levi?' Quattro's voice echoed in her head. 'What will?'

'You'll soon find out.' She chuckled as she disappeared.

(-)

Zest groaned as he opened his eyes. Seeing the white ceiling above his head, he groaned and closed his eyes again. "Headache..."

"Oh! You're awake!" A woman he didn't know spoke up too loud for his tastes. "You've been out cold for almost a week now."

"A week?" Zest groaned as he sat up. "What happened?"

The woman shrugged. "I can't answer that. Let me make some calls."

Zest nodded and closed his eyes. His body felt horrible and he had no idea what happened.

The last thing he recalled was an explosion that happened just as he, Quint and Megane were teleporting.

He still didn't know how that small girl's hair changed color like that. Even though that power had been terrifying, it didn't bother him nearly as much as her losing all sense of self did. 'What kind of power was that?' It felt vaguely familiar, but he couldn't place it fully.

"Ah, you're awake." An older male voice spoke up as a doctor walked into the room. "You and Mrs. Nakajima are lucky, for awhile we thought we were going to lose the both of you."

"What?" Zest groaned as he sat up and blinked as his blankets fell down to reveal a massive amount of bandages on his torso. "...I take it that you needed to do a lot of operating?"

"Oh yes, your insides were pretty messed up. We almost lost you at least three times when we were operating on you. Mrs. Nakajima wasn't any better off."

"Where is she?" Zest looked at the doctor walked over to a curtain and pulled it back, leaving him to gasp as he saw her hooked up to various tubes and monitors. "...Is she..?"

"She's alive, but her legs are trashed in several places." The doctor shook his head. "In fact, she woke up just yesterday, we're keeping her here until we can make sure that she's stable enough to be with her family."

"Her legs are messed up?" Zest frowned as the doctor nodded. "Why can't you heal them?"

"Not sure." The doctor rubbed his forehead. "There's some sort of magic that's causing problems for us, plus there's metal shrapnel in her legs. Other than that, she's fine, just dehydrated."

Zest nodded and tried to sit up straighter as Regius walked in. "Sir."

"Calm down, I wanted to see how you two were doing." Looking at them, the Colonel nodded in satisfaction. "I'm sorry to say that the mission was a complete failure on our parts."

"It seems that the new recruit was related to a group of people that were already there ahead of us." Zest went onto say. "I'm not sure what her goals were, but she went out of her way to make sure that one of the people there was spared my blade..." Zest's eyes widened slightly. "Alphine, what happened..."

Regius shook his head. "She didn't make it. There was an explosion that nearly killed you and Nakajima and somehow kept Alphine from making it. We then destroyed the site shortly after getting you out, as per orders."

Zest grimaced at that. He knew it was a possibility, but still, it didn't set well with him, at all. "What about Alphine's daughter?"

"She wasn't high on our priorities right away." Regius admitted. After making sure that you were taken care of, we've sent someone to make sure that she gets placed with..." He trailed off as a beeping sound was heard and a screen popped up. "Yes?"

"Sir!" One of his subordinates spoke up. "We've arrived at the residence where Alphine's daughter is, and we've discovered something horrible sir."

"What?" Regius felt a cold hole in his stomach for some reason.

"There was a murder, sir. We have confirmation of two dead bodies, the housekeeper and the child."

Regius closed his eyes and nodded. "I see. Thank you for that, make sure that it gets cleaned up."

"Yes sir." The screen turned off and Regius looked at Zest and mentally cursed himself. If only he had been faster...

The look on Zest's face was a haunted one, not that he blamed the other man, since injured children were a sore spot with him.

"Excuse me." Regius nodded and left. He would return at a later date, when Zest had a chance to come to grips with what happened.

At that moment, Regius felt like he could use a drink.

(-)

Meanwhile...

Sein blinked as Quattro walked in, chuckling. "What is it, Qua-nee?" She blinked at the small body in Quattro's hands.

"Oh, nothing..." Quattro smirked. "I just find it amusing that people are upset about a dead doll."

Sein blinked in confusion. "But why would they?"

Quattro shrugged as she carried the baby to the labs. "They seem to think that the doll is this girl... Lutecia, I think, and they think that she's dead."

Sein just blinked more, wondering why people would think that.

Quattro merely smirked as she looked at the young girl. 'Told you, didn't I? Killing that woman and then using our combined power like that... By the way, I take back any bad things I said about your IS from before.'

'Thank you, Levi, and yes, you were right, that was fun, the feelings were incredible. How did you know?'

Levi just chuckled in response. 'I'm a Mazoku, after all. The pain people feel is pleasure for us.'

* * *

Chrono: Well, I'm not sure, but I think that something interesting is happening in the world. Next time on Blood That Flows - Shine.  
Filia: Read it or Mace-sama will get you.  
Amy: Filia, that's not nice.

What? You honestly thought I was going to pass up the chance to use "Reincarnation Mode" after I wrote "Due"?


	80. Shine 26

Blood That Flows

Shine 26

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

* * *

Meanwhile, back on Earth...

Luna looked at her sister and frowned slightly. "What do you mean I can't take her and train her?"

Lina twitched slightly as her son kicked again. She had to wonder what was up with her and unborn children, first Nanoha and now her unborn son were all just so energetic. "It's not for either of us to decide. As much as you and I both know that she needs it, I'm not so certain that others would as well."

"If I may..." The butler spoke up softly. "Allow me to talk to Miss Bannings' parents. There is information that none of us know, and I'm almost certain that they know."

Lina nodded at him and sighed softly. "Can we get her out of here?"

"It shouldn't be a problem." The butler nodded to her. "Though, considering that woman that appeared, I doubt that I can do much against her." Seeing Lina raise an eyebrow at him, he smiled slightly. "I'm afraid to ask, but would it be alright for Miss Bannings to stay at your place for the night, since you know what this woman wants better than I do?"

Lina shook her head. "I don't mind it. It's been a little empty at the house lately, Luna, do you mind spending the night at my house?"

Luna nodded and smiled. "Sure, might be fun."

Lina smiled and turned to Arf and Suzuka. "So, anyway..." She trailed off and looked at Luna. "Before I forget... No slugs." Seeing Luna face-fault was enough to make her start laughing.

"You're not going to forgive me for that, are you?"

Lina shrugged and grinned at Luna. "Hmm... Probably not."

Luna groaned and shook her head as she stood up. This was going to be interesting.

(-)

Meanwhile...

Lindy blinked as she walked into her apartment. It was pretty quiet, which was pretty odd, over-all, considering that Amy and Filia could be loud without trying, and Val was almost loud enough to wake the dead when he wanted something.

Checking the living room, she frowned as there was no one there. "...Did they all go out to eat?" Val hadn't yet learned how to transform, so he typically didn't go out with the rest.

As she walked through the rest of the apartment, she blinked as she heard a creaking sound from inside Filia's room, which caused her to sigh softly. At least Filia was home. Poor girl must have been worn out from Luna's visit.

Opening the door to Filia's room, she chanced a look in and smiled as she saw Val still asleep before looking at the bed and staring. Shaking her head and blinking her eyes, she looked again before gently biting her lips and stepping back, closing the door and then turning to head towards the kitchen.

Grabbing a shot glass and some wine, she shook her head in dismay. "Well, Clyde... Looks like Chrono took after me after all." Lindy wondered if maybe there was some sort of irony in this.

"Oh well, he could do much worse than those two."

(-)

Later...

Chrono rubbed his head as he finally shambled into the kitchen. "Ah... Mom?"

"Sit down, Chrono." When he did so, she looked at him seriously. "Well?"

"Well, what?" He blinked a few times.

She sighed, hating it when he played dumb. "Tell me something, are you trying to make me into a grandmother so soon?"

Chrono's eyes widened before he shook his head. "No!"

"Then why were you in Filia's bed with no shirt on?"

Chrono blushed as Lindy raised an eyebrow at him. "It was constricting, okay? Filia moves around a bit and nearly choked me, so I took it off."

"And the fact that Amy and Filia weren't wearing a bra had nothing to do with it?"

"Mom, when was the last time you wore a bra to bed?" Chrono felt marginally better when Lindy gave him an embarrassed look. "Listen, nothing happened in there. They took their bras off, I took my shirt off, that was it. Filia was hugging tightly and didn't let either of us go, so we all kind of fell asleep. Really, I was still wearing my pants." When she sighed, he blinked in confusion. "Mom?"

"I'm sorry, it's just... I was your age when I was pregnant with you. I got lucky that your father was such a swell guy, but I'm worried about you. If you do take your relationship with either of them that far, Chrono..." She smiled at him softly. "I won't stop you, but promise me that you'll at least give thought to what can happen."

He nodded, though a blush adorned his cheeks. "Um, about either of them, it, um, seems that Filia might not... Be adverse to a more open relationship between the three of us." When Lindy dropped her head to the table, Chrono shook his head. "Come on, mom, I mean, it's something that most guys would kill for, but, um, mom, you really shouldn't be banging your head on the table."

"I was wrong Clyde, he's not like me... He takes after both of us." Lindy muttered to herself, much to Chrono's confusion.

(-)

The next morning...

"Hey, mom, dad!" Lina blinked a few times, before her face lit up in excitement, causing Luna to blink as a young man walked into the kitchen. "There weren't any classes today, so I thought I'd... Oh, hello." He nodded to Luna. "My name is Kyouya Takamachi, and you are..?"

"Luna Inverse, your aunt." She smiled at him. "Well, it looks like Lina raised you well."

"And I'm chopped sushi?" Shiro said as he walked in from the kitchen. "Hello, Kyouya, I made a lot of food, so, if you're hungry, there's a plate in the kitchen."

His son nodded and went for the kitchen as Shiro put food in front of the two sisters.

Luna raised an eyebrow at the sheer amount of food. "I'm surprised my little sister hasn't eaten you out of house and home yet." She blinked as Shiro chuckled and sat next to Lina. "What?"

"Lina doesn't eat like this very often." Shiro smiled as his wife blushed softly. "Considering that she told me that her magic makes her hungry..."

"And I don't use magic as much as I used to, I didn't need to eat as often." Lina chuckled softly. "But, I've got a baby on the way. It always amazes me how many women try to diet and eat snacks at the same time when they're pregnant." Lina rolled her eyes before eating some more.

Shiro just chuckled softly. At least Lina wasn't eating as fast as she possibly could. He knew how fast she could be when she ate if she wanted to. "Missed something." He poked her cheek, getting her to look at him in confusion before he gave her a quick kiss on the lips.

"Mouu..." Lina pouted and leaned over against him. "I love you, Shiro."

Shiro hugged her and nodded. "I know, love you too, Lina."

As he walked in, Kyouya groaned and rubbed his forehead. "Ugh, and you two wonder why I spend most of my time at college lately." Kyouya shook his head as he sat down. "I swear, you two..."

"Hey, mom..." Kyouya was cut off as Arf walked in, her tail dragging behind her as she yawned heavily. "Arisa's just getting dressed, she'll be down soon, hey, big brother!" Arf grinned and glomped Kyouya, who was thankful he had braced himself. "Too bad you disappeared to college. Nanoha, Fate, Yuuno and Miyuki went to Mid-Childa to do some stuff, Arisa and Suzuka are weird and I missed you!" The small wolf-girl buried her face into Kyouya's stomach, nuzzling it happily.

Kyouya chuckled and rubbed her head. "Missed you too, squirt. I thought you took a smaller form to avoid sucking up Fate's magic?"

"I was playing bodyguard at school, but then a Mazoku showed up and things went crazy." Arf let go of Kyouya so he could sit down at the table, where she joined him. "I'm not much use against things I can't see."

Luna frowned as she looked at the small girl. "Just because you can't see them on the Astral Plane doesn't mean that you're useless. Only Mazoku and Shinzoku can see to the Astral Side, some Dragons using magic can as well, but you're a familiar, right?" When Arf nodded, Luna continued, "then don't complain about it. Familiars can only perceive what their masters do."

"So, what else did I miss while I was away?" Kyouya asked her.

"Well, it seems that there's a bunch of Mazoku running around on Earth." Arf shuddered slightly, wondering what horrors the Mazoku lords could cook up.

(-)

"Oyabun..."

Zelas raised an eyebrow as she leaned back in her chair. "Yes?" By her side a small blonde girl in a white dress was sitting on the floor doodling with some paper.

"The representatives from Japan's Yakuza clans are here to see you."

Zelas rolled her eyes. "Shee, if I had known killing all the major crime lords in Hong Kong would lead to such a problem, I would have just destroyed the city." Really, it wasn't her fault. She had just went on a walk to see the city and ended up murdering some hired thugs that were harassing her.

In less than a week, she had murdered her way up the totem pole and was now the one in charge of the underworld in Hong Kong.

Turning to the girl, Zelas smiled as the girl turned her head and looked up. "You just be good, okay?"

The girl nodded and went back to doodling. She wouldn't speak at all, though Zelas wasn't surprised, since she knew what Zelas' true body looked like.

Then again, it may have been what she had suffered through before Zelas met her. Either way, Zelas found that the girl wouldn't leave her side.

"Send them in."

"Of course." Her underling nodded and left.

'If I wanted to rule the world, I would have been a politician.' She thought to herself.

(-)

"Again?" Kyouya looked at Arf, who nodded. "...Please tell me that Nanoha's not being tortured by them."

"No, just me." Arisa said as she walked out, her eyes were blood-shot as she shambled over to the table. "...So, um... Arf said that my butler let me stay over, what's going on with me?"

"It seems that you have a fragment of this world's supreme god sealed into your soul." Luna spoke up, getting a surprised gasp from Arisa. "It's similar to my world, where the supreme demon was split up and sealed into various humans."

"Oh..." Arisa said in an uncharacteristically small voice. "That would..." She groaned and grabbed her head. "My head hurts for some reason."

"There was a second seal placed on top of the first one." Lina explained while leaning back in her chair. "Why it was tethered to your mind, I don't know."

Arisa grabbed her head and groaned. "I don't know, I've been having these weird nightmares, there's blood, and it's hot and I don't... I don't understand..."

"Sounds like repressed memories." Kyouya spoke up. "Been taking some classes on the stuff in college. There's also some classes on the supernatural that I'm studying."

Luna nodded and looked at Arisa. "Anyway, you have a few options right now. I removed the seal to know what was going on with you. I could put a stronger one in its place and you'll never have to worry about that Mazoku, since she, from what Lina told me, is only interested in opponents that can give her a challenge."

"What are my other options?" Arisa looked at Luna, who shrugged.

"You could do nothing and if things get bad enough, the fragment will fully wake up inside of you, consume you and turn you into the Blue Dragon." Seeing Arisa, Arf and Kyouya all grimace, Luna shook her head. "The other option is that you learn how to draw out its power slowly and safely so you don't become consumed by it."

"That's all." Arisa blinked as Luna shrugged. "Uh..."

"Look, it's up to you, but if you want to learn how to draw it out, it's going to take some time." Luna shrugged as she leaned back. "By the way, Lina... Those mantle pieces..."

Lina raised an eyebrow as she looked at where her sister was pointing. "Ah yes, the Dark Star weapons."

"...You have them as wall coverings?" Luna sweat-dropped as her nodded. "Why?"

"No one would think that they were real weapons if they were just hanging on the wall." She shrugged. "Besides, if I did lock them up in something, it would look more suspicious."

"In other words, people will think that they're just for decorations and nothing special." Arf grinned softly.

"As for Arisa learning..." Lina looked at the girl. "It's up to her parents."

"You really have changed, sis." Luna shook her head. "You're a lot different from the little punk that sold images of my naked body to strangers."

Lina sweat-dropped heavily as Luna smirked at her. "You're not going to let me forget that, huh?" The laugh she got from Luna was enough of an answer.

"Really? Mom did something like that?" Both Kyouya and Arf had amused expressions on their faces. "Hard to imagine her being like that."

Lina hung her head and groaned. "See what you did, sis, now my own son doesn't respect me any more." She pouted as everyone but Shiro started laughing. "Dear... They're making fun of me again." She whined as she turned and hugged him.

Seeing that, Luna frowned softly, a part of her wondered just how her sister got so lucky to find someone like Shiro.

Now if only her parents would stop dropping hints about her having children.

* * *

Nanoha: Huh, Earth is fun, but I'm having fun on Mid-Childa. Next time on Blood That Flows - Shine, read it or Fate will be upset.  
Fate: Very well, I understand.


	81. Shine 27

Blood That Flows

Shine 27

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

* * *

Meanwhile, on Mid-Childa...

Nanoha blinked as she saw Mizetto walk up to her with an upset look on her face. "Ma'am?"

"Ah, Nanoha." The old woman smiled at her. "Good to see that you're in good health. I thought you should know."

The girl blinked in confusion. "Know what?"

"It seems that Megane, Quint and Zest ended up on a rather disastrous mission." Nanoha's eyes widened at that. "Quint and Zest are alive, if badly injured, but Megane..." She shook her head and sighed heavily. "Poor girl."

"I... See..." Nanoha nodded slowly, though, inside, her mind was awhirl. "Do you know what happened?"

"Not yet, the details haven't been fully disclosed yet. All I know was that Megane was behind when they were forced to destroy the site in question."

Nanoha gasped softly. "They... They would do that?"

Mizetto closed her eyes and nodded. "Yes, even if it's harsh, the loss of one life is rather small compared to what could have happened. I'm sorry."

Nanoha nodded to her. "I understand." It wasn't something that she liked, but she could understand.

***Flash***

"Momma?" She looked at her mother. "What happened to daddy?"

Her mother knelt down and hugged the tiny girl. "He got badly hurt, but you don't need to worry about him, momma can help him."

The small girl sniffled and nodded. "Uh huh..."

"Listen, Nanoha, sometimes the world isn't fair and will take people who are important from you away forever just because it can." The little girl nodded and trembled softly. "The only way to avoid that is to make sure that you're strong enough to avoid that."

Nanoha sniffled, blinking in confusion, but she nodded. "I promise, momma, I'll be strong."

Her mother smiled and pulled back. "That's my girl. I promise you that daddy will get better soon." She winked, causing Nanoha to blink in confusion.

***Flash***

"Oh, there's something that I needed to tell you besides that." Mizetto chuckled softly. "You, Fate and Yuuno have been learning at such a rate that you'll probably be done with training in only another month or two. And your older sister, she's a much better swordsman than I've seen in a long time. I'm glad that she's willing to help work with the Belkan magic users, it makes training them so much easier."

"Nyahahahaha..." Nanoha rubbed the back of her head, chuckling softly.

* * *

Later...

"Nanoha?" Fate blinked as she looked at the other girl. "You look down, what's up?" Beside her, Yuuno was looking at Nanoha in concern.

It was hard not to worry, as she only had a small amount of food on her plate and she was barely touching it.

"Remember Zest, Megane and Quint?" Nanoha asked softly, getting a nod from the two of them.

"Yeah, Megane was an awesome summoner and she was really skilled and..."

"She's dead." Nanoha said, getting a gasp from the two of them. "And Zest and Quint got badly hurt on a mission after they trained with us. I found out that Quint might not be able to walk again and Zest is still in the hospital."

"What?" Fate gasped softly. "But, he's so strong, what happened?"

Nanoha shook her head. "I don't know, I only found out that the mission went bad."

Fate looked at her food, suddenly not very hungry. "...Do you know where they are? Maybe we can go visit them?"

Nanoha blinked and tilted her head. "No... I don't know where they are, but we can go find out." She looked at Yuuno and her eyes widened. "Wait a minute, maybe..."

"Excuse me." A female voice spoke up, interrupting them.

Nanoha turned to see a brown haired woman in a green dress holding something in her hands. "Yes?"

She looked at Fate, then at the thing she was holding. "Excuse me, but, is your name Fate Testarossa?"

"Inverse." Fate said, her face showing some annoyance. "My name is Fate Inverse, I'm no longer Fate Testarossa."

"Ah, my apologies then." She nodded to the girl, who seemed mollified. "I need to talk to you about Precia..." Fate got up and turned around as Nanoha and Yuuno both stood, glaring at her. "Wait, please! Just listen to what I have to say. That's all I ask." When Fate didn't move, she sighed in relief. "Precia, she... She's dying."

"What?" Yuuno blinked at her. "What do you mean, she's dying?" He had healed her, he knew he did, so why would she be dying now?

"It's what I said. She's not eating much, nor is she taking care of herself unless I do. Her body's just slowly shutting down." The woman gave Nanoha the object she was holding. "Every night, she goes to sleep, looking at this picture."

"Alicia..." Fate said softly. "That's probably Alicia..."

"Fate-chan..." Nanoha said softly and passed the picture onto Yuuno. "I... I don't think that's Alicia."

Fate balled her hands into tight fists. "It has to be. She never saw me as her daughter, she only cared about Alicia, no matter what I tried, it wasn't good enough for her and..." She trailed off, her eyes widening as Yuuno put the picture in front of her.

On the picture was a small blonde girl, a little redheaded wolf girl and an older, busty cat-girl, all three smiling happily under a tree in a field of flowers. "...This was... A picture Linith took of us... Before she..." Fate brought her hands up to her face and gasped, before turning to the woman. "...Precia... Looks at this?"

The woman nodded slowly. "Yes... I don't know how much longer she'll live, but... I think it would do her a lot of good if you went to see her, even just once." Seeing Fate look undecided, she tried a different approach. "I don't know what happened between the two of you, but I'm not asking you to forgive her, just visit her."

Fate took a deep breath and nodded. "Very well... I need to get permission first though."

"Of course." She nodded to the girl, smiling softly.

* * *

Later...

"Where is that..." She groaned and slumped down to the floor. She felt so weak and tired lately. "Where is that picture..?" Panting, she forced herself to her feet. "I know that it was here when I went to sleep, where..." She blinked as she heard the door open and close. "Yes..?"

"Ah, Precia, I'm back." Her nursemaid said, causing Precia to shake her head and get back onto the bed. "I... What happened?" She gasped as she saw the state of disarray that Precia's room was in.

"I lost that picture, where is it?" Precia's eyes widened as she saw what the woman had.

"Um, sorry." She took the picture over to Precia. "The frame was dirty, so I was washing it." Precia snatched the picture from her nursemaid's hands, glaring at her as she put it back on the dresser carefully. "But, there's someone here to see you."

Anything Precia would have said died on her lips as her face paled when she saw the person that her nursemaid allowed into the room. "You... No..."

"Hello." Fate said softly as she looked at Precia. She expected to feel anger, rage, or even pity.

As she saw Precia, looking so tired, her eyes were slightly blood-shot,Precia's hair looked matted against her body and it looked like Precia had lost a lot of weight that she didn't need to. Fate really just felt numb and unable to feel anything. She didn't understand why, but she couldn't feel anything for Precia at that moment.

"Why'd you come here?" Precia asked the small blonde. "...You're looking well." She caught a glimpse of Nanoha and Yuuno behind Fate. "I take it that you're happy in your life."

"I can't complain." Fate bit her lip softly, wondering why it was hard to form words. Her mind was swirling and chaotic and she couldn't figure out what she wanted to say at that moment.

"Why did you come back?" Precia asked her after several moments of silence. "I let you go, free to do what you will, why come back to me?"

"...I don't know..." Fate finally answered her. "I... I was so angry at you after what happened with Alicia... All I ever wanted was to make you happy.. But, I know that I wasn't good enough for you, wasn't I? I tried so hard, and yet, to you, I kept screwing up. You never saw me as your daughter, you just saw me as a replacement. And then, I ended up killing her, Alicia, because I really am what you called me... A monster and..."

"Stop." Fate blinked as Precia shook her head. "You never were at fault, Fate... I was." Seeing the shocked look on Fate's face encouraged her to continue. "I never should have done what I did."

"But you did." Fate said, looking at the floor, her body shaking softly.

"I never saw you as a person, Fate..." Fate looked up, anger in her red eyes as tears started to fall out of her face.

"Why? Because I'm a clone? Because I wasn't left handed? Because I wasn't born from you like Alicia was? Because I couldn't be perfect like Alicia was? Because I'm different?" Fate's lips trembled as tears ran down her cheeks. "You were always my mother! But, I know... I'm not your daughter, am I? I'm just a clone, someone who will turn into a monster and hurt everyone. You hurt me... Alicia hurt me... How long until I turn into someone that hurts everyone?"

Precia just watched as Fate hiccuped there, trying to stop herself from crying and failing. "I never saw you as a person, because I couldn't be the mother you deserved." Fate blinked and looked at her in surprise. "It's why I let you go completely, I could never be the mother you deserve. You were someone special, and I never could see it."

Precia shifted on her bed so that she could lay down again.

"Precia, I..."

"Just leave, I'm feeling tired."

The nursemaid sighed softly and led Fate out of the room. "I'm sorry." She whispered softly as she led them out of the house.

As soon as they were outside, Yuuno found himself being squeezed tightly by Fate as she finally gave up and started crying into his shoulder.

Not that he or Nanoha blamed her, it had taken a lot of willpower from the two of them, plus a threat from Fate to smack them both with Bardiche if they did anything, to not go in there and yell at Precia.

* * *

Nanoha: Fate-chan, are you okay?  
Fate: I'll be fine, I need time to myself though. Next time on Blood That Flows - Shine, please go read what's happening on Earth.

What? You honestly thought that Fate had gotten over what happened to her at Alicia's hands? Even with therapy, things that remind you of traumatic experiences are still hard on you.


	82. Shine 28

Blood That Flows

Shine 28

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

* * *

Back on Earth...

Luna looked at Kyouya as he led her and Arisa to the dojo. "Are they _always_like that?"

"Newlyweds?" Kyouya asked, getting a nod from her. "Every day since they got married, yep. Dad spoils her so much some days."

Arisa made a face. "Nanoha told me once that they were really loving, but that seems silly!"

"You're lucky, I live with them." Arf grumbled and sighed as they got to the dojo. "Sadly, mom isn't letting me take the day off, so I'll see you after school."

Waving Arf goodbye, the trio stepped into the dojo.

Luna grimaced slightly, it was a touch small, she preferred learning over an open mountain, but Lina did say it was a good place to being practice with Arisa. "Are you sure this is what you want?"

Arisa nodded to the older woman. "Yeah, I mean, if I'm going to have a power like this, why should I let it stay dormant and not do anything with it? Nanoha, Fate, Yuuno, they're all so awesome, and all I can do is just sit back and watch." She squeezed her fists tightly. "Even if I can't do as much as they can, I want to help somehow." Besides, she was tired of being left behind when her friends went out and did dangerous stuff together.

Arisa nearly screamed as a wooden sword stopped inches from her nose. Kyouya was looking at her with narrowed eyes. "Uh..."

"That attitude would get you killed quickly. Dad hammered that into myself and Miyuki when we started training, mom would always back him up." He withdrew his training sword from her face. "It's okay to want to help people, but if you have no idea what your limits are, you'll likely end up hurting yourself."

Luna raised an eyebrow as she looked at Kyouya. "You're a swordsman?" She hadn't pegged Lina to have taught any of her children how to fight with a sword.

Kyouya smirked at her. "I'm pretty decent. Dad's better than me and Miyuki's pretty good too. I think you're pretty good too."

Luna blinked a few times as he tossed her a training sword, which she caught with ease. "You can tell without seeing me fight?"

"You hold yourself like you know what you're doing, you don't move fluidly enough to be someone skilled in hand-to-hand like my dad is, so I figure you use some sort of weapon, and since mom sometimes spars with Miyuki or myself, I think that you're a swords woman, since you are her sister."

Luna laughed softly. "All without seeing me fight, huh? That's impressive."

"Um..." Arisa gulped as the two started circling each other slowly. "What should..."

"Go sit by the corner and watch." Luna said to her. "I hope you don't mind me going full out?"

Kyouya pulled out two wooden swords from somewhere, they were a touch shorter than the one that Luna was using. "By all means, it would be insulting otherwise."

"Well then." Luna held her sword to the side and grinned as her body started to glow brightly. "I do hope you don't mind fighting the Knight of Cephied."

Kyouya just narrowed his eyes for a moment before he disappeared from view, Luna following a moment later.

Arisa's eyes widened, she couldn't see either of them, but she could feel something in the room, not to mention the clang of wood on wood and the air as it suddenly kicked up into a windstorm inside. Covering her eyes, she wondered what was going on.

And why were things starting to look weird to her?

(-)

Kyouya grunted as he parried one of Luna's strikes before stabbing forward with his other sword. He barely clipped her shirt before they were moving away from each other again. There weren't too many people who would hold their sword to the side like she was doing, seemingly leaving herself open like that. Considering how fast she could react to his attacks, he knew she wasn't an amateur.

If his mother's stories had any truth to them, then his aunt had to be an incredible swords woman, just out of necessity if nothing else.

Rushing in, he found that he was right, even with his shorter and easier to swing swords, she was still able to parry, counter and block each strike. Landing on the ground and sliding back, Kyouya took a deep breath and changed his stance, spinning the swords so that he was holding the blades pointed towards his elbows instead of forward, and rushed in.

"Interesting way of holding your weapons." Luna admitted as she took a step back before stabbing forward. Her eyes widened as he parried the attack with one sword and slashed forward with his other one. Twisting to avoid the attack, she drove an elbow into his side. Channeling power into her weapon she slashed down at him just as he swung at her, ignoring the elbow strike.

The strikes forced the two of them apart, panting hard.

Kyouya grimaced, she was damn good, the bruise he was going to have on his body could attest to that. He blinked as his shirt tore open diagonally, revealing a bruise that covered the left side of his chest.

Not that Luna fared any better, her shirt tore open just under her breasts, revealing a rather red mark on her stomach.

"Good thing we're not using real blades." Luna chuckled as she moved forward, this was starting to get fun.

(-)

Arisa blinked just as Kyouya and Luna stopped moving. It had been weird, she had almost been able to see them clearly before they stopped. When they spoke quickly and started to move again, she felt something incredibly hot bubbling up from inside of her.

Before she knew what was going on, she was moving.

(-)

Kyouya and Luna both jumped back as a pillar of blue fire appeared between them. Turning, they saw Arisa there, a sword of blue fire in her right hand and two wings of blue fire behind her as she panted. "Can... I play too?"

"Excitement, huh?" Luna chuckled softly as she looked at Arisa.

"What?" Kyouya looked at Luna, then at Arisa as the latter stood up fully.

"Each Shinzoku responds better to a different emotion. Vrabazard responds to rage, Ragradia apparently responded to helplessness, and the Blue Dragon apparently responds to excitement."

"Uh..." Arisa looked at her left arm, which was covered in blue flames. "How do I turn this off?"

Luna smirked at her. "That's what I'm going to help you with."

(-)

A little later...

"I don't get it..." Kyouya looked at Luna as she tried to help Arisa out. "I thought the gods were supposed to like positive emotions more than negative ones."

Luna shrugged, ignoring the way that Kyouya flushed slightly as her breasts shifted under her shirt. "Emotions are just that, emotions. Some gods find negative ones more interesting than positive ones. The energy behind the emotion is what Shinzoku and Mazoku feed off of." She chuckled as Arisa yelped as the floor started to smolder. "Take it easy, you can't force it to do what you want, you have to work with it."

"Easy for you to say! You're not the one who's trying to burn the house down."

Luna shook her head in amusement. "Listen, Arisa, you need to learn control. Calm down and don't force it. Treat it like another person and work with it."

Arisa frowned, the flames on her arm started to get brighter. "How the heck can anyone control something without forcing it to do what you want it to do?"

"There's the problem, it doesn't want to be controlled, you want it to do something, but if it won't work with you, it will likely consume you." Luna shrugged as Arisa paled. "Just calm down, you can't force it to abate, you need to feel how it moves and flows." Arisa nodded and closed her eyes, trying to breath.

"I'm still a little confused about one thing." Kyouya scratched his head in confusion. "I thought magic was supposed to be able calling up power and then making it form into what you wanted it to become before using it. But this, you're supposed to work with it? I really don't understand."

Luna chuckled at his look. "It's alright, it is confusing. Most magic does work the way you described. If I was to give an example..." Luna trailed off as she thought about how to describe it. "Alright, let's try this. Imagine a running river, okay?" Kyouya and Arisa both nodded. "The flowing water is a person's magic. Normally, you force the water to stop, bend, freeze or boil and it listens to you."

"Is there a draw-back?" Kyouya asked, getting a shrug from Luna.

"Not really. At its base, all magic is energy. However, most magic is only useful to you if you have a lot of talent and raw power. It's why, sometimes, a beginner magic user is better than a veteran."

"Because they have more power and probably as much talent." Kyouya nodded to her. "Okay, that's making sense, what's the difference with Holy magic?"

"You don't need as much power nor talent to get the same effect."

"HUH?" Arisa looked at Luna, who smirked at her.

"To use the river reference again, where you would force it to do what you want normally, with Holy magic, you're actually surrounded by the water, moving with it." She slowly moved her left arm back before pushing it forward. "As you move, the water moves with you."

"Holy magic... Is an extension of yourself, isn't it?"

Luna nodded at Kyouya. "Yes. You need to listen and feel it to understand it fully." She shrugged at him. "It's a bit hard to explain, but since Holy magic can be thought of as the forces of nature itself, you can't control when it will rain, snow or the sun will shine, but you can work with it."

Arisa blinked at that and closed her eyes before gasping as the fire finally put itself out. "Hey, I did it!"

"Good." Luna nodded. "Now, call it up without burning half of your shirt off."

Arisa looked down and yelped, blushing as her shirt was burned off enough to reveal her naked body underneath.

Kyouya looked up and away. "I'll get some extra shirts of Miyuki's that she can't wear anymore. They're too big or too ratty for Nanoha right now, but for training, it's probably for the best."

Several minutes later...

Arisa panted, sweat drenching her forehead as she flopped onto her back. "Ugh, what's wrong? I thought this stuff worked with excitement, you said so!"

Luna laughed at her. "You're trying to force it for one, and for two, that emotion is all you need to wake it up, after that, you need to learn how to call it up freely without forcing everything." Hearing Arisa groan, she rolled her eyes. "Hey, at least you have a teacher. When I first woke up Cephied's power, I was glowing in the dark for a week and all my clothes were turned into ash. Let me tell you, walking around naked outside in the cold wasn't very fun."

Arisa sweat-dropped. "Uh huh..?"

"Anyway, get back to working at it." Luna smirked at Arisa's wide-eyed expression. "You're not dead or out cold, you're going to work at it until you can call that power up and cancel it freely."

(-)

Walking by the dojo, Lina just shook her head. "Now if that doesn't bring back memories, I don't know what does." Oh well, Arisa would survive, Luna wouldn't hurt her permanently, but by the time that Luna was done, Arisa would likely just want to stay in bed for the next week.

"Oh well, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger as sis used to say." Lina chuckled to herself as she slid the door open and dropped off the extra shirts for Arisa to wear. "Kyouya said that he didn't want to walk in and see Arisa completely naked."

Arisa just groaned as she watched Lina leave the room as silently as she came in. "Ugh..."

"Get back to work!" Luna snapped at her, getting a yelp from the girl.

Later that night...

Arisa groaned as she was put down on the couch.

"How'd she do?" Shiro asked from his chair, getting a chuckle from Luna.

"Oh, she did fine, really... I figure that in a few days she won't even need my coaching to get stuff done." Luna chuckled as Arisa twitched on the couch. "That was fun." She looked at Lina, who was asleep on Shiro's lap, and sighed softly. "I don't know who's more lucky, you or her."

Shiro shrugged and picked his wife up. "I'm going to be heading to bed."

Watching them leave, Luna sat down on the other chair and sighed softly.

Who knew having kids and a husband would make her little sister so happy? 

* * *

Lina: Well, that was kind of sappy at the end there. Next time on Blood That Flows - Shine. Hey! Stop going everywhere and focus on one person, huh?  
Shiro: I think the author does this on purpose now.  
Arf: We probably shouldn't break the fourth wall so much.


	83. Shine 29

Blood That Flows

Shine 29

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

* * *

Meanwhile...

"Ugh, my side..." She groaned and sat up, putting a hand on her forehead and looking around. "Well, at least I'm alive." She muttered and looked down at herself, shrugging as she was in nothing more than a paper thin covering before looking around. "Cinque?" She sighed in relief as she saw the small girl resting peacefully. "You're alive, good."

"Nnngh... Tre?" She blinked as Cinque sat up, the small girl was covered in a sheet that rolled down slightly. "You're alive, I..." Her left eye widened and she suddenly grabbed at the left side of her face. "Nnngh... Oh, oww..."

Before she knew what was going on, Tre was by Cinque's side and gently prying the hand away from Cinque's face. "Let me... Your eye." Cinque looked at her, a scared and pained expression on her face. "...I think your eye is gone, Cinque."

"No wonder it hurts." She grimaced before putting her right hand to her mouth. "Hrk..."

Tre looked around before grabbing an open garbage can and getting it close to Cinque, who turned her head and puked into the bucket, shuddering as her body trembled. All Tre could do was hold the can and pat Cinque's back awkwardly, trying to get her to get rid of what was in her stomach.

After a few minutes of dry heaving and Tre patting and rubbing her back, Cinque pulled her head away from the trash and panted heavily. "Ugh... I feel sick." She wasn't sure if it was that weird power that she had used or something else.

Tre grimaced and put the trash down and slid it away before looking at Cinque. "...You might be in shock." Cinque looked at her, her face seemed very drained and weary. "You know, we could get you a new eye, if that's the problem." Cinque shook her head. "What?"

"You and Due got hurt... and all I could do was watch, then I went crazy and... If you hadn't stopped me, I would have died there... I wouldn't have gotten to see my sisters if that happened."

Tre sighed softly and suddenly grabbed Cinque, pulling the surprised girl into a hug. "Stupid girl, you're my sister," Tre was silently grateful that Cinque suddenly was hugging her back, that was a good sign, "if I let you die because of some sort of stupidity, then what kind of person would I be?"

Cinque shivered and nodded as Tre pulled away. "Thanks." She winced slightly. "Nnngh... My eye..."

"Hold on." Tre turned around and Cinque blushed softly as she saw Tre's naked butt, legs and back. "Here." She held up some guaze wrappings and slowly moved the bandages around Cinque's head, covering her bad eye before taping the bandages on her head. "This'll help you keep that eye closed until we can fix it."

"Thanks." Cinque smiled and relaxed, for some reason it was easier to keep her eye closed with the bandages over her eye than without something over it.

Tre nodded. "Well, at least..."

"WAGH!" Both Tre and Cinque were startled to hear Due's voice and turned to look at the number two cyborg. "My boobs are smaller!" She was busy grabbing her chest before blinking and bringing a hand back to the back of her neck. "Yeek! My hair is short!"

Tre blinked a few times, Due's hair was cut short, the back barely brushed against her shoulders with the right side fluffed upwards while the left side was smooth and pushed against her scalp more directly. "Your hair is also red."

"What, seriously?" Due blinked, getting a nod from the two of them. "Oh great, my boobs are smaller, my hair's shorter and a different color, what else?"

"...You're shorter than before?" Tre offered, causing Due to fall off of her bed, revealing that she was wearing the same kind of gown that Tre was.

"Now this just isn't right!" Due stood to her new full height, which put her at least a head shorter than Quattro. "I think I'm only taller than Cinque now!" She then tilted her head as she looked at the two of them. "BAH! You're both being sad frowny faces, aren't you?" She pointed a finger at the both of them.

Cinque sighed softly and looked down. "You're that way because..."

"TUT!" Due held up a hand and stomped her foot on the ground while glaring at Cinque. "Enough talk like that! Now, I got hurt protecting you, there's nothing wrong with it! And, you, Tre! Aren't you supposed to be the combat expert?"

"He was pretty good, Due." Tre shook her head, exasperated. "As good as I am, he got a good shot in on me, I'm fine though, but, why are you so young?"

Due shrugged and tilted her head. "I think you're both being frowny faces though!" She snapped her fingers and grinned as the two of them were suddenly wrapped up in binds. Cinque fell onto her back and Tre fell to the ground, face down and her gown fell open around her rear and back, revealing her large, round and bare ass for Due and Cinque to see fully. "Now then..." Her eyes suddenly gleamed, causing her two sisters to suddenly start sweating. "I don't like frowny faces! It's torture time!"

Cinque sweated heavily. "Torture..."

"Yep." Due grinned as she advanced on the prone girl, her fingers flexing. "Tickle torture!"

Cinque's eye widened for a moment before Due's fingers started moving all around her body, causing her to yelp and squirm, laughing and squirming as she tried, futilely to get away. "BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAH STOOOHAHAHAHAHA!"

Due grinned and shook her head. "Nope!" She looked at Tre, who was trying to worm herself away and smirked. "You're next, Tre." She wondered if Tre would stop trying to get away if she knew that she was revealing more than just her butt to everyone, before mentally shrugging it off, she was going to have fun either way.

"I'm not ticklish." Tre's muttered words were drowned out by the sound of Cinque's laughter.

"Can't hear you, don't care." Due smirked as Cinque had tears falling out of her good eye while thrashing on the cot she was on.

"Stoooopphahahahahahaha pleahahahahahase?" Cinque begged after several more minutes of being tickled. "Canhanaahahahahat breahahahahahahahahahath!" She gasped as Due pulled her hands away from her, causing the small cyborg to pant heavily, trying to get air into her lungs and recover.

"Now, Tre..." Due grinned as the downed cyborg looked at her oncoming sister in dread. "You're turn."

(-)

Later...

Uno blinked as she walked into the medical room and looked at Cinque, who was squirming on her cot while trying to catch her breath, then at Tre, who was nearly naked and had a very flushed face while panting and trembling on the floor and finally at Due, who was standing with her back to Uno and licking her hands of some sort of liquid. "What happened?" Then there was the smell in the room, looking at Due and at Tre's flushed face, before moving her head and looking at Tre's naked leg. Uno fought back a blush as she saw some fluid running down Tre's leg and knew just what Due had done to her younger sister.

Due turned to Uno and grinned at her. "They were being frowny faces, so, I fixed that." When Uno blinked in confusion, she shook her head. "They aren't being frowny faces now, so, it doesn't matter."

Tre groaned at Due. "You're not going to..." She paled as Due looked back at her, wiggled her damp fingers and grinned. "You would." It wasn't that it was unpleasant, it was just embarrassing, especially since she wasn't able to resist what Due did to her.

"Thaaaaaat's riiiiight!" Due drawled, causing the two cyborgs to gulp in fear.

Uno just shook her head in amusement.

* * *

Nanoha: We're getting close to the end!  
Fate: You know what this means, right?  
Nanoha: Fighting time!  
Yuuno: Next time on Blood That Flows - Shine, read it or Nanoha will go boom on all of us.  
Nanoha: Nyahahahaha...

I debated if I should have Due do what she did, but then I decided, what the heck, why not?

This is a note from the future, but as I looked over the fic, I found that I had Due's height wrong. Originally I thought she was only a bit shorter than Tre, but then I found her official height as being only slightly taller than Otto, Nove, Deed and Cinque. So, when I wrote this, I thought Sein was rather short as well, but Sein's actually one of the taller Numbers. Officially, only Tre, Sette and Uno, in that order, are taller than Sein while Deed, Quattro, Otto, Nove and Cinque, in that order, are shorter than Due. It was actually quite shocking to see the height difference for Due compared to her sisters.

In fact, here's the height references, which I only found out AFTER I wrote this chapter originally, for the Numbers.

It goes off the official height chart I found and Jail's height that was given off of another height chart. Heights are in cm.

Jail - 176.44  
Uno - 168.77  
Due - 157.26  
Tre - 182.19  
Quattro - 153.42  
Cinque - 130.41  
Sein - 163.01  
Sette - 181.23  
Otto - 147.67  
Nove - 141.91  
Dieci - 161.1  
Wendi - 158.22  
Deed - 156.3

Just for a comparison, Tre is one of the tallest characters in the franchise, taller than Jail, only Zest and Regius are taller than she is, and she's not even 6 feet tall (for those of us who use Imperial measurements). Which means that the ENTIRE Nanoha cast is actually kind of short as very few of them break past six feet in height. In fact, Tre is only .67 cm shy of 6 feet.


	84. Shine 30

Blood That Flows

Shine 30

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Very, very long chapter warning for you.

* * *

A week later...

"My head."

"Welcome back, Nakajima." She blinked at the male voice. Turning her head, she blinked as she saw Zest, bandages around his torso, sitting on the other bed. "You've been out for about two weeks now."

"I'm surprised that you're still in the hospital then." She groaned out, her voice raspy.

"Your daughters and husband have been here a lot, visiting you." He stood up. "I was getting out today." Considering that he couldn't even channel his magic properly until just yesterday, it made some sense why the doctors wouldn't let him out of observation. Whatever he had been hit with had not only nearly killed him but had screwed with his magic in such a way that he couldn't do much of anything.

"That's good. Where's Megane?" Quint looked around before chuckling softly. "Knowing her, she's probably already out and taking care of Lutecia."

"No..." Quint looked at Zest, who was looking at her with a downcast expression. "She's not out. She's dead," Quint's eyes widened, "she never made it back with us before the whole site was destroyed."

"Oh no..." Quint's face was pale. "Lutecia... I guess I can..."

"Do nothing." Zest interrupted her. "She was found murdered not too long ago."

"...They're both dead?" Quint asked softly, feeling like someone drove a tree into her gut. When Zest nodded, Quint shuddered slightly. "Megane never told you... She never had the chance to."

"Tell me what?" Zest blinked in confusion.

"Lutecia was your daughter."

Zest paled and felt his muscles go completely limp. "You... She couldn't have been my daughter. Alphine would have told me." He felt himself sliding to the floor, his mind rolling over what he had just heard.

"She didn't want you to treat her differently, and she was ashamed of herself for what happened between the two of you." Quint was feeling numb herself, how the heck did this happen? She was looking forward to seeing what Lutecia was going to grow up and be. Maybe she'd be good friends with her daughters when they got older?

Now she wouldn't know.

Quint nearly jumped out her bed as there was a loud crashing noise, looking, her eyes were wide as she saw the destroyed bed and Zest standing over it, trembling. "Zest, what?"

"What the hell am I fighting for? A world of nothing but lies?" It wasn't often that Zest was anything but stoic, but Quint knew he could feel emotions and had them. "A world where children die... Before even knowing their parents?"

Quint's eyes widened as Zest turned and punched the wall, leaving a good-sized hole to the bathroom. "Zest, come on! You can't..." She trailed off as he yelled and smashed the sink in the bathroom. "Zest, this isn't like you!"

"What good is it? I can't protect my subordinates, I can't fight, I can't even..." His body was shaking and trembling in anger. "I can't even protect my daughter... What GOOD am I?"

"Zest!" Quint yelled and winced at how her voice hurt from yelling just like that. She was wondering if she would have to try something drastic when nurses suddenly broke into the room to try and restrain Zest.

It wasn't easy and it wasn't pretty, especially as Zest, in his anger and sadness, was knocking them away pretty easily. It didn't help that the man was stupidly strong normally and the nurses well, they weren't anywhere near his level of strength.

Eventually they managed to get him under binds and sedated, though not before at least three nurses were thrown, painfully, into her bed, causing it to slide across the room and hit the wall.

"What happened?" The doctor asked her, causing her to sigh as Zest was led out of the room.

"He found out that he had a family, and they're lost to him now." Quint said softly, getting a nod from the doctor.

The doctor turned to one of the nurses. "Make sure that he's under strict watch." She nodded and left the room. The doctor ordered the nurses to find an open room to move Quint before leaving her, saying that they'd be right back.

Quint just looked at the destruction, alone in her thoughts.

(-)

Yuuno blinked as Mizetto asked him, Nanoha and Fate to meet her on the training field. "Uh, sure, we can..." He trailed off and looked at the two, who shrugged and followed him to the field. As they got there, Nanoha, Fate and Yuuno all stared wide-eyed as they saw the people waiting for them.

"Vita-chan! Hayate-chan! Rein-chan! Reinforce! Signum! Shamal! Zafira!" Nanoha yelled as she ran up to them, waving happily. "I'm surprised to see you here."

When they got a little closer, they noticed that Vita was wearing a red jacket and black pants while Hayate, Reinforce and Zwei all were wearing similar dresses, Shamal had a white jacket on over her brown outfit while Signum was wearing a white trench coat.

"What brings you out here?" Fate asked them, glad to see them after what had happened just the other day.

Vita had a sour look on her face. "Been going through officer training lately, Hayate wants to join the Bureau officially, and we all want to stay with her. But learning how to salute, the proper channels, the paperwork." Vita shivered and turned to give someone a flat look. "How the heck do you put up with it, Leti?"

"Admiral Leti Lowran to you." The woman in question adjusted her glasses and chuckled at Vita. "Don't worry, we all have to deal with it. Anyway, I asked Mizetto here to help all of you out." She smirked at the questioning looks and turned to Mizetto. "Want to explain?"

Mizetto rolled her eyes. "Well, it seems like some people have been getting a touch antsy, despite only having a week of training..." She smirked, chuckling softly. "Anyway, considering that both Leti and myself understand perfectly, we decided to let them have some fun."

Leti chuckled as the confusion on people's faces started to slowly change to comprehension. "A full-out sparring match." She looked at the sides and tilted her head a bit. "Then again, the sides are a bit unbalanced..."

"Says who?" Leti blinked as Miyuki walked up to the group, grinning. "I think I can fight with my sisters against her opponents."

Leti shrugged and looked at Mizetto, who was grinning, then at the others. "If it's okay with the rest of you?"

"Miyuki-nee's a good fighter." Nanoha nodded, smirking softly. "Seven on four, huh?"

"Six on four." Zwei spoke up as she floated towards Vita. "I'm not that good a fighter yet, um, sis..."

Vita looked at Signum, who shrugged at her. "You sure?"

"It's better that she gets used to one of us first before trying unison with myself, Shamal or Zafira for now." Signum then looked at Miyuki and raised an eyebrow. "While I don't discourage combatants, this is going to be magical combat, are you sure you can keep up?"

Miyuki chuckled at her. "Don't worry about me. I'm pretty sure that I'll be fine."

"Full-out sparring match?" Nanoha's eyes gleamed happily. "Sure!" She blinked as Zwei disappeared and Vita's hair changed color. "Was that..."

Vita smirked as her eyes changed color as well. "Unison, it's quite useful, plus it lets Zwei get experience with combat." She grabbed her pendant. "Graf Eisen!"

"Laevatein!"

"Klarwind."

**"Jawol!"**

**"Ja."**The devices spoke up as the three shifted into their battle outfits.

"Raising Heart..."

"Bardiche..."

"Thoth Driver..."

"Set up!"

**"Standbye Ready."**The three devices said at once as the three put on their Barrier Jackets.

Miyuki grabbed her weapon. "Light come forth!" She called out as she drew her sword.

"Ready Reinforce?" Hayate looked at the silver-haired device.

Reinforce just smiled. "For you, master, always." A flash of light later and the two were in matching black dresses with dark wings coming out of their backs.

"Raising Heart, Excellion Mode!"

**"Ignition."**

Nanoha smiled as her staff took a more spear-like look and held it in front of her more defensively.

"Bardiche, Sonic Form."

**"Sonic Drive."**

"What? No comments to me, boss?" The buckler-shaped device spoke up, sounding almost hurt from not getting an order.

"Sorry." Yuuno muttered as he jumped back into the air. "Just keep doing what you're supposed to do."

"Lame! Hey! Can we at least try some of the newer tricks out?"

Signum nodded to Fate. "I do believe I owe you that rematch."

"Or three." She nodded to Signum as the two slowly floated into the air.

Miyuki pouted as she saw the others float into the air. "Well, gee, make a girl feel insignificant, huh?"

Zafira and Shamal looked at each other and at Miyuki. "Well, since the heavy hitters are going upstairs, we can have fun with you."

Miyuki smirked at Zafira's saying. "I don't think it'll be that easy."

(-)

"Well, well, I've been wanting to get back at you for what happened when we first met." Vita smirked at Yuuno while swinging Graf Eisen to the side. "Let's go, Rein!"

_"Alright!"_Rein's excited voice filled her head, causing her to smile.

"Graf Eisen! Load Cartridge!"

**"Jawol!"**

"Well, boss? I dunno if you can hit the girl with boobs."

Yuuno sweat-dropped at his device before shaking his head. "You know all my normal and hybrid spells, so, let's keep to that for now."

"Got it!"

Yuuno clapped his hands together and dozens upon dozens of ice shards filled the air while a green circle appeared under his feet.

"Heh, not this time." Vita grinned at him as she rushed in, screaming. Suddenly she disappeared from sight.

Yuuno's eyes widened as he felt her behind him. Turning his head, he was thankful for the barrier that popped up between the two of them. "Nice try."

"Yeah! Blondie likes to flash her butt at him and do that all the time anyway."

Yuuno sweat-dropped heavily. "You shouldn't talk about Fate like that." He muttered as chains shot out from the barrier and wrapped around Vita. "...Wow, Vita, um..." He blushed as he saw her struggle against her binds. "Ah..."

"Stop looking at my boobs!" Vita yelled at him, her face flush. It wasn't her fault that her breasts had been growing again. She was really beginning to wonder if they'd ever stop growing.

It didn't help that Hayate would grope her in the bath or when they changed together. And Yuuno's chains were squeezing in just the right places that she was starting to feel a tad uncomfortable. "GRR! PERVERT!"

"WAH!" Yuuno flew back as Vita smashed the chains into nothingness and flew at him. "Forgetting something?"

"What?" Vita blinked before Rein warned her to look up. "...Oh yeah... The ice... AHH!" She flew back as the ice shards were finally launched at her, causing her to have to dodge and block the attacks. "Got an idea, Rein?"

_"He likes ice, I say we break it and use it against him!"_Vita blinked, but then grinned as she caught Rein's thoughts.

"ALRIGHT!" Vita flew up in the air, she didn't know how Yuuno was making the ice change directions in mid-air, but it was becoming an interesting challenge. "Far enough now..." Smirking, she felt Graf Eisen pop off a cartridge. "Raccket Form!" The thruster kicked off the one end as Vita rushed down, through the ice, much to Yuuno's surprise.

He was more surprised as she suddenly appeared in front of him and slammed the spike of her hammer into a hastily thrown-up barrier. Vita let out a growl. "Now... Reinforced Lightning!"

"What?" Yuuno's eyes widened as he let out a scream as lightning crashed down on his body and sent him crashing into the ground, groaning in pain.

"We're getting our butts kicked by a girl with PMS, boss!"

"Thoth Driver, do you have to be like this?" Yuuno groaned as he managed to shake off the attack and stop himself from crashing into the ground too hard.

"What's wrong with it?" The device asked as Yuuno was forced to avoid several small ice shards heading his way.

"When I'm not fighting Vita, I'll tell you." He yelped and dodged out of the way of another hammer strike before holding his hand out. "Burst Flare." A sphere of red erupted from his fingertips and slammed into the girl, forcing her to hold up Graf Eisen to block the attack.

"Wagh!" Vita yelped as she was blasted back across the field until she crashed into a tree. "That hurt!" Flying for him again, she grinned as Graf Eisen's rocket flared up and caused her to start spinning around and around, smashing into Yuuno's barrier and causing the both of them to grunt in effort, Vita to break through and Yuuno to hold it up.

"Hey, boss, I think she wears a thong."

Vita and Yuuno's faces both turned bright red as their concentration waned. Vita was doubly embarrassed, since she could feel Rein's face turning red too. "I do NOT! If you want a thong, try Signum!" She gave Yuuno a flat look as blood started leaking out of his nose. "You pervert!" She swung Graf Eisen and slammed it, thankfully for Yuuno it was back in its base form, into his gut and sending him bouncing across the field.

Yuuno shook his head. "Okay, she's a lot harder to fight like that." Even though she wasn't trying to hurt him, or at least he hoped so, her and Rein together like that was a lot harder than he remembered her being. "Hey, Vita, hope you don't mind me busting out some new power on you."

Vita blinked as Yuuno's magic suddenly shot up in in power as he was surrounded by an orange glow. "What the?"

"A gift from the Shinzoku Vrabazard." Yuuno grinned at her.

"Goodness, greatness, great balls of fire!"

"Yeah." Yuuno clapped his hands forward as a tunnel of pure fire and heat lashed out, forcing Vita to fly straight up.

Vita's eyes widened as she found it hard to breath, looking down, her pupils shrank in size as the wall of fire suddenly shot up after her and surrounded her. 'What the..?' She flew towards it to try and break through it, but found that she couldn't break through the fire and her gloves turned to ash in an instant.

_"He's heating up the air, Vita! Cool it down!"_

Vita nodded and concentrated as much as she could to create ice magic. Her vision became hazy as the ice instantly evaporated and the steam made it even harder to breath. "Rein..." She grimaced. "Unison, OUT!" She screamed as she forcibly canceled the unison and got Rein out of the pillar of fire, moments before the lack of oxygen finally took its toll on her and caused her to slump over.

"VITA!" Rein yelled as the fire abated and Vita fell to the ground. Creating a net, she was grateful when Vita stopped falling. Turning, she glared at Yuuno. "MEANIE!"

"Uh..." Yuuno gulped as the sky above Rein started to darken and crackle with lightning. "Sorry, I'm not used to... YIKE!" He jumped out of the way as lightning split the sky and crashed to where he was a moment ago.

"MEANIE MEANIE MEANIE!" Zwei yelled, lightning crashing into the ground behind Yuuno as he ran.

Yuuno gulped and made a mental note to get more practice with using Holy magic against people. He really should have been able to keep it from hurting Vita and Zwei like it did.

"Boss, next time you want to find out what panties she has on, I suggest you burn the clothes off instead of making them pass out."

"A little late now!" Yuuno yelped as he dodged another attack. "Zwei, I'm sorry!"

"BULLY!" Zwei yelled, tears falling out of her eyes. "You hurt Vita, I'll..!"

_"I'm okay."_ Vita said softly, causing Rein to calm down and the storm clouds to disappear as the small device flew to Vita and slammed onto her chest, hugged the redhead, crying. _"Hey, come on, your big sister is tougher than that, okay?"_

Zwei nodded, but didn't get off of Vita's chest, causing Vita to sigh and rub her back.

Yuuno looked at them and gulped slightly. "Vita, Rein, sorry, I need more practice."

Vita nodded and smirked at him. _"Next time you want to fry me, give me more warning, okay?"_

All Yuuno could do was rub the back of his head and chuckle nervously.

(-)

Holding Bardiche in front of her, Fate smiled softly at Signum. "It's been a long time." Signum nodded to her as she grabbed her sword and shifted into her stance. "I'm glad that we're fighting as friends, not enemies."

"Are you done?" Signum asked, a small grin on her face. "I hope you won't mind..." A cartridge popped from Laevatein before she unsheathed her sword, fire surrounding it. "If I don't hold back." It wasn't any real surprise that Fate wasn't there to take the strike, but Signum had anticipated that and was already moving and twisting her body to avoid several humming attacks from the young blonde. Spinning, she shot straight up into the air to avoid a strike at the back of her head.

Signum frowned softly before shooting straight down and slamming her sword into Bardiche. Letting out a soft grunt, she put more effort into her swing and forced Fate crashing down through the trees and into the ground, hard. "I told you, didn't I, Testarossa? A single hit and you're finished." She rushed down to meet Fate, who had a serious look on her face before disappearing from view.

Signum leaned back from an attack that nearly took her face off before using her free hand to grab Bardiche and keep Fate from pulling it back. Seeing the look in Fate's eyes, Signum frowned and pulled Fate in before driving a knee into the girl's abdomen. "This isn't like you, Testarossa." Spinning her body while still holding onto Bardiche and dragging Fate with her, Signum rushed towards a nearby tree and slammed the blonde, back first, into the tree, before pinning her against it with her knee into Fate's belly while her shin pushed her against the tree harder, Signum moved so that Bardiche was pushing against Fate's chest as she leaned in close. "What's wrong?"

"What?" Fate's eyes widened as Signum narrowed her eyes.

"You're letting anger seep into your attacks, you're more reckless than usual, your swings are wild and you're going for more permanent methods of putting someone down. So tell me, what happened? Did you ask Scrya or Takamachi on a date and they turned you down?"

Fate blanched at the insinuation. "What? No." She groaned as Signum started to grind her leg against her body.

"Then what happened? Last I heard, your adopted mother was fine, though less than a month from giving birth now, Takamachi and Scrya are fine, as is your familiar, so, what's wrong?" She tilted her head as Fate squirmed. "You're not even trying to get free."

"Why are you so insistent?" Fate grimaced, she was trying, maybe not as hard as she could have, but she was trying to get free.

It probably didn't help that Signum's leg was grinding against her body in ways that were... Quite distracting.

"Aren't friends supposed to help friends when they need help?" Signum pulled back and floated away, leaving her trembling slightly. "Let me tell you this, Testarossa, if there is something that is weighing so heavy on your mind that you can only think about it, then maybe you should figure out how to deal with the problem instead of taking your frustration out on someone who does not deserve it." Closing her eyes, Signum turned away from Fate. "As you are now, I cannot fight you, you aren't the same Testarossa that I came respect."

Fate just stared at her. "Wait..."

Signum turned her head to give her a look that chilled her to the bone. "You're human, I'm human, we all have problems that pop up in our lives. If it is something that's causing you to feel anger, you need to deal with it. Venting doesn't always help. And if it did, you would have already vented to Takamachi or Scrya, not me."

"But, we're friends, why wouldn't..."

"Because you're closer to those two than to me." Signum closed her eyes and shook her head. "Whatever is bothering you, Testarossa, you need to deal with it on your own."

"Signum Yagami." Fate floated forward. "You're right, I do have something on my mind." Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath. "I've not been fair to you, Bardiche, Rubin Blitz Mode!"

**"Yes, sir."**

Signum blinked and turned around slowly, her eyes widening as Fate's outfit became more metallic, red metal covering her arms, legs and her neck while her weapon became thinner. "Interesting."

Fate closed her eyes. Mary had adjusted Bardiche since her match against Zest, at the moment, she was only slightly faster than her Sonic Form, but she understood the necessity of it. It was the same reason she only used the Zambar form of Bardiche for big spells, it was really hard on her body to use those forms for very long.

Even if the blade was energy, it had to have some mass to it, otherwise it was completely useless as a weapon.

Signum nodded to Fate. "If you can clear your mind, then you'll go far. Come!" She moved forward, but Fate seemed to move so fast that the space around Fate seemed to distort and warp around her. Signum grunted as she called up her Panzer Geist and crossed her arms as she was slammed into multiple times from multiple sides in the span of less than a second.

With each attack, Signum not only was jerked in various directions, but she found that her arms, legs and sides were getting cuts in them. "Nnngh... What is that..?" Even if it was just a second, it felt much longer to her.

Signum twitched as Fate reappeared in front of her, several feet away. "Impressive."

Fate nodded and took a deep breath, she knew that it wouldn't be that easy to defeat Signum, even with her power being able to slice into her armor. "A bit of a turn-around from our first time." Fate's eyes widened as a chain rushed right at her. Batting it away, she balked as the chain seemed to slink around her blade and pull on her.

"Not completely, you still lack protection." Signum flew towards Fate, who closed her eyes.

"Try a Digger Lancer."

Signum stopped as several white balls of energy appeared around her before each one lashed out at her body with bolts of power that forced her to dodge or block the strikes.

"Got..." Fate's eyes widened as her Blitz mode faded and she found herself in her normal mode. "What..?"

**"A timer to protect you has been installed, sir."**

Fate nodded, she was thankful for it, but right now, she felt as if she was moving in slow motion and everything was moving twenty times faster than she was. 'What's going on? Why can't I move?'

Seeing Signum rush towards her faster than ever, Fate's final thoughts before the pinkette slammed the hilt of her weapon into her gut was that she just couldn't keep up and needed to ask Mary about it later.

Fate was almost certain that it had something to do with the adjustments that were done to Bardiche.

(-)

Miyuki jumped away from one of Zafira's kicks. Briefly touching down, she used the Sword of Light to cut through a tornado that Shamal called up and twisted out of the way of another kick by Zafira. "If you're holding back on my account..." She suddenly disappeared from view only to reappear behind Zafira and grabbed his tail before slinging him over her shoulder. "I should let you two know that I'm a lot better than you might think."

Zafira smiled softly and nodded. "Good, I was hoping so."

Shamal crossed her arms at head level and her rings shot out at Miyuki, coming at the girl from different angles, when she disappeared, Shamal's eyes widened as Miyuki appeared right in front of her. Everything seemed to slow down for Shamal as Miyuki reached up and grabbed the front of her dress before flipping her onto her back, or trying to as Shamal quickly cast a barrier under her before casting a wind spell and blowing Miyuki up and off of her, leaving her in mid-air as Zafira drove his foot into her stomach. His eyes widened as he felt her grab his leg and drive the hilt of her sword into it, causing him to wince before kicking her away with his other leg.

Miyuki smirked as she grabbed the leg and twisted, moving with it, pulling on it before standing on his legs. "You'd be surprised what you can learn from people." She chuckled and jumped off of his legs, getting a bemused look from Zafira, who held his hand back and charged up magic into it before lunging forward, energy crackling around his glove. When he got close enough, he swung forward, a wave of energy in the form of a claw rushing out at Miyuki as she jumped right at him.

Needless to say, when she used the Sword of Light to not only cut through his attack but also his barrier, he decided it was time for a different tactic. _"Shamal..."_ He grunted as he fell back and down from that attack. _"Need a little support."_

_"Got a plan?"_

_"Yeah, whirling dervish."_Zafira looked up as Miyuki came shooting down right at him. "NOW!"

On the ground, Shamal slammed her open palms together and a powerful twister shot straight up at Zafira and Miyuki.

Miyuki's eyes widened as Zafira shot right up at her. Closing her eyes and crossing her arms to block she grunted as the wind tore into her, knocking her into the air and holding her there as Zafira spun around her, slamming into her right side, causing her to spin with the attack, before he struck her from behind, causing her to flip over before spinning around as he struck her back-side again.

'Ugh, I'm getting sick.' Miyuki thought to herself and made a mental note not to underestimate magic users again in the future. Cracking an eye open, she grinned as she saw Zafira's foot racing right at her body again. 'Nice try.' Just before it hit her, her arms snapped forward, grabbed the foot and, using it as a hand-hold, brought her feet to Zafira's leg before pushing off and rushing for the edge of the tornado.

"Idiot!" Zafira growled, knowing that a person could get torn up by the velocity of the winds if they touched them. Despite not being as strong as Vita or Signum, Shamal was not a weakling by any stretch of the imagination. Racing after her, he hoped that he could grab her before she got herself killed.

When Miyuki swung her sword out, he wondered what good that would do, when the sword sliced right through the wind torrent and allowed her out of the vortex.

"...That is one hell of a sword." Zafira muttered as he created a barrier and rushed through the windstorm after her.

After all, he couldn't lose a sparring match that easily. Especially if it was kept to hand-to-hand combat.

As she barreled out of the tornado, Miyuki winced and spun in mid-air. "Better than I thought." She had a small smile grace her lips, she couldn't help it. Fighting opponents who were good was something every fighter dreamed of. Win or lose, it didn't matter, as long as the fight was enjoyable. As her feet touched the tree trunk, a thought occurred to her. "Didn't mom say something about you having a name? Go... Gorn... Gorun Nova!" Miyuki's eyes widened as the blade suddenly went from a solid blue-white to having serrated edges. "Well, let's see what you got!" Swinging the sword across her body, she was surprised as an arc of energy lanced out at Zafira, who had to create a barrier instead of following further.

The arc of energy was surprising enough, when it cut through Zafira's barrier and forced him back, it was even more surprising.

"No wonder mom wanted you so much when she was younger." Miyuki looked at the sword as she bounced off of one tree to another to control her descent down. As her feet touched the ground, Miyuki started to chuckle in amusement. "Now I know why mom said I couldn't have a magic sword unless you showed up." She disappeared from view as several small projectiles smashed into where she was a moment ago.

"Klarwind..." Shamal whispered softly as her rings returned to her fingertips. "Found you." She snapped up some binds that wrapped around Miyuki's body. "That was a good..." She trailed off at Miyuki's grin as the younger woman actually let the Sword of Light drop, the blade cutting into the binds, breaking them and allowing Miyuki to grab the sword before it hit the ground and rush her.

Shamal crossed her arms in front of her, a wall of wind appearing in front of her. Shamal's eyes widened as Miyuki cut through the barrier with ease.

"This is fun." Miyuki grinned as she grabbed Shamal's dress and pulled on it.

It didn't last long as an arm wrapped around her mid-section and the person behind the arm threw her across the clearing.

"That sword's impressive." Zafira nodded and looked at Shamal. "You okay?"

She nodded at him. "Times like this, I wish that I had more offensive magic."

Zafira nodded, he knew the feeling, but their only real offensive magic was pretty lethal. He chuckled softly. "By the amount of times she's surprised us, I'd say that she won this sparring match."

"Heh, think so?" Miyuki walked up to them, grinning from ear to ear. "Man, I need to spar with you guys more often!"

Zafira just shook his head as Shamal giggled behind him. "You're a great warrior, Miyuki." He nodded to her as she deactivated the sword. "I'm afraid if we continued this match though, we would end up hurting each other severely."

Miyuki nodded at him. "Yeah, I agree, still that was fun. I didn't know you had a Rider Kick!"

"A what?" Zafira blinked in confusion.

"That kick you used on me in the tornado! That was awesome!" Miyuki gushed, getting an embarrassed look from him. "And, you, Shamal, that tornado was your doing, right?" When she nodded, Miyuki laughed. "That was awesome!"

The two Knights looked at each other, before looking at Miyuki and laughing softly. She really was an interesting girl.

(-)

Hayate smiled as she and Reinforce floated in the air, high above the trees. "I've been wanting to fight you, Nanoha-chan."

"Really?" Nanoha smiled at the short-haired girl, not that her hair was much longer, but at least it was going past her shoulders slightly. She almost could tie it up into her favorite twin-tail braids now, almost, she only got one braid. Though having her hair hang off in one braid on the right side of her head felt almost natural. More than one person had teased her about having lop-sided hair after she started tying it up again.

She was almost certain that Mizetto took perverse pleasure in having those people be her sparring partners for the day.

Nodding, Hayate gripped her staff in one hand and her book floated near her, opening up. "Yeah." She gave Nanoha a dirty look. "You hurt my family when you first fought them."

Nanoha's eyes became white and blank as she tilted her head in confusion. "But, they attacked me first."

Hayate shook her head back and forth. "You hurt them bad, Nanoha-chan! In the name of my knights, I shall punish you!" She pointed dramatically and Reinforce sighed behind her.

"I told her, watching old magical girl anime was bad for her brain, but she wouldn't listen. Hayate, you aren't allowed to watch that stuff anymore."

Said girl just pouted at Reinforce. "Oh, come on, I was just teasing."

Nanoha just rubbed the back of her head. "Really, I don't know much about magical girl anime, mom doesn't like them, and I kinda agree, magic doesn't work that way."

Hayate twitched slightly. "Reinforce..." Her device blinked as Hayate floated away from her. "Let me have Nanoha-chan alone."

Reinforce sighed softly and nodded. "Alright." Floating back, she would jump in the moment Hayate asked her to, but until then, she decided to pay attention and see just how much Hayate had improved since they started training together.

After all, Hayate only destroyed an American Aircraft Carrier by accident during the last training session.

Reinforce was never so thankful for the dimensional barriers as she was then. After all, it would be a touch hard to explain what happened to the Americans.

Nanoha grinned at Hayate. "Alright then..."

**"Flash move."**

Hayate's eyes widened as Nanoha disappeared from view.

"Got'cha!" Nanoha said from behind Hayate as she pointed her staff at the girl. "Flame buster!" A gout of red flames lashed out at the surprised Belkan Mage and Nanoha grinned, this was...

"Panzer Schild!" Hayate held up her free hand as a dark triangular barrier appeared in front of her, effortlessly blocking the attack. "Nice try, Nanoha-chan, my turn!" A ring appeared in front of her as she spun to face Nanoha. "Scatter burst!" A large ball of energy appeared in the ring before scattering and lashing out at Nanoha in smaller amounts.

The girl's eyes widened at the small white and black spheres that rushed at her at a rapid pace, forcing her to create barriers to block them as they converged on her from multiple angles. Looking past her barriers, her eyes widened as she saw that Hayate's sphere wasn't getting any smaller in size, but the bursts of energy were getting faster and stronger.

Nanoha's eyes widened as she felt a strong magic getting gathered and gasped as she saw ice crystals appear above Hayate's head.

Hayate was panting as she read from her book. Casting a second spell while another one was going on was a high-class skill, and the amount of math required for it was giving her a headache, but Reinforce did state that it was a useful skill for bombardment magic. "Atem des Eises!" Her scatter burst stopped a moment before she swung her staff down, the ice blocks racing out, before exploding outwards away from Hayate.

The girl in question shook her head. She was could already feel her muscles tensing up from doing that. Her eyes widened as the ice suddenly turned red before shattering and Nanoha, looking unhurt, except for being covered in water and shivering.

"That was good, Hayate-chan, I couldn't react even if I wanted to." Nanoha was going to need to figure out how to deal with something like that, if Hayate had something like that up her sleeve, the girl was going to be a real menace to deal with in a fight. Holding up an open palm, Nanoha grinned as several pink spheres appeared around her. "Here's a gift from Fate-chan. Try my Axel Explosion."

Snapping her arm forward, each sphere suddenly exploded into smaller pieces before lashing out at Hayate from each angle. The girl was so stunned, all she could do was create a few barriers, before gasping as it wasn't long before the hastily thrown up barriers shattered and she got pelted by the insane attack Nanoha had.

"Now... Divine... Ice... BUSTER!" Nanoha screamed as she cast a ice-blue colored buster beam at Hayate, who was falling from her previous attack and covered in smoke.

"Claiomh Solais!" Hayate snapped her staff forward as a buster beam met Nanoha's attack, colliding into it and exploding outwards, stopping Nanoha's attack and causing the ice to shatter. "Nice try, Nanoha-chan..." She panted softly as she flipped over.

Looking at Hayate, Nanoha tilted her head in confusion. Other than smudge marks on Hayate's outfit and her hat having a few holes through it, she looked just fine.

Off to the side, Reinforce nodded to herself, learning Signum's Panzer Geist was a big improvement for the girl. Sure, it wasn't quite up to Signum's version or Vita's Panzer Hindernis, but it was better than taking something like that straight up. Still, the girl had a long way to go, her bigger spells took way too long to charge up compared to others. Heck, the biggest advantage that Nanoha had at the moment was how easy it was for her to charge up her stronger spells.

"Burst..." Nanoha pulled her arm back. "Flare!" Snapping forward, she lashed out with the strongest fire spell she knew.

Unfortunately, Hayate wasn't there to take the attack, allowing the sphere of destruction to pass harmlessly to the ground where it exploded, taking out most of the trees below.

"Dark Dagger!" Hayate snapped her wrist up, a kunai-shaped dark spell lashed out, slamming into Nanoha's barrier, but that was what Hayate was hoping for, as the dagger exploded, knocking Nanoha back into the air while several swords appeared around Hayate. "Fly, Balmung, fly and shred my opponent!" Tossing her hand to the side, the swords lashed out, flying at Nanoha almost too fast to be seen.

Almost, because Nanoha suddenly disappeared from sight and reappeared even higher in the air, firing a pink blast at Hayate, who held up a hand and blocked the attack with another barrier. "Nngh..." Gritting her teeth, she felt the pages flipping from her mental command. "Gather... Let the darkness fall and rein supreme..."

Off to the side, Reinforce's eyes widened as she started to float backwards. This was going to be a hell of a blast.

Up above, Nanoha blinked as the spell abated and a black sphere appeared between her and Hayate. Her eyes widening, Nanoha turned to move away, but found her arm caught on something, turning her head, her eyes widened as her face paled as she saw a bind on her arm, followed by ones on her legs and another one on her arm. Seeing the sphere getting close to her body, Nanoha looked at her device. "Raising Heart! Please!"

**"Alright."**

Hayate closed her eyes. "Diabolic Emission." She whispered as the dark sphere exploded outwards.

Off to the side, Reinforce covered her eyes and waited for the spell to die down. As it did, she flew to Hayate and put her hands on the young girl's back, letting her relax slightly. "I think that was over-kill for a sparring match, Hayate."

"Hee hee, think so?" Hayate rubbed the back of her head and looked up at the smoke and waited for it to clear. "You think Nanoha-chan's okay?"

"Considering the Diabolic Emission, I'd be surprised if she'll be able to move for a..." Reinforce's eyes suddenly widened as she grabbed Hayate and flew out of the way as a white blast passed right through where they were a moment ago, smashing into the ground and causing underground rocks to come to the surface.

**"Protection Enhanced, successful, Assault Mode, active."**Raising Heart's voice was heard and Hayate gasped as she saw the metal armor that Nanoha was wearing. The metal wings on her back were pointing down while metal bands wrapped around her chest to a protective casing around Raising Heart, her outfit seemed heavier and more metal than before, a visor was covering her eyes as a large cannon was on her left arm while a buckler with a slightly long tip on it.

"Thanks, Raising Heart." Nanoha grinned and closed her eyes. "Hayate-chan, that was good, I almost didn't block that!" She popped a couple of cartridges, which had the odd effect of making her feet look like they were smoking, and causing her to glow pink before she shot out at high speeds at Hayate and Reinforce, the buckler suddenly extending into a whip that snapped out at the two and forcing them to split apart. "Supreme... Cannon!" She fired a shot at Reinforce before rocketing straight at Hayate, and swinging her whip up, she grinned as it wrapped around Hayate's staff arm before she pulled down. "Extreme.. Cannon!"

"Hayate!" Reinforce gasped as she raced for her master. "Unison!" Her body started to glow brightly. "IN!"

Nanoha's eyes widened as Hayate suddenly shrugged off the whip and a barrier was created that blocked the cannon strike with ease as Hayate lit up like a second sun.

When the glow subsided, Hayate's hair was a stark white and her eyes where a clear blue. "Nanoha-chan, I think I'm going to have to end this faster!" Her wings started to glow gold while black lightning crackled around her. "So, let's end this quickly!" A gold ball appeared in front of her and Nanoha flew back while gritting her teeth.

"Raising Heart... Chaos Enhance!"

**"Alright!"**

Nanoha bit her lip as a rush of power filled her, turning her hair gold and her eyes black with gold pupils. **"Alright, Hayate-chan! You want to end this quickly! Then so will I!"**Her wings slid up so that it looked like she had two wings pointing straight up, two pointing down and a giant "X" on her back while Raising Heart's covering pushed itself up and exposed the gem completely as pink and gold lights were drawn between Nanoha's open palms just in front of Raising Heart.

(-)

Leti sweat-dropped as she looked at the others who were running as fast as they could to get away from the destruction. "Well, this is going to be one for the record books, I think."

"Not nearly as bad as the time you and Lindy had that drunken graduation party." Mizetto shook her head as Leti blushed softly. "Still, this isn't going to end well, I think..." She turned to see Signum carrying Fate, Yuuno carrying Vita while Rein glared at him and Miyuki walk with Shamal and Zafira out of the trees. "I think we should get further back."

Looking up, the others sweat-dropped and nodded.

This was going to be one hell of an explosion.

(-)

"Diabolic... WAVE!" Hayate yelled as the gold sphere suddenly let loose with a wave of destructive power that even Ragnarok wouldn't be able to match on its best day.

**"Chaos... Star... BRREEAAAAKKKKEERR!"**

The pink and gold beam lanced out towards the onrushing gold wave of power.

When the spells collided, there was a massive explosion that quickly erupted outwards and consumed the two inside as well as the remaining training grounds underneath.

(-)

Staring at the sphere as it started to abate, Signum shuddered from the feel of the shining energy. It was a hard color to describe, if anything, she would guess that it was clear.

"Wow... This really is bad." Miyuki stared as the energy continued to collapse in on itself before finally fading away completely.

"...No wonder Reinforce didn't want to Unison with us anymore, if the power would be like that..." Shamal said softly, before gasping. "I see them!"

In the middle of the destruction, face-down in the dirt, was Nanoha in her training outfit, Hayate and Reinforce, both in training outfits...

Or what was left of them, since there were burns on all three of their bodies and their clothes were mostly destroyed, leaving them in tatters.

"Nanoha!" Yuuno rushed towards his friend, followed by Rein.

"Mommy, daddy!" The small device flew towards her parents while the rest of her family followed. Miyuki looked at Fate, before shaking her head. She couldn't fly, and she really didn't think that she would be of much help at the moment. Instead, she just turned and gently picked Fate up.

This was going to be one hell of a story.

(-)

Leti shook her head as she looked at the destroyed field. "Well, I hope the crews don't mind the extra work in the morning." She shook her head and looked at Mizetto.

"Yes, I'm sure that they won't mind..." She shook her head and wandered off to make the correct calls. "Though, I'm sure that that ground-keepers are going to have a conniption fit."

Leti sighed and made a mental note to tell her son it wasn't worth getting super powerful if all you did was make messes for others to clean up.

(-)

Later...

Hayate sat on the bed, bandages on her arms and forehead and fidgeted from the looks she was getting from Reinforce, who was on her own bed, Signum, Shamal and Zafira, the latter of which were fine. She had the feeling if Rein wasn't clinging tightly to Vita and glaring at Yuuno, she would probably be giving her the same look. "Um..." She looked at Nanoha and nearly giggled as the girl was in the same boat with Yuuno and Miyuki. She tapped her fingers together before rubbing the back of her head. "Well, um, can I say that I wanted to see just how good Nanoha-chan was in a fight?"

"Well, you found out." Reinforce sighed and shook her head before rubbing her eyes.

"Hayate..." Zafira spoke up, causing her to look at him. "We all know that you want to prove that you're worthy of having your power and that fighting Nanoha is a good way to prove that, we don't want you to push yourself too hard or get hurt doing so. So, please, take it easy for the rest of us at least."

Hayate ducked her head in embarrassment, but nodded. "Alright..."

Zafira shook his head. "Even if you push yourself on a mission and try your hardest, we would rather you not try so hard against a friend and ally. None of us want to see you back in your wheelchair."

Hayate looked at her bedsheets and gripped them tightly. "I... I..." She trembled softly. "I'm sorry, I didn't want to prove that I was worthy of the power I got, I wanted to prove that I was worthy of having you as my family and..." Her eyes widened as she felt arms wrap around her and pull her into a hug. "Shamal..?"

"You have always been worthy of being our master, Hayate. You gave us warm beds, warm food, nice baths and clothes and never once asked for us to do anything for you. You're just being silly if you think you aren't worthy of us."

Hayate sighed softly and hugged Shamal back. "I guess I was... I just got so excited to have a sparring match with Nanoha-chan that I wanted to prove something to myself."

Reinforce shook her head. "Hayate, just don't go and do something that crazy again, okay?" The girl nodded and the large device flopped onto the bed. "Now, I'm tired, so, please keep it down."

Even if Reinforce seemed upset about everything, there was a small smile on her face as she went to sleep. It was good seeing Hayate try so hard at something, even if the results landed the two of them in the infirmary.

(-)

Elsewhere...

Mary stood in front of the Bureau's council as they looked over the data that she had presented them. "As you can see, while it didn't do everything that I had hoped, the Blaster Metal more than lived up to any reasonable expectations that anyone could place on it. If not for the Blast Mode that had been installed into their devices that they had used, both Knights would have been utterly killed by what injured them."

"It seems fairly costly." One of the council members spoke up, getting a nod from Mary.

"Yes, depending on the amount of body that needs to be covered with the person, it could be very expensive to outfit entire platoons with this armor mode." Mary bit her lip, she was sure that the council would approve of it, but she needed them to get behind it fully.

"Is there anyway to off-set the price of this?"

Mary shook her head. "At the moment, no. But, as you can see, my plan calls for only the strongest of Knights and mages to have this outfitted onto them by the year 0080. Having run calculations, anyone with less power than a AA rank would get no benefit from this armor." Hearing the murmurs through the council, Mary held up a hand. "Please, ladies and gentlemen, this is just one project that I have been working on." She clapped her hands twice and some orderlies wheeled in a cart with several sword hilts on them. "Recently, I managed to get my hands on a weapon of immense power and studying it led me to be able to make replicas of it."

"Replicas of what, exactly?"

"A legendary weapon, known for being able to block, counter, reflect and dispell magic, as well as amplify the magic the user has with it." Mary didn't understand it herself, but she was told that was the nature of the weapon. "These replicas, or as I'm calling them, Shine Swords, aren't quite as powerful as the original Sword of Light, however, they're able to do everything the original can do."

"How? If they're not as powerful..."

"I'm glad you asked." Mary nodded and snapped her fingers as several mages walked into the room. "These four are all going to shoot at me with their strongest spells and I will demonstrate the power of one of these Shine Swords for you." Walking into the open as the four lined up in front of her, Mary held her weapon in front of her. "Light Come Forth!" As the sword lit up, the four fired at her at the same time and Mary held the weapon in front of her as the blasts converged on her.

The council watched, with interest as none of the attacks managed to get past the sword. When they abated, the mages bowed and turned to leave as the sword itself shut off and Mary turned back to them as they looked on in interest.

"I can tell you, that was a lot harder than it appeared." Mary nodded as the weapon shut itself off. "As for these weapons, the Shine Swords, seeing as they're not the original Sword of Light, they have a limit to how long they can remain active, the stronger the spell they block, the less time they can remain active, however, I have managed to make it so that the power supply that they use can and will recharge on its own."

"How strong of a spell can these weapons block?" One of the council members asked, getting a shrug from Mary. "You don't know?"

"While I based this one the original Sword of Light, I haven't tested the upper limits of the swords yet. The original Sword of Light was said to be able to block even SS rank destructive bombardment spells, so, since everything about the Shine Sword is the same as the Sword of Light, it would have to be tested against a SS rank bombardment spell to know the maximum limit, and I don't need to tell you that if it failed, the user would likely be destroyed as well."

"What is the upper limits you have tested?" One of the council members asked her.

"I have tested it against a spell that was ranked, at full power, AAA+, so I'm certain that it would suit members of the Bureau at all levels."

"How fast can you make these?"

Mary smirked softly. "With enough time and funding, I can have the entire Bureau, both active and in-active members with these Shine Swords in less than ten years, and the Blaster Metal, if I limit it to only the strongest Belkan Knights, can be done in even less time."

"I suggest, for now, make sure to equip our B and C rank members with these weapons as soon as possible before moving up to A rank and higher magic users for these Shine Swords." Mary nodded, that was her plan. "As for this Blaster Metal enhancement, as per your recommendation, we shall give you funding so that AAA and higher Belkan Knights will receive this upgrade. As for A and AA rank members of the Bureau, there is no need to hurry with equipping the entire Bureau, just make sure to have enough within the ten year timetable that you have set up for yourself." Mary nodded to the member as the others on the council were nodding their heads in agreement. "If you find yourself with other legendary weapons and can reverse engineer them for the Bureau, please let us know and we shall make sure that you get the funding you need."

Mary nodded, quite happy with the ruling she was given. Internally, a small, chibified version of herself had her glasses gleaming white as she tossed her head back and laughed. 'Ohohohohohohohohohoho!'

Mary made a mental note to laugh like that when she was back in her lab.

* * *

Nanoha: Wow, that was fun!  
Hayate: Speak for yourself.  
Nanoha: Oh, come on, Hayate-chan, it was fun.  
Hayate: Well, I did enjoy it.  
Vita: Not for me it wasn't.  
Rein: Bully!  
Yuuno: Oww, stop hitting me.  
Reinforce: Zwei...  
Rein: Sorry, mommy. I'll stop hitting the bully.

So, yeah, one last chapter and the "Shine" Arc is over.

Lemme tell ya, that wasn't an easy chapter to write.


	85. Shine End

Blood That Flows

Shine End

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Here it is, the final chapter of "Shine".

* * *

One month later...

Kyouya looked up and chuckled as he saw his sisters and Yuuno rush into the waiting room. "Hey, kids."

"Fate!" Arf, in her young girl form, yelled happily and glomped the blonde girl. "Wow, you got bigger." When Fate started rubbing her back, her tail popped out and started wagging behind her. "Nanoha's not too much taller though."

Nanoha gave Arf a dirty look as Yuuno and Fate both laughed softly. "It's only been a few months, and I've gotten a little taller, it's not my fault Fate-chan and Yuuno-kun are both growing faster than me." She pouted and blinked as Miyuki patted her on the back and winked.

"Don't forget, mom was really short until she and dad got married, so, you'll grow, it'll just take longer for you."

Nanoha pouted as tears seemed to stream down her face. "No fair! I don't wanna be short forever!"

Miyuki chuckled softly. "I wouldn't worry about it too much, Nanoha, you'll grow tall sooner or later."

Nanoha sighed softly. Even so, Vita was taller than the last time she had seen the redhead. It wasn't fair! Vita was supposed to be shorter than she was. She blinked as she saw a blonde girl walk into the room and look at her. "Arisa-chan!" Her eyes widened as she saw someone else walk around the corner. "Suzuka-chan!" Grinning, she ran over to her friends and hugged them tightly. "Missed you!"

"Well, you weren't kidding about her being excitable." A female voice caused Nanoha to let go of Arisa and Suzuka and nearly jump in surprise. "Aunt Luna? Grandma? Grandpa? When did you three get here?"

Luna shrugged at her. "About a month ago. There was a problem with an old Mazoku friend of yours." Hearing Lina scream had Luna wincing. "Ouch..." She gave Kyouya a dirty look as he chuckled. "What?"

"Mom screamed like that when Nanoha was being born."

"What is it, dear?" His grandmother looked at her husband as he had a wistful look on his face.

"Oh, just remembering you when you had Luna and Lina, dear." The two of them and Luna jumped when a loud ding was heard and a doctor's name was said. "Now, if only we knew where that blasted noise was coming from!" He looked at Luna and raised an eyebrow. "How are you not insane from so much weird stuff?"

"If I ignore it, maybe it will go away." Luna answered truthfully, getting a sweat-drop from the others in the room. "Besides, at least you didn't have to deal with how loud everything was like I did."

Her mother nodded and moved a hand up to her ear to feel the ear-plugs she was wearing. "Anyway, we want to see our grandchild being born. We missed out on you and how cute you must have been, so we wanted to be here for this one." She jumped when there was a ding again and another doctor or nurse was called over the speaker. "Just where is that coming from?"

Nanoha pointed up. "See that thing with the holes there? The sound comes from there."

"Ah, good to know..." She nodded, before snapping her hand upwards. "Digger Bolt!" The arc of lightning crashed out, destroying the speaker and causing a small explosion.

"MOM!"

"GRANDMA!"

Said woman just blinked at everyone. "What? It was loud, and annoying, I held back."

Luna rubbed the bridge of her nose. "And you asked where Lina got her destructive tendencies from."

"I should be surprised, I should, but considering that we have a Mazoku as a gym teacher, I'm not." Arisa hung her head and sighed heavily. "Nanoha, your aunt is a horrible task master!"

Luna rolled her eyes. "I never put you in risk of dying, now did I? All I did was work you until you threw up..."

"Then you made me work harder." Arisa trembled and grabbed Suzuka, whimpering. "She's evil, I don't care if she's got a god's spirit inside of her, she's pure evil and wants to see me suffer!"

Suzuka awkwardly patted her shoulder while smiling helplessly. "I'm sure that she doesn't want to kill you."

"Not kill, see me suffer!" Arisa whimpered, tears falling out of her eyes. "The watermelons weren't so bad, but when they started to explode and I..." Arisa broke down crying and Suzuka just sweat-dropped heavily.

"You can call up your Holy magic very easily and keep it under some semblance of control, right?" Luna gave her a flat look. "Sheesh, you're just as bad as Lina, always over-reacting to things that I do." There was another scream and Luna sighed. "Sheesh, doesn't anyone have pain-numbing magic around here?" She blinked as she felt a hand on her arm. "Mom? What..?"

"If you had a child, you'd understand that even with pain dampening magic, it still hurts."

Luna gave her a dirty look. "Mom, for the last time, I'm not really looking for anyone to settle down with." Sighing, she shook her head before she heard one last scream from her sister behind those closed doors, before a crying sound came out as well, causing her to smile.

About a minute later, the doctor came out and blinked at seeing Nanoha, Fate, Miyuki and Yuuno, before shrugging. "She's fine, they're both fine, though I can't say the same for her husband..." He chuckled softly. "I think she broke his hand in five places."

"Can we see them?" Kyouya asked, getting a nod from the doctor.

"Oh sure, it's not a problem." He nodded and stepped aside as they all walked in.

* * *

"Hey..." Lina smiled as she held her son. Her face was tired, her hair was mussed up, but she had a million-watt smile on her face as she moved her son softly. "Meet Arashi, the newest Takamachi."

The others got in close for a good look while Shiro was getting his hand bandaged. "I'm glad she's okay."

The nurse nodded and smiled at him. "Yeah, congratulations."

"Thanks." He nodded to her and blinked at the concerned look on her face. "What's wrong?"

"Well, when I was cleaning him off, I could have sworn that your son was glowing gold or something for a moment, but it was only for a second, so, maybe it was a trick of the light."

Shiro chuckled softly. "Maybe." He knew why his son would have glowed golden, even for a moment. He needed to have a talk with Lina about using the Ragna Blade, Double Ragna Blade and Giga Slave when she knew that she was pregnant. He was just grateful that they were both okay after all was said and done.

Fate blinked as her phone rang. "Excuse me." She stepped to the side and answered it. "Hello? Yes? Really? ...Okay. Alright... I'll be there in a little bit."

"Fate-chan?" Suzuka asked as she hung up her phone. "What's wrong?"

"I need to go..." Fate looked at Lina, who nodded to her. "...I'm sorry, mom, but I... I..."

"It's okay." Lina said softly. "If there's something you need to take care of, go ahead and take care of it. I'm just glad that you were able to show up and see your baby brother."

Fate nodded thankfully. "Miss Lindy is going to take me back to Mid-Childa, so, I'll be gone for a day or two." She bowed and ran out of the room.

She wouldn't have gone, but Lindy had asked her to go as a favor.

If it hadn't been for that, she wouldn't have even considered it.

Even if it was news about Precia's health taking a major turn for the worst.

Walking out of the hospital, Fate called Lindy again, to tell her that she could be picked up any time. Turning the corner and walking into an alleyway, she disappeared in a flash of light.

(-)

"Hello, Fate." Precia said, her voice hoarse as she looked at the blonde who had just walked in. Coughing softly, the old woman closed her eyes and breathed heavily. "I'm surprised you came."

"...It was more of a favor to Lindy, I admit." Fate said as she felt her shoulders slumping as she looked at Precia. For some reason, it was not only hard to feel any anger that she should be feeling, but she felt... Pity for Precia. "You didn't take it easy after my last visit, did you?"

Precia chuckled, or coughed, Fate wasn't sure, since she started to smile, but then her face became pained. "Indeed, I didn't. My time wasn't long anyway."

Fate sighed softly. "Why? Even if you finally saw me as a person, all I ever was to you was Alicia's replacement, her clone, right?"

"Fate..."

"And all I am is just some sort of monster to you, right? An abomination that should never exist."

"Fate, please..."

Fate was trembling softly. "I wasn't Alicia, I know that... Why, we went through this last time, why is it coming up again?" She had thought that she was over this, but seeing Precia just brought up the pain she had all over again.

"Because I was an idiot..." Precia was panting heavily. "On my desk... There's a data tablet for you, Fate..."

Fate blinked and looked at the desk in question, before walking to it and picking up the tablet. "This is..." She pushed a button and her eyes widened. "...This is..." She spun to look at Precia, shock on her face.

"Your inheritance gift from me..." Precia didn't even have her eyes open anymore. "The spells that I've developed over the years, how to use them, and how to draw out the magic properly."

Fate was trembling even more as tears welled up in her eyes. "But, this isn't something that you should give..."

"To anyone but my family... To my daughter..." Fate gasped and Precia smiled softly and turned her head to crack an eye open slowly. "You were never just Alicia's replacement, even if you were her clone... You are... Alicia's little sister... And... my... Youngest... Daughter..." Panting heavily, she moved her head so that she was looking up again, her eyes closing on her. "I just wish that I had... Seen it... Sooner... Daughter..."

"...Precia..." Fate walked to the sleeping woman and touched her, getting no response. "Precia..?" She shook the old woman, getting no response. "Mother?"

Precia coughed softly. "Thank...you...Fate...I...I'm sorry...that I never...Said...I love you..."

"Mother... Mother?" Fate shook the woman, getting no response at all this time. "Come on, come on..."

A little bit later, she nearly jumped as she felt a hand on her shoulder, turning her head, her eyes widened as she saw Arf, in her adult form, looking at her. "Arf..." Fate's eyes were burning for some odd reason, she didn't understand it fully. "Why..?"

"She's gone." Arf knelt down and pulled Fate into a hug as the young girl started crying into her chest. Rubbing Fate's back, Arf closed her eyes and rocked back and forth softly. "I told you, didn't I, Fate? I'd always be there for you." Her shirt and breasts were getting wet from Fate's tears, she didn't care.

It took more time than Arf would have thought, but Fate finally relaxed against Arf's chest. "Thank you."

"For what?" Arf shrugged as Fate pulled back. Her white shirt was completely transparent at that moment, but she didn't care. "You and I made a pact a long time ago, to help and support each other, right?"

Fate nodded, smiling softly. "Yeah." She sighed and slowly turned around to look at Precia one last time. "...Goodbye, mother."

(-)

Two weeks later...

The clouds were dark overhead as Fate, her family, and Yuuno stood at Precia's grave. The service had been brief, not many people knew Precia well enough to show up, and Fate was just thankful that Nanoha, Arf, Miyuki, and her parents had all came to see Precia getting put into the ground. She couldn't cry anymore, she had spent too much time doing that lately. Placing a single black rose on her grave, Fate stepped back and bowed her head. "Mother," she whispered softly, "whatever happens after life, I hope you and the real Alicia are happy together... I'll join you one day, I promise, but not today."

She blinked and turned her head to look at Lina, behind her, holding Arashi, was Shiro. "Hey..." She said softly to the girl.

Fate nodded and the group turned as one and started to walk away from the grave. As they got to the edge of the yard, she blinked as she saw a man in a lab coat, a black suit under it, purple hair and yellow eyes walk up to the group, nodding. "Hello?"

"Hello." He looked at her and smiled softly. "You do have her eyes." He cleared his throat as she looked at him in confusion. "I'm sorry. I was once a colleague of Precia's. I only found out that she had passed away, I came to pay my respects. She was a great scientist, but she cared more about her daughter than she did about her projects." He nodded to Fate, and then turned to nod at Lina, who was looking at him with interest in her eyes. "If you'll excuse me, I'd like to say goodbye to an old friend." Turning, he walked to the grave slowly.

Watching him go, Fate smiled despite herself. He didn't seem like a bad man, if he called Precia a friend. From what little she could remember of her mother, before she lost her sanity, Precia didn't have many friends and any that she did were nice people.

Fate turned and left with her family, putting the man out of her mind.

By the grave, Jail looked at Fate and smiled softly. "She did a lot better than either of us suspected, huh, Precia? You must be proud of her." Chuckling softly, a small grin came to his face. "I have my own daughters now. You would like them, I think. I can't stay too long though. I have to make sure Dieci's ready to wake up. I just thought I'd say goodbye to you. Rest in piece, old comrade."

Jail reached into his jacket and pulled out a single black flower, before kneeling and putting it on top of the other flowers that were already there.

"I hope that I'm wrong, Precia, that there are no more Mazoku in the universe, but I remember, where one existed, there was always more." Sighing, he stood up and started to walk away. "I hope that I'm wrong, for all of our childrens' sake."

-Shine End

* * *

Well, I hope you've enjoyed this arc. Look out for more adventures in the next arc "Dusk". It won't be quite as long as this arc has been. But I hope that you'll enjoy it, none-the-less. I'm going to take some time off to get some affairs in order, but, don't worry, the next arc will be ready to be posted as soon as I get them done.

I just need to plot out the story a bit more, that's all.


	86. Omake Special

Blood That Flows

Omake Special

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Sorry I haven't updated in awhile, I was busy plotting out events to the rest of the story. So, until Dusk starts, have an Omake.

* * *

"Hey, sis..." Vita looked up as Zwei floated into her room. "I was curious about something." She looked at Graf Eisen that rested between the valley of Vita's chest. The redhead didn't like the fact that her chest was growing faster than she was growing tall very much. Vita was honestly wondering if she would have to apologize to Signum over the 'boob demon' comment she made back before they had become human. "Where does Graf Eisen come from?"

Vita blinked and was about to say that she didn't know when she spared a glance at the computer in her room. Reinforce had insisted she get one after talking to Lina and then informing her that she was going to be going to school soon. It wasn't a fun thought, especially since she was technically a year younger than Hayate was, and she needed to study hard to take placement tests to get in the same class as Hayate.

"Sis?" Rein's blue eyes looked at her curiously and Vita smiled at her.

"Well, Zwei, Graf Eisen is made out of iron, but not just ANY iron." She shook her head and waggled her finger at the small device. "Oh no, it's iron that was mined on the planet Melchior Seven, where the trees grow three hundred feet tall and breath fire!" Zwei gasped as her imagination started to take over. "The iron ore was smelted for forty days and forty nights in temperatures of over nine thousand degrees." Zwei seemed to calm down, that seemed pretty normal. "Before being bonded with ancient blood rites of the Melchior people!" Vita grabbed Graf Eisen from between her breasts and held it out at Zwei. "Not only does this make Graf Eisen nigh-indestructible, but it can bend the fabric of space and time itself!" Zwei let out a squeal as she swung her arms up and down, her eyes white and blank in shock. "Also, it's a very fine metal, very sturdy."

Vita blinked as Zwei nodded and turned around, floating out the door with that same shocked expression on her face. "Huh... I thought it was pretty good."

(-)

"Mommy..." Zwei floated into the kitchen, causing the taller Reinforce to look at her.

"Yes?"

"I don't wanna go to the planet Melchior Seven, they're dangerous."

Reinforce just blinked in confusion.

* * *

That joke belongs to Team Four Star.


	87. Dusk Start

Blood That Flows

Dusk Start

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

* * *

"Gin-nee..." A young girl's voice had a slightly older, but still young, girl turning to look at the person who walked to her and spoke up. "What are you doing?"

"Practicing Shooting Arts, Subaru." Ginga tilted her head as Subaru looked at the ground. "What's wrong?"

"Mommy got hurt bad last time... And I think mommy worries a lot about me."

Ginga rolled her eyes and turned to practice more. "That's because you're a cry-baby." Shifting slightly, she did several high kicks straight up.

"Gin-nee... Teach me." Subaru's words were so out of the blue that Ginga let out a surprised squawk and fell onto her butt. "Gin-nee?"

"Oww!" The young girl stood up and rubbed her butt while turning around. "Why do you want to get strong?"

"I don't want mommy to worry about me anymore. She got hurt and now she worries about things more." Subaru tilted her head. "Ne, Gin-nee... Why do you want to get strong?"

"So I can beat that girl up that beat mommy up!" Ginga squeezed a fist tightly as her eyes practically lit themselves on fire, causing Subaru to jump back, yelping in fear. "If she's strong enough to beat up mommy, then I want to get strong enough to beat her up, then I'll be the strongest!"

Subaru sweat-dropped heavily. "Um, Gin-nee..."

Ginga blinked a few times. "Oh, right, anyway, come on, I'll teach you."

(-)

"Quint." Genya sighed as he saw his wife sitting and looking through an album. "Come on..."

"She was my best friend, Genya, now she's dead, and Zest..." She sighed and moved her hands to the side of her chair and moved them, causing her chair to turn so she could look at him more fully. "And I'm stuck in a wheelchair until the doctors can heal me."

Genya sighed softly, remembering that conversation.

***Flash***

"So..." Quint looked at the doctor. "What's wrong with me?" She was sitting on the bed and looking at the doctor, trying to hide the growing fear that she was paralyzed for the rest of her life.

The doctor sighed heavily. "As it stands, your legs are, quite frankly, a mess. If you want to know, well, your muscles are torn to hell and back, and every bone from your hips down is broken in three places on top of that."

Genya frowned at that. "Can't you reset her bones and heal them so they knit properly?"

"We've tried." The doctor sighed, this whole thing was giving him a major headache. "But every attempt to heal her legs has been revoked by some sort of weird energy that's infused into her body."

"Weird energy?" Quint blinked in confusion. "What weird energy?"

The doctor shook his head and shrugged. "I'm sorry, I don't know. It's stopping us from healing your legs at this time."

"At this time?" Genya asked in confusion, causing the doctor to pull out a remote and push a button, causing a diagram to appear in mid-air in front of them. "What's this?"

"A diagram of your wife's legs." The doctor pointed to the gray coloring that was surrounding them. "This represents the energy that's running through your wife's body right now. It's doing something to interrupt her magic and stall her body's natural healing." The doctor was really wishing that he knew what was going on with this energy. If he knew what it was, he might be able to do something about it. "You should know that Zest..." He said and shook his head. "Your commanding officer also had this energy inside of him, but it dissipated on its own and once it was gone we were able to heal him right up. I assume that it will be the same with you right now."

"Speaking of Zest," Quint spoke up, "how is he?"

"As you know, after that... Incident over a month ago, we had to put him under watch." The doctor shook his head. "After he came to, he's been... Slightly catatonic." Which was a nice way of saying that he wasn't responding to anything, including needing to eat. He had been just sitting on a bed lately, doing nothing else. The nurses had to make sure that he was getting food and drink so that he didn't die on them.

"I see..." Quint nodded, sighing heavily. She really couldn't blame Zest. Finding out that he had a daughter and that she had died... Quint wasn't sure that she would take it any better than he did.

"Anyway, from our battery of tests we have determined that the energy is dissipating from your body, but at a very slow rate. Until it's gone, we won't be able to fix your legs properly. At the current rate, I'm afraid it will take years before you'll be able to walk again."

Quint nodded, though deep down, she hated that news. "Just a quick question, you said every bone from my hips down is broken in three places? Are my hips broken?"

The doctor shook his head. "No, they're fine."

Quint nodded, sighing heavily in relief.

***Flash***

"It could be worse, Quint..." Genya shut up at the look she gave him.

"My career as an active agent is over, I can't even use magic right now, Ginga and Subaru won't have anyone who can teach them Shooting Arts personally and..."

"Quint." Genya interrupted and walked behind her, pushing the chair forward until they were in front of the door outside. "Look."

Quint blinked as she saw Ginga practicing the Shooting Arts that she taught the girl, that wasn't unusual, what was unusual was Subaru was trying to learn them as well. "What..."

"Even if you're hurt, Quint, our girl's still need you." Leaning over, he smiled at his wife, who had a lot of self-loathing leave her eyes. "And I still need you, Quint."

She smiled and grabbed his arm, patting it. "Flattery will get you everywhere."

* * *

Sein: Hello, Sein of the Numbers here, telling you that if you're looking for the main characters to the story in this arc, I should tell you that they were all last seen getting tickets and getting on a bus to go somewhere. Well, most of them anyway. So, you won't see the main characters for awhile. Instead, you've got ME! YAY!  
Tre: I think they have more than just you. Anyway, next time on Blood That Flows - Dusk, Quattro just what are you doing now?

Yeah, Dusk has started. And, yes, I am putting all the main characters "on a bus" so to speak, so I can focus more on some of the secondary and minor characters. Don't worry, it's just for one arc. I do want to develop the other characters as well.


	88. 2nd Dusk

Blood That Flows

2nd Dusk

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

* * *

Elsewhere...

She blinked as she looked at the glasses-wearing, brown-haired woman in front of her. "Hello?" She wasn't sure why, but it felt appropriate.

"Ah, you're awake." The woman smiled at her. "Welcome to the world, Dieci." When Dieci blinked, she sighed. "That's your name. It means ten."

"So, my name is Ten." Dieci nodded, getting a groan from the woman.

"No, it's Dieci."

"Ten, got it."

Groaning in dismay, the woman hung her head. "Fine, you're name is Ten."

"Dieci." She blinked as the woman turned and screamed in frustration. "Was it something I said?"

There was a giggling sound and she turned to see a rather petite girl with blue-green hair that had long bangs hanging off of her shoulders. "Don't mind Quattro, that was pretty hilarious, where'd you learn to joke like that, Dieci?"

Dieci blinked and tilted her head. "Joke? I am not sure. My name is Ten... Dieci, right?"

"My name's Sein and it means six, but that doesn't mean I like being called six." Sein shook her head and grabbed Dieci's hand and helped her out of the tube she had been in. "So don't worry about that, you're just Dieci. It just means ten, that's all."

"...So I am Dieci then, okay." She nodded and looked at Quattro, who was banging her head against the wall. "Does that hurt?"

"Anything to get the stupidity to go away."

Dieci blinked a few times. "Why are you so stupid then?"

"ARRRRGH!" Quattro screamed as Sein fell to the floor, laughing and kicking her legs up and down into the air while gripping her sides.

"Oh gods, stop, it's too hilarious!"

Rubbing her forehead, Quattro gave Dieci a glare. "Whatever, if you'll excuse me, I need to go and deal with some stuff."

Dieci blinked as Quattro left and looked down at Sein. "Did I do something wrong?"

Sein shook her head as she stood up. "Nah, Qua-nee's just been having a bad day. One of her robots nearly killed her, so she's not happy." She giggled at Dieci's confused look. "The arm fell off and nearly squished her, come on, I'll introduce you to Cinque-nee, Tre-nee, Un-nee and Due-nee." Grabbing the cyborg's hand, she pulled Dieci with her.

Watching them leave, Quattro shook her head and groaned. "Ugh, about time..." She pulled out a small device with a screen at the top of it and pushed a button, grinning as data streams came up. "Interesting, so that's where the next target is."

The best part, from what she could tell, was the fact that it was out of the way, no pesky human civilizations near-by nor populations of people. "A deserted planet, huh?"

'What are you going to do when you get enough power... Master Levi?'

Levi smirked and flicked her hair back. "Oh, I can think of a lot of things... Dear Quattro." Chuckling, she put her device away and sighed as she went to go find Jail. She needed more power, that one node just wasn't strong enough.

She was thankful that she could use this body's abilities. 'Aren't you glad that I'm in charge of your body? Your power works so much better with me enhancing it than it did before.' Bending light and manipulating machines was interesting in and of itself.

But give it a boost and it became something terribly frightening. Smirking, Levi created a sword out of nothing and grinned as it glowed in her hands. 'To think that this isn't even magic.'

"Ah, Quattro." Jail's voice had her canceling her item as she turned to look at him. "Heading out again?"

"I've discovered something that interests me, nothing more..." Trailing off, she tapped her chin. "However, it seems to be close to one of those sites that you're interested in."

Raising an eyebrow, Jail looked at her curiously and Quattro just smiled innocently. "How do you know that?"

"I use the fliers for recon, Doctor." She smiled and clasped her hands together. "At the very least, the Bureau hasn't gotten wind of this one yet."

"I see... Quattro, I want you, Sein and Tre to go on this mission and check it out. Uno's figured out how to help you manipulate the sites from here."

"Dieci just woke up, doctor, maybe she should come with?"

Jail shook his head, getting a frown from Quattro. "I haven't finished her equipment yet. I need her here to test it and make sure that it works properly for her."

Quattro snapped her fingers. "Alright, but I do need to check this other place out first."

Jail nodded to her. "Very well, do what you think is best then."

Quattro smiled as she turned to walk away. Part of her wondered why Cinque or Due were being left behind before shrugging it off. She had more important things to do right now.

Like finding another node and absorbing the power within.

(-)

Days later...

"That it?" Tre narrowed her eyes as she looked at the dome.

"Looks that way to me." Sein nodded from her position of laying on her belly on the ground. "Hey, Tre... What do you think of Dieci?"

"A bit naive." Tre crossed her arms under her breasts and looked around as she stood over Sein. "But not bad. She could use some time to think before speaking though."

Sein shrugged at that. "Hey, it's okay. It's not like when Due decides that things are boring. Remember when she tried to cook food?"

Tre twitched. Seeing the kitchen completely destroyed by some sort of fire, Due covered in black soot and being excited over something was not a pleasant memory.

And that stench, gods, that stench was horrible! Until Due was closer to the way she had been before this "reincarnation mode" nonsense, no one was allowing her back into the kitchen.

"Ah, you two are still here." Quattro said as she seemingly melted into view. "If you're curious, I didn't find what I thought was there." She pouted as Tre turned to and flew off towards the dome while Sein shrugged and moved to her side and started rolling down the hill.

"Wheee!" Sein's voice was heard as she disappeared.

"Fools..." Quattro muttered softly, her eyes glowing a soft red. What she wouldn't give to have more power at that moment. "I need more."

'How many more, Levi?'

"I'd say about three, Quattro." Levi chuckled and started flying after Tre. Three wouldn't fully restore her power, but it would let her go from being so weak that she could barely keep Quattro's soul from taking over to being able to take physical form if she wanted to.

"You get lost?" Tre asked as Levi landed next to her, near one of the entrances. Turning her head, a small smile crept up onto her face as she saw Sein giggling and laughing while rolling down hills. The younger girl was covered in dirt, grass and mud, but the sheer joy in her voice was quite nice to listen to.

"Nah, even if I did, all I would have to do is look for your giant ass." Levi mentally smirked as Tre stiffened and looked at her, twitching. "Did I say that out loud?"

"Yes, you did..." Tre twitched slightly and Levi shrugged at her.

"Well, it is huge. I think I've seen watermelons smaller than your butt." Levi blinked as Tre suddenly turned and stormed into the ruin before shrugging as Sein came to a stop next to her. "Well, shall we go inside?"

"Okay." Sein nodded and stood up, blinking as Tre punched the door off of its hinges. "Is Tre-nee mad?"

"I think it has something to do with her butt."

"Ah, Qua-nee, did you make fun of her?" Sein pouted as Quattro rolled her eyes.

"Not really, I was just being honest. Let's go before she breaks those robots I want."

"Kay!" Sein grinned as they went inside after Tre.

(-)

Later...

Sein grinned as she wrapped the mantle around her waist. "This is..." She blinked and stumbled as she looked at Quattro. "Woah... You look freaky." Looking around, everything looked weird, it almost looked like someone threw green and red paint on everything. Looking at Tre, she tilted her head. "Hey, how come Tre-nee's weird wavy lines are smaller than Qua-nee's?" Looking back at Quattro, she blanched again. "Qua-nee's wavy lines are all black and purple and..." Closing her eyes and shaking her head, she shuddered and took the thing off. "Icky, just icky, I feel icky, Tre-nee, I..."

Quattro and Tre both stared as Sein suddenly turned and expelled the contents of her stomach all over the ground. "Sein?" Tre walked up to her and patted the petite girl on her back as she shuddered. "What happened?"

"Ugh..." Sein shuddered and looked at Tre, vomit dripping from her lips and tears leaking from her eyes. "It was... I couldn't..." Shuddering her knees buckled and she nearly fell down into her own vomit, but Tre grabbed her and kept her from falling into it and making a worse mess of herself.

Levi, on the other hand, was frowning as she looked at Sein. 'How did she see me? She shouldn't have seen my Astral Body...'

'It could be that sash that she had. Maybe it lets her see the Astral side of reality?'

Levi grimaced at that. 'This was something made by Al Hazard...' Her eyes narrowed as Tre picked up Sein and carried her in her arms before grabbing the mantle, which looked like a scarf as far as she was concerned, and flew up. "I'll stick behind a little bit and get what I want."

"Fine." Tre glowed purple and disappeared in a burst of speed, leaving Levi alone.

"That thing could become a problem." She muttered as she worked to get more of those large robots into her arsenal. Levi couldn't imagine what each piece could do individually.

Much less if they were all together. 

* * *

Zest: To think, all this time, I had a daughter, and now I have nothing, how can I just let it end like this?  
?: This isn't you, Zest. This isn't what anyone needs right now.


	89. 3rd Dusk

Blood That Flows

3rd Dusk

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

* * *

"Colonel." The nurse nodded to him as he walked in. "Good to see you again."

"It's General now, I was promoted a week ago."

"Ah!" She nodded, noticing the new look on his jacket. "I see, sorry for the mistake."

He waved her down. "Not a problem. How is he?"

The nurse sighed heavily. "Barely doing anything that would count as being alive, I'm afraid."

"I see... I'd like to see him."

She nodded and led him to the room. "Be prepared for the worst."

He already had an idea of how bad it was from the last time he had seen Zest.

Walking into Zest's room made him realize that what he saw last time wasn't quite as bad as it was this time. The man's hair was matted as he sat against the wall. Zest turned his head and looked at him.

"Zest, you..." The look of sheer defeat in his friend's eyes was like a shot through his heart. "Listen, Zest, the Bureau still needs you, Mid-Childa still needs you. I need my friend back." He frowned as Zest didn't respond to that. "...Forget it, you aren't the same man that I knew back then."

Zest blinked at the anger rolling off of the man.

"I understand how you feel, you lost your daughter, your lover and got injured and nearly lost another subordinate, if it was my daughter, I would probably be in your position as well." He clenched a fist tightly. "But, dammit..." Rushing forward, he grabbed Zest by his collar and held him up, slamming him against the wall. "You aren't the man I knew, the man I respected. I don't need someone who's going to mope for the rest of his life, I need Zest Grangeitz, the man who would point his spear and fight against Destiny itself." Letting go, he sighed as Zest fell to the floor. "...You know, I think that it was for the better that both Megane and her daughter died." He turned around even as Zest's eyes widened slightly. "They don't have to see how pathetic you've become."

"They didn't..." He turned to look at Zest, who was standing up and looking at him. "They didn't deserve to die."

"Because you said so?" Snorting, he turned away and walked to the door. "You aren't Zest... The Zest I knew wouldn't let the pain of his past stop him." It was harsh, he knew, but he couldn't stand seeing Zest like this. "Then again, maybe it was for the best. After all, only the strong survive, I guess they weren't..."

"Regius..." Zest growled, causing Regius to turn around in time to get punched in the face. "Don't you dare talk about them like that. Megane was a lot stronger than most women I knew, her daughter never had a chance, how is that weak?"

Rubbing his jaw, Regius stood up and nodded. "Got your spirit back then?"

Zest blinked and looked at Regius, before his eyes widened. "I... Oh... What did I..." He blinked as Regius grabbed his shoulders.

"I understand, Zest. Believe me, I do."

Zest nodded and looked around, grimacing. "I need a shower... And I'd like to leave, I need to do some thinking."

Regius nodded and left to go talk to the doctors. 'Welcome back, old friend.'

* * *

Days later...

Regius blinked as he saw Zest walk into his office. "I didn't expect you today."

Zest nodded and dropped a letter onto his desk.

Blinking, Regius took the letter and read it slowly before looking up over it at Zest. "Are you sure?"

"You said it yourself, as I am, I'm no use to the Bureau, and right now, I need time to get away from this and find myself again. I have vacation leave and sick days piled up and..." He trailed off as Regius raised a hand.

"Don't worry about burning through vacation and sick days, Zest. I never put you on any active duty rosters yet." Zest blinked as Regius nodded slowly. "So, go where you need to go to find yourself and take your time. I want you to be recovered from this ordeal after you get back."

Zest nodded and turned. "Before you ask, I have an idea where I'm going." He turned his head and a small grin came to his face, nearly startling Regius. "I've heard of a world that would be excellent for finding myself again."

Regius blinked, wondering what Zest meant by that. Before he could ask, Zest was gone and Regius just looked at the letter again. "Unadministered world 500?" He scratched his head and entered the term into his console, wondering what was going to come up from that search.

When he saw the world in question, he paled and looked at the door before closing his eyes. "Good luck, old friend, you're going to need it."

Sighing heavily, Regius reached into his desk and pulled out an album, before flipping through it slowly. He stopped as he came across a photo, one that wasn't even a year old, of Megane, Quint, Zest in front of the camera, Megane holding onto her daughter and smiling happily. "...I was a fool."

"Sir." Regius looked up to see Auris walk into the room. "You have a call from the high council about something."

"I see..." He nodded to her. "I'll take it in here. I don't wish to be disturbed."

She nodded and stepped out, causing him to sigh as he took the call. The girl was only sixteen years old, sometimes he wondered about the Bureau's policy of taking in children to be part of the military.

Steeling himself, he took the call. It wasn't something that he was looking forward too.

* * *

"Are you sure about this, sir?" One of the bridge crew looked nervous at the request that was given to them. "If something happens..."

"Just do it." He fought back the urge to get annoyed with them, they were justified in being worried about what he requested, since most everyone in the Bureau was, in fact, restricted to going to this planet. When the ship shook slightly, he closed his eyes and waited for a moment. The planet he was going to was described as the most dangerous of all worlds, and frankly, that was what he needed. Sitting around or trying to go on vacation didn't really suit him, being able to fight and not think about stuff suited him more.

Plus, from what he had heard, people on this world wouldn't care if he got rough with some of the more undesirable elements of their society.

He blinked as he was handed a letter and a watch. "Yes?"

"Listen, we can't stay long, we're going to drop you off at a city where the rulers are at least helpful. The watch has a set timer on it, since you can't stay here for more than a month." One of the ship's hands said to him, getting a nod as he took the items in question. "One more thing, Sir Zest."

"Yes?" He blinked at the look he was given. "What is it?"

"The only reason that you were even cleared to go was because of that new armor mode of yours, the threat level on this world is at least SS at all times from what Admiral Lindy put into her report. Be very careful. If you died, it would be a tremendous loss for the Bureau."

He nodded. "I'll be fine, just get me close." Zest looked at the letter as he walked to the teleporter. "...Who is the ruler at that country?"

All he got was a shrug. "Someone named Prince Philionel El Di Saillune, though from what Admiral Lindy said, his friends call him Prince Phil. Be safe."

Zest nodded as he was teleported off the ship and down to the planet.

Looking around, he noticed the castle in the distance and started to walk. "At least the planet's pretty." Idly, he wondered just how bad things could become before shrugging. He'd find out on his own.

* * *

Riksfalto: Hey, kiddies, it's time for me to give you nightmares for the rest of your life.  
Arisa: Oh dear.  
Suzuka: Next time on Blood That Flows - Dusk, read it or we'll all die.  
Riksfalto: Yep.


	90. 4th Dusk

Blood That Flows

4th Dusk

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

* * *

Back on Earth...

"I am so glad that we don't have school today." Arisa said as she and Suzuka walked down the street. It was pleasant out and since they didn't have anything to do, they decided to walk over to Nanoha's place. Partly to see Nanoha, Fate and Yuuno before they went back to Mid-Childa to finish off their training, and partly to see Luna, since she was still training them. "Between Riksfalto and Luna, I'm exhausted at night."

Suzuka giggled and patted her on the back before gulping as the sky changed colors for some odd reason. "What the?"

"My, my, my..."

Both Suzuka and Arisa's eyes widened as Riksfalto materialized before them. "I have to admit, I'm flattered that you're using my name... Miss Bannings." Smirking, she pulled off the sunglasses that she had on at all times to look at them fully and let them see her scarred and closed eye. Crossing her arms under her breasts, she couldn't help but chuckle a little. "You two are more interesting than most people I've killed."

Suzuka gulped slightly and looked around. "Isn't this what Nanoha-chan says mages do when they fight on planets like this?"

Arisa nodded, remembering that night. "How is this possible?"

"It's just a local time and space distortion, nothing to get worried about." Riksfalto grinned as she slowly walked up to them. "Though, if Lord Dolphin didn't order me to, I wouldn't bother with this."

Arisa frowned and blinked in confusion. "How the heck can you do this?"

"Please," Riksfalto snorted, "once the information about distorting time and space like this got out... Well, let's just say that this is stupidly easy to do for one such as me." Grinning, she snapped her arm down and a sword appeared in a burst of dark energy. "I wanna see just what you can do, girl."

"Don't you have some sort of truce going?" Suzuka asked as Riksfalto shifted slightly in front of them.

"Please, that's just for the Shinzoku and their servants of our world. You... Don't have such courtesy." Swinging her sword back, Riksfalto's aura exploded around her. "So, LET'S GO!"

Arisa's eyes widened before she growled and jumped back, wings of fire exploding out of her back while a sword of blue fire came to her hands. "Well, you wanted this power to wake up, didn't you?" Her eyes flashed at Riskfalto, who's face was seemingly lit up in enjoyment before Arisa took off into the air, her wings flapping behind her.

"Nice." Riksfalto was about to fly up when she heard a throat being cleared, looking down, she doubled over as Suzuka punched her hard enough to fly down the block, bouncing off the pavement several times before crashing into and through the wall of an office building.

"...How do you do that?" Arisa looked down at Suzuka, who shrugged. She wasn't sure either, but she sure was grateful that she could do that.

There was an explosion of dark energy, followed by laughter as Riksfalto floated up into the air. "Yes! THIS IS WHAT I WANT!" Rushing forward faster than either girl could react, she drove her knee into Suzuka's gut, causing the girl to yelp in pain as she doubled over and was suspended for a moment in mid-air, before momentum caught up to her and sent her crashing into a tree.

"Suzuka!" Arisa gasped at what happened to her friend and growled before rushing at Riksfalto, who just grinned and swung her sword up to meet Arisa's charge. "You..."

Riksfalto chuckled and grabbed Arisa's head, squeezing hard and getting a groan of pain from the girl. "Here's a tip, girl, I'm a _lot_stronger than this." Laughing madly, Riksfalto pulled her arm up and pulled Arisa with it, before throwing her down, hard, into the ground and leaving a crater behind. "Come on! This is the extent of the power of the Blue Dragon? How pathetic!" Letting out a yell, she rushed at the two downed girls, her fists crackling as she recalled her sword.

Arisa stood up and stumbled softly, her sword was still in her hands, glowing brightly. Running forward, she swung forward, only to gape as Riksfalto grinned and disappeared, before reappearing just above her. "Wha.." She didn't get to finish as Riksfalto kicked her in the jaw, causing her sword to extinguish and her eyes to widen before she bounced across the ground and landed at the base of a tree, out cold.

"That's it?" Riksfalto sighed heavily as she touched down on the ground. "Forgot how squishy you humans really are."

"ARISA!" She turned to see Suzuka punch her in the leg hard enough that she actually fell over, partly because of how hard Suzuka hit her, and partly because her leg went one way and the rest of her body... Didn't.

"GAH!" Riksfalto rolled to her good knee and looked at Suzuka, who was growling softly. "Shee, kid, if I didn't know any better, I'd say that you're partly Mazoku somehow."

"You... You..." Suzuka trembled, causing Riksfalto to chuckle.

"What's wrong, girl? You think I'm going to be nice?" She stood up, having regrown her leg, and chuckled at Suzuka. "I'm a Mazoku, girl, we don't play nice unless it suits us.

Suzuka snapped and let out a scream, rushing at the green-haired Mazoku, who teleported right behind Suzuka. The girl in question turned and was grabbed by the throat as Riksfalto held her up in the air.

If the situation wasn't so dire, Suzuka really would appreciate the irony of liking Darth Vader as a bad guy in those movies.

"Really, you're interesting, but ultimately, you're something that I can't put into a category... So, you're going to need to be... Dealt with." She squeezed on Suzuka's neck, getting a gasp from Suzuka as she tried to get free from Riksfalto's grip. "You really should give up, the more you struggle, the quicker this is, and that's no fun for either of us." Riksfalto's fingers started to tighten around Suzuka's neck and the girl's eyes and mouth widened as her face started to turn blue and her bones started to pop.

Seeing the girl go limp, her arms falling helplessly to her side and her tongue sticking out of her mouth, Riksfalto shook her head. "Pathetic, really... You humans..." Her eye widened and she turned, only to find that her hand was lopped off, causing Suzuka to fall to the ground in a heap, before she disappeared. "What the..?" She turned around and saw Arf, in her adult form, growling at her. Behind the familiar was Suzuka and Arisa, the former was starting to breath again while the latter one was starting to stir awake slowly.

"My, my, my... Using Bodigar to slice my hand off, not bad." Riksfalto chuckled and snapped her arm out, a new hand reforming where the old one was a moment ago. "But do you really think you can beat me?"

Arf grinned at her. "Don't need to, Nanoha, Fate, and Yuuno are already on their way and they're bringing Auntie Luna with them, you think you can beat all of us by yourself?"

Riksfalto tapped her chin a few times before shrugging. "Could be fun, but then my master would be mad at me for breaking the truce if I fought against the Knight of Cepheed, so, I will take my leave now..." She chuckled as she disappeared. "But, do us both a favor and make sure that those two get training, otherwise, I will kill them for disappointing me."

Arf sighed in relief as the presence of Riksfalto disappeared and the barrier dropped. Deactivating Bodigar, she turned to look at the two downed girls and sighed heavily. "This isn't going to be good, is it?" She asked no one in particular.

(-)

Luna looked at the two downed girls and then at Arf. "How are they?" They had moved the girls to Lina's house and had put them on the couch to relax. Lina and Shiro, unfortunately, were at work and Miyuki was watching over her baby brother while she was back, Nanoha, Fate and Yuuno were out looking for Riksfalto to make sure that the Mazoku didn't do anything stupid.

"Well, from what I can see, they're both okay, though it's going to be hard to explain the bruises on Suzuka's neck." Arf shrugged at her. She felt miserable enough, not being there to help them out when they needed help the most and only getting there when they were down and out on the ground and badly hurt. "Man, are all Mazoku like her?"

"Unfortunately they are." Luna shook her head. "At least she's alive."

At that moment, Suzuka groaned and slowly sat up and blinked. "I'm... Alive?"

"If just barely." Luna said softly as she looked at the girl. "If Arf didn't show up when she did, you wouldn't be here right now." She nodded when Suzuka's eyes widened in fear. "Yeah, anyway, what I want to know is, what happened out there?"

After hearing what happened, Luna looked contemplative. "You said that you were able to punch her leg right off?" Suzuka nodded. "Odd, she's a Mazoku, just punching her shouldn't work at all..." She rubbed her forehead. "Ugh, headache, anyway, once Arisa wakes up, I'm going to need you and Arf to help me figure something out."

Suzuka and Arf could only blink.

"In addition, is there anyway to get ahold of your family?" If there was something odd about Suzuka's family line, it would be better to ask someone who would know.

"Yeah..." Suzuka nodded and pulled out her cell phone. "Speed dial four..." She trailed off at the confused look that Luna had. "Uh..."

"What is that thing?"

Suzuka blinked and looked at her cell. "Just a cell phone, nothing major."

Luna blinked and nodded. "Oh." Tilting her head, she couldn't help but ask another question. "What's a cell phone?" When Arf and Suzuka both face-faulted, she scratched her head. "Did I say something wrong?"

(-)

Elsewhere in the world...

"Hmm?" He blinked and pulled down his shades and raised an eyebrow at who was there, looking at him. "Rangort, I'm surprised you bothered to leave your home." He had to admit, with her dark skin, lighter colored hair and the bikini she was wearing, she fit right in at the beach he had found. It was mostly deserted, for which he was thankful for, all the stuff that he had to deal with for the past few months was enough to drive minor Mazoku to insanity.

"Xellos." She muttered and looked around. "Surprised you aren't out there causing trouble." Looking back at him, the Shinzoku raised an eyebrow. "What's up with the weird clothes?"

"You're one to talk." He chuckled as she twitched slightly. "Haven't you ever spent time at a beach and gone swimming?"

Rangort grimaced slightly. "Don't like the water, that was Ragradia, I prefer the ground."

"Then why that outfit when you're in this form?" Xellos raised an eyebrow. "I mean, you're almost showing off your breasts completely and considering that your bottom doesn't really cover your whole..." He jumped out of the way as she punched down where he was. "Really, trying to break the truce?"

"No, I was trying to get you to shut up." She growled, her face flush as he laughed at her and disappeared for a moment.

"My, my... I was right, it barely even covers the crack of your butt." Xellos said from behind her as he grabbed her bikini bottom and pulled up, getting a yelp from the Shinzoku.

"You jerk!" Rangort spun and drove her elbow into his jaw, causing him to fly backwards. Reaching behind her to adjust her outfit, the Earth Dragon Lord twitched as Xellos laughed even harder. "What?"

"For someone who has an Astral Body and a Dragon form, you really are self-conscious of your human body." Chuckling, he was about to fade away, when he found himself stuck. "Uh..."

Cracking her knuckles, Rangort chuckled and grinned darkly. "You really think I was going to let you go that easily, Mazoku?"

"Well..." Xellos rubbed his cheek. "Guess you'll just have to catch me then..." He turned and ran as she followed him. "My, my... You really are slow, no wonder Lord Hellmaster was able to get that barrier up. I bet your large chest is slowing you down."

Rangort let out a yell as she lunged for him, only to find Xellos had flown up as she crashed onto the ground. "You ass..."

"My ass is fine..." Her eyes widened and she let out a yelp as he landed on her back and actually slapped her rear end. "Yours, on the other hand, sticks out." Xellos was actually having a lot of fun doing this to her, mostly because he needed to do something otherwise he was going to have to slaughter half of a continent just to feel better about himself.

Rangort rolled over and knocked Xellos off of her body. "Damn pervert."

"Please." Xellos snorted at her as he looked up from where she knocked him onto his back. "I'm not the one who's trying to give everyone a free show."

Rangort sat up and growled softly. "Yeah, I bet you just LOVE looking, don't you?"

Xellos shrugged at her. "You aren't the first female that I've found physically pleasing." Xellos looked at her and tilted his head in confusion as her face was practically glowing. "Neat trick..." He blinked as she gave him a dirty look and disappeared from view. "Huh... If you bother showing up again, I suggest looking at getting an outfit that at least covers your body better. People are less likely to stare."

Really, was it too much to ask for the gods and their servants to follow similar rules that Mazoku followed and attempt to pass off as normal?

Ah well, it was kind of fun to tease her.

If he had tried that before the truce, he was pretty sure that she would have actually tried to kill him.

(-)

Back in Japan...

Arf looked around at the park that she, Luna, Arisa and Suzuka were in. "So..."

"Simple..." Luna pointed to Suzuka. "I want you to punch Arf as hard as you can."

"WHAT?" The three yelled at her.

"I'll get killed if she hits me that hard!"

"Yeah!" Arisa and Suzuka nodded, causing Luna to sigh heavily.

"Arf, you can use a barrier, right?" When Arf nodded slowly, Luna grinned at her. "So, create the strongest one you can. And Suzuka's going to punch that. If it's just a normal punch, it won't do anything, but if there's something there, I should be able to find out."

The two nodded and walked away a foot before Arf created a powerful barrier and Suzuka took a deep breath and punched it as hard as she could.

Luna raised an eyebrow. The barrier shook and Arf slid back almost a foot, but nothing else. "Hmm... Try to remember what you felt when you saw Riksfalto... Imagine that she's right there..."

Arf yelped as some sort of change came over Suzuka and she punched the barrier hard enough to not only shatter it, but send her flying and crashing into a tree. Looking up, Arf gulped as Suzuka walked forward slowly. "I give, I give!"

"Interesting..." Luna muttered and snapped her fingers, using Lafas Seed to bind up Suzuka and keep her from doing anything. "I don't know what kind of ancestry you have, Suzuka, but whatever it is seems to let you strike the physical and astral planes at the same time."

"So, that's why she's so strong then?" Arisa looked at Luna, who shrugged at her.

"Possibly. There aren't a lot of creatures where I'm from that can do this, so it's probably something unique to this world." One thing that Luna had found odd was that for a moment, she could have sworn she felt a touch of magic similar to Draconic, but as different as Black was to Holy. "If I didn't know any better, I'd swear that the Mazoku in this world did what the Shinzoku in my world did and used servants instead of creating minions." It wouldn't surprise her, after all, every one of the worlds was different from each other. 

* * *

Uno: Well, this is going to be interesting. Just as one problem ends, another problem begins. Find out next time on Blood That Flows - Dusk.  
Sein: Read it or I'll send Quattro to do bad things to you.  
Cinque: I think we want them to read it, not run away in fear.  
Sein: Oh, well, watch it or Due will cook for you!  
Tre: Great, now you're threatening to destroy their homes.


	91. 5th Dusk

Blood That Flows

5th Dusk

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

* * *

Elsewhere in the world...

Looking out at the small town that he had stopped by, he sighed and sat down on a rock. "Too much." How did these people live with so much evil in their world? Honestly, he found it more surprising that the Mazoku hadn't destroyed this universe yet, considering the amount of negative energy that this world could produce. It was enough that he was starting to feel ill because of it.

Really, he was beginning to wonder if any of the universes were worth saving.

Turning his head, he blinked as he saw a small child walk towards him.

"Are you okay, mister?" The child looked at him with curious blue eyes. "You seem sad." Smiling, the child held up a flower to him. "You shouldn't be sad."

Taking the flower, he tilted his head. "What happened to your face?" His hand went to the child's face and ran his fingers over a scar that ran at an angle upwards from between his eyes to the middle of his forehead.

The child pouted heavily. "I don't remember. Mom says it's because I was jumping on the couch at gramma's and landed in the china cabinet." His eyes widened as he felt a warming sensation flow over his face. "What are you doing, mister?"

"My name is Sirius... As for what I'm doing..." He pulled his hands away and smiled softly. "Don't go jumping into things anymore, otherwise your scars will return."

The child blinked and ran off as he heard someone calling for him.

Sirius stood up before closing his eyes and disappearing from view.

Maybe this world wasn't that bad after all. He just needed to find the right places to look.

Plus, he still wanted to find Vorfeed.

* * *

Meanwhile on Mid-Childa...

Looking at Dieci, Sein giggled softly, getting a blink from the newest Cyborg. "What you and Due did to Quattro was funny." The petite girl still had trouble looking at Quattro without feeling queasy for some reason.

"She didn't like it, but Due said it was okay..." Dieci scratched her head. "I didn't know the pie would explode."

Sein chuckled at that. "Well, now you see why we don't let Due into the kitchen..." Though, Sein did have to admit, the food that Due cooked up was actually really good, even if the kitchen was mostly destroyed and sometimes the food ended up exploding, which thankfully was just the desserts.

It sure made dinner the last few nights interesting.

"She's a good cook..." Dieci went quiet as there was another explosion. "...Um... Who was supposed to watch her?"

"Cinque, I think..." Sein and Dieci quickly made their way to the kitchen and blinked as it was actually not in pieces. "Where are Due and Cinque?"

"In the training room." The two jumped and turned as Uno walked up behind them. "You two should be there soon as well. The doctor has a weapon for you, Dieci, as for you, Sein, Tre said that you need to be able to use your power on a split second quicker."

"Where's Qua-nee?"

"Looking for either the spear, the wings or the heart for the Knight Valkyre Armor while the doctor works on finishing up your other sisters."

Sein blinked and nodded. "Oh yeah, we've got five more cute little sisters... Except the pink one, she's big, like really big... Still cute though."

Dieci shrugged. "So, what good am I going to be? I'm supposed to be a sniper, right? What good will I be for the rest of my sisters?" The brown-haired girl blinked as Sein put an arm around her shoulders. "Sein?"

"We need a cheering section!" Sein grinned at her. "Besides, you need to work on your accuracy, you haven't had any chances to work with any guns, right?" Dieci nodded slowly. "So, we'll work on that, then after practice, we can all have fun in the bath again!"

"If you feel the need to squeeze my breasts, please keep in mind that I'm not as durable as Tre is, my breasts hurt if you squeeze them as hard as you squeeze hers."

Sein pouted, but nodded. "Alright, fine, I won't squeeze that hard anymore. I'm sorry, I let go when you said it was hurting."

"Come on, you two..." Uno rolled her eyes. "If you don't hurry up, Tre will work you extra hard in training." She laughed as Sein practically dragged Dieci to the training room. Turning, she went to check up on Jail.

Moments later, she got to where he was and raised an eyebrow. "Doctor, just what are you doing?"

"Working to make sure that the cybernetics are being accepted by their bodies properly." He turned to her and frowned slightly. "I find it odd that the new DNA is helping the process along so rapidly however." He chuckled softly. "It makes my job easier at least." Jail sighed softly. He didn't like unknown variables, even if they were helpful.

"I'd say it's because of the magic in that blood, doctor... If you had given it to all of them instead of some of them, they would likely be almost ready to wake up fully." When Jail shook his head, she blinked. "What for?"

"This one." He motioned towards the short-haired girl floating in one of the tubes. "I didn't modify her DNA at all, I wanted to see what she could do fully without using Dragon DNA, same with Sein..." He scratched his chin as he looked at the girl in the tube. "Still, this will be interesting when they fully wake up." He chuckled softly as his hands flew over the console.

"You're accelerating the process..." Uno grabbed his shoulder. "You should be careful, if you go too fast, then they may not be very useful once out of the tubes."

Jail sighed softly. "You're right."

"Still, it doesn't mean that you can't step up your plans if you're careful about it." Uno nodded and looked across the room. "What about those two that Quattro brought back?"

"Ah, yes... Well, the woman's body is a mess right now, if she's out of that tube, she'll die in a matter of minutes. As for her daughter..." Jail looked at the two in the tubes and slowly grinned. "Well, I'm not adverse to experimenting on her in order to bring out her potential. Have Quattro begin the procedures on her."

"Of course." Uno nodded and walked out, leaving Jail alone.

* * *

Zest: Well, that wasn't a long chapter. Excuse me, apparently I must learn from the crown prince of this country about something.  
Amelia: Next time on Blood That Flows - Dusk, the Power of Justice!  
Zest: I don't think that's the name of it.


	92. 6th Dusk

Blood That Flows

6th Dusk

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

No offense, Alex, but I've got plenty of characters, I don't think I need more to play with at this time.

* * *

Meanwhile, on the red world...

Shaking his head, Zest walked out of the Royal training room. As good as he was with combat, and as enthusiastic as he had heard that girl that beat up Quint was, he had never met anyone so... Enthusiastic about pacifism.

Honestly, if pacifism could create someone like that, well, he wasn't sure if he should pursue it or if he should convince the council to abolish it.

"What kind of attack is Pacifist Crush anyway?" Even after seeing the effects, and he could feel a touch of magic behind it, greatly enhancing his strength beyond normal methods. Zest was pretty sure that Prince Phil didn't have a lot of magical power, so how he managed to convert what little he had to pure physical might was actually rather impressive.

"Ah, Mister Zest." He looked up to see Phil's daughter walking up to him. One thing that he found impressive was that for someone so young, she was rather well developed. "I was looking for daddy, you haven't seen him, have you?"

Zest rubbed the back of his neck as he stretched it slightly. "He wanted to show me the ways of pacifism." When her eyes sparkled, he fought back the urge to sweat-drop. "Uhh..."

"That's so wonderful! Daddy must have seen that you are a noble defender of justice as well and wanted to give you all the support you could ever need!" She struck a pose and Zest was almost certain that she was standing on rocks while waves crashed behind her and volcanoes exploded in the background.

"We'll go with that." Zest shook his head to clear the vision. "If you're looking for him, he's..."

"Amelia!" Zest twitched as Prince Phil seemed to appear right behind him. "You slept in, daughter, you missed it. Sir Zest really took to the ways of Pacifism!"

"Really, daddy?" Amelia's eyes sparkled as Phil nodded. "That's great! We can show Sir Zest that true power comes from the power of Justice and... Where did he go?" She blinked and looked around in confusion.

"I'm not sure. Anyway, Amelia, did you need something?" Phil asked her and the smaller girl blinked, before nodding and pulled out a letter from her pocket.

"Yes, I got a letter from Mr. Zelgadis saying that he and Mr. Lyos were in the country of Gairia and that there's a lot of political unrest, he said that there might be a civil war there."

Phil nodded, his face serious as he read over the letter. "He's suggesting that you go to help ease tensions and negotiate an end to the problems before they escalate into a war that might draw in other countries." He looked at Amelia and rubbed his chin. "It is a long ways away though, I'd feel better if you had some guards watching you."

"Why not Sir Zest, daddy?" Amelia smiled at him. "He's really strong and he's already a knight."

"Ah, good point." Phil nodded at her and smiled. "And while you're at it, make sure to show him more of the meaning of Pacifism!"

"Alright, daddy!" Amelia took a stance, her eyes practically turning into flames in her excitement.

As he walked down the hallway, Zest shuddered for some odd reason. "Why do I have the weirdest feeling that things are going to get crazy?"

* * *

Hours later...

Zest bit back the urge to sigh, he could keep it in check, even if the princess was slightly annoying, she seemed to calm down after being away from her father for a few minutes. "Why do you egg your father on?"

"Huh?" She looked at him in confusion. "What do you mean, Sir Zest?"

"All that stuff about pacifism and justice, why do..." He trailed off as she spun to glare at him. "Uh..."

"Don't you dare think that truth and justice are meaningless, Sir Zest!" She spun and held her arms out dramatically. "Why, the very foundation of law is, in and of itself, truth and justice. Without laws, there can be only evil!" She spun around to face him directly and pointed a finger at him. "And where there is evil, I, Amelia Wil Tesla Seiryuun, must stand and face it!" She took a deep breath and smiled at him. "That's what my daddy taught me... After my mother died and my older sister ran away, he was all I had left and... Sir Zest?" She blinked as he seemed to tremble. "What's wrong?"

"...Nothing I want to talk about." He said gruffly and walked on. "Shall we go?"

Seeing him turn away and walk silently, Amelia grabbed her shirt. "Sir Zest..." She said softly, before a determined look came to her face. "Very well, Sir Zest, if you are sad, I will find out what it is and drive it away! This, I promise you!" Seeing him get further away, she ran after him and yelled for him to wait up for her.

* * *

Nearly two weeks later...

"So, this is Gairia?" Zest asked as he stood on a hill and looked down at the village below. "I thought it would be bigger."

"This is just one of the outer villages, sir Zest." Amelia spoke up as she pointed to the distance. "The capital city is off in that direction, but we're supposed to meet with Mr. Zelgadis in the village there."

Nodding, Zest walked forward, going down the hill slowly. Other than a few monsters and some bandits, there wasn't much of anything interesting on the way here, well, except that one village a few days ago, that had been interesting at least. Honestly, he was beginning to wonder if this world was as dangerous as the reports led him to believe.

Then again, it could be because of how strong he was, most of the Bureau's mages would likely be completely overwhelmed in only a few hours.

As they walked into the village, Zest was noticing that people were looking around nervously, as if waiting for an attack from somewhere at any time. "Seems that your report of this country being on the brink of a civil war wasn't far from the mark."

Amelia nodded at him. "Uh huh. That's why it's so important to show them the power of true justice and put a stop to the horrors of a civil war before it takes off. I'm sure that if we talk to the king, he'll be persuaded by the power of justice to turn into a benevolent ruler and lead his people to a new golden age."

""Uh huh... And the power of justice really worked out at that one village, didn't it?" Zest was slightly amused by the embarrassed look on Amelia's face as she recalled that.

"Sir Zest, please stop bringing that up." Amelia pouted and hung her head in shame. "It was so embarrassing." How was she supposed to know that they wanted her for something like that?

"Anyway, where are we supposed to meet with your friends?" He asked as they walked further into the town. It wasn't that big, but he wanted to make sure that he didn't miss where he was supposed to go.

"There!" Amelia pointed to a small building near the opposite end of where they entered the town.

Zest frowned slightly. "Why are all the bars, weapon shops, item shops and inns on the other side of where you enter towns anyway?" Looking at Amelia, she only shrugged at his question.

"I don't know, it's always that way. Though, I always wonder why castles are either in the middle of a giant city where you can get lost without a map or connected to a town and have only one access point." Looking at Zest, the two shrugged and wrote it off to some weird architectural quirk that no one had an answer to.

As they walked into the bar, a person in a near-by alley looked up at them, before nodding.

* * *

Zest looked around the bar as he entered it. There wasn't anything unique about the bar, just a few tables, a counter, some bottles behind the counter and a one-eyed man watching everything as he cleaned the glasses. In the corner, a young man with blue hair and a man with purple hair sat. They were both wearing light colored robes and the one with blue hair stood up and waved at them, well, more specifically, they waved at Amelia, but since he was there, he figured that he might as well join her.

"Hello, Amelia." The one with purple hair nodded to her. "And who's this guy?"

"He's Sir Zest, a Knight who's just visiting for awhile." Amelia smiled as she sat down. "Sir Zest, this is Mr. Zelgadis," she gestured to the purple haired man, "and Mr. Lyos." She gestured to the blue haired man, though now that Zest was closer, he could tell that Lyos wasn't that old yet. It didn't bother him at all, since the Bureau recruited children even younger than Lyos to serve in their military.

"Just visiting, huh?" Zelgadis looked at Zest and shrugged. "It's his prerogative, but anyway.. Lyos and I have been in this country for awhile and things haven't been too good around here."

"Oh?" Amelia blinked at Lyos nodded to them.

"Yeah, seems that not too long ago, the king had a major change of policy or something, really ticked off a lot of his backers and this country's had threats of a civil war since the change in policy."

"If it's a matter of local politics, why call in help from foreign powers?" Amelia didn't understand everything, and even if it was a civil war, decorum prevented her from just sticking her nose in someone else's business.

"Because rumor has it that the king has brought in people from out of the country since the change in policy, if they're true, then the civil war can spill over into the neighboring countries and swallow up this portion of the world before anyone can react." Zelgadis said softly, causing Amelia to wince. "I don't need to tell you just how bad that would be for all of us if a major war broke out. If anything, we need to find out just what's the cause for the king's sudden change in policy. I have a feeling that these new advisers are probably the cause for it all."

"Not quite." A new, feminine voice, spoke up, causing the table to turn and look at a woman in a gray hooded cloak. If not for her voice and the fact that her chest was sticking out, they wouldn't be able to tell that she was a woman, especially since the hood covered all but the woman's lips. "It is true that the king has changed recently, but the advisers aren't the reason. My information leads to a plot by some Mazoku."

"Seriously?" Zelgadis spoke up, narrowing his eyes at her. "Do you have proof?"

"Nothing that anyone can move on." She shifted to face them more fully and walked to the table. Zelgadis found it interesting that she wasn't very tall, yet she had an air of authority that even some rulers lacked. "Unfortunately, if the king is possessed by a Mazoku, it will be hard to prove."

"Why's that?" Zest asked, curious about that and wanting to know more about Mazoku in general. For all the Bureau's resources, there was very little that actually spoke of these dangerous beings. All they had was the knowledge that the heroine of the Death Bringer incident bestowed, as well as observations of Unadministered World 500, apparently the heroine's birth world.

"Simple, a Mazoku has a very peculiar feeling to them. However, if they possess or are bonded to a human's body and soul, it suddenly becomes very hard to feel them out."

"They merge their auras with the human's that they're possessing." Zelgadis spelled it out for Lyos and Zest.

"Indeed, they still have a peculiar feel to them, but they're harder to sense, unless they're stupid or arrogant and there's no one out there hunting them down." The woman nodded to them. "If you can prove that the king or any of the advisers are Mazoku, it would go a long way to ending this civil war before it happened."

Zelgadis leaned back, a thoughtful look on his face.

"But, why?" Amelia looked at the woman in confusion. "I thought that the Mazoku were in the middle of a truce with the Shinzoku and their servants."

"That may be so, but the fact is, there's only two of the original five lords under Shabranigdo still alive. When Dynast was killed by Lina back in the Ancient Dragon temple, it left his minions without a leader, and unlike Gaav, who's strongest minions were killed by Xellos and Lina, and Hellmaster, who had no minions after the Koma wars, Dynast's minions have a vacuum of power to fill. It's possible that one of Dynast's minions decided to try and take over this country as a place to build up his power, if that's the case, then we can't really sit idly by."

Lyos frowned in confusion. "I thought that Sherra took over as Dynast? I was there at the meeting with her."

The woman spoke up at that point. "Loyalty is a very big thing to Mazoku. When the master dies and someone tries to take that master's place, then the servants that were loyal to the previous master rebel against their new master." She sighed and turned around. "If you plan on figuring out if the king is under the control of a Mazoku, you should hurry."

"You know an awful lot, don't you?" Zelgadis spoke up to her as she left them.

"It's my prerogative to know things, you can believe me or not, but ask yourself this... If you were a Mazoku, what would you do if you had the power of an entire nation behind you?"

As she left, Zelgadis sighed heavily. "Great, just great." He looked at the others at the table. "Even if it is a hoax, we can't really discount that thought, can we?"

"Even if we could get close to the king, and he was a Mazoku, he likely wouldn't make any mistakes and would be able to tell that we're a danger to him, simply because we're too famous." Lyos grumbled before looking at Zest. "But you're not known to them, are you?"

"Most likely. And what do you mean that you're too well known to them?"

"Let's just say that Amelia and myself have had encounters with more than a few Mazoku, plus we're likely known for traveling with Lina Inverse, as for Lyos, well, the Dragons sure didn't take long to let the whole world know that he was the Knight of the Aqua Lord."

Zest nodded at him. "So, you want me to get close to the King and observe him?"

"Yes." Zelgadis nodded to him. "Just observe. Even the best actors screw up. If the king is a Mazoku, then no one can really complain if something happened to him, correct?"

Zest nodded, he didn't really like the plan, but he had to admit, it was better than nothing at that point.

One thing that bothered him was who that woman was.

* * *

Days later...

"Sir!" An advisor came into the throne room and bowed to the king. "There are a couple people here to speak with you."

The king sighed heavily. "Very well, who is it?" He blinked as a tall man with brown hair and slightly unusual clothing walk into the room. "Interesting, and who..." He trailed off as a small, busty girl with dark hair walked into the room after the much taller man. "You are..."

"Crown Princess Amelia Wil Tesla Seiryuun of the Seiryuun Kingdom." The advisor spoke up again. "And this man is a mercenary named Zest who accompanied her here."

"I see... What brings the crown princess of such a glorious nation to this small country?"

Looking at the king, Amelia and Zest were slightly taken aback by how normal looking the king was. "Yes, word has reached even Seiryuun that your country has had major civilian discontent as of late. I've been sent as an abassador to see that what has reached us in Seiryuun is nothing more than just rumors."

"Ah." The king nodded and stood up, his robe flowing behind him. "Sadly, the rumors, as you have heard them, are quite true." He shook his head as he turned to look out the window, his grey hair shining in the light that seeped through the glass. "There seems to be a rebel faction in my kingdom, made up of people from countries outside of my own. Enemies of the state, if you will, and they're stirring up hostilities among my own people. If I can, I'll be able to settle things quickly, which is what I'm sure that your kingdom is worried about." He turned to look at Amelia, his face grim. "As it is, I've had to step up security in the capital city. I'm surprised that you were let in so quickly, but if you do have the Seiryuun royal crest, I can't really complain about it." A sudden grin adorned his face, taking Amelia by surprise. "As long as you aren't here to... Eliminate me."

Amelia shook her head. "No, my kingdom is only concerned with the citizens of this country. If a civil war should break out with the people of this country, we want to ensure that it does not swallow up the surrounding countries as well."

The man chuckled and nodded. "Of course." He tilted his head slightly. "Actually, Princess, this may be a bit out of the ordinary, but, I have heard that Seiryuun takes great strives to fight for equality and justice for everyone, would it be alright if I asked you to see about finding any of the people causing dissention amongst my own?"

Amelia nodded, causing the man to smile happily. "However, as someone who is not a member of this country, I am under no obligation to turn over any dissenters to you or to your police."

"WHAT?"

Zest looked at her with a raised eyebrow as Amelia took a deep breath. "While it is true that dissenters cause too many problems, sometimes the problem is not with the people complaining, but rather the government. Even Kings and Emperors must listen to the people. When we as a ruling people forget that the people are what's most important, then we have truly failed in our duties as leaders. I shall look into this, but know this, if the dissenters are correct in stirring up trouble, then you will find no help from me."

Seeing her turn and leave, the king growled and turned towards his desk, kicking it hard. "Damn that wench." He looked at Zest. "Just why are you here, mercenary?"

"My appologies, I came here looking for a job. I would make an excellent bodyguard."

"Really?" The king looked at Zest and nodded to himself. "While you are physically intimidating, I need something... A little more concrete." He snapped his fingers and several men appeared from seemingly out of nowhere. "Why don't you prove that you're..." He trailed off as Zest seemingly disappeared from his spot and his guards suddenly started falling down, taken out effortlessly.

As Zest reappeared in front of him, he clapped. "My, my.. Such speed, I couldn't follow you, you're hired. Have one of the maids show you to your room and around the castle before you start officially."

Zest bowed and left the room, as he stepped outside, he was greeted by one of the maids.

"Yes, he will do nicely." The king chuckled softly and turned back to looking out the window. "If only they knew what was coming."

* * *

As he walked down the hallway, Zest's mind was thinking back to that king. 'He was able to follow me with his eyes.' He was almost certain that the man was following him with his eyes the whole time.

Even if Zest's specialty wasn't speed, he could still move faster than most people could keep up with, for someone to be able to keep up with his eyes, and casually like he did, wasn't normal.

What it meant, Zest wasn't sure.

* * *

Lyos: Well, this has been interesting... Wait, who the heck are you?  
? ? ?: Wouldn't you like to know?  
Lyos: Grr, for some reason, you just piss me off.  
? ? ?: Same could be said about you, kid.  
Lyos: Next time on Blood That Flows - Dusk.  
? ? ?: Be careful, you never know who you have to fight next.


	93. 7th Dusk

Blood That Flows

7th Dusk

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

* * *

Meanwhile, in the village...

"So, what are we supposed to do, Zelgadis?" When Zelgadis sighed, he blinked. "What?"

"Seriously, are you not paying attention?" Zelgadis groaned at him. "You and I are mercenaries looking for work, but we heard about the strife in the land and we needed to make sure that it would be profitable to work here, Lyos."

Lyos was about to say something when there was a snort from a table just behind him. Turning, he saw a woman in light colored clothing, except for the leather that covered her right arm and breast, light blue hair and purple eyes and a man in a typical traveling outfit, a red bandana on his head, his dark hair was spiked upwards as he chuckled. "What's so funny, chicken-head?"

The guy snorted at Lyos. "Fancy words coming from some no-name like yourself." Looking at his companion, he shook his head. "Can you believe these two? Pretending to be mercs? I bet they can't even use the swords that they have."

The woman shook her head bemusedly as Lyos growled in anger. "One of these days that tongue of yours is going to get you into trouble."

Turning his head to look at Lyos and Zelgadis, the man smirked. "See? What did I tell you, kid?"

"I was talking to you, dumb-ass."

The man groaned and nearly face-faulted out of his chair. "Milina!" He whined as he turned to look at her. "Come on, that kid doesn't know anything and he's an idiot."

"Just like some other hot-headed fool I've come to know." Milina said as she calmly leaned back into her chair.

Lyos chuckled from behind the man, causing him to turn and growl at him. "You punk, making me look bad." His hands started moving towards his sword slowly.

"I think you did it yourself." Lyos grinned as the man seemed interested in a fight. Reaching down, he grabbed his Banisher sword and started to unsheathe it.

"Lyos." Zelgadis hissed. "What the heck is wrong with you?"

Lyos grinned while narrowing his eyes at the other guy. "I'm not sure. Part of me just wants to shut him up, but a bigger part of me wants to actually murder him, I'm not sure why either."

The man grinned as he stood up. It amused him that the patrons were clearing out quickly. "You know, for some odd reason, I feel the same way. I want to shut your mouth, but for some reason, just looking at you pisses me off."

Zelgadis sighed heavily. Well, if there was no avoiding it... "Are you a magic user?"

The man grinned at him. "Yeah, I'm pretty good, though I'm better with a sword and Milina's a skilled sorceress." Looking at her, he pouted when she didn't react. "Oh, come on, I'm paying you a compliment."

"Yeah, you have other matters to attend to, don't you?" Milina pointed to Lyos, who was starting to glow.

"Figures..." Zelgadis muttered as he held up an open palm, a discolored sphere appeared in his hand before he slammed the sphere into the table, causing the area itself to change color. "There, feel free to go all out."

"What did you do?" The man asked as he looked at Zelgadis in confusion.

"A trick I learned from the family of a sorceress that I knew before she left again." Zelgadis smirked. "It lets people with magic fight to their heart's content without endangering normal people or the surrounding area." He was thankful he had managed to learn that from Arf. It let him and Lyos actually spar freely when they needed to without worry.

"Well then..." The man smirked as he fully unsheathed his sword. "Don't worry, kid, I'll make this quick."

Unsheathing Banisher completely, Lyos narrowed his eyes while smirking heavily. "Yeah, it won't... What's your name anyway?"

"Name's Luke." Grinning, he swung forward, only to have his blade meet the Banisher sword. "Huh, so that weapon's not just for show, huh?"

Lyos just grinned and held an open palm at Luke, who's eyes widened as a powerful torrent of water lashed out and slammed Luke into and through the wall behind him, dumping him into the streets. Coughing, Luke looked up and grinned. "Well, well..." His sword suddenly glowed a bright red as Luke's eyes glowed softly. "Ruby-Eye Blade!" Swinging up as Lyos swung down, his sword glowing blue with power, Luke wondered what other tricks Lyos had up his sleeve.

* * *

Zest frowned as he looked around. The staff had disappeared on him and everything had become discolored. "Interesting..." He honestly didn't know that anyone in this world knew how to create a Dimensional Barrier like this.

Though, with it up, there was a lot less around to distract his senses. He could feel strong magic coming from the village, whoever caused this distortion was likely down there, he could feel a strong magic source heading towards the village. "Amelia..." He muttered, narrowing his eyes as he looked around the castle. He could feel several strong magical sources coming from inside the castle, it could just be a bunch of magicians and spellcasters, but Zest wasn't sure.

Well, if anything, he had time to look now.

* * *

Lyos let out a groan of pain as he slammed into a building almost four blocks away from that last attack. "Damn, he's good." That Vice Flare hurt a lot, burning his cloak, skin and destroying a good chunk of the buildings that were surrounding them and launching Lyos down the street.

"Ha!" Lyos slowly got to his feet and gasped as he saw Luke rushing in, his sword glowing tremendously. Grunting, Lyos gripped Banisher, which had some chips and cracks in the blade, before pooling energy into the blade and rushing forward, his blade clashing with Luke's.

Luke was grinning as he put more effort into cutting through the blade. "You're not bad, kid, too bad you came up against me."

"Nnngh... What a cliche thing to say." Luke blinked as Lyos flicked his wrist up. Before he could react, he was slammed in the jaw from underneath, causing him to stumble backward. Grabbing his jaw, Luke growled, before his eyes widened at the tendril of water that floated in the air before Lyos snapped his hand out, the water flowing with his hand before turning into a fist made of ice.

"What the hecuuugh!" Luke's eyes widened as the fist slammed into his gut with enough force to take him off his feet and launch him backwards over a block in distance, where he crashed to the ground and slid, before grabbing his gut and groaning in pain. "Ugh... That hurt..."

"You know, Luke, if you keep this up, you're likely going to get hurt." Milina said as she looked down at him. "Then again, I suppose he's too much for you, huh?"

Luke shot to his feet as Lyos started moving towards him. "Nah, I'm just getting warmed up. Never felt that kind of magic before, but for some reason..." Luke narrowed his eyes at Lyos, who was channeling energy around his large sword. "The fact that it's being used against me just angers me."

Milina blinked as Luke's sword started to glow even brighter. 'The Ruby-Eye Blade doesn't react to emotions, what's causing this?' She turned to look at Lyos before frowning. 'And that magic, it's just weird.'

Lyos let out a yell as he jumped into the air. "Now, Banisher, full power!" Swinging his sword down, a torrent of water erupted from it that turned into a serpentine Dragon with icy blue eyes, fangs and teeth. "Let's see you survive this one!"

Luke just smirked and jumped up at the oncoming torrent before swinging his sword upwards, slashing through the construct, destroying the head and causing the water to suddenly crash to the ground harmlessly. Smirking as he rose to meet Lyos, who was looking on in disbelief, Luke punched him in the jaw, sending him crashing to the ground. "See, kid? Messing with me is a mistake and, YEEEEOOOWW!" He screamed as he grabbed at his rear-end. Turning as he landed, he gulped as he saw Milina looking at him with narrowed eyes, her finger smoking slightly.

"Have you forgotten why we're here, Luke? It isn't so you can play around with kids, so let's go." She turned to look at Zelgadis. "I don't think you can..." She trailed off as the sky returned to normal and people started to reappear. "How did you..?"

"Like I said." Zelgadis looked at her with a serious glint in his eyes. "I learned that from Lina's children, it's quite useful for a fight. Or haven't you noticed that nothing's destroyed anymore?"

Looking around, Milina had to admit, whatever that spell was, it was useful. "We'll have to trade spells later, but for now..." She turned to Luke, who was sheathing his sword. "Ready?"

Luke nodded at her. "Of... HEY!" He ran after her as she started to walk away. "Come on, Milina, I didn't kill him, I just roughed him up a bit."

Watching as they left, Zelgadis shook his head and walked over to where Lyos was digging himself out of the dirt. "You okay?"

"Been better." Lyos muttered and looked at Zelgadis in confusion. "What was that spell?" When Zelgadis shrugged, he sighed. "Well, whatever it was, it let him cut through my best attack like it was nothing."

"If anything, I'd say that spell was like my Astral Vine, but a lot stronger." Zelgadis muttered and turned his head as Amelia came up to them. "We'll have to figure it out later, get up, you'll need your sword fixed."

Looking at it, Lyos grimaced, Zelgadis was right about that, the poor blade was nicked and cracked all over. 'Whatever that Ruby-Eye Blade was, it sure was powerful.'

* * *

As he walked near one of the rooms that had the magic signature that he had felt, Zest frowned softly as the dimensional barrier dispelled and the color turned back to normal. "...Drat..."

"Can I help you?" Zest turned to see one of the maids that had been out of phase a moment ago. He nearly smiled at the confused look on her face.

"Nothing, I'm new here, I just got lost, that's all."

She nodded, smiling at him. "Well then, let me help you find your way."

He nodded, appreciatively.

* * *

Dolphin: Mmm! Good sun, good times, hmm? Well, well, look who's here.  
? ? ?: I'd rather not talk about it.  
Dolphin: Have some chocolate.  
Xellos: Next time on Blood That Flows - Dusk. Lord Dolphin, just what is in this stuff?  
? ? ?: It's pretty good, actually.

For those who don't know, Luke and Milina are from the 2nd half of the Slayers Novels. For those that DO know, please refrain from spoiling who they are for the people who don't know.


	94. 8th Dusk

Blood That Flows

8th Dusk

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Sorry about the delay. Finally got a new job. Yay!

* * *

Meanwhile on Earth...

It was early morning, the sun was starting to creep over the horizon, birds were starting to chirp and some people were starting to get ready for work or school.

It was a beautiful, peaceful scene.

It wasn't so peaceful at one residence in the city.

There was a loud crack, followed by a soft thump and a soft whimper.

"You okay, Arisa?" Suzuka asked, sweating as she looked at Arisa, who was rubbing her belly. "We could..."

"No." Arisa got to her feet, swaying slightly. She was going to have a welt from that attack, but she needed to get better with her sword skill. Well, she didn't have to, but she couldn't get her power to form in any shape but a sword, which was annoying, since she had next to no skill with it. It was even more annoying because Suzuka learned whatever Luna showed them quicker than she did. Granted, it was just the basics, but it was annoying to Arisa that according to Luna, she could barely swing a sword.

As she rushed in and swung her sword down, Arisa was thankful that she managed to at least connect her sword to Suzuka's this time.

"Morning, kids." Luna grinned as she walked into the dojo. "Well, I see you two have been busy, huh?" Seeing the glares they gave her, Luna chuckled. "Don't worry about it, take the day off, okay?" When they stared at her stupidly, Luna rolled her eyes. "Lina's going to show me some tourist places today, so take the day off and relax, you'll end up hurting yourself if you don't get some rest."

Seeing Luna leave, Arisa felt like screaming. "Arrgh! I can't believe I woke up for no reason today!"

"Actually, I didn't mind the work-out, Arisa." Suzuka smiled at her. "Besides, if we get a day off, we can soak in the bath a bit longer than usual." The next thing Suzuka knew was that she was getting pushed to the bathroom. "Arisa?"

"Don't just stand there, I want a hot bath too!"

Suzuka giggled and nodded.

(-)

"Should you have lied to them?" Luna turned to look at the person who asked that question. "I mean, they are working hard, but you really didn't have any plans with your sister, did you?"

Luna chuckled softly. "Riksfalto, the only reason I gave them a day off is because they'll hurt themselves if they work too hard." The two of them were standing on the grass, enjoying the morning.

"Yeah, well, it's hard to imagine that girl has a fragment of that Blue Dragon in her." Riksfalto grinned and turned to leave. "Well, whatever, I just came to check up on them."

"Riksfalto..." Luna said as she turned to look at the Mazoku general. "The next time you fight them, please try not to kill Suzuka."

Riksfalto laughed at her. "Couldn't help it, she gets me excited for a good blood-bath. Oh well, it'll be interesting, when they're grown up." Suddenly, she broke out into a giddy laugh and disappeared.

Luna blinked heavily and wondered what that was about. 'I hope that she was thinking about a good fight and not something else, I don't want to know what gets Mazoku to act like that.'

(-)

Elsewhere...

Zelas sighed as she looked at her door. "Yes?" She looked down and smiled as that girl tugged on her pant leg and showed her a picture. Nodding at the girl's rendition of what she had done to those crime leaders a few months ago, she turned her attention to the door as some of her underlings came into the room. "What is it?"

"We got a problem. There's someone on the East Side who's been, shall we say, less than honest about what he's been getting from drugs lately."

Zelas rolled her eyes. To be honest, she didn't like drugs. Not because of what they could do to her or her servants, but because they made people... Happy and content when they were doing the drugs. Not the sort of emotions she liked to feed off of. "Why come to me then? Get Ichiro on it."

"Ichiro is the one who's doing it, boss lady."

Zelas shook her head. "Good peons are hard to come by." She grumbled to herself. "Summon him here for me." As the underling bowed and turned to leave, she spoke up one last time. "Oh yeah, make sure to... Clear the floor before you allow him near me, I want no witnesses."

The man shuddered, remembering those crime lords that had come from Japan. Zelas hadn't... Taken kindly to the suggestion of dealing with a problem they all had.

When Zelas had called for a clean-up crew, it had taken hours to clean up the mess on the walls.

All of Zelas's underlings considered those men to have gotten off lightly. He still had nightmares after seeing what Zelas did to the people who made child pornography.

Zelas sighed as she saw him leave the room. "It'll be hours before he shows up..." She sighed and looked at the girl, nodding as the girl held a hand out and a pentagram surrounded a pillar in the middle of the room, before tendrils lashed out and started slashing away at it until there was nothing left. "You're a fast learner, girl." When the girl looked at her and nodded softly, she reached down and patted the little blonde on her head.

Who knew that such a powerful magic user existed? Or that it was so much fun seeing her progress?

(-)

Meanwhile...

Dolphin grinned as she stretched out. Jamaica was so beautiful and peaceful, the parties were great, as was the things that they could get here.

"Lord Dolphin?" Turning, she grinned lazily and stretched, a light blue bikini covering her breasts and bottom moved as she stood up. "...You're darker than I remember..."

"I got a lovely tan!" Dolphin was practically purring in delight. "This place is great! All the chocolate I want, the parties and debauchery is incredible." She chuckled and looked to the North. "Plus, if I want a quick meal, I just go to Cuba or Florida." Looking at Xellos, she laughed as she saw him in purple trunks. "I guess you decided to try the beach too?"

"Kind of... I was at this beach called the Riviera, I believe it was called, a moment ago, then I decided to see what you were up to." Xellos shrugged at her. "Besides, Lord Beastmaster's probably having a lot of fun right now, whatever she's doing." He turned his head and started to chuckle. "Unreal, she would find me here, wouldn't she?"

"Hmm?" Dolphin turned her head and stared. "Rangort, what are you doing here?" She laughed as the Shinzoku suddenly tripped and fell, face-first, into the dirt. "Silly, I know you like the dirt, but there are some real perverts out there, they might try something with you when you're like that."

Rangort stood up and glared at the Mazoku Lord. "Seriously, what are you two doing here?"

Dolphin shrugged. "Vacationing! And I was here first!" She looked at the stand that was next to her beach chair and grinned, grabbing a plate that was on it. "Rangort, Xellos, you two HAVE to try this new batch of chocolate bars that I made up!"

The two blinked, Xellos took one, but Rangort glared at Dolphin. "You probably have this laced with something, don't you?"

Dolphin grinned and took one, biting into it. "Yep." She practically moaned in pleasure as she tasted the chocolate. "It's quite relaxing."

Rangort twitched at that. "Forget it, I'm not eating anymph?" Her eyes widened as Dolphin stuffed a piece into her mouth. She was about to spit it back out when the flavor assaulted her mind. "...Ths ith gud." She said around the chocolate, getting a grin from Dolphin.

"Yep yep! It's also a great way to kick off a party!" Dolphin laughed as the people around them let off a cheer. "So, come on! Relax, we're not at war with each other right now!"

Rangort felt a little funny, but shrugged that off mentally, Dolphin was right, they weren't at war, what was one party going to hurt anyway?

Besides, that chocolate was good stuff.

* * *

Sein: Earth's fun. Hey, Due!  
Due: Hmm?  
Sein: It's sisterly bonding bath time!  
Due: Yay!  
Tre: Ugh, not again.  
Cinque: I think it's funny.  
Dieci: Can I not be groped this time?

Sorry about the delay everyone, was just getting some affairs in order.


	95. 9th Dusk

Blood That Flows

9th Dusk

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

* * *

On Mid-Childa...

"Hey, Due!" Said blonde-turned-redhead turned to look at Sein as she rushed towards her older sister. "Tre, Cinque, Dieci and I are going to take a bath, wanna join?"

"Sure!" Due grinned and ran to her room to get some stuff for the bath. After getting her stuff, she joined Sein as they walked towards the bathroom. "Whee! Bubble bath fight! Splash and boom!"

Sein laughed and nodded, grinning the whole time. "Yeah! It'll be lots of fun!" Looking at Due's red hair, she grabbed the girl's short hair and tugged on it.

"Ayayayayayayayaaha!" Due let out a yelp and turned and kicked Sein in the gut, making the slender girl let go of her hair. "What was that for!" Tears leaked out of her eyes as she patted her head protectively. "Mouuu... What did I do to deserve that?"

"Sorry, sorry." Sein waved her hands in front of her while being hunched over in slight pain. "Didn't mean to pull so hard, I was just wondering how long your hair was going to stay that way."

Due turned away from Sein and crossed her arms, pouting. "How should I know? That, EEEK!" She jumped as Sein got behind her and did the only thing she could think of to calm her upset sister down. "Hey! Let go of my boobs!"

Sein grinned as she let go of them. "They're pretty soft, but kinda small." She yelped as Due's hand suddenly lit itself on fire. "That didn't help you feel better, did it?" Due shook her head, her eyes glinting dangerously. "Um... HEEEELP!" Sein turned and ran, with Due right behind her, her fingers held like she was wearing her clawed glove.

"Get back here! I want to introduce you to Mr. Smoky!"

"But I don't like smoking!" Sein whined as she ran, screaming for help while Due chased her with those flaming fingers.

Blinking as she saw Sein and Due, both dressed in nothing but towels, Uno sighed and ran after them. "You two, the bathroom is this way." She pointed behind her. "Due, put that fire out, you'll hurt someone."

Due pouted, but did so as Uno caught up to her. "Sein was mean, she pulled my hair and then she grabbed my boobs and said they were small. It's not my fault, they just got smaller when I became like this." Due grumbled and turned to go back to the baths. It wasn't her fault that she looked like a teenager right now.

"Sein..." Uno gave the slender girl a flat look, said girl held up her hands nervously.

"I wasn't trying to be mean, I just wanted to feel her hair, but I pulled too hard by accident."

Sighing, Uno shook her head. "Just get back to the baths, and tell Due you're sorry, okay?" When Sein nodded and ran for the baths, Uno bit her bottom lip and continued to walk down the hallway. Entering one of the labs, she raised an eyebrow as she saw Quattro working on that child that she had kidnapped awhile ago. Looking at the child, Uno couldn't help but shake her head as the girl screamed painfully to the procedures that Quattro was doing. "Does it have to be painful?"

"Not at all, but the best results happen when they suffer first." Quattro pushed a button and the pain stopped, the girl stopped screaming and started twitching heavily. "I won't kill her, but making a normal girl become an Artificial Mage is hard... Unless we kill her and then clone her through Project F."

"Not a good idea, and you know that." Uno shook her head as she looked at the little child. "Make sure that you have results."

Quattro nodded and grinned as Uno left. 'See how easy that was, Quattro?'

'Yeah.' Quattro's voice had a tone of sheer delight going on in the back of her mind, it was enough to nearly make her laugh. 'Though, why are you torturing the girl instead of doing what you're supposed to do, Levi?'

'Simple,' Levi pushed a few buttons and a grin nearly split her face as the girl was lit up again, more pain rushing through her and causing her to scream in anguish, 'the more she suffers, the more food I get. Besides, I have been modifying her body so that she'll be a better weapon in the future. This pain that she's feeling now? By the time I'm done with her, even broken limbs will be nothing to her.'

Which was true, but that was just a side-effect of what Levi was doing to the girl.

After all, a meal was a meal, regardless of how you got it.

* * *

Elsewhere...

"Come on, Due..." Tre, Dieci and Cinque looked up as Due and Sein walked into the bath, the latter was looking embarrassed and apologetic to her older sister, who was huffing as she walked in, a towel loosely hanging around her form. "I said I was sorry."

"You said my boobs were small!" Due pouted, getting a chuckle from Tre. "Mouuu... You suck, boobie monster!"

Tre twitched as Due threw her towel off and jumped into the bath. "If you start on..."

"Your butt's big too." Due stuck her tongue out, causing Tre to growl slightly and stand up, her nude form glistening with water as she lunged at her shorter sister, who let out a shriek and jumped out of the way, causing Tre to turn and grab the shrieking, naked redhead by her hips and lift her up before sliding Due's body so she had her shorter sister in a headlock. "Ack! Big butt has me!"

Tre twitched and started rub her knuckles on Due's scalp. "Take it back!"

"Nah uh! Oww!" Due screamed as she kicked her legs up and down, causing the water to splash and slosh all over the place. "Sein, help!"

"Oh sure, call for, HEY!" Tre stopped rubbing Due's head as she felt hands groping her on the ass. "Sein!"

"What?" Sein grinned as her hands squeezed and rubbed Tre's rear. "You do have a nice big butt, perfect for groping." Her eyes widened as she felt Tre's butt flex moments before a leg lashed up and knocked her into the air.

"Knock it off!" Tre yelled, her face flush as Sein was launched out of the large bath and onto her butt on the hard floor out of the bath.

Cinque shook her head, amused by her sisters' antics as Tre let Due down and sank back into the water next to her. "You really should be used to it by now." Seeing Tre glower and flush more, Cinque chuckled softly. "Though, I wonder why you let Sein grope your breasts so often."

Tre looked at Cinque and grinned at her. "Why do you think I'm so hard on her in training?"

"THAT'S the reason?" Sein yelled as she stood up on the floor, rubbing her butt while Due and Dieci were playing some sort of game together involving clapping their hands together. "I thought it was because you didn't like me."

Tre rolled her eyes. "If you want me to stop being so hard on you, stop groping my breasts."

Sein blinked as she sank into the water, her face contemplative. "Hmm... Easier in training or stop touching your boobs..." She looked at her open palms and moved them up and down, as if weighing her options.

"You actually have to stop and think about this?" Tre looked at her stupidly.

Sein grinned and disappeared under the water, a moment later, she reappeared behind Tre, her hands on Tre's large breasts while Sein leaned in and giggled to Tre's ear. "Well, if all I have to suffer is harder training, then I'll go through it, if I get to squeeze these things."

Tre just groaned in dismay.

* * *

Meanwhile...

Uno looked at Jail as he stood in front of various tubes housing her other sisters that hadn't been awakened yet. "Sir..." She trailed off as she saw the more visible changes to her sisters. "I see... Aren't you worried about stealth for them?"

Jail turned to her and chuckled softly. "Oh, I'm not too worried, they'll have to learn to hide their changes, though I am worried about how fast their bodies are adapting to both the cybernetics and the changes to their DNA."

"If you go too fast, it would be dangerous for them, I think." Uno looked over the data. "You still need to strengthen Cinque's cybernetics and give Dieci some final adjustments, as well as her weapon." Jail nodded as Uno looked at him. "Plus there's that woman, her daughter that Quattro's working on and the little side project with that shroud you had Due steal awhile back."

Jail chuckled and pushed a button on the console, revealing a darkened tube. "Working on that one right now, actually... I should be done with her in a few years." He turned to look at the short-haired redhead that still had her eyes closed. "As for this one, Nove, thanks to her sisters adjusting quicker, I've been able to focus more on her than I would have normally."

"Please don't speed up the process too much." Uno warned him. "I don't want to find out that one of my sisters dropped dead because their cybernetics weren't fully integrated with their bodies and it killed them because of it."

Jail nodded to her. It was something he was worried about as well. Still, seeing the changes that were happening to some of the cyborgs was rather interesting.

Who knew that the DNA of those two Dragons would have such interesting results?

* * *

Filia: Why is he talking about Dragons like that for? Oooh! If I wasn't on Earth, I'd show him! Next time on Blood That Flows - Dusk. Read it, or I'll make you change Val's dirty diapers.  
Chrono: Now that's just torture, Filia.

Sein really is a pervert, isn't she?


	96. 10th Dusk

Blood That Flows

10th Dusk

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

* * *

Back on Earth...

Stretching as she woke up, Filia looked at Val's crib and smiled as the small Dragon let out a yawn and rolled over. Shaking her head, she would be a little worried about him not doing much besides sleeping, but considering that he had shifted to his human form just the other day, she couldn't complain about it. After all, he was learning fast, even if it was just instinctive at this point.

Throwing a robe around her body, she slipped on some slippers and plodded out of her room. As she walked silently through the house, she couldn't help but appreciate the quiet that the early morning had, well, relative quiet, the cars were still loud and annoying, as was the train that was at least two kilometers away and those flying metal birds, Lindy said that they were planes and they were common on this planet.

Grumbling and wishing that she had taken her earplugs with her, Filia stopped at the door to the kitchen and looked as she saw Chrono, sitting at the table in nothing but shorts and nursing a cup of coffee as he looked at the newspaper. Seeing him shirtless sent shivers down her spine. Smiling, she slowly walked up to him before wrapping her arms around his body, pressing herself against his back and getting a startled gasp from him. "Morning, Chrono."

"Filia..." Chrono chuckled softly and put his coffee down to pat her hands. "Sleep well?"

"Mmhmm..." She nodded and leaned against him. "You look handsome like this..." Chrono turned to look at her and his eyes widened as she kissed him on the lips softly. The two blushed softly as Chrono turned in the chair and pulled her into a hug, letting her rest against him more.

"Sleepy-head." He chuckled as she nodded against him. "Why'd you wake up so early?" He let go of the hug as she pulled up a chair to sit next to him. One thing Filia found embarrassing was how Lindy had to get everything reinforced to support her weight. She wasn't fat, she just weighed a lot, due to her being a Dragon.

She shrugged, causing some interesting things to happen to her shirt as her breasts decided to move on their own. "I was a touch too hot, I guess, just woke up." Filia chuckled and gave him a pointed look. "How about you? You woke up early too."

Chrono chuckled and rubbed the back of his head. "Couldn't sleep either."

Filia nodded, smiling lazily at him. "I'm glad... I don't get to see you without a shirt very often."

Chrono chuckled and got up. "Yeah, well, I was going to stay like this for a bit longer, but since you're up, I guess I better..." He trailed off as Filia's tail snapped out and wrapped around his wrist. "Um..."

Filia was blushing heavily. "You don't... Need to get dressed, I like the view."

Chrono's face was red. "Ah, well..." He blinked as Filia did loosen her tail and pull it back. "What?"

"Sorry, I'm pushing you, aren't I?" She sighed heavily, before blinking as Chrono got close to her. "Chrono?" The blonde's eyes widened comically as he kissed her on the lips, not the soft kiss that she dropped on him a moment ago, but a deep kiss, one that caused her muscles to practically turn into jelly as she felt her brain shutting down. When he pulled his mouth away from hers, she was left gasping for air. "Chrono..?" She wasn't sure exactly what happened just now, but it was incredible.

"If you were pushing me, I wouldn't have done that." Smiling, he turned and left her sitting there.

Chrono had just turned the corner when Filia shook her head and got up off the chair and started to stalk after him. "You're not getting away that easily." She giggled as she saw him stop at his room for a moment before entering it, a moment later, she entered after him and closed the door.

(-)

Back on the Red World...

Looking at the two who walked into the room, Zest raised an eyebrow as he saw their appearance, the female had light colored clothing, except for the leather that covered her right arm and breast, light blue hair and purple eyes and a man in a typical traveling outfit, a red bandana on his head, his dark hair was spiked upwards, interestingly enough, the male looked a touch roughed up for some odd reason.

The king raised an eyebrow. "And you two are..?"

"Name's Luke, this is Milina, we're passing mercs when we heard that the kingdom is a little short on bodyguards."

The king chuckled softly. "Normally I'd say that you're too late and that this man, Zest, took the position before you could get here, but for you, I'll make an exception." Luke blinked in surprise. "I've heard about you two, a hot-headed swordsman and a very skilled sorceress working together and causing a ruckus according to my intelligence."

Milina elbowed Luke hard enough to cause him to double over. "Don't let it go to your head." He pouted at her as she turned back to the king. "If you have heard of us, I would like to start right away and discuss terms of our payment."

"Of course." The king nodded and Zest could have sworn he saw a flash of excitement in his eyes. Looking at the two of them, he could tell they were skilled and strong magic users, but hiring them right away?

Something wasn't right, he was sure of it.

(-)

In town...

Amelia looked at Lyos as she met up with them in the middle of town. "Are you okay, Mr. Lyos?"

He nodded, rolling his shoulder. "Yeah, that Ruby-Eye Blade surprised me though." Looking at his sword, he sighed heavily and slung it on his back. "I need to find a blacksmith."

"Ruby-Eye Blade?" Amelia tilted her head. "...What's that?" Zelgadis shrugged at her.

"Honestly, if I had to describe it, it looked like an Astral Vine, but it's power was closer to the Ragna Blade, though if I think about it a bit more..." Zelgadis trailed off and twitched. "Man, it's times like this I wish Lina was around more often, she would have noticed right away." When Amelia and Lyos looked at him in confusion, he sighed. "Think about the name... It has to be a spell from Shabranigdo."

"Like the Dragon Slave?" Amelia tapped her chin, getting a nod from Zelgadis. "But, I thought there was only one spell from Shabranigdo."

"The Dragon Slave's more popular and more known, but that doesn't mean that there's not other spells from Shabranigdo." Zelgadis shook his head. "Heck, I bet you could probably develop a spell to jump from one world to another by drawing off of Shabranigdo."

"Really?" Amelia and Lyos looked at him in surprise, causing Zelgadis to face-fault to the ground.

"Like I know, Lyos, go get your sword fixed up, Amelia and I are going to scout around, see what's going on in this kingdom, when you got that done, look around yourself."

Lyos nodded and turned, waving them off as he went to find a blacksmith who could fix his sword.

(-)

Sighing as he left the blacksmith's shop, Lyos couldn't help but grimace at both the price and the time it would take to fix his sword. Two days wasn't bad, but he felt almost naked without his sword.

He wouldn't say that he was naked without his sword though, at least he still had his Holy power, and thanks to Zelgadis, he could form it without Banisher, it was just harder to pull off. Sighing, he wondered what else was going to happen today.

"Well, I never thought I'd see you without your sword." Lyos' eyes widened and he spun to see that same woman in a dark hooded cloak from before, only this time, she was leaning against the wall to the blacksmith shop. "I take it that you met someone who didn't like it?"

Lyos grumbled at the memory. "I'd rather not remember it." That Luke guy was good, and that spell he used, it still bugged him. "But, honestly, something's felt wrong since I came to this city."

"Indeed." She nodded at him. "Though, considering how banged up your sword is, I'm wondering what could have caused it to become damaged like that."

Lyos grimaced and turned away from her. "Some jerk named Luke and that spell of his."

"Really?" For some reason, she sounded both surprised and interested at the same time. "He wouldn't happen to have spiky hair, a female companion and know an interesting spell, would he?"

Lyos twitched. "Yeah, that jerk! He just... GAH! He just pisses me off for existing!" Spinning to look at the woman, he blinked as she wasn't there anymore. "...Where did she go?"

(-)

Zelgadis sighed softly as he listened to the old couple that complained about how things had changed for the worst all of a sudden a little over a year ago. "I see, thank you." Leaving them, he resisted the urge to sigh again. It was the same story, over and over again, things had been going good, then suddenly the king made sudden changes that no one could figure out what they were for and life got extremely hard. Heck, Zelgadis had heard people saying that if the rumors of people willing to take up arms against the king were true, then most of the people would join.

It almost made him wonder why people even bothered to live in this kingdom if things were so bad.

Then again, he really couldn't judge, he did stick with Rezo for years, even after his grandfather had turned him into a Chimera. Looking at his hand, he gave it a squeeze and closed his eyes. Even if he lived to be as old as Rezo had been, he would never be able to fully pay Arf back for all that she did for him. Even if it wasn't completely real, the fact that he could feel flesh instead of rock was more than he could ever hope for.

As he turned the corner, he blinked as he saw a tavern, before shrugging, he was a touch hungry. After he had sat and ordered, he looked around the tavern. What he found interesting was that it was mostly empty, except for three people huddled together in the corner, all of them were dressed in hooded cloaks. Even though his hearing was better than most people's, he wasn't able to hear what they were saying clearly. He picked up some words, but nothing concrete one way or the other. He would have ignored it, but what kind of group of people whispered to each other like that?

It was annoying, and it raised his curiosity slightly.

He ended up leaving shortly after finishing his meal, following after them at a discreet distance. When the small group disappeared into an abandoned building, Zelgadis smirked and wondered about how... Cliche things were. Heck, he was almost certain that the leader of some sort of crime syndicate was likely in there, if things were as cliche as he thought they were.

Slipping up to the door, which was open slightly, he leaned in to listen.

"...believe that we're doing this." One of the voices spoke up.

"You know why, right? What's happening with our bosses is completely asinine, and we all know it." Another voice, this one female, spoke up. "Our only way to make everything make sense is to do what he's telling us to do."

'He?' Zelgadis narrowed his eyes. Just who were they talking about?

"Does it really matter?" A slightly crazed male voice chuckled at the other two. "All I know is, boss has this entire country under his control. It was so easy..." He started laughing. "I mean, the real king can't be here, being a chunk of flesh right now."

Zelgadis's eyes widened, if the real king was dead, who was in charge of the country?

"Still, it's annoying that we have to hide until our plan succeeds..." The female trailed off. "Well, well... Looks like we have a SPY!"

That was the only warning Zelgadis got before the door was blown off and dark tendrils wrapped around his body, yanking him into the room with the three. Zelgadis's eyes widened as he saw the woman's hair extend from her hood to wrap around his body. "...You're..." That was the last thing he said before lightning was poured through his body, enough to make him cry out in pain before he convulsed and dropped to the ground, out cold.

"Now what?" The first male spoke up as he looked at Zelgadis. "Should we kill him?"

The woman shook her head. "We can't, he came with that Princess from Seiryuun, if he's dead, well, it would cause a problem for us, wouldn't it?"

"Well then!" The slightly crazed voice spoke up and grinned at Zel's body. "If we can't kill him, then we'll just have to use him, won't we?" Seeing the look on his face, the other two nodded, grinning as they advanced on Zel's unconscious form.

* * *

Arisa: Yeesh, that other world is pretty bad, huh?  
Riksfalto: Yep, huh, what's this thing? Next time on Blood That Flows - Dusk, read it or I'll torment some kittens.  
Kittens: Meow.

Man, what happened to Zelgadis? Wait until future parts to find out.


	97. 11th Dusk

Blood That Flows

11th Dusk

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Sometimes, days just seem to slip by without me noticing...

Well, that and I've been playing Final Fantasy 4 The After Years on my PSP. Don't worry, I am still writing, and I have several chapters already written out in advance.

It's just the combination of waking up before dawn (yes, even in the summer) and the game that I forget to update. Sorry.

* * *

"I'm surprised how easy it is to do this." The slightly crazy male of the trio grinned under his cloak as he looked at the female of the group. "Gduza, are you sure that your spell is working?"

"Oh, I'm certain, Dugld," she chuckled at him, "he's not completely human, seems like he was mixed with a Brow Demon and a Rock Golem. Makes it pretty easy to manipulate his body." Gduza laughed. "It won't be long before he's a willing puppet to our schemes." Gduza smirked as her hair pushed into his body, her spell working its magic on him. Looking at the more calm male, Gduza smirked at him. "So, what has our boss told you?"

"Just stay out of sight for now, you know that we can't be found out, if we are..."

"Yeah, yeah, I know." Gduza snapped at him. "I hate this sneaking around."

Dugld grimaced and looked around. "Keep yourself under control!"

Gduza sighed and forced herself to calm down. "Anyway..." She pulled her hair from Zelgadis' body and grinned at her work. "He's our puppet now. We should be able to use him as we need to." Stepping back, she snapped her fingers. "Now, rise, my puppet, I command you!"

Zelgadis' eyes opened and he sat up slowly. "...What is your wish?" He looked at the three, his eyes having no emotion in them.

Gio chuckled softly. "Good, I would hate to have to kill him if it didn't work. I'll get back to the boss." Making sure his cloak was in place, he slipped out the door, leaving the three of them alone.

"So, now what?" Dugld looked at Gduza, then at Zelgadis, before frowning. "For some odd reason, I don't like him at all." He glared when Gduza just chuckled at him.

"Well, whatever, we have him now, when it's time, he'll be our trump card." Gduza just chuckled in amusement. After all, it would be better if a human did what they wanted instead of them.

There would be less fall out that way.

(-)

Back on Earth...

Arf looked at Arisa, who was trying to relax after finding out that she had the day off. "Well, it could be worse, right?" The familiar held up her hands when Arisa gave her a glare. "Come on, mom's letting you stay over here for the day, so don't feel bad."

Arisa nodded and slumped back against her chair. "Yeah, I don't, I would have liked to have slept more, but this is okay, I guess." Closing her eyes, she almost wished that she had never taken Luna up on that offer to find out what was so special about her. "Feels like my body wants to sleep and not wake up again." She gave a lidded glare to Arf, who giggled. "What's so funny?"

"Fate and I felt the same way when Linith was training us. And mom, dad and Miyuki are all the same way when it comes to learning stuff." Arf took on a stern look and stood up and puffed her chest out. "The best way to learn is to be forced to fight for your life, otherwise it means nothing." She said in the best impersonation of Lina's voice she could muster.

Arisa couldn't help it, seeing Arf in her child form trying to be serious had her kicking her legs up and down on the chair as she laughed. "Oh gods, stop! Hahahahahaha!" The fact that she couldn't get her voice to the right pitch was just icing on the funny cake.

Arf broke down giggling as well. "Trust me, if mom was here, she would have made me wash the walls to the house, by hand, with no magic." Arisa shuddered at that thought. "Or she would make me sleep outside on a leash, either way, not fun."

Suzuka walked into the room and sat down on the couch where Arf was sitting a moment ago. Blinking, she looked at Arisa and Arf. "...Did I miss something funny?" The two looked at her, before bursting out into laughter and causing the long-haired girl to pout in annoyance. "Fine." She looked away, huffing in annoyance before Arf patted her on the shoulder, giggling heavily.

"Sorry, sorry, I was just making fun of something mom said and we couldn't help but laugh when you said that." Arf said between giggles, causing Suzuka to look at her with a slightly annoyed expression.

"Well, why didn't you say so, silly!" Suzuka's annoyance disappeared as she started giggling. "At least that way I wouldn't think you were making fun of me."

"So, what should we do today?"

"Hmm... Oh!" Arf's eyes sparkled slightly. "There was a new store at the mall, wanna go?"

"Sure!" The two brightened up and got off their chairs. A day at the mall sounded fun after all.

It wasn't like something bad was going to happen at the mall anyway.

* * *

Later...

"What the heck is this?" She asked no one as she picked up a yellow cube. She raised an eyebrow as she felt the thing start to actually try and drain her magic. Considering the trickle it was getting from her, it would take the thing a few thousand years before it was able to drain anything significant from her. Smirking, her eyes glinted as she pumped a large amount of raw magic into the object. "Let's see..." Her eyes widened as it floated away from her hand before racing off in a random direction.

Pouting, Riksfalto sighed and continued walking. That was a fun few seconds of distraction.

"What was that thing for anyway?" She asked herself.

(-)

"My car!" A middle aged man fell to his knees in anguish. "That one was brand new too!"

"Poor Mr. Tanaka." One of the women on the street shook her head as she saw the grown man weep at the remains of his car. "He just hasn't been the same since his last car was destroyed."

Another woman nodded. "Yeah... Though, what kind of person falls into a car and leaves a mark like that?"

They shrugged as the man cried harder.

(-)

Arisa stretched as she, Suzuka and Arf walked into the mall. She and Suzuka were wearing tan shorts and short-sleeved shirts, hers was yellow while Suzuka was wearing a light blue one, Arf, on the other hand, was wearing her normal shorts and shirt that she wore when she went out. Thankfully she was still in her child form.

The last time she was in her adult form in those clothes, she was nearly arrested... Twice.

First time because the police thought she was a prostitute and the second time because she tried assaulting the officer in question.

"So, what do.." Suzuka trailed off as she saw something unusual, even for her.

Walking around the corner was a human-like... Thing. The only reason that it was a thing was because it was mostly yellow-orange with black covering its hands, feet and middle front. Its glowing yellow eyes looked around at the walls before it opened it mouth, grinned and let out a screech before suddenly turning and moving fast as it slammed into and through a wall, terrifying the employees and customers, causing them to dive for cover as the thing rebounded, destroying displays and sending glass flying everywhere.

Arisa, Suzuka and Arf all stared. "Uh... Well, it looks like a wrecking ball..." Arisa muttered before the thing slammed into the standing clock, causing it to shatter to pieces.

"I'll call for help." Arf said as she closed her eyes. She just hoped that someone was close enough to help out. _"Hey, mom, Chrono, Filia, auntie, if any of you are near the mall, care to give us a hand? I'm not sure what's going on, but there's something down here that's tearing the place up and we have no idea what it is!"_

_"I'll be right there."_ Chrono sent a reply back a few moments and two stores later. _"Try and keep it from destroying everything."_He sounded slightly annoyed for some odd reason.

_"Oh sure, easy for you to say!"_Arf snapped but was thankful for the reply. It was times like these that she wished that Nanoha, Fate and Yuuno were still around instead of on Mid-Childa finishing up their training there. "Chrono's on his way."

"That's good." Suzuka nodded and gulped as the thing barreled towards them before turning and slamming through the ceiling.

Arisa growled before her body started to glow blue and wings of fire erupted from her back. "Stop ruining the mall! I won't let you get away with this!" Suzuka and Arf stared as Arisa took off into the air.

Sighing, Arf picked up Suzuka and flew the two up into the higher level and gaped as Arisa was racing after the thing, well, trying to race after it would be a better term for it, because the thing put on a burst of speed and started tearing down walls as it zipped down the long hallway.

"Stand STILL!" Arisa yelled out as she created her weapon and threw it at the thing, missing as it suddenly went straight down, destroying the floor it was over and causing the impromptu spear to miss completely before fizzling out moments before it hit the wall.

Arisa growled and launched herself through the hole after the thing.

"I don't know why, but I think I'm watching a bad Looney Tunes cartoon." Suzuka muttered as Arf put her down. "Well, this isn't going to work if Arisa chases it down, got a suggestion?"

Arf grinned and nodded. "Yep. I got an idea alright, just need it to come back up..." Just as she said that, the floor shook and caused the two of them to fall to their butts. "Or we can go down." She grabbed Suzuka and flew through a nearby hole to the floor below. When they got down there, they stared as mall looked more like swiss cheese than a building. "Okay..." Putting Suzuka down, Arf raced forward, trying to stop that thing and Arisa from destroying what was left of the place. Snapping an arm out, a small glowing sphere formed in mid-air where she was a moment ago, a few moments later, she did the same with her other hand.

Suzuka blinked as she saw several glowing spheres, all of them were pretty small, decorating the hallway soon enough. "What the heck are those for?" She asked, yelping as the thing came barreling right at her.

Arf let out a yelp as the thing barreled into her stomach, knocking the wind out of her and causing her to tumble over and over until she crashed into some debris. "Owwies..." Her eyes swirled as she looked at the stars above her head.

Arisa, covered in dust and dirt, barreled out of some debris and shook her head. "Darn it! Get back here and take your beating!" She was about to take off after the blur when suddenly hundreds of binds snapped out of nowhere and wrapped around the thing, causing it to slow down, though now it was partially made of stone, glass and wires sticking out from various places. "What the?"

"Hee hee..." Arf giggled as she stood up. "Need to catch a speedy target, make sure that you hit from all angles." She couldn't wait to use that on Fate when she got back from training.

After all, it was better to show something off by doing it than just explaining it to people.

Arisa grinned as she walked towards the thing. "Well then, I think I'm going to vent some..." She trailed off as there was a creaking sound. "Uh..." Looking around, she gulped. "Arf, I don't think that the walls can support the upper floors anymore."

"Ya think?" Arf shrieked out. "Suzuka!" She yelled down the hallway. "GET OUT OF HERE!" Grabbing Arisa, she flew straight into the air and through a hole in the ceiling. "There's got to be a few more people upstairs."

Arisa nodded and took to the left as Arf flew right.

(-)

Outside, Suzuka gulped as the building started to crack and crumble. "Arisa-chan, Arf-san..." She mumbled helplessly. Even with her strength, she really wasn't too much of a help in this sort of situation.

Unless they needed her to punch a wall down, but other than that...

"Suzuka!" She turned as she saw Chrono rushing through the crowd to get close to her. "What happened?"

Suzuka shook her head. "I don't know, we got in, there was this person wearing metal, or made of metal, and then it went crazy and started acting like a wrecking ball and then Arf put it in binds and Arisa was going to beat on it I think but then the whole place was about to fall apart and I ran out but they're still in there and..."

Chrono nodded and grimaced. If there wasn't so many people, he could easily slip in undetected. Sighing, he shook his head and was about to run in when the lower walls gave out and collapsed, causing the upper level to crash down into rubble. "Arf! Arisa!" He gasped, his eyes wide as he rushed towards the crumbling remains of the mall. Once he cleared the outer wall, he was greeted with two domes, one of fire and one of orange magic. "Arf! Arisa, you two okay?" The two domes dissipated, revealing two dirty, but otherwise okay girls, and four people on the ground beneath them, looking on in shock.

Arf nodded. "Uh huh, just fine, but..." She gaped as the thing from before suddenly popped out of the debris, still wrapped in binds, before it let out a scream and did something that Arf and Arisa never thought possible.

"It... Fell apart?" Arisa gaped as a small cube floated into the air. Chrono grabbed it before sealing into S2U. "Chrono?"

Chrono sighed and shook his head. "Let's get them out of here, then you two need to get cleaned up, I'll see what this thing really is."

The girls nodded in agreement as police sirens were heard in the distance.

* * *

"Hey, Arisa, Suzuka..." Chrono spoke up as he saw the two walk into his mom's condo. It had been a few hours since the incident at the mall and he had to give them a call to stop over. Especially since he had found out just what it was that attacked the mall.

"You said you knew what it was?" Arisa, all washed up, asked him. Arf had to stay at home, since Lina and Luna had come back and Arf offered to watch Arashi for them.

Chrono nodded and pulled the cube out of his pocket. "This thing..."

"Oooh! Let me guess!" Arisa chirped up, causing Chrono to blink in confusion before nodding cautiously. "It's some sort of Lost Logia, isn't it?" She blinked as Chrono face-faulted. "...What?"

"Nothing." Chrono muttered from the floor as he got up. "Anyway, this thing isn't a Lost Logia..." His shoulders shook softly as a grin threatened to cross his face. "It's nothing more than a Mid-Childa trash compactor."

Seeing the two younger girls suddenly face fault, he couldn't help but chuckle at them.

Getting up, Arisa suddenly was in front of Chrono, grabbing the collar of his shirt and lifting him up angrily. "WHAT DO YOU MEAN IT'S NOTHING MORE THAN A TRASH COMPACTOR?" Arisa yelled in his face.

Chrono's eye twitched. "Well, like I said, it's a trash compactor. It's meant to compact old cars and machines, but then it was discovered how useful it was for construction and garbage, so it's a trash compactor and recycler."

"But... It had a body." Suzuka said softly as she looked at the thing. "How is that possible?"

"Well, it was designed to take a body like that, it makes it easier for clearing debris and then compacting it onto itself." Chrono chuckled softly. "Um, Arisa, if you don't let me go, I think Filia's going to get mad at you."

Blinking and looking past Chrono, Arisa sweat-dropped as she saw Filia, with Val by her feet, looking upset. Gulping, she released Chrono, who shook his head and turned to the blonde and smiled at her. "Um, well... Sorry."

Chrono turned back to them and shook his head, bemused. "Anyway, in case you were wondering, it was originally used on broken down machinery that couldn't even be used for scrap metal, but it was taking up too much room in junk yards. Then it was accidentally used on a condemned building, tore it down in a matter of minutes and was safer than a wrecking ball or explosives." He shrugged at their looks of disbelief. "That's the truth." He tossed the cube up into the air and grabbed it when it came down again. "Anyway, normally these things aren't very dangerous, unless they're over-loaded or damaged somehow."

"What happens if they're damaged?" Suzuka asked in concern.

"Well, then they go and find something random to destroy." Chrono tapped his chin. "If over-loaded, they go crazy and start moving faster than most people can react. So, I guess it was both this time."

"How does something from Mid-Childa end up here?" Filia asked as she knelt down to make sure that Val didn't crawl into a door and hurt himself.

Chrono shrugged at that. "If I had to guess, I'd say that it's been here since the Jewel Seeds ended up on Earth."

"Okay, so, why does it take a body and why did the body fall apart after it shut down?" Arisa looked at the thing and shuddered as she remembered the destruction.

"The body was a bit of a side-effect." Chrono shrugged at the first part of the question. "Like I said, it helped with demolition and taking care of trash. As for falling apart... It's basically recycling whatever it collects and turns old metal into new metal, though, I really don't think that'll help that mall out." Chrono chuckled softly at the looks they gave him. "Um..."

"That was a lame explanation." Suzuka muttered, getting a nod from Arisa and Filia, who had walked behind the girls while holding Val.

Chrono sighed and hung his head. "I swear that's what it was for." Oh well, at least Amy and his mom weren't around, they would probably be laughing at him right now.

"I'm home!" Amy's voice filled the condo.

"Speak of the devil and she appears." Chrono muttered as he looked up while Amy walked into the room, holding a large bag of stuff.

"Hey, did you know that the mall was destroyed today?" Amy asked them, blinking at the groans she got. "...What?"

"Never mind." The young girls said at the same time.

"Sorry, but Arisa-chan and I need to get going." Suzuka bowed and the two left quickly.

"Huh..." Amy looked at Chrono and Filia after the two were gone. "...This has been an interesting day."

"You don't know the half of it." Chrono muttered, rubbing his forehead. "I'm going to go lay down."

Watching him leave, Amy turned to Filia. "What's wrong with Chrono?"

Filia blushed and looked away, mumbling something.

"Come again?" Amy blinked when Filia turned to her and twitched.

"We were... Interrupted." To say that Filia was upset was an understatement, after all, her tail was sticking out and swishing around slightly.

Amy's eyes widened, her face went flush as she nodded. "Oh."

"Yeah." Filia nodded, twitching.

Val just looked on in confusion.

* * *

Quattro: Well, it's about time I get to do something.  
Dieci: Quattro, the doctor said he needed to see you.  
Quattro: BLAST! My evil plans shall not come to fruition at this rate.  
Dieci: What evil plan?  
Quattro: Quiet you! I was doing a monologue!  
Dieci: Uh...  
Quattro: Next time on Blood That Flows - Dusk, read it or I'll start reading Vegan Poetry.  
Dieci: But you don't have Vegan Poetry.  
Quattro: Then I'll just have to create some!


	98. 12th Dusk

Blood That Flows

12th Dusk

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Hey, guys, that last preview was a joke, you know. Quattro trying to be threatening and failing to do so.

Of course, those are just for fun anyway.

Quattro: Of course!  
Bison: Psycho Crusher!  
Quattro: AAAAHHHH!  
Bison: That's what you get for stealing Raul Julia's line.

For those who don't know, Raul Julia played M. Bison in the first live action Street Fighter film back in the mid-90's, shortly before his death. Great actor, may he rest in peace.

* * *

Days later...

"Ah, Dieci." Jail smiled as he saw his newest cyborg walk into the room. "How are the adjustments I made coming?"

Dieci rolled her right shoulder. "Feels a bit heavy to me. Maybe I am not adjusted yet."

Jail shook his head. "No, it's fine, if you have some problems with it, let me know, okay?" When she nodded, he smiled and turned to the table, which had a large blanket on top of it. "Well, I figure I might as well give you this now."

Dieci blinked as he pulled the blanket off to reveal a rather large and long cannon underneath it. Picking it up, she blinked at the weight of it. "It's lighter than I thought."

Jail chuckled at that. "Well, I didn't put a power supply into it, since your own Inherient Skill can do that just fine, so that saved on some weight. But as things stand, your training has been rather incomplete. Quattro's waiting for you at the targeting range."

"Quattro is?" Dieci blinked as Jail nodded.

"Yes, you need some personal training and what Tre is putting Sein and Cinque through isn't as applicable to you as it is to them." Dieci nodded. "However, I would suggest getting pointers on how to fight if an enemy gets close to you, just in case."

"Of course." Dieci nodded as she turned and left the room.

After she left, Jail shook his head and looked at the naked woman floating in a nearby tube, before shaking his head and snorting. "Foolish, I don't know why Quattro brought you here." Oh well, he had more things to worry about than a naked and injured Bureau member.

Walking over to a nearby control panel, Jail frowned as he looked at the data the scans of his remaining cyborgs were giving him. No matter how he looked at it, the process was speeding up far too quickly for his liking. 'At this rate, all of them will be awake in less than a year.' It wasn't a bad thought, but he'd have to work hard to get their equipment done and then he had to make sure that their bodies were adjusted properly.

Sighing, Jail shook his head. "This is becoming a pain." He muttered, though he had to admit, it was interesting at least. "Still have to find the last three components." He just wished that his memories of Al Hazard were clearer. There wouldn't be any problems obtaining the Knight Valkrye Armor if he could just remember something about it.

"And Quattro's little pet project..." He shook his head. Whatever plans she had with those mechanical things wasn't really his concern. Still, they did seem more formidible than the Gadget Drones they had already.

"Why do I think I'm forgetting something?" He asked, stroking his chin in thought. Oh well, it probably wasn't important.

(-)

Uno shook her head as she looked at the baby girl. As much as she thought she knew Quattro, this went further, much further than she thought her sister was capable of. Looking at the tubes inserted into the sleeping child, she grimaced and walked over to the control panel to see just what the baby was being stuffed with.

As she read over the data, Uno's face slowly became a mask of concern. "These drugs and chemicals..." Frowning, she turned and left the girl alone. She didn't really care about the girl, but that combination had her wondering about her sister.

She nodded to Tre as the latter was carrying a knocked out Sein over her shoulder to the medical wing. "Is she okay?"

"She's fine, just hit her head instead of phasing through the wall after getting knocked down." Tre shook her head, a small smirk adorning her face, causing Uno to chuckle. "What about you?"

"I need to talk to Quattro about something." Tre looked confused, but nodded as Uno left.

A few moments later, Uno found Quattro looking on, bored, as Dieci practiced shooting some targets.

"A bit slow on that one." Quattro pointed to the one that was untouched. "Even if those blasts are really strong, it means nothing, since you'll never hit anything that moves faster than a walking pedestrian." Dieci frowned and narrowed her eyes, before firing again. "Uno, what can I do for you?"

"I want to speak to you about your current project concerning that girl." When Quattro raised an eyebrow, she elaborated. "I don't really care too much about the child, but I wonder what you're thinking. Those chemicals and drugs..."

"Ah, yes, those things." Quattro nodded, turning to her older sister fully and putting her hands on her hips, which caused the cloak she always wore to spread open fully. "Well, let me tell you this, I'd rather not... Have to deal with her being a baby any longer than I have to, so... A few drugs here and there to stimulate her growth processes should make her age to an... Appropriate age quickly enough."

Uno nodded, it made sense at least. "Very well, just make sure that she doesn't grow so fast that her body gives out on her."

"Of course." Quattro chuckled and turned back to watching Dieci. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to teach Dieci not to shoot at the holographic cows."

Uno blinked and looked at the training session to see, that yes, there were cows there, and, yes, Dieci was having trouble not shooting them. "I see..."

Quattro sighed heavily. "Dieci, you need to think, if you nuke all the cows, there won't be any milk for you in the future."

As she walked away, Uno frowned slightly. "Has Quattro's chest always been that large?"

(-)

Later...

Due grinned as she walked out the kitchen, covered head to toe in flour, milk and other stuff that Cinque wasn't sure she wanted to know. "Dinner's done!" She giggled as Cinque face-faulted. "I need a bath."

Nodding, Cinque just chuckled as Due ran off towards the baths. Knowing that Due would, in fact, strip all the way to the baths, she hurried up after her sister and quickly found the trail of food-covered clothes leading from the middle of the hall to the baths. Holding all of Due's clothes at arm's length, including her underwear, Cinque deposited them into the hamper and took a peek inside the baths to see if everything was alright.

Inside, Due was talking to Sein about a few things regarding combat and the best ways to sneak up on someone. Smiling, Cinque slipped back out.

Her family was weird, but they were still her family, and she did enjoy their company.

* * *

Amelia: Mr. Zelgadis, where did you go?  
Lyos: I'm not sure where he went, but I do know that something weird is going on around here.  
Amelia: Huh?  
Lyos: Something's going on in the castle, I just know it.  
Amelia: Then, we must pursue Justice! I, Amelia Wil Tesla Seiryuun, hope that everyone reads the next chapter of Blood That Flows - Dusk.


	99. 13th Dusk

Blood That Flows

12th Dusk

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Coming up on the end of this arc. And, yes, I know, it's shorter than most.

* * *

Back on the Red World...

Amelia sat at a table in one of the taverns and frowned as she looked at Lyos. The young knight shook his head. Between Zelgadis disappearing days ago, talks of peasant uprisings to the north and that mysterious woman in the cloak had her nerves on edge. "Man, if only there was a way to find out the truth about the king..." So many people had been calling him a demon and she wondered if maybe it was true.

Most of the time, rumors were just that, rumors. After all, how many people called Lina horrible things and said that she could eat the souls of anyone that annoyed her? Amelia had lost count about the sheer amount of bad things said about Lina, but her old friend was none of those things. Heck, she was married and had children now, had come back from the dead to save the world from Dark Star, so none of those things were true.

She hoped that it was the same thing with the king.

"Actually..." Lyos grinned at her. "I did some scouting around, and found a place to get into the castle without being detected." Amelia's eyes lit up and Lyos nodded. "We'll sneak in tonight." When Amelia started giggling, he blinked in confusion. "What?"

"You reminded me of Miss Lina, Mr. Lyos." Lyos gave her an annoyed look and Amelia just fell back, laughing hard.

After all, doing something like that was Lina's style.

(-)

Later that night...

"This way." Lyos hissed as the two crept along the castle grounds and towards some bushes on the side of the building. "I saw someone earlier today do this..." He stopped in front of a bush just before a large tree in the court-yard. Kneeling down, he pushed the bush to the side and to Amelia's surprise, there was a door underneath. Opening it and walking down the stairs to the murky depths below, Amelia wondered just what was in store for them this time.

Casting a quick, low-power lighting spell so they wouldn't trip over each other, the two continued on walking down the stairs before stopping at a seeming dead-end.

"That's it?" Lyos frowned as he touched the wall in front of them. "What the hell? I thought this was supposed to..." He trailed off as he heard some foot-steps on the other side of the wall. Putting his ear to it, he closed his eyes and listened to what was being said.

Or try to listen, all he heard was some muffled words, before sighing as the sound disappeared shortly after. "Well, one thing's for certain, we're somewhere..." Growling, Lyos snapped his hand out, punching the wall, and much to his and Amelia's shock, the brick he punched suddenly moved, causing the wall to move back, before sliding apart. "What the?"

"A false wall! You did it, Mr. Lyos. Come on, we need to move before it closes again." Amelia was already through the door, followed quickly by Lyos. "Now, we need to..." She trailed off as she turned the corner and crashed into a rather heavy wall.

Or something resembling a wall. "Mr. Zest!" Amelia gasped as she saw the older man.

Zest raised an eyebrow as he looked at her. "Surprised to see you here. We have a problem." When Lyos and Amelia looked at him in confusion, he clarified. "I don't think the king is who he says he is."

"What makes you say that?" Amelia asked and Zest looked behind him before looking back at her.

"I don't think that a human would talk to a shadow normally, especially one with a couple of masks for a face."

"Mazoku." Amelia muttered, catching the other two by surprise. "So there are Mazoku at work here. We'll have to be careful, even a low-ranking Mazoku is deadly." She and the other two shivered slightly, it was less noticable on Zest than on her and Lyos, but the three of them had felt it. "Mr. Zest, I think we need to leave... Probably to a place with more space?"

Nodding, Zest led the younger two to the main hall. "It's... Odd."

"What?" Lyos had to fight the urge to pull out Banisher at that moment and swing it at something.

"I haven't seen a servant all day. In fact... I almost say that someone's shifted dimensions on us without me noticing."

There was a clapping sound and Zest, Amelia and Lyos looked up to the top of a large staircase to see the king looking down at them. "I'm impressed that you figured it out, though it took you awhile..." He snapped his fingers and darkness swirled in the air, before revealing three figures. "Gio Gaia," a figure in a tattered robe appeared in mid-air, his emerald eyes gleaned brightly while his silver hair danced in the air, "Gduza", something that looked like a woman, though hunched over, with no eyes or ears on her face, appeared in mid-air, her long, black hair dangled under her, "and finally Dugld." The third swirl revealed a male wearing a black mantle and a wide-brimmed hat.

"So, you willingly sold your soul to the Mazoku, huh?" Amelia pointed at him. "Even if they are Mazoku, our love of justice will not allow you to defeat us."

"Justice, huh?" The king narrowed his eyes at Amelia. "What kind of justice would an outsider have, trying to usurp me from the throne?" Before Amelia could say anything, he turned to his right and looked into the darkness. "I told you, didn't I?"

"Heh, well, I did find it hard to believe that someone from Seiryuun would be doing this, but I can't deny what you've shown me." A familiar male voice spoke up and three figures walked into the light.

"Luke!" Lyos growled, unsheathing Banisher as he saw Luke and Milina walk into the light.. His eyes widened as he saw the third person walk in behind them. "It... Can't..."

"Mr. Zelgadis?" Amelia gasped as she saw him look at her, his eyes were cold and emotionless, not to mention that he was in his Chimera form instead of his human form again.

Zest grimaced. They were out-numbered at least two-to-one, but something else was bothering him. The king was standing in front of something that was obscured by a large sheet, and he wasn't sure, but he felt some sort of magic eminating from behind it.

Looking at Luke, Milina leaned in close to him. "I don't trust the fact that the king is working with creatures like those." Luke nodded, he didn't either, but he figured that he and Milina could fight their way out of any problem that occurred. Holding up a hand, he grinned. "Well, sorry, but I am being paid to protect the king."

"If she's willing to apologize for trying to over-throw me, I'd be willing to let her go." The king chuckled and looked at the three Mazoku, all of which were looking at the group with interest.

"I didn't come here to cause a revolution and over-throw you." Amelia stepped forward. "I came here to make sure that the problems your country has currently are peacefully resolved, but now I see why your country is headed for civil war." She pointed at the Mazoku dramatically. "Whatever it is that they promised you, it isn't worth it." She blinked as the Mazoku started chuckling.

"My dear girl," the one introduced as Gio Gaia shook his head, "you have everything all wrong."

"Enough!" The king snapped and looked at Luke and Milina. "Deal with them or you don't get paid!"

"Fine, sorry about this, except, you know, the sorry part, because I'm not." Grinning, Luke snapped off a fireball right at the shocked princess.

Zest narrowed his eyes and got in front of Amelia, before holding up his hand, a large triangular shield appeared in front of him, causing the fireball to explode harmlessly against it.

"A barrier? That fast?" Milina muttered as Luke jumped over the railing and pulled out his sword.

"Let's see him stop this one!" His sword glowed red as he called up his spell and swung at Zest's barrier, only to blink as it was stopped cold. Turning, he smirked as he saw Lyos, his sword surrounded in water, blocking his attack. "Didn't you learn from last time?"

"Yeah, I did." Lyos grinned and swung Banisher, forcing Luke back. "He's mine."

Zest narrowed his eyes and snapped his hand out, his spear forming from the ring on his finger.

**"Böe-Modus."**

A moment later, Zest and his weapon were covered in a gray-silver colored metal. He wouldn't have even bothered with it normally, but the last time he saw a Mazoku, his whole world was nearly killed by the thing. Plus the fireball had taken more effort to block than he was comfortable with. Narrowing his eyes, he flew straight for the trio of Mazoku.

"Fast!" Gio Gaia gasped as Zest seemingly disappeared and reappeared in front of them, his spear swinging down at them. The three Mazoku disappeared into the shadows that surrounded them a moment before the blade would have struck them.

Grimacing, Zest turned to Zelgadis and Milina. He wasn't about to attack the king, not yet, he figured if he could take out the guards first, he could get some answers out of the king without needing to cause too much bloodshed.

He blinked as the sheet was pulled off, revealing the contents underneath. "A mirror?" He grimaced as the thing started to glow brightly.

The others in the room, except for the king, all grimaced and turned their heads away from the glow.

When it subsided, Zest looked up and his eyes widened in shock.

In front of the mirror was him... Except that he was real and not just a mere reflection. "What the?"

"Shadow Reflection Mirror." Gio Gaia spoke up, emerging from behind Milina, much to the girl's shock. "It can create a perfect replica of you, though what it creates is the opposite of the original."

Amelia gasped as she heard that. "But, that thing creates replicas that act completely opposite of the person that it copies, my sister said that it was nothing more than embarrassment for everyone involved, plus it was broken."

Gduza smirked as she formed in Amelia's shadow, her hair snapping up and wrapping around the Princess's neck, squeezing and pulling back. "We fixed those flaws." She grinned before taking her hand and jabbing it through Amelia's leg, causing the Princess to cry out in pain and fall to her knees. Looking up, she grimaced as Luke and Lyos stopped their duel to look at her angrily. Growling, she looked at Zelgadis, who had jumped over the railing and was walking towards them. "Finish her off."

"Mr. Zelgadis..." Amelia gasped out painfully, the hair was really starting to hurt with how tightly it was wrapping around her throat.

Unsheathing his sword, Zelgadis continued to walk towards Amelia. "Astral Vine." His voice was cold, emotionless, so unlike the Zelgadis that Amelia had come to know. His sword glowed red as he held it up.

"Stop!" Lyos yelled at Zelgadis. "Don't kill her!"

Zelgadis turned his sword so it was pointing down and pulled his arm back, poising to strike.

"Hurry up and finish her off!" Gduza snapped at him.

"Of course." Zelgadis said, before a small grin came to his face, much to Gudza's shock.

Which didn't last long, as the sword snapped through her skull a moment later, rendering her dead in a matter of moments.

"Impossible!" Dulgd yelled as he materialized in the air. "You were under her mind control!"

"Indeed I was." Zelgadis looked at him and smirked, his eyes narrow. "But she isn't the first one to take over my mind. After Red Priest Rezo did that to me a few years ago, I did research into mind control techniques and spells and how to counter them." Rolling his shoulder, Zelgadis rocked his head from side to side, getting some kinks out of it. "Though, I admit, it was a lot harder to do than I thought."

"Are you kidding?" Lyos yelled at Zelgadis and stomped his foot to the ground. "I couldn't even tell it was you! You were so emotionless and..." He trailed off, blinking as Zelgadis started laughing. "What?"

"I spent years building up a reputation as a heartless demon swordsman, I think I can cut my emotions pretty well." He turned to Amelia and knelt down. "How's your leg?"

"I'll be okay." She smiled, though it was pretty obvious she was in pain.

Dulgd growled and turned to the king. "Dammit, Grau, your whole plan is falling apart!"

Twitching, the revealed Grau snapped his fingers and the Zest clone gripped the spear that he was holding and rushed at Zest. Zest grit his teeth as his spear clashed with that of his doppelganger.

"Grau?" Luke narrowed his eyes at the king. Something seemed off about all this.

"Dammit, everything's gone to hell." Grau muttered as his form shifted and his royal clothes were replaced with a more practical body suit, the slight plumpness that he had as royalty melted away, revealing a more toned face, his blue hair hung down his back as he glared at Gio Gaia and Dulgd. "Looks like we'll have to do this the hard way then."

There was a squelching sound and Milina gasped as she felt an arm push through her chest. Her eyes were wide as she felt her body go cold. "Can't." She fell to her knees, blood escaping her mouth as Dulgd smirked at his work.

"Well, that was..." A shadow appeared over him, a glowing red blade inches from his face. "You... master..."

"Ruby-Eye Blade!" Luke screamed as he slashed the Mazoku apart with one stroke. Turning to Grau, his eyes blazed in anger. "You're next!"

Grau looked on as the blazing red blade swung down at him, before he held up a hand and grinned.

Luke's eyes widened as the red blade disappeared, leaving him with a normal metal sword. "What?"

"Never seen a spell like that before, I admit, but it really doesn't matter if I can cancel it, huh?" Grau smirked and backhanded Luke down the stairs. "I am the Priest of the late Dynast Grausherra, you are nothing to me."

"A priest?" Lyos grimaced, remembering Huraker and Xellos, the two were insanely dangerous, and this guy probably wasn't any easier than they were.

Zelgadis grimaced and looked at Amelia. "Can you help her out?" Amelia nodded and got to her leg, which was no longer bleeding due to her healing spell, and flew up to Milina.

"Hang in there." Amelia said as she put her hands over the wound. She wasn't sure that she could heal this, but she had to try. "Ressurection." A white glow engulfed her hands and Milina's body as she went to work healing the injured woman.

"Aren't you all forgetting something?" A voice said, moments before a buzzing noise was heard. Lyos let out a scream as his back erupted in pain, blood flowing freely as he spun and glared at the Mazoku there. "I'm surprised you survived, after all, Miasma isn't really safe for you humans." He grinned at Lyos, who had fallen to his knees. "So, just two at full capacity, and one too busy with his clone to do anything."

(-)

Up in the air, Zest grimaced as he rushed forward, slamming his spear against his opponent's weapon. 'Why isn't this cutting through?' He wondered to himself, things were getting more and more dangerous down below, and if he didn't deal with his opponent now, he was going to have trouble if any more of his allies below fell in battle.

It was possible that his copy was granted the same armor that he was wearing. Zest's eyes narrowed as he called up his magic. The clone looked slightly confused. 'Wait, that means it doesn't...'

Swinging his spear to the side, Zest started to glow with magic, catching the attention of Grau from below.

"I don't have time to play with you." Zest growled.

**"Voller Ehrgeiz."**

Zest's speed suddenly tripled as he slammed into his copy with enough force that even the copy's armor wasn't enough to block the strike, allowing him to bisect his clone, before changing his directory and slamming into the area where Grau had been a mere moment ago. "Damn." Zest muttered as he stood up. Full Drive was a pain to do normally, but with the Blast Armor on, he nearly passed out from the sudden strain of that spell.

"Well, you might be interesting." Grau smirked as he floated up.

(-)

Down below, Zelgadis and Luke both held their swords up as Gio Gaia chuckled at them. "You two..." He faded into the shadows. "This will be easy."

"Really?" Luke stepped away from Zelgadis and looked around nervously. "Where..?" His eyes suddenly widened and he spun around. "Behind you!"

Swinging his sword in a large arc, Zelgadis missed with his attack, but he did force Gio Gaia into the open. "Too bad, Blam Blazer!" The naked shock on Gio Gaia's face made him smirk as the laser-like spell ripped through the Mazoku's body, tearing it asunder. "Lyos, you okay?"

Lyos shivered and shook his head. He thought he was, but whatever that Miasma was, it was causing his body to start to shut down.

"Hang on." Zelgadis knelt down by Lyos and started healing his body. When he heard some laughter, he looked up and glared at Grau, who had several black spheres around him. "You..."

"Oh, it won't be hard, three of you are badly injured, one is exhausted and two of you really can't touch me here." The Mazoku priest smirked as he saw Zest, who had cancelled his Blast Mode to stand up. "You'll die here, so, don't feel bad, you really couldn't handle a Mazoku like myself and those three, even if lower Mazoku, were still pretty dangerous." He held his hands above his head and the balls got larger. "Now... DIE!" He swung his hands forward, before stopping as his body lurched forward. "...No..." Gasping, his body started to dissolve in mid-air.

"What?" Luke asked the question, but everyone had the same question on their minds.

When the body completely dissolved, there was another body behind him, a person wearing a hooded cloak. "I thank you, for finding that traitor." The female said, before pulling her hood back and revealing her identity to the group.

"Who are you?" Luke asked as he saw the blue-haired woman. He twitched as she landed and chuckled at him. "Who?"

"My name is Dynast Sherra, Mazoku lord under Ruby-Eye Shabranigdo." She smirked at his shocked expression. She gave Zelgadis and Lyos a nod. "I don't like admitting it, but I needed help flushing that traitor out." She turned and started to fade away. "The little bastard must have fused with a human, I couldn't find his Astral signature no matter how hard I looked."

Luke just looked on confused before rushing up the stairs to check on Milina. "Is she?"

Amelia panted and smiled at him. "She'll live, but she's still badly hurt, I don't think you'll be going anywhere for awhile."

Milina rolled her eyes at Luke's worried expression. "Oh please, you act like I was going to die from that." She chuckled before wincing. "...Ow..."

Zest looked at the mirror before swinging his spear at it, shattering it into many pieces. The last thing he wanted was more clones of himself running around.

* * *

Luke: Huh, so this is the end of the story?  
Zest: Yep.  
Amelia: Huh, why does the end of something feel so sad?  
Zelgadis: Because the end means that there's nothing more?  
Amelia: Oh yeah...  
Nanoha: HEY! You're not ending the story!  
Lina: We need to get off this bus.  
Fate: We're still not going to be around in the next chapter.  
Hayate: I'm never riding the bus again.  
Yuuno: Well, at least not from this author. Next time on Blood That Flows - Dusk, the end.  
Vita: It really does sound like the story will end for good when you say it like that.


	100. Final Dusk

Blood That Flows

Final Dusk

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Well, here it is, the final chapter to the "Dusk" arc.

I honestly didn't intend for this arc to end on chapter 100 for the story. But still, 100 chapters, baby! Whoo hoo!

An interesting note, I never knew that Arisa's Seiyuu also voiced Shana from Shakugan No Shana. It was entirely unintentional. Trust me, it was.

And, just so you know, I'm going to be taking another break on the story. Mostly so I can get the next arc finished up.

* * *

The next morning...

Amelia looked up as Zelgadis came down the stairs. "So, how are Miss Milina and Mr. Luke?" Her leg was still giving her trouble, since Lyos, who was sitting at the table, eating food, and Milina, needed healing the most. Thankfully, the only problem she had was phantom pain that was quickly dulling.

Amelia figured that by the time she was done with breakfast, her leg would be good as new.

"She'll live, though she's annoyed that Luke seemed to have turned into a mother hen in an instant." Zelgadis shook his head as he sat at the table, nodding to Zest.

"One thing that bothers me." Lyos muttered as he looked at Zelgadis, who was back in his human form. "That fight, we were getting kind of trashed, but didn't it seem to end too quickly?"

"Not every fight for your life will be an epic one." Zest spoke up. "Even if we were getting trashed, not every fight you'll end up in is something for the record books and some end rather anti-climatically." Shrugging, he stood up. "If you'll excuse me, I'm going to leave now."

"Huh?" Amelia looked at Zest in surprise as he got up from the table. "But, I thought..."

He looked at her and smiled softly. "It was enjoyable, I admit, but there are things I need to do, thank you for the experiences. I have a lot more to learn."

Amelia sighed as he left. "It feels like another adventure coming to an end, but there were no Dragon Slaves to kick the adventure off to begin with."

Zelgadis frowned. "You're right. There wasn't a single Dragon Slave in this entire adventure, no wonder it felt weird."

Amelia pouted and shook her head. "So, what are you two going to do?"

Lyos shrugged and leaned back. "Well, I think I'll head South."

"Really?" Amelia blinked and Lyos nodded.

"Yeah, being close to these mountains bothers me. Besides, I heard that there was a bandit problem to the South."

Zelgadis chuckled and nodded. "Sounds like Lina rubbed off on you somewhat. I don't know what I'll do, honestly."

"Why not come back to Seiryuun?" Amelia smiled at him. "Daddy will want to know what happened here and I wouldn't mind some company on the way home."

Zelgadis shrugged, that didn't seem like a bad idea to him. "We may need to stick around until Milina is fully healed at least."

Amelia smiled at him, he really was a kind person when he wasn't trying to bury his emotions.

(-)

On the road, Zest narrowed his eyes as he swung a bag full of various stuff over his shoulder. For some reason, he thought that he was being watched. Shrugging, he turned and continued onwards.

When he was past a hill, a slim figure walked out from behind a tree. "...Valwin, I know that you're there, come on out, you tree-smoking Shinzoku."

The large, hat-wearing Shinzoku formed in a swirl of air in front of the Mazoku Lord. "Why didn't you attack that king if you suspected he was a traitor?"

"With you watching over my every step?" Sherra grumbled at him. "Besides, I wasn't sure if he was Grau or not."

"I thought you didn't care about humans?"

"I don't." Sherra smirked at him. "But my main priority was to find that traitor, not kill random humans."

"So, what are you going to do now?" Valwin held up a small tree between his fingers.

Sherra crossed her arms under her breasts. "I've got my own things to do." She still had to consolidate her power properly, if more of her forces decided to do what Grau did, she was going to be in an unenviable position of having no subordinates.

Oh well, she would have to just figure something out on her own if that happened. She disappeared a moment later.

Valwin disappeared in a swirl of wind, wondering about the future of the worlds.

An image of the boundaries between the worlds being shattered had been bothering him lately. Whatever it was wasn't something that he knew how to handle.

He just hoped that it wasn't anything serious.

Dusk End

* * *

See you in the "Red" Arc.

But, you know what? I'll give you guys a little sneak peek.

* * *

"Daddy fall down, go boom!" A young voice called from the hallway and Chrono groaned as Val ran in and jumped onto his back. Chrono rubbed his forehead and groaned.

"Sorry, Val, I need to talk to the others, I'll play with you later."

Val pouted heavily. "Aww, but I wanna go to the park! Mommy's sleeping and gramma's with Amy-mama at the store. Why can't I go to the store?"

"Because the last time you did, you destroyed every bag of flour there and got covered in so much of that stuff people thought you were a ghost." Chrono deadpanned at him, causing the two-year-old to blink.

"Oh right!" He giggled, grinning at Chrono.

"Are you sure he's only two?" Arisa looked at Val, who glared at her.

"I'm two-and-a-half, lady!" He squeezed a small fist and shook it at her.

Chrono rubbed his eyes and turned his head to look at the young, green-haired boy. "Val, why don't you go and play that new game that your grandmother got you last week?"

"KAY!" Val jumped off of Chrono's back and ran out of the room as fast as his little legs could carry him.

"And keep it quiet." Chrono said as the young boy left the room.

"KAY!" Val yelled back as loudly as he could.

The others in the room all sweat-dropped.

* * *

Enjoy that little short. Heh heh heh.


	101. Red Start

Blood That Flows

Red Start

I own nothing. Except my muse's insatiable hunger for other muses. RUN, MUSE! RUN!

Hey, it's been awhile, right? Well, I thought I'd start posting the next arc now.

* * *

"So, we're finally done?" Fate asked Mizetto, who nodded as she smiled at the trio.

"You three have come really far in your training." She shook her head. "I bet if you took the test, you two could be registered as S Rank mages easily, and Yuuno, I can't say, but you could probably be at least a AAA class mage right now." Considering that she had managed to get some information about past exploits from the three of them, including a trip that ended up saving their universe, the experience they had dealing with high-rank threats was more than enough to guarantee rankings for them.

Yuuno and Fate both blushed from the praise and Nanoha sighed softly. "Something wrong?" Mizetto blinked at the young girl.

"Yuuno-kun and Fate-chan are both growing taller and I'm still short." She pouted, causing the three to face-fault to the ground with a large crash. "What? They both needed to get new clothes the other day and I'm still wearing the same ones."

Yuuno groaned as he got to his feet. "Nanoha, that's all that's wrong?" He regretted those words as she got up close to him, her eyes large and teary as she balled her hands into fists and held them under her face.

"But, Yuuno-kun, I don't wanna be short forever! And you're all getting taller and I'm short and..." She swung her arms out to the side and then swung them up and down comically. "But I'm short and you're all growing taller and soon I'll be a midget and we'll all be like twenty-five, that's really old, you know and I'll be short and you and Fate-chan will be really tall and..."

"Is Nanoha crying about being short again?" Miyuki said as she walked into the room. Seeing her sister acting all worked up, she sighed. "Nanoha, how many times do I have to tell you? Mom was rather small until after she met dad too, you'll probably be shorter than your friends until you get older."

"But I wanna get taller now!" Nanoha practically whined before yelping as Yuuno put her into a headlock. "Yuuno-kun?"

"Come on, Nanoha, calm down before you accidentally break something." Yuuno shook his head as he held her in that headlock. It was one of the few ways to get her to calm down when she was awake. The other way involved binding her and tickling her until she nearly wet herself.

**"Hey, boss, you should take her to the room and give her a spanking, that'll calm her down."**

Of course, Thoth Driver's comments also worked, as both Yuuno and Nanoha stiffened at those words and quickly disengaged from each other, coughing nervously.

Mizetto chuckled and shook her head. These kids never failed to amuse her. It was too bad that Miyuki was going with them, such a talented swordswoman was hard to find, even among the Belkan users. Heck, given a little bit of time, Mizetto was almost certain that Miyuki would be the choice trainer for all Belkan practioners.

"Excuse me, ma'am?" Mizetto blinked as she saw a Bureau member, one she didn't recognize, walk into the room. "We've recieved a call from Mrs. Takamachi, saying that she needs her children home as soon as possible."

"Is something wrong?" Nanoha asked, concerned and the man shrugged uncomfortably.

"I do not know, myself. All I know was what I was told to tell you, which was 'come home now because that one-eyed jerk is apparently bored' and she said that you would know what's going on."

"Riksfalto." Yuuno gasped, getting a look from the others. "Uh... Let's just say that I know her pretty well."

Fate frowned as Yuuno blushed softly. She wasn't sure what that was about, but for some reason, it didn't sit too well with her.

Nanoha just looked at Yuuno in confusion, before turning to the guy and nodding. "Alright, we're coming with." She turned to Mizetto, who smiled at her.

"Don't worry about your clothes, I'll have them shipped back to your world in a week." The girl smiled as they ran out of the room.

Miyuki stayed behind for a moment, before chuckling and shaking her head. "Well, this is going to be interesting..." Between the training she was helping put recruits through, the training she put Fate through and helping out Mary with the Shine Swords, she didn't get a lot of personal time to herself.

Oh well, she wasn't complaining and she could make up for it at home. Besides, she was getting a little twitchy around this place. Making sure that the Sword of Light was on her body, she ran after the younger kids. "Hey, wait up!" Besides, she had to make sure that they made it out of this alive. Riksfalto, from what she understood, was an incredibly powerful and dangerous foe.

Thankfully, it didn't take Miyuki long to get caught up to them. A moment later, the four of them, and the Bureau member that picked them up, were transported off of the planet and onto a ship, which started speeding towards Earth.

Yuuno frowned as he looked at the bridge. "Why do I have this feeling that we're going to arrive a moment too late for any action, regardless of how fast we go?"

(-)

Arisa groaned as she fell to one knee, around her, Suzuka was knocked out, face down on the street and Arf was smashed into a wall, head-first. It was a little embarrassing to see Arf's shorts completely destroyed, displaying the wolf girl's naked ass to the world as she twitched in pain, it was probably worse than usual, since she was in her adult form rather than her child form. If it wasn't for her tail hanging limp the way it was, Arisa was certain that she'd see more than she wanted to.

Her own Holy power was flickering out, not that she had enough strength to even stand without help, from the beating she took from this freak. Looking up, she had to admit, at least the three of them had landed several good hits on the Mazoku general.

Riksfalto was, for the lack of a better term, a complete mess. Her right hand was missing most of its fingers, her left leg was missing the lower half of her calf and foot, her left shoulder was gouged almost completely off of her body, her throat was shredded, black inky vapor leaked out of those wounds, and the Mazoku's sword was in pieces on the ground.

But even with all of that, Riksfalto was grinning as she touched down on the ground with her one good foot. "HOO! I haven't had a fight like that in awhile. It's always fun to have a good old fashioned no-holds barred fight." As she started to chuckle, Arisa looked at her stupidly. "What? You're surprised? How cute." Looking up, the one-eye Mazoku shook her head as she saw Luna walking onto the scene. "All I really wanted was a really good fight." Her grin threatened to split her face in half. "I can't wait to see what you can do in a couple of years!" She laughed as she disappeared, allowing Arisa to finally relax and slump to the ground, out cold. As her consciousness waned, something started to bother her.

Why weren't there more people around?

(-)

Hours later...

Lina rubbed her forehead as she looked at Arisa, Suzuka and Arf, the latter of which was in her puppy form and sulking. She looked at Luna. "Tell me something, sis... You left the house almost an hour before you got there... You could feel the magic eminating from where the fight was, and yet you only got there after Arf was mooning everyone and pushed through a wall, head first, Suzuka was beaten to a pulp and Arisa couldn't even fight anymore. What gives?"

"Well, the city is very confusing and I got lost a couple of times and..." Luna trailed off at the look she was given. "Well, uh..."

"Luna, just why did it take you so long?" Lina said flatly. "I asked you to check up on it because I couldn't. You did the same to me with Dark Star, so what took so long?" The tiredness in her voice was pretty obvious, as well as the agitation.

"I can tell you." Riksfalto's voice filtered into the room as the Mazoku appeared, floating in mid-air, grinning. Honestly, if it wasn't for her body, it would be almost impossible for Lina to tell if her voice was male or female. It sounded female, but deep enough that one could just say she was a manly woman. "Your dear sister there made a deal with me after the little god seal became active. She'd train the girls and get them to become strong and I'd get a challenge. The deal was that I could only attack them once to prove that they needed the training and then the second time was just before her nieces all came home, to test how far they had gotten."

Luna twitched and her fingers flexed. If not for the truce, she would have blasted Riksfalto to dust right then and there.

"Oh yeah, Miss Knight of Cephied also promised me that she wouldn't interfere with my fights, at all, and let me beat the girls any way I wanted to, of course, I couldn't kill them directly, but hey, if they died by accident, well, nothing can be done about that." Riksfalto chuckled as she vanished. "I'll leave you two alone with that."

Luna glared at where Riksfalto had been. 'Back-stabbing traitor...' She thought darkly.

"Is what she said true?" Lina asked, her voice soft. Even so, Luna felt herself shivering slightly. For some reason, she felt a major chill down her spine. "Tell me, did you make a deal with a Mazoku so she would have a good time, putting these three girls in danger?"

"...They were already in danger, Lina, I was just..."

"Just what?" Lina interrupted her sister, her voice never changing in pitch. "You delayed getting there so that she would have a good fight, instead of getting there and making sure that no one got seriously hurt."

"But, no one did and..." She trailed off as Lina turned and looked her, her sister's golden eye seemed to be shining brightly at her.

"Only, only by sheer luck." Lina's eyes were narrowed and Luna couldn't help but feel as if her sister would, from where she was, reach out and snap her neck. She had no idea what Lina was doing, but it was different, and terrifying. "Right now, sis... Go to your room, I don't want to see you right now."

Luna blinked a couple of times as Lina turned away from her. "What?"

"I said, go to your room, I don't want to see you right now." Luna could have spoken up against what Lina had just told her, could have tried to fight against it, but, for some reason, the way Lina was acting...

It reminded her of their mother, how she could be incredibly calm when truly angry. And her younger sister never was one for holding back her emotions very much, but Luna couldn't help but notice just how mature her sister was...

And honestly, it scared her, to think that motherhood changed her sister so much. "Very well..." She said softly and left to her guestroom.

It wasn't until she heard the door close fully that Lina let out a shuddering breath and finally balled her hands into fists. "Dammit, sis..." She took several deep breaths, trying to calm her anger at that moment, before walking to the kitchen. As much as she found her husband's culture odd at times, it did have its good points.

Tea was one of them. A few cups and making sure that the children were, in fact, completely alright, she could start to relax a bit more...

It was too bad that Shiro had their son, she was almost certain that Arashi could help calm her down too.

After the tea was made just the way she liked it, she poured it into her glass and sat at the table, taking a sip, before sighing softly, the liquid practically working a miracle as she could feel some of her tension melt away. She was still plenty angry, but she didn't feel quite as murderous as she did a few moments ago. When the door to her house opened up, she snapped her head up and she started to stand up. She wondered if maybe some two-bit thug had decided to try and rob the house while she was there. It had been a long time since someone tried to do that around town.

"Mom? We're home." Nanoha's voice had her sighing in relief as she walked into the living room. "Mom?" Nanoha blinked as Lina walked up to her, knelt down and hugged her tightly. "Ack!"

"Mom?" Fate touched Lina's shoulder, before being pulled into the hug with Nanoha.

Standing at the door as she closed it, Miyuki shook her head and tapped Yuuno on the shoulder. "Someone did something stupid to some kids and made mom really mad at them." Yuuno blinked in confusion. "Let's just say that the last time someone hurt kids around here, that guy was in the hospital for a month."

"Oh." Yuuno nodded slowly.

"And that was before he woke up from the coma." Miyuki added as an after-thought, causing Yuuno to face-fault.

A few minutes later...

Fate frowned as she had Arf in her lap, petting her familiar. "I thought she was helping Arisa and Suzuka out?"

Lina sighed as she sat on the couch, a low healing spell working on Suzuka while Yuuno used his more powerful healing magic on Arisa. "She was, but apparently it was to keep Riksfalto from being bored or something."

Yuuno frowned at that. "But, even if she would let Riksfalto fight them, shouldn't she have been there to make sure nothing happened?"

Lina sighed heavily. "I don't know what she was thinking, to be honest."

Miyuki came into the living room with a tray full of tea cups. "Hey, mom, why don't you take aunt Luna to that one place you visit every other month?"

Lina nodded, she really was thinking about doing just that. "Might not be a bad idea, actually." Evne if it wasn't a place that she liked to go to very often, it did serve as a reminder of things to her.

Hopefully it would affect Luna in the same way.

* * *

Luna: Lina, what's going on, where are we?  
Lina: This is something I want to show you.  
Luna: ...Ice cream?  
Lina: I'm hungry, alright? Next time on Blood That Flows - Red, read it or I'll really start some trouble.  
Luna: ...What in the world happened to them?

Hey, yeah, I know it's been a long while, but since I have this arc almost complete, I figure that I'll start posting it here.

And, for those of you who know what's coming, please don't spoil it for the ones who don't. Thank you.


	102. Red the Second

Blood That Flows

Red the Second

I own nothing really. Nope.

* * *

The next day...

Luna frowned as Lina stopped the car in front of a non-descript building. The best she could describe as would be a white box with windows. "Lina, what are we doing here?"

Lina said nothing as she got out of the car and walked around to help Luna out of her side. Her sister still hadn't learned how to open car doors during her time here. Not that Lina blamed her, it took her months to figure out how to do some of the simpler things when she moved here. Walking behind the car, she never said a word as she opened the trunk and pulled out several boxes.

"What are you..?" Luna trailed off as Lina walked to the building. "Lina?"

"You'll see." Lina said as she walked to the door and used a levitation spell on her boxes before opening the door and letting herself in.

Following her, Luna was about to demand some answers when she walked by one of the rooms inside. Her eyes widened as she saw children, most no older than eight, either shying away from them, even though there was a wall between them, or crying from seeing them. That wasn't the worst of it. What Luna saw actually made her tremble in anger.

Most of the children had highly visible scars across their faces and arms, some had horribly disfigured legs and one girl really stood out, due to the fact that her right arm...

Didn't exist.

"What the hell?"

"You coming?" Lina's voice broke through the oppressive silence that the hallway had, and Luna moved to catch up with her. Lina turned back to the desk and put the boxes on the counter. "Here you go, Meryl."

Luna caught up at that moment to see an older, plump woman, smile at Lina. "Thank you for your charity again, Mrs. Takamachi. The children love the sweets and books you bring in every month. Who is this woman?"

"My sister." Lina nodded to her. "Anyway, Luna, this is Meryl, one of the staff here."

"...What is this place, Lina?"

"A mix of an orphanage and a hospital." Lina said as she walked down the hallway, further into the building and motioned for Luna to follow her. Lina stopped in front of a door and opened it, allowing Luna to walk in with her.

What Luna saw chilled her to the bone.

Several of the children were just as scarred as the rest had been, but it wasn't a simple blade scar that she was used to seeing, no, these scars looked as if someone had melted their skin several times over, the children didn't even have recognizable faces anymore, noses, lips, hair and ears were practically missing and the eyes, Luna had seen people without eyes before, but generally, they were bandits or people who had fought in wars, not young children, not children that wouldn't even be accepted into magic school.

One of the children looked up and moved so he, or she, Luna couldn't tell, could sit and face them, moving in a way that Luna could see the child missing half of his or her left leg below the knee. "Lina, what..."

"These children you see here, and many others here... They don't have a chance at a normal life, most of them won't live to see twenty, there are more that are on life support because of things that their parents did to them." Lina said, her face an emotionless mask as she looked at the children. "I discovered this place by accident once, and found out that not everyone cares about their children like I do. This, right here," Lina gestured to the children before turning and motioning to the whole building, "is what happens when you don't take precautions about children's safety, Luna. Even if I could use the Resurrection spell, I couldn't heal the amputations, I couldn't heal the scars in their hearts."

"What about that boy, Yuuno?" Luna asked, trying to control her urge to throw up at seeing these children.

"Even with what he's seen in life, Luna, he's still very, very innocent." Lina closed her eyes before opening them, her glamor gone as she turned to look at her sister, her red and gold eyes seemed to burn into Luna's soul as Lina continued to speak. "Eventually, I will show him this place, but I don't want to destroy what innocence he has left. To him, the world isn't that dark of a place. He knows it can be, but he's not seen the true horrors that it can inflict, not like I have. Same goes for Nanoha and Fate."

Fate still had scars on her back from what Precia had done to her and had stated that she didn't want them to be healed. When Lina asked her, the only response was that she didn't want to forget what her mother did to her, so she would never do that to anyone else.

Lina respected that, and was thankful that the scars were only visible from up close. Though Fate admitted to her that changing in public, much less bathing, was hard for her, since she didn't want to be the center of attention if people saw her scars.

"Can we go?" Luna asked, getting a nod from Lina as the two stepped out of the room and walked down the hall towards the door. "...Lina," she and Lina both nodded to Meryl before they left, "why did you show me this?"

"To show you the possible consequences of your actions." Lina said softly, her eyes stormy. Even if she did this for no reason than to help those children out, it still hurt her mentally to be in there.

Luna looked at Lina's body as it trembled slightly, and the way she was stiffly walking towards the car, it made her worry about everyone around Lina. "...You look ready to kill someone."

"I know." Lina muttered as she opened the door. "We're going home."

(-)

Later...

As Lina walked into the house, she took off her shoes and smiled as she saw Kyouya there. "Hey..." At least some things were normal.

"Hi, mom." He smiled at her. "If you're wondering, Arashi's fine, just sleeping right now. Nanoha and Fate are making sure that Arisa and Suzuka are okay, Yuuno went for a walk and Miyuki..." He chuckled as he heard a groan from the upstairs. "Is trying to get her homework caught up on." She was only a few weeks behind, since Lina had made preparations after Miyuki had left to get her homework sent to Mid-Childa.

Lina nodded at him. "Thanks." Behind her, Luna walked in and took off her shoes as well.

"Lina, what are you..?"

Lina cut off her sister as she walked to the couch. "Have you ever wondered, sis, why I didn't lose my temper like I used to do when you did what you did?"

"Um, yeah..." Luna gulped as Lina turned to her and sighed. "Sis?"

"When Nanoha was four or five, Shiro was asked to be a bodyguard to an old friend of his. He was thinking of retiring, but since this was a personal request, he couldn't turn it down. During that time, a group of assassins known as the Clover were targeting my husband's client." Lina stopped to take a deep breath and Kyouya had moved behind Lina to pat her on the shoulder. Lina grabbed his hand in thanks.

"They used a friend of mine, as a living bomb." Kyouya spoke to Luna, causing her eyes to widen. "When the bomb went off, dad was badly injured, his client was dead and Clover was nowhere to be seen at the time."

"Shiro was in a coma for awhile, even with my healing spells, I could only do so much." At least it sped up the process of his recovery by a fair amount. "Then, I truly lost my temper."

Kyouya continued for Lina, seeing as his mother was having trouble speaking at that moment. "I don't know all of the details myself, but from what I understand, there were a several hundreds of people dead in the span of a week."

Luna's eyes widened as she looked at her sister, who's eyes were glowing softly. "All of them, not a single person of that association remained alive when I was done with them."

"Even their fam.." When Lina looked away, Luna paled. "Sis, you didn't..."

"There's not a single survivor, Luna, I made sure of that, personally." Lina looked back at Luna, her eyes narrowed.

"It wasn't the first time Shiro had been hurt by Clover. Just before Nanoha was born, a reunion of his clan was attacked, the cowards sneaking in a bomb. Almost everyone there died as a result." Lina paused as the memories came to the forefront. "I wanted to hunt the fiends down, but Shiro convinced me otherwise, especially after Miyuki's mother, Shiro's sister, left Miyuki in our care. So when I saw Shiro injured like that... nearly dead because of them... I just lost it. I felt I made a mistake in not going after them earlier, and I had to correct it, no matter what it took."

Lina took a deep breath to try and calm herself. "It's why I don't want to lose my temper ever again, I've worked hard to get it to this level, and you know why I got mad at you..." She trailed off as Luna nodded. "So, I want you to go home, Luna."

"But..."

Lina shook her head. "Even if you understand, you'll never truly feel the same as I do unless you have your own children, someone completely dependent on you. I'll tell Lindy that you're on your way over." Lina stood up as Luna nodded to her. She took four steps before Kyouya walked up to her and hugged her tightly. "Kyouya?" She asked, hugging him back and sighing softly. Kyouya knew how to comfort her, not the same way as Shiro could, but she didn't complain. Just knowing her family loved her like that, even for all her sins, was enough for her at times.

"None of us blame you, mom." He said softly. "Even if you have blood on your hands, we still love you." He wasn't surprised as she tightened the hug and buried her face into his chest, shaking slightly. Remembering what happened with the Clover was never a good memory, for any of them.

Even if it hadn't been as bad as it was, Kyouya knew that they would all stand behind Lina's decision, regardless of the outcome.

* * *

Lina: Well, this was a downer chapter.  
? ? ?: Yes, yes it was. How about I complain to you then.  
Lina: GAH! Why are you here?  
Fate: Next time on Blood That Flows - Red, um... Oh my...  
? ? ?: Yes, it was quite... Interesting.


	103. Red the Third

Blood That Flows

Red the Third

I own nothing really. Nope.

* * *

Two weeks later...

Lina sighed as she and Fate watched over Arashi that afternoon. It had been pretty quiet since Riksfalto had decided to have her fun and Luna had went home. Honestly, Lina was beginning to think it was too quiet lately.

As much as she loved her family, she couldn't wait until school started in a few days. It would just be easier to get certain things taken care of. She fought back a giggle as she remembered the look on Yuuno's face when she told him that if he was going to stay another year, he was going to have to go to school with Fate and Nanoha. And considering that Reinforce had been asking her about it, Lina was almost certain that Hayate was going to join them in the next semester, as was Vita. It was pretty funny to hear from Reinforce about Vita's complaints about working her fingers to the bone to pass the placement tests. She didn't know what was going on over at the Yagami household, though she just suspected that Vita wanted to be in the same class as Hayate.

She blinked as Xellos materialized in the room. "What the heck are you doing here?" It wasn't surprising to see him pop up for no reason, what was surprising was how... Upset he looked.

Xellos flopped down on one of the chairs in the living room and grumbled to himself. "Can't believe she would get so upset like that."

Fate blinked as she looked up from playing with her baby brother. "Who?"

"Earth Dragon Lord Rangort, ugh... It's not like I planned to spend months in Jamaica in a haze with her and Lord Dolphin."

Lina blinked, it wasn't often Xellos gave a straight answer, it was even less often that he was visibly upset. "So, you were in a haze? What happened?"

"Lord Dolphin apparently had chocolate that... Had unusual effects for us. When the effects finally wore off, Rangort was acting as if it was my fault that we ended up in an orgy that lasted for months on end." Xellos blinked as Fate's eyes went wide, her face red while Lina twitched at him. "What? I think I'd rather have an orgy with a woman than a man, and Rangort is, pardon the pun, quite heavenly, especially her breasts," a slight grin came to Xellos' face, "large, firm, bouncy and soft in all the right places, and then her ass, well, it's a touch big, but she sure knows how to use," his recounting of what happened was cut off as a hard object crashed onto his head, sending him to the ground, head first. "Oww... What was that for?" He looked around to see Lina rubbing her hand and looking at him, annoyed.

"Xellos, I didn't want to know about your sexual conquest of Rangort, I don't want you talking about it in detail, and just so you know, she doesn't have a real physical body, so of course she'd be "heavenly", since she's a Shinzoku!" Lina twitched and pointed at Fate, who's entire face was bright enough to stop traffic if she was in the middle of the street. "Plus, I don't think Fate needs to learn about this kind of stuff from you."

Xellos shrugged. "Well, if not me, then who? Besides, Rangort's a real hard ass, though I have to admit, getting her to admit that she enjoyed it when I," he was cut off again as Lina slammed his head into the floor again. "Yrovractng." Xellos managed to mutter out as Lina lifted him up and glared at him.

"Just, stop with that, Xellos, now, what's the problem here?"

Xellos sweated slightly as her left eye started to glow. "Well," chuckling a little, he continued, "once the haze wore off and Lord Dolphin stopped force-feeding Rangort and myself that chocolate, she... Got a bit upset at me during the last copulation and blasted me to the moon before telling me in no uncertain terms that what happened wasn't something she would do willingly and that if she ever sees me again, she'll break me into pieces..."

Lina sighed and dropped him to the ground. "Sounds fun, but Xellos, I have one quick question for you." He looked at her, confused. "You don't even have a real body, sure you, other Mazoku and the Shinzoku can emulate human bodies, but you don't have a real one, so.. How the heck can you and Rangort do that?"

Xellos grinned at her. "Well, to truly blend in with humans, we have to... Be fully functional, no?" It was amusing to see both Fate and Lina's faces turn red at that.

"Okay, fine, but even so, I thought your kind didn't do that kind of stuff, what gives?"

Xellos shrugged. "Just because we don't have to do it, doesn't mean we can't do it."

Lina just hung her head and groaned in dismay. "Xellos, why don't you go complain to Zelas or something? I don't think I can deal with you right now."

Xellos seemed to pout as he disappeared. "Fine, fine... I would have thought you would have appreciated some honesty like that."

"Not that kind of honesty, you bastard!" Lina yelled at the spot where he was a moment ago.

(-)

Meanwhile...

Reinforce, in a light blue sweater, smiled as she walked into the kitchen. "Vita, the mail will come soon enough."

Vita, in a white t-shirt and skirt, looked at her and her eyes teared up. "But, what if I didn't pass?" She whimpered and she started to get a touch jittery. "I don't wanna be a class behind Hayate and the others, it's not fair that Yuuno got to be in Nanoha's class easy and I have to take so many tests!" She pouted, before grabbing her head and shaking it side to side. "No! I'm just as smart as that ferret-boy, I can pass, but what if I..."

She was cut off as Reinforce walked up to her and pulled her into a hug, burying the redhead against her chest. "Shh..." She rubbed Vita's back with one hand and her head with the other hand. "I'm sure that you'll do fine. You've been studying with Hayate, right?" Vita nodded against her breasts. "You'll be fine, Hayate wants you to do your very best too."

Vita whimpered softly. "But, what if I don't pass?" She looked up, her blue eyes shining with worry and Reinforce crouched down a little and gave Vita a reassuring kiss on the forehead.

"Don't worry, the Iron Hammer Knight Vita wouldn't be beaten by some simple tests, you'll pass and be in the same grade as Hayate, Fate, Nanoha and Yuuno, just watch."

Vita was blushing softly, but hugged Reinforce tightly, thanking her.

"Mail's here!" Shamal called out as she walked into the kitchen. "Nothing much... Oh, Vita, there's a letter from the school for you..."

Vita perked up and pulled away from Reinforce and took the letter from Shamal, holding onto it and just looking at it.

"Aren't you going to open it?" Reinforce asked as Vita trembled slightly. "You afraid?"

"Just a little." Vita admitted as she opened the letter and read the contents inside. As she read it, her body trembled softly and her shoulders shook.

"Vita..." Reinforce sighed softly. It looked like she wasn't going to be in Hayate's class after-all. "I'm..."

"GUNNA BE IN HAYATE'S CLASS! WHOO HOO!" Vita threw her hands into the air and ran around happily, hugging Shamal tightly. "YAY!"

Shamal blinked as Vita ran to the door and slipped her shoes on. "Vita-chan, where are you going?"

"I need to tell Zwei, Hayate, Signum, Zafira, and the rest!" The smile that was on her face and the way her eyes sparkled in happiness was quite infectious, causing the two taller women to smile as she left.

"She's quite energetic." Reinforce smiled as she picked up the papers. "I'm glad that she passed."

Shamal nodded and helped Reinforce stand up. "Me too, though, I hope that she won't get picked on because of how fast her body is developing."

Reinforce shook her head. "I'm sure she'll be fine." She chuckled softly. "Even if she would complain about it, we could just wait until bath time and have her stand next to Signum, that would quiet her down."

Shamal nodded, giggling. "Oh yes... Anyway, how has Hayate taken to... Getting her period?"

Reinforce rolled her eyes as she put the papers on the table. She'd have to talk to Vita about throwing papers around in happiness. "Unlike Vita, Hayate was born a human," well, Reinforce wasn't too sure about that, she was almost certain that the four Knights were human before becoming part of the book's protection program, "and her body has had time to adjust and prepare for longer than Vita, yourself or Signum's bodies have had." Shamal blushed softly as Reinforce smiled at her. "Besides, she got to watch you, Signum and Vita go through your periods and had a pretty good idea of what to expect. She hasn't complained so much as said she couldn't wait for her breasts to grow."

"Why?" Shamal asked as Reinforce laughed softly.

"She said, 'once my boobs are big enough, you can use my chest as a pillow like I use yours'."

Shamal started to laugh with Reinforce at that moment. That was a funny statement.

Though, knowing Hayate, she meant every word of it.

* * *

Suzuka: Hey, I finally get some screen time. Okay, I'll put away the volleyball. Next time on Blood That Flows - Red, read it or I play target practice with Fate-chan's face using Volley-chan.  
Fate: Not again!

Okay, so, this story is incredibly long, and I thank everyone who has read the story. But, someone pointed out that because of its length, it might terrify people.

So, I'm wondering, should I break the story down and each arc be its own fic?


	104. Red the Fourth

Blood That Flows

Red the Fourth

I own nothing really. Nope.

* * *

Later that day...

Blinking as she opened the door, Nanoha smiled as she saw Suzuka and her butler standing outside of the door. "Suzuka-chan, you should have called if you were going to come over, mom would have made more food so you can enjoy supper with us."

"It's quite alright, the young mistress ate before coming over here." The butler bowed to Nanoha. "If you are eating, we can come back later." He blinked as Yuuno walked up behind Nanoha. "I just wanted to pass some information along, but since you're busy, would you please give her this?" He pulled out an envelope and handed it to Nanoha. When she blinked, he smiled at her. "Let's just say that being prepared for things such as this is mandatory for butlers."

Nanoha blinked and took the envelope before heading into the house with Yuuno.

Lina looked up as Nanoha smiled and gave her the envelope. "Suzuka-chan's butler said to give this to you so that they won't disturb our meal."

Smiling, Lina took it and had to fight back an urge to laugh as her entire family, sans Shiro and Kyouya, dug into the food as if it were the last meal that any of them were going to have. It didn't bother her too much, since she could only imagine how bad the food was, or how much the cafeteria had been forced to ration their supplies.

If Lina had known that the food was both pretty good and the sheer amount that the children had consumed, she might have felt a bit differently than she did at that moment. Opening the envelope, she raised an eyebrow as she looked it over. "Hmm..." Shrugging, she put it down and started eating. She smiled when Shiro asked if everything was okay. "Yeah, it's fine, I just need to look over it later."

Other than an argument between Fate and Miyuki over who got the last bread stick, which was solved when Nanoha stole it from them, the meal went rather quietly. Idly, she wondered why Miyuki was eating so much before shrugging it off as remembered how Kyouya and Miyuki were when they were training full time in the past.

The budget for food alone was enough to drive most people insane.

(-)

An hour later...

Yuuno blinked as Lina sat on the couch, the envelope in her hand, before pulling out something that shocked him. "You wear glasses?"

"Only to read." Lina smiled at him. "Been this way since I was a teenager, actually. I can see fine, but when it comes to books, it's just easier for me to look at the words through glasses, otherwise I get headaches."

Yuuno blinked at that. "Can't you heal your eyes?"

Lina shook her head. "Nope. Eye doctors say it's a bit of an astigmatism, considering I can see fine other than the print on paper, I can't complain. Besides, I don't think it looks bad, does it?"

Yuuno shook his head, Lina's glasses were kind of small, thin framed and narrow oval shapes. Really, they looked good on her. "No, you look pretty." His eyes widened and he blushed. "Uh, sorry, I just meant..."

Lina chuckled and smiled at him. "Don't worry about it, Yuuno. Women like knowing that you find them pretty. Besides, I know you didn't mean anything about it." When Yuuno sighed and nodded she lifted up the letter and looked it over more fully. "Well, that's interesting..."

"Huh?" Yuuno blinked as Lina put the letter down. "What is?"

"Suzuka apparently asked her parents questions about her family's history, she was curious as to why she was so strong." Yuuno nodded, he was curious himself. "Seems like they couldn't find anything concrete." Lina sighed and took on a thoughtful look, her right cheek seeming to puff up slightly before she did the same to her left cheek. "It does mention that her family has been that strong as far as any of them know."

Yuuno blinked at the look that Lina had on her face. "You have an idea?"

Lina grinned at him. "Yep. I might not know what Suzuka is, but I think I know someone who does. And even if we don't find any information out, well, it's still good. You up for a trip tomorrow?"

Yuuno nodded. Any trip with Lina was bound to be interesting. "So, um, where are we going?"

"A place out in the country... It's where I learned how to call upon Chaotic Blue's power."

The shocked look on Yuuno's face was quite interesting. "But, I thought you came up with that spell yourself?"

"I did, but even if I was able to develop it by myself, I still needed to know where to draw it from." Lina chuckled at him. "Now, that's enough of that, I think the girls are almost done with the bath, you should probably get in before you go to bed." Yuuno nodded before running off, letting Lina chuckle in amusement. Ah well, tomorrow was going to be a new day.

(-)

The next morning...

Kyouya blinked as he walked into the changing room. It wasn't usual to see Yuuno there in the morning, what was unusual was seeing Yuuno blushing hard and trying to stuff his sheets into the washing machine. "Yuuno?" The boy stiffened, his blush getting brighter, and he continued to try and stuff his sheets into the washer. "Hey, what's..." He was about to touch Yuuno's shoulder when the boy stripped out of his clothes and Kyouya blinked at what he saw. "Oh... Yuuno, you..."

"I'm dirty, okay?" Yuuno turned to look at him, on the verge of crying and Kyouya just knelt down to look him in the eyes and smile reassuringly. "I'm dirty, I can't believe that I did something so..."

"Natural." Yuuno's eyes widened as Kyouya interrupted him. "Get changed and into the bathroom before the girls walk in and see you with your pants around your ankles."

Yuuno gulped and stripped out of his clothes and got into the bathroom. Kyouya rolled his eyes and made sure that the laundry was situated properly before putting some soap into the machine and starting it up. After making sure that it was going properly, he stepped into the bathroom and sighed as he saw Yuuno scrubbing at himself and trembling. "Hey, Yuuno, calm down."

"How can you say that?" Yuuno turned to look and Kyouya sighed as he saw tears threatening to fall out of his eyes. Sighing, Kyouya walked over to him and put a hand on the younger boy's shoulder and gave it a squeeze.

"Simple, I went through the same thing at your age." Yuuno blinked, calming down a lot. "You woke up this morning, feeling really sticky and disgusting on your crotch and legs, huh?" Yuuno nodded to him and Kyouya chuckled softly. "I went through the same thing, every boy does."

"But, it's... Why?" Yuuno looked confused, scared and curious. Kyouya was certain that this probably wasn't the last time he went through this in his life.

"It's just your body maturing and making sure that everything's working properly." Kyouya smiled at Yuuno, who was starting to calm down. "Don't worry about it, Yuuno. You'll have to suffer from it for awhile."

"I will?" Yuuno hung his head and groaned in dismay. "It's embarrassing!"

"Just pack extra underwear on trips and keep some plastic bags handy." Yuuno nodded, his face red. "Listen, it's perfectly normal, and yeah, it's embarrassing, just remember that your body is just growing up and it's just making sure that everything you have is working properly, okay?" When Yuuno nodded again, he smiled and gave him a pat on the back that was a bit rougher than it needed to be. "Good. If you have other questions, you can talk to me or dad about it, okay?" Yuuno nodded to him. "Now get cleaned up, okay?"

Kyouya stood up, smiling as he walked out of the bathroom and blinked as he almost ran Lina over. "Mom, what are you doing here?"

"Why is the washer on? Laundry day's tomorrow." She tilted her head in confusion.

"Oh, Yuuno needed to wash his sheets." Lina blinked in confusion, but shrugged it off.

"Well, okay, I just wish he would have warned me sooner." She turned and walked towards the kitchen. "Help me get breakfast ready, will ya?" Lina smiled as Kyouya nodded.

(-)

Hours later...

Suzuka sat in the back of her limo, Lina, Yuuno and Nanoha riding with her. "So, um, where are we going?"

"Out in the country, there's a place I know of, and someone who should be able to help... Unless he was killed by a demon hunter," the three children looked at her, wide eyed in shock, "or a bear ate him. Though I feel sorry for that bear, he'd probably have indigestion if he ate the fool." The older redhead blinked at the shocked looks. "What? You'll see what I mean when we get there, though we'll have to walk when we get close."

"If I may, Mrs. Takamachi," the butler spoke up as he drove where Lina had pointed him towards, "if this person would be hunted by demon hunters, are you sure that it is safe for the young miss to go near him?"

"At worst, he'll just be creepy. Besides, I can take care of him easily enough." She stretched as they turned off the highway and started to drive up one of the mountains. "Besides, I just want information from him."

"What makes you think he'll give you this information?" The butler asked, before frowning. "Odd, I didn't know that there was a fog here."

"Ah, good, we'll walk from here. As for how I know..." Lina grinned as she and the others got out of the car. "Let's just say... That is a secret." She winked and waggled her finger at the butler, who just smiled and shook his head as the four disappeared into the fog.

(-)

Later...

"Welcome, friends..." A slightly nasally voice spoke as Lina and the children walked into the building. The three children stared at the person as Lina just shook her head. The person was short, slightly hunched over, his left eye was larger than his right and he only had a few strands of hair on his head, and he wore brown clothes.

"Hey, Igor." Lina smirked at him.

"Ah, Lina, it's been, what? Almost fifteen years now... Have you found any brains for my master yet?" He chuckled and held up his small arms in a delighted pose. "Maybe I can have the brains of these three?" The three children gulped and Lina rolled her eyes.

"Knock it off, ya imp. This is my daughter, Nanoha and her friends, Yuuno Scrya and Suzuka Tsukimura." The Imp nodded at them, smiling, though it was a little creepy.

"So, what can I do for you?"

"The last time I was here, you helped me find information on Chaotic Blue." Igor nodded slowly. "You said that Imps, like yourself, were created thousands of years ago by a Mazoku?" The three children gasped and turned to look at Lina, who was looking at Igor seriously.

"Yes..." Igor chuckled softly. "He created more than just us, of course, experimenting on humans, why?"

Lina snapped her fingers and pointed at him. "That's exactly what I wanted to hear. So, tell me, you have information on all the different types of beings your master worked on?"

He nodded. "Yesss... Though, you know as I do that my master hasn't been seen in thousands of years... Heh heh... Right this way... The library should have the information..."

"Library?" Yuuno blinked as the group was led into the cathedral-like building. "...Am I the only one who thinks it's sacrilegious for a Mazoku's underling to work in a church? That would be like a devil raising a reborn Jesus or something!" Yuuno blinked at the looks he was getting. "Uh... Sorry, just been reading up on some religious texts."

Lina patted him on the shoulder. "Don't bring that up again, you'll get religious nut cases after us." Yuuno nodded and sweat-dropped while Nanoha giggled at him.

"Yuuno-kun's silly." When they entered into a large pair of doors, Nanoha, Yuuno and Suzuka all gasped at the sheer size of the room, as well as all the books that aligned the walls. "Woooow! Hey, Yuuno-kun, I bet we could make a fort out of the books."

"I wouldn't." Lina warned her. "Some of the books are warded and will explode, taking your arm with them if you aren't careful." Nanoha's eyes widened comicaly. "So, be careful, okay? Look, but don't touch, unless the book's on the floor and already open, okay?"

The three nodded and wandered off to look around.

Lina walked over to Igor, who was flipping through an incredibly large book against the far wall. "Well?"

Igor turned back to her and frowned. "It's not as simple as when you asked to know about the Mao of this world, you know... Anyway, what sort of creature are you looking for?" He looked at Suzuka and frowned. "There's something odd about her..."

"She's the reason, Igor... So, tell me, did your master ever create humans capable of hurting astral beings?"

Igor stared at her. "What did you say?"

Lina blinked several times. "I said, did your master ever create humans capable of harming astral beings, like other Mazoku?"

Igor's eyes widened and he spun around, grabbed the book and flipped a massive amount of pages over with a loud thump and then he started flipping single sheets several times until he found the page he was looking for, or at least Lina thought so, as his fingers trailed over the page. "Let me guess, she has super strength even without any training?"

"Yeah... And she was able to break a high-ranking Mazoku's body apart with single attacks. What is she?"

Igor started chuckling and turned to her. "Her great ancestors apparently were called Shinma."

"Shinma?" Lina raised an eyebrow as Igor nodded. "What kind of name is that?"

Igor shrugged at that. "I wouldn't know, he was weird. Why do you think flies are called "flies"? He just liked naming things weirdly." Lina gave him an annoyed, flat stare and he gulped. "Well, you see, he found humans who had some magical potential, and then he decided to mess with their physical and astral bodies until he got something interesting..." He gestured to Suzuka. "It's nothing dangerous to her, but she has no magical potential at all because of it." Lina nodded to him. "Even so, she still got to this place, which blocks anyone who has no magic potential from getting close, right?" Again, Lina nodded. "It's because her body has master's touch of Black magic."

"So, even though she can never use spells, she can still perceive magic?" The imp nodded.

"Yes... Master turned a large clan into these "Shinma" so that he could have a small army to deal with Shinzoku, Ghosts and other Mazoku." Igor chuckled at Lina's curious look. "Master liked humans more than his own kind, and got into a lot of trouble for giving a group of humans information on how to fight against his kind."

Lina blinked and turned around. "Nanoha, can you come here for a second?"

In the air, Nanoha blinked and flew over to her mother. "What's wrong?" When Lina asked for Raising Heart, Nanoha shrugged and pulled the gem out from under her shirt. Sure, Raising Heart could fly on its own, but she and Raising Heart both preferred it around her neck. "Raising Heart?"

**"Yes, my master?"**

There was a thud and Nanoha and Lina both turned to look at Igor, who had fallen over in shock. "Th...Th... The Heart? Oh my..." Igor's eyes were wide as he looked at the gem, before looking at Nanoha. "My apologies, young lady... To have that relic."

"What?" Nanoha asked, gasping as she gripped Raising Heart. "What's wrong with Raising Heart?"

Igor shook his head. "You've had it long enough that it calls you master, but I'm sure that your life has gotten hard since you've had it." Nanoha nodded at him. "Let's just say that my master's teachings were used to make that item."

"Really?" Lina raised an eyebrow. "Then how come it's Holy and not Black?" Igor shrugged at her.

"I'm not certain, though my master noted that he just gave them information on how to do it, he never gave them magic."

"He betrayed them?" Igor shook his head and Lina blinked in confusion. "But you just said..."

"My master found them interesting, he wanted to see what they could do if they had information on how to fight against Mazoku and Shinzoku, when he got his answer, he was branded a traitor and the civilization that made that artifact," Igor pointed at Raising Heart, "was no more."

"Oh." Lina blinked as she slowly nodded.

"Don't get me wrong, master said that he didn't care for the other lords at all, and the people that he contacted already had made contact with the Shinzoku."

"I see..." Lina nodded and smiled softly. "So, basically, Suzuka's ancestors were weapons created by your master and Raising Heart was made by information that your master left laying around, huh?" Igor nodded and Lina shook her head. "Sounds like he had his own version of the Claire Bible." Considering that her own Claire Bible was Mazoku Lore mixed with Ragradia's memories, she wouldn't be surprised if this universe had something similar.

"Maybe." Igor nodded, before shuddering. "Please leave now, you have what you want."

Lina nodded at him. "Sure thing, Suzuka, Yuuno, we're leaving."

As she walked after her mother, Nanoha looked at Raising Heart. "...Are you a Mazoku's weapon?"

**"I am your partner, no one else's, my master."**

For some reason, those words eased her mind and Nanoha called up Raising Heart in staff form so she could hug it and rub her cheek against the gem. "Thank you, Raising Heart."

**"No worries, my master."**

After the four had left, Igor closed his eyes and his form became dark before shifting, becoming taller, straighter and more human-like. "My, my..." His voice changed and became incredibly refined, he was wearing long dark pants and an open button shirt, revealing his chest, his black hair was slightly scruffy and his bangs covered his eyes as he shook his head. "I would have thought that Garoth destroyed all remains of that society..." Sighing, he shook his head. "Oh well, things will be interesting." He turned to look at the book as the pages flipped to the final one. "...What does this mean, anyway? Darkened yellow and bright blue, the blood will flow, a new life to live and free travel?" He sighed heavily, some days it did not pay to be a Mazoku Lord.

* * *

Cinque: Are you having trouble again, Dieci?  
Dieci: Everything goes boom when I practice.  
Cinque: Don't pout. That's usually good.  
Dieci: But I didn't even shoot them!  
Cinque: I see... Next time on Blood That Flows - Red, read it or Dieci will accidentally shoot animals.  
Dieci: NOOOO!

Well, there you go, that is Suzuka. She's not a Vampire here.

As for "Igor" there. Well, you'll have to wait and see.


	105. Red the Fifth

Blood That Flows

Red the Fifth

I own nothing really. Nope.

* * *

Meanwhile, on Mid-Childa...

Quattro frowned as she watched Dieci's training. "Just what are you doing?" The brown haired girl let out a small shriek and fired her cannon, destroying at least five virtual cows in the process. "...No milk for your dinner."

"Nooo!" Dieci turned to her, tears falling down her face. "I'm sorry! I was trying to snipe the large one in the middle without destroying everything around it." Looking at the training field, Quattro nodded, one of the large Gadget Drones were good for target practice. Still... "Why are you still using cows?"

"I'm trying not to slaughter all of them..." Dieci whimpered and Quattro sighed before turning and leaving. "Quattro, where are you going?"

"Out, one of the fliers might have found something interesting..." She said as she left the room and walked down the hallway, before stopping and looking at the tube that the little girl she had brought with was in. It was amazing what those drugs had on her body. The little purple haired girl couldn't be any older than five and yet she looked closer to ten at that moment. It was almost a shame that she was going to have to slow the dosage down. 'Oh well,' Quattro shrugged, it didn't mean anything to her in the long run, but a weapon in the body of a teenager was better than a weapon in the body of a child, at least physically.

As she walked down the hallway, she blinked as Tre turned the corner. "Tre."

"Quattro." The taller cyborg nodded to her curtly.

As she walked past, Quattro smirked at Tre's back. "I hear that they have special underwear for women like you." Tre stopped walking and stiffened, causing Quattro to nearly giggle. "Of course, with a butt like yours, we may need to start modifying the doors, otherwise you'll get stuck when you try to walk through them.

Tre turned to her with narrowed eyes. "Can't you just..."

"What? It's the truth." Quattro turned and smiled as she walked away from Tre. "If you're not careful, you'll need two chairs just to sit down."

Tre's face twitched angrily. "My butt is not that big!" She nearly took after Quattro when the glasses-wearing cyborg turned back with a raised eyebrow and an amused smirk.

"I can always tell what pair of panties are yours, Tre, they're the only ones that need to be folded more than once." Quattro ran a hand through her hair, fluffing it slightly, before walking away. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to find something that doesn't involve trying to figure out how you can move with that ass you have."

Tre growled and punched a wall, leaving a dent in it. "My ass is not that big, dammit!" Sure, she might have had a larger than normal butt, but her breasts were big, she couldn't have a small butt with breasts this size and not have problems moving.

Then again, maybe Quattro was right. Maybe she did have a butt that was too... "...Sein, would you please remove your hands from my butt?"

Sein did so, pouting, but not before giving Tre's rear another slap. "Come on, you're upset, what's wrong? Did Qua-nee say you have a big butt again?" Sein wasn't sure why Quattro was going out of her way to pick on Tre, but Sein couldn't see why she did it. "Just because she says you have a big butt doesn't mean you should listen." Tre gave her a half smile out of gratitude. "After all, if it was smaller, it wouldn't be so much fun to grope and squeeze." Sein gulped as a shadow overcame Tre's face and she turned to glare at her more petite sister. Sein stumbled backwards as Tre's eyes seemed to glow a bright yellow. "Come on, I'm giving you a compliment, with that butt and your big breasts, you're like a supermodel and..." When Tre suddenly grabbed her and threw Sein over her shoulder, Sein sighed as she looked at the floor. "More training?"

"More training." Tre twitched as Sein giggled and reached down, phasing her hands through Tre's clothes and rubbing her butt directly. "...Why do you keep doing this?"

Sein shrugged as she rubbed. "It's fun."

Tre just twitched.

As they turned a corner and walked past Cinque, the silver-haired cyborg shook her head. As much as she cared about her sisters, some of the things they did just baffled her.

She jumped as she felt a hand slap her butt. "Due!" She turned and pouted at the slightly taller redhead. "Why'd you do that?"

"What?" She tilted her head. "I thought you wanted to join in." When Cinque shook her head, Due chuckled nervously. "Uh, sorry..."

"I thought it was bad enough that you tickled me like you did," Cinque's missing eye throbbed and she started to move her hand up to her eye patch, "but slapping my butt was too far!"

"Hmm, you're right." Due nodded and Cinque relaxed. "Well then..." She grinned and Cinque took a step back. "Tickle time!"

"Wait, Due," Cinque couldn't do much before Due pounced on her and moved her fingers all over Cinque's lithe frame, "hahahahahahohnostoooo ahaha hahahah pppahahahahaaha!" Cinque laughed and thrashed as Due's fingers went everywhere, over her belly, her arm pits, her legs, thighs, neck, back and butt, anywhere Due touched made Cinque laugh, squirm and fidget. "Ohhahahahahcomehahahahaoncan't hahahahaahahaha breathe stooohahahahap apppplease?"

Due grinned and pulled her hands away from Cinque, letting the smaller girl twitch and giggle on the ground as she panted and tried to catch her breath. "That was fun, ta ta..." She giggled and ran down the hallway.

Cinque lay there, twitching for awhile and trying to catch her breath. When she finally was able to sit up, she blinked at the hand being offered to her. Looking up, she sighed in relief and grabbed the hand, allowing herself to be pulled up. "Thank you, doctor."

Jail smiled softly and rubbed the top of her head. "You should be a bit more careful not to be tickled in the hallway, Cinque." He laughed as her face turned red. "Why don't you get some tea, that should help you calm down."

Cinque nodded as Jail chuckled and walked down the hallway. He stopped before turning a corner and turned back to smile at Cinque. "You've done a good job adjusting, Cinque." When she blushed, he chuckled and left her there.

(-)

Days later on Earth...

Lina smiled at a customer. "Thank you for your business." It was a relaxing day. Arashi was at a daycare, the other children started their first day of school, Shiro was coming out of the kitchen and smiling, and Xellos, two women and a small child walked into the store, the radio had a good tune going and... "Wait a second." Lina did a double take as she saw the Mazoku Priest and the other three. "...Xellos, just what's going on here?" The fact that one of them was Zelas, though her hair was shorter than Lina remembered it being, didn't put Lina's mind at ease. The small child was unusually quiet and the other woman was darker in color and for a moment Lina thought that it was Rangort, but she dismissed that as impossible.

Zelas chuckled and smiled. "You are right, Xellos, she really is interesting." Turning her attention to Lina, she grinned at the way that Lina and her husband were tense around her. "You should relax, Mrs. Takamachi, I'm not here for a fight. And if I was, I would have obliterated this place without you seeing me." She chuckled as Lina didn't relax. "Dolphin and I are here to let you know that we're returning to our world."

Lina blinked and looked at Dolphin. "...You're darker skinned than I thought you'd be."

"Oh, you like my tan?" Dolphin grinned at her. "I managed to get it JUUUUST right! No tan lines at all. It was a little hard, with all those horny guys grabbing at my..." She blinked as Lina held a hand up.

"While I'm quite sure that your time in the Caribbean was quite enjoyable, I don't want to hear about it." Lina dead-panned to her.

Dolphin blinked and shrugged. "Alright, fine, but I guess you don't want to hear how I now control all those islands then?" She blinked and tapped her chin. "Except for Puerto Rico, they gave me lots of chocolate for killing the rulers of Cuba and cleaning up all that icky junk at the bottom of the ocean."

"I don't want to know, do I?" Lina turned to Xellos, who smiled at her. "...What happened?"

"That... Is a secret." Xellos waggled his finger at her.

Zelas chuckled at the flash of frustration from Lina. "Anyway, I'm leaving Xellos here and Riksfalto's too busy to come back with us anyway, so she's staying too." She blinked as Lina had a flash of both amusement and pity. "Something wrong?"

"Oh, I'm just thinking about how the children are going to take that news."

Dolphin pouted. "I heard that Riksfalto had so much fun while I was on that island, wish I had seen it."

"But then you wouldn't have gotten to have a tan, all that chocolate, or seen Rangort begging for more like she was." Xellos was quick to point out, the grin on his face had Zelas chuckling, Lina twitching slightly and Dolphin blinking.

"Oh yes, I forgot about that, okay, never mind then."

"Anyway..." Zelas was fighting the urge to fall down laughing at the way Lina was fighting against her temper. "I wanted to let you know that we're leaving." Lina nodded, and Zelas smirked at her. "Oh, but before you think that we're not going to be around..." She snapped her fingers and two small bodies stepped out from behind Zelas and Dolphin. Lina's eyes widened as she saw the miniature versions of the two Mazoku Lords in front of her. "They're a piece of our Astral bodies that we're leaving behind. A perfect copy of us... At exactly 1/8th our size." Zelas blinked as Lina face-faulted and Shiro groaned. "What?"

"You stole that from that movie, didn't you?" Shiro asked, sweating as Zelas smirked at him.

"Actually, she got the idea from this book." Xellos held up a manga and tossed it to Shiro. "The Supreme Demon Lord deciding to watch after her daughter by leaving a miniature version of herself behind? Lord Beastmaster thought it was quite ingenious."

Zelas nodded and turned. "Partly because I have things I need to take care of here and back home and partly because if Dolphin and I left, how would you draw upon our powers?"

"I think I'd manage." Lina said flatly and twitched as the two small versions of the Mazoku Lords disappeared.

"I bet you would." Zelas smiled as she and Dolphin walked outside before disappearing, along with the quiet girl, back to the red world.

Back inside, Lina looked at Xellos. "So, what's the point of those small versions anyway?"

Xellos grinned at her. "That... is a secret." Lina hung her head as he laughed and disappeared into thin air.

"I hate him some days." Lina grumbled while Shiro patted her on the back.

* * *

Nanoha: Well, that was a fun chapter.  
Yuuno: I wonder if you're ticklish.  
Nanoha: WAGH! No tickling!  
Vita: I thought this was a next episode preview?  
Hayate: We should probably hurry before the budget runs out.  
Fate: What budget?  
Arisa: Great, you guys used up all of our time, now we won't be seen for two years.  
Suzuka: Next time on Blood That Flows - Red, read it, because we'll be older.  
Nanoha: Mouu! Not a time skip!

Yeah, that's right. The next chapter will skip ahead a little bit.

Zelas was reading the Ah My Goddess manga.

Other than that, the only thing I can say is...

I wanna tickle Cinque as well.

Another note, damn formatting issues. Cinque was supposed to say that without taking a breath while getting tickled, but the formatting took it all away, so I had to make it look like she took a breath in there. *Grumbles*


	106. Red the Sixth

Blood That Flows

Red the Sixth

I own nothing really. Nope.

* * *

Two years later...

"FINALLY!" Arisa yelled as she, Nanoha and Fate exited the school doors. "Never thought I'd get out of there today!" She turned to look at her friends. "And you two weren't very helpful today in gym, you know that?"

Seeing the short-haired blonde getting upset, Nanoha giggled softly before smoothing her uniform out. "Hey, come on, Arisa-chan, it's not that bad, is it?" The girls had grown taller, though for Nanoha, who now had her hair in a long ponytail hanging from the side of her head, she was constantly reminded about the fact that compared to Fate, Arisa and Suzuka, she was rather skinny, short and flat-chested. At least she was a little taller than Hayate, it would be almost unbearable if she was the shortest among their friends.

It was especially bad since she had to look up to look Vita in the eye. Who knew that the hammer knight would become so tall?

Seeing the dirty look that Arisa gave Nanoha, Fate just smiled and stepped between them. The last thing that they needed was a magic fight at the school. The last Fate had heard, the construction area was still off limits from the sparring that the two got into a few months ago. "Now, now... I'm sure that Arisa's just surprised that Riksfalto's still our gym teacher."

"That... Arrrgh!" Arisa spun and crashed, face first, into a pair of large breasts that knocked her on her butt. "Ack! Signum, didn't see you there."

Crossing her arms under her chest, Signum, dressed in a light colored short-sleeved shirt and dark pants, raised an eyebrow. "Maybe instead of complaining about something you have no control over you should watch where you go."

"Here to pick up Hayate-chan and Vita-chan?" Nanoha asked as Fate helped Arisa to her feet. Signum nodded to her and Nanoha turned around as more people walked out. "Well, there's Yuuno-kun and Suzuka-chan... Hey, have either of you seen Hayate-chan or Vita-chan?"

Yuuno looked at Suzuka, who shrugged. The girl's long purple hair flowed in the wind behind her. Even at age fourteen, she was shaping up to be a real beauty. It was embarrassing for her, every morning, to have at least several dozen letters in her shoe box from boys who were just now noticing girls and decided that they all wanted the best looking ones in the school. It didn't help that Suzuka and her female friends were considered among the best looking and hung out all the time.

Yuuno himself had grown a bit lanky, due to a growth spurt in the past summer, which put him the tallest of his friends. He wasn't sure whether he wanted to chuckle or not at how he had to look down on practically everyone in class just to look them in the eye. After living on Earth for the past few years, he had to admit, going to school was a touch boring, but it was fun just to hang out with Nanoha, Fate, Hayate, Vita, Arisa and Suzuka.

Plus it kept him from being Val's babysitter, which was always a plus in his mind. He had nothing against the kid, but the young Dragon just never ran out of energy.

"Sorry, guess we don't know either." Yuuno shrugged before rubbing his eyes. He hated to admit it, but he kept getting headaches from reading books for too long. Lina had informed him just that morning that he was going to have to see an eye doctor in a few days. It probably was for the best, over-all. "ACK!" He yelped as a body slammed into his from behind.

"Mou... Talking about me like I'm not even here, no fair, Yuuno-kun." Hayate pouted as she clung to Yuuno's back. "Just because Vita-chan and I took a little longer than the rest of you, you think you can talk about me like I'm not even here."

Yuuno had to shift his feet so that he didn't suddenly fall down and rolled his eyes. "We were just wondering where you were, Hayate."

"Yay, I knew you loved me!" Hayate giggled as Yuuno's face turned red and Fate gave her an annoyed look. "Aww... Fate-chan's jealous."

"No I'm not." Fate huffed and looked away. "I'm just thinking that Reinforce would be upset that you're leaving her for someone else."

Hayate gave Fate a shocked look. "I would never leave poor Reinforce alone. I have Zwei to think about too, you know." Her face slowly melted into a perverted leer as she patted Yuuno on the chest. "There's enough of me to share for twenty people."

If Hayate wasn't on his back, Yuuno would have been grabbing at the short ponytail he had, instead he just hung his head, causing the blond bangs on both sides of his face to flop in the movement. "Hayate, sometimes I think you're just trying to get me into trouble."

"Hayate, if you bend forward anymore, you'll flash your panties to everyone." Vita spoke up as she walked out of the building. It was almost amazing to everyone that Vita had grown so fast. Other than Yuuno, she was taller than the rest of her friends her age, and her breasts were large for most fully-grown women, much less a girl her age.

Hayate took great pains to remind her all the time that Vita's breasts were about the size of Shamal's and just as full as the blond knight's chest. It wouldn't bother Vita so much, but she still needed to get new bras every couple of months. Reinforce commented that if Vita kept growing like she was, she'd soon have the largest pair of breasts in the house.

Not that Zwei seemed to mind, since she just loved snuggling up to Vita's breasts whenever they were in the bath or asleep.

It didn't help Vita's mood too often that her butt and hips had grown almost as much as her breasts had. Vita really couldn't complain too much about it, even if she had to buy panties that were bigger than her waist suggested.

She was reminded of how much she had grown when she and the others were at the beach last weekend before summer was over and school started. She couldn't believe how many people slammed into stuff while looking at her. It was amusing, but, distracting and slightly embarrassing. It really didn't help matters any that Amy had told her that she had breasts and a butt that would make any guy, and even some girls, stop and stare at her.

Hayate jumped off of Yuuno's back and turned to face Vita, pouting. "Mouu... You're always spoiling my fun, Vita-chan." The redhead was now sporting a single braided ponytail instead of her twin-tail look from when she was younger, combined with her rather muscled frame, the former little girl of a knight was a damn impressive sight to see.

Signum rolled her eyes and shook her head. Really, for a bunch of fourteen-year-olds, except Vita, who was legally thirteen, they were pretty normal. "Hayate, if you would please stop trying to flash everyone and Vita, if you would stop trying to be intimidating to the little boys who were trying to take pictures of Hayate's panties, could we please get going? Reinforce needs to see you two and then she wants to take the family out to dinner." When Vita and Hayate both perked up and started moving towards her quickly, she chuckled and waved to the others. "See you around, Inverse, Takamachi, Scrya, Bannings, Tsukimura." The others waved at Signum as she and the others turned to leave.

"What are you thinking about?" Arisa nudged Nanoha, who giggled at her.

"Oh, just thinking how Signum's still more than a head taller than Vita-chan." Nanoha smiled before being put into a headlock by Arisa. "Arisa-chan!" She waved her arms up and down wildly in an attempt to get away from her friend.

"Hmph! If you don't hurry up, Nanoha, you're going to be even shorter than Hayate soon." Arisa closed one eye while looking at her captive.

"Nooo!" Nanoha calmed down, tears pooling down her face. "Not that. I don't want to be the midget of the group!" She broke free and turned and glomped onto Suzuka. "Suzuka-chan, I'm not going to be the midget of the group, am I?"

Suzuka sweat-dropped and patted Nanoha on the head gently. "Well, uh, I don't think you'll be the midget... You're still growing, so maybe you'll shoot up to be really tall when you get older?"

That seemed to calm her distraught friend down as Nanoha let go and stood as tall as she could. "That's right! Soon, I'll be taller than all of you, just watch!"

Arisa nodded at Nanoha. "Sure you will..."

Nanoha beamed at her.

"Chibi."

Nanoha crouched onto the ground, her head between her knees and a blue aura of gloom surrounded her.

Fate and Yuuno both just sighed, this was just a typical day for them after all.

* * *

Fate: Now Arisa's done it. Nanoha's all upset.  
Yuuno: Well, at least they're able to take their aggression out on each other.  
Fate: True.  
Yuuno: Next time on Blood That Flows - Red, read it, or Nanoha will blast all of us.  
Fate: He's not kidding either.

Well, I hope you enjoyed it.

If you're having trouble imagining Vita, just think of her as a bit shorter than Signum, with breasts the size of Shamal's and a nice butt to match. And, of course, legs and arms to match her height.


	107. Red the Seventh

Blood That Flows

Red the Seventh

I own nothing really. Nope.

* * *

Later...

"I got you!" Nanoha, in her white barrier jacket, grinned as she and Arisa, who was in some cargo pants and a backless, sleeveless shirt, sparred in the park. The discolored sky was lit up by a pink, crackling blast of energy as Nanoha took a shot at the currently bound winged girl.

Arisa frowned as the energy closed in on her. She struggled against the pink binds that Nanoha had trapped her with. It really wasn't fair that she had all this power and she still could only call up a sword and these wings. At least Yuuno mentioned that the best he could do was a either make an extra large fireball or a pillar of fire, and he had been working with magic his whole life.

Holy magic was just _weird_.

Nanoha smirked as an explosion of dust and electricity covered Arisa. "That's one down." She turned to see Yuuno and Fate sparring in the distance. "Well, gunna take both of them down, Raising Heart?"

**"Twin Photon Buster."**

Nanoha grinned as two large pink spheres appeared at her sides, quickly gaining power and even more size.

**"Danger!"**

Nanoha's eyes widened and she turned her head in time to see a wall of blue fire heading right at her. Crossing her arms, she grit her teeth as the wave crashed down on her.

**"Protection Powered."**

Even as the barrier went up, Nanoha couldn't help but be amazed by the sheer force the wave had, going so far as to being able to push her down to the ground until the flames subsided. Once they did, Nanoha stood up and shook her head and took a few deep breaths as she looked up at the surprised Arisa. "When did you learn that?"

Arisa grinned at her. "Just now, I guess." Snapping her fingers on her left hand and waving it across her body, her eyes lit up as a blue wall of flame spiraled around her. "This might be interesting." She blinked as Nanoha flew up to meet her, grinning at her.

"Yep! Divine Buster!" A pink beam lashed out, crashing into the barrier and forcing Arisa back through the air. "Oooh!" Nanoha's eyes sparkled in delight. A barrier that strong looked like it would be fun to try and break down.

(-)

Meanwhile...

Fate hovered in mid-air and frowned softly as she held up a yellow sphere in her open palm. This free-for-all sparring match had been Arisa's idea initially, but she didn't see any reason not to have some fun fighting her friends. "Bardiche."

**"Yes, sir, Plasma Execution."**

A bit up and away from Fate, Yuuno's eyes widened as the clouds suddenly darkened and started crackling with lightning. "What the?"

Fate spun Bardiche in her hands a few times before thrusting down. "Fire from all angles, leave not a single area unattended, Dimensional Thunder!"

Yuuno's eyes widened as white-hot lightning crashed into his hastily created barriers from all angles. Fate's chant hadn't been just to boast either, he really couldn't fly out of this or concentrate on counter-attacking. "Thoth Driver."

**"Got'cha boss, I think she's mad because you let that other girl rub your back with her boobs."**

"Now's not the time." Yuuno grunted at his device.

Fate watched before nodding and spinning Bardiche again and thrusting forward. "Crush all, Dimension Break!" Several nearly clear spears appeared around Yuuno's barrier before slamming his shields with tremendous force.

Fate let out a breath as the spells abated and looked down at herself, frowning.

**"Yes, sir?"**

"I don't think my current Barrier Jacket is a good idea, Bardiche. I think I need more armor to it." Her legs certainly weren't unguarded, as she could feel the thicker leg armor from the fairly tight pants that she was wearing, and her hands were protected by fingerless gloves, it was her shirt that she was worried about. Other than being black and fitting snugly, all it did was cover her torso, breasts and neck. Her arms from her shoulders down were completely bare and she really didn't think it offered much more protection than her previous outfit had.

**"Suggest asking Lindy for advice."**

Fate smiled softly. "Doesn't sound like a bad idea." Really, she liked the other woman, plus she always had advice on various things that Fate needed some help with. Fate's burgundy eyes widened as green motes of light appeared around her body before chains snapped into place, trapping her. Struggling, she tried to get out of them. "Nnngh... Dang it, Yuuno!"

"Hey, you nearly took my head off with that last attack." Yuuno snapped at her from above as he floated down and Fate gasped as she saw the blood on his forehead. "Though, I have to admit, I never saw an attack like that before, what was it?"

Fate blushed at that. "Something... Something Precia left for me, I can't really control it though. Her notes said that she could make almost four dozen of those blades, I could only make four. I need to keep working with it and develop my own magic." She pouted and looked at him pleadingly. "How do you find the time to keep working on all the magic that you have?"

Yuuno blushed as he tapped his wrist. "Thoth Driver here was designed to help me with that, kind of like how you said Bardiche was supposed to help you with combat that wasn't directly related to high-speed combat."

**"Yep, but boss still won't go and..."**

"Thoth Driver, if you complete that sentence, I'll let Vita use you for stress relief when she's feeling crabby." Yuuno said flatly.

The device promptly shut up.

"Bardiche, Sonic Form, now!"

**"Sonic Drive."**

Yuuno floated back, covering his eyes as Fate flashed yellow. He looked at her outfit and stared.

It was hard not to, as her pants had become biker shorts and her shirt now only covered her breasts, chest and neck, leaving her stomach exposed. "Um, Fate..."

"I'm working on my outfits, okay?" Fate pouted, the yellow wings on her wrists and ankles flapped slightly. It wasn't her fault that Sonic Form was so... Revealing. She needed to do something about her outfits though. All the anime, video games and books she saw all had women in very revealing outfits. If she wasn't careful, she was going to end up in a sling bikini for her Sonic Form.

Gripping Bardiche, Fate seemingly disappeared in front of Yuuno, only to reappear at his back, swinging her device at him. "Hiiiyaaah!" Despite the fact that she was far faster than he was, her weapon stopped mere centimeters from his head.

"Nice try, Fate." Yuuno smiled as he spun around and thrust an open palm out. "Diem Wind!"

Fate grimaced as she was hit square in the gut, sending her flying backwards at high speeds, crashing into the tree branches and knocking several leaves to the ground in the process. "Oww..." She muttered as she floated up. "Bardiche, Zambar Form."

**"Zambar Form."**

Fate smiled as her weapon shifted forms. Now that she was older, it was a lot easier for her to use. "Thunder... Whip!" She held it in front of her face and ran her fingers across the flat of the blade, charging it with power, before she spun around in circle once and lashed out at Yuuno, who was flying at her.

Yuuno grimaced and created a barrier in front of him that kept the whip from connecting with his body. But even so, he was knocked back and forced down onto the tops of the trees himself. "Alright Fate..." He muttered as he skimmed along the surface before flying straight up. "Try this!" He held his left and right arms parallel to each other while his hands were cupped, between them a ball of flame appeared and started spinning before Yuuno pulled his hands apart and the ball shattered into motes of light.

Fate frowned, wondering what that was about, before gasping as she was surrounded on all sides by fire. And judging from the feel of it, it was his blasted Holy magic. _"Overkill much?"_

_"Pot, this is kettle, you are yellow and black."_Yuuno shot back to her over the telepathic link they were using.

Fate half smirked as she had Bardiche revert to his normal mode before launching herself straight up, the balls of fire following after her an instant later. After clearing the upper clouds, Fate flipped in mid-air and dove down at an angle, picking up speed and mentally cursing as those balls of fire decided that they could keep up with her as well. Spinning in place, she called up several Photon Lancers and launched them at the fireballs, sighing as they all exploded harmlessly into the air. "That's good."

_"I hate to break up your sparring match,"_ Chrono's voice caused the four to stop and stiffen slightly, _"But I need to talk to you four as soon as possible."_

They all blinked, wondering what Chrono needed them for.

(-)

Later...

"Vita-chan?" Nanoha blinked as she, Fate, Yuuno and Arisa walked into the Harlaown residence about ten minutes later. "Rein-chan?"

"Hi!" The small, blue-eyed device waved from her position on Vita's chest. Vita just rolled her eyes. "Chrono asked mommy and daddy and the rest if they could show up, but Shamal and Zafira were asked by that Leti woman to help cadets out with training this morning when you were all in school and mommy and daddy are meeting with Knight Carim and a few other people to establish connections on Mid-Childa and Signum..."

"Rein, I don't think they wanted to know the whole story." Vita sweat-dropped as Zwei giggled and rubbed the back of her head. "As for Signum, well, she's going with Hayate and Reinforce so she can help the Saint Church train their nuns better."

"Vita and I were going to go, but mommy said that it might have been important, so we stayed behind." Rein beamed happily.

Vita twitched and looked at Chrono with narrowed eyes. "But considering what you just told us, I'm not sure if I should be grateful that I got out of the boring meetings that Hayate and Reinforce have to go through or upset that I can't get in on training the nuns."

Arisa blinked a few times before looking at Chrono, who had grown pretty tall, considering he was seventeen years old at this time. "You just wanted to see a bunch of girls covered in sweaty clothes, didn't you?"

"Wha?" Chrono face-faulted onto the floor, groaning. "Ugh... I get enough of that from Filia and Amy, I don't think I need you badgering me too..."

"Daddy fall down, go boom!" A young voice called from the hallway and Chrono groaned as Val ran in and jumped onto his back. Chrono rubbed his forehead and groaned.

"Sorry, Val, I need to talk to the others, I'll play with you later."

Val pouted heavily. "Aww, but I wanna go to the park! Mommy's sleeping and gramma's with Amy-mama at the store. Why can't I go to the store?"

"Because the last time you did, you destroyed every bag of flour there and got covered in so much of that stuff people thought you were a ghost." Chrono deadpanned at him, causing the two-year-old to blink.

"Oh right!" He giggled, grinning at Chrono.

"Are you sure he's only two?" Arisa looked at Val, who glared at her.

"I'm two-and-a-half, lady!" He squeezed a small fist and shook it at her.

Chrono rubbed his eyes and turned his head to look at the young, green-haired boy. "Val, why don't you go and play that new game that your grandmother got you last week?"

"KAY!" Val jumped off of Chrono's back and ran out of the room as fast as his little legs could carry him.

"And keep it quiet." Chrono said as the young boy left the room.

"KAY!" Val yelled back as loudly as he could.

The others in the room all sweat-dropped.

"I hope we weren't like that at that age." Nanoha, Yuuno and Arisa all said at the same time as they looked at Chrono with flat expressions.

Chrono just shrugged. "Alright, before he gets bored with it, let me explain, I'm being asked by the Bureau to do some rounds for a couple of weeks, check out various areas and make sure that nothing dangerous has fallen onto the planets by accident." The small group nodded, it sounded like something he would have to do. "The thing is, the route I'm taking happens to go by a planet that has a very low ranking potential Lost Logia on it." He shrugged at the looks he was getting. "It's not really a Lost Logia in the sense of a Jewel Seed or what Reinforce used to be, but it's still technology that we don't completely know about. I just want a couple of people to go down to the planet, check it out and make sure that it's not in danger of exploding or going out of control and attacking people."

"What is it?" Yuuno asked and blinked as Chrono pulled out a remote and tapped a button on it, a 3-D image of a temple-like pyramid with a giant crystal at the top appeared. "What the?"

"From what records show, it's a defensive device forged years ago. In fact, I wouldn't have even known about it if it wasn't brought to my attention by Amy a few days ago. Since my rounds are going to go right past this planet, I figured that I could ask if a couple of you would be willing to go down and check it out."

Nanoha frowned softly. "So, why'd you make it sound like it was something important?"

"Well, how else was I supposed to make sure you four weren't so beaten up that you couldn't listen?" Chrono said with a completely straight face. He blinked as Nanoha, Fate, Arisa and Yuuno all face-faulted. "...What?"

"GAH! I thought something important was happening!" Arisa stood up and lunged at Chrono, only to fall short as she found herself trapped in blue binds and falling flat on her face. "Oww! What gives?"

"One, you attacked me, two, would you try to keep it down? Filia's not been feeling well lately and I want her to get some sleep, okay?" At least Arisa had the decency to look ashamed at that. "Actually, come to think of it, Amy's been complaining about feeling a little sick to her stomach too lately." He shrugged it off and hoped that they were okay. Snapping his fingers and releasing the binds, he looked at Nanoha, Fate and Yuuno. "Listen, you don't have to, this is just reconnaissance, nothing more."

"I'll go." Yuuno spoke up. "I figure you wanted me to go with anyway, or you'd call someone of my clan up to do the work for you." Chrono sweat-dropped and nodded slowly, wondering how Yuuno saw through him so easily.

Fate nodded at that. "Good, um, Chrono, is your mother going to be gone this weekend?" At least Chrono had asked when there was a three day weekend coming up instead of on a weekday, going on this mission would have been a bit of a problem otherwise. Lina wouldn't have minded, but she would have made sure that they got caught up with their homework as soon as they got back, at least during a weekend, it wasn't so bad.

"No, she'll be around, why?" Chrono blinked as Fate blushed softly.

"I just wanted to talk to her, plus I need to practice some more on some of my magic, so, I'm sorry, but I won't be going on this mission." Fate felt a little bad that she was bowing out of the mission, but she didn't feel too comfortable with some things at that moment.

"Hey," Vita spoke up, "Zwei and I already agreed to go on this mission, so don't worry about it." Zwei nodded happily. "Besides, Chrono just said he needed a couple of people."

Chrono nodded at that. "Yeah, I just asked you four here so I could keep my options open, that's all."

Nanoha nodded and pouted slightly. "Mouuu... I'm upset that I didn't get to try my new move out yet."

For some reason, Yuuno, Fate, and Chrono all had shivers go up and down their spines.

Arisa, on the other hand, wondered why she suddenly had a mental image of Fate and Yuuno bowing to her and thanking her for saving them.

* * *

Fate: I think I need to take care of something.  
Nanoha: Me too.  
Yuuno: Wait, we're not in the next chapter?  
Vita: This blows!  
Rein: Next time, on Blood That Flows - Red. Read it, or I'll think you're a bully!  
Vita: Rein, put the ice hammer down.  
Rein: Awww!


	108. Red the Eighth

Blood That Flows

Red the Eighth

I own nothing really. Nope.

Very short chapter here. But, don't worry, the next chapter will make up for it.

* * *

Later...

"So, you wanna go spar?" Nanoha asked Arisa, who shook her head. "What?"

"It's getting late, I'm pretty sure that we need to go eat soon, besides, we have a three-day weekend, right?" Nanoha nodded. Fate wasn't there, having stayed behind to wait to talk to Lindy about something concerning her Barrier Jacket and getting some magic help. Arisa grinned at her. "Besides, I was totally kicking your butt all over the place."

Nanoha looked at her shocked. "Nah uh! I was winning!"

"So says the girl who had her butt on fire in that match."

Nanoha narrowed her eyes as she and Arisa got face-to-face with each other, both looking through narrowed eyes at the other one. "So says that girl who's into bondage."

"You and Chrono are just perverts who like tying up girls who can't get free. At least I'm not short."

Nanoha's eyes widened and she growled. "Okay, that's it, I'm going to show you just how big I can make my explosions, Arisa-chan."

Arisa smirked as she stepped back. "Well, that's fine, but bigger isn't always better." Seeing Nanoha glare at her lightly, Arisa chuckled. "First thing tomorrow?"

"Bring an extra change of clothes, when I'm done, you're going to need them." Nanoha almost shook her fist at Arisa, who nodded, before they took off in different directions. "See you later, Arisa-chan." Nanoha beamed at her friend, who just waved as they continued to walk away from each other.

After she got home, she nearly fell down from a small bundle of energy that latched itself onto her legs and squeezed tightly. "Onee-chan! Up!"

"Hey, Arashi." Nanoha chuckled softly as she looked at her brother's bright brown hair. Kneeling down, she picked him up and chuckled as her father came into the entrance way after Arashi. "He run away from you again?"

"We was playing hide and 'eek!" Arashi giggled and kicked his legs up and down. "Daddy got lost and I ran away."

Shiro chuckled and blinked. "Where's Fate and Yuuno?"

"Fate-chan wanted to talk to Lindy-san about something and Yuuno-kun's working with Vita-chan and Rein-chan on a mission somewhere." Nanoha put Arashi down, letting her little brother take off into the house, giggling the whole time. "Is mom home?" Shiro nodded and Lina slipped off her shoes and walked into the house. "Hey, mom."

Lina turned to her and smiled softly. "What's up? And please, don't tell me that you nearly destroyed the city forest again." She chuckled as Nanoha pouted at her.

"I do that one time and you won't let me forget, huh?"

"You're the one who wouldn't wait for a barrier to go up before practicing combining a Rune Flare with your Divine Buster." Lina shrugged. "Anyway, did you want something?"

Nanoha looked a little concerned and Lina stopped what she was doing to turn and face her fully. "I'm not sure about having Riksfalto as a gym teacher... And Yuuno-kun's spending more time with Fate-chan, Miyuki-nee and going on missions with Vita-chan..." Nanoha looked down, sighing heavily. "I don't know, I just feel like I'm not important to them anymore."

Lina nodded and put a hand on the top of Nanoha's head. "That's what's bothering you?" Nanoha nodded, her face red. "If it helps, they still think you're important, Nanoha, but it's hard for people to spend every moment they have with everyone." Lina ruffled Nanoha's hair. "Besides, think of it this way, if not for you, Yuuno and Fate wouldn't be here right now."

Nanoha smiled and nodded to her. "Yeah, thanks mom. Guess it was stupid, huh?"

Lina chuckled and shook her head. "Nope. One thing that I learned in life is that when people you come to depend and rely on aren't around you as much, it feels like they're abandoning you." Nanoha nodded and Lina lightly punched her shoulder. "Don't worry about it, okay? Regardless of anything else, they're still your friends and family."

"Thanks, mom." Nanoha smiled. "So, can I help make dinner?"

"Sure." Lina smiled as they went to work making the meal for everyone in the house.

* * *

Vita: It's about time!  
Zwei: Yay! Now we get a mission!  
Yuuno: Aren't you two too excited?  
Vita, Zwei: NO!  
Yuuno: Next time, on Blood That Flows - Red.  
Zwei: Read it, Vita, what's wrong?  
Vita: Nothing... Nothing at all.

So, anyway, someone asked why Fate called Precia by her name in the last chapter instead of "mother".

My answer? Fate's young and until what happened just a little bit ago with Precia dying, she was quite upset with where she came from and wanted to push it away. Plus, she's a teen now, so, she's a bit awkward at times.


	109. Red the Ninth

Blood That Flows

Red the Ninth

I own nothing really. Nope.

* * *

Elsewhere...

"Vita..." That voice called to her again.

"SHUT UP!" She screamed back, anger, pain and sadness flowing through her words with such vehemence that the person trying to contact her paused slightly.

"Come on, she's just worried about you." That voice of her commander called to her.

"I said, SHUT UP! I don't listen to any of your orders outside of battle, just leave me alone!" All she wanted to do was look at the sky, why couldn't they just shut up? 'Blue sky, huh? Yeah right, all I ever see is dirt, dust, smoke and blood. Blue skies don't exist.'

"Vita..." That annoying voice, the one that kept making them all fight, called to her again. "If you look to the south, there's a spot that's not completely covered..."

Growling, she cut off communication, but not before heading away from the direction that she was given, not to mention the others. 'Why?' She looked up, tears pooling in her eyes. 'Why can't they just leave me alone? I'm going to have to fight for the rest of my life anyway, why should I make friends with them? We're nothing more than tools who mean nothing in the long run.'

She hated thinking like that, but it was war, they were only good for one thing during war.

'Even if we die, the wars continue on, without end, why?' Vita shuddered, Graf Eisen shaking in her grip. 'Why can't this battle ever freaking end?'

(-)

Vita's eyes snapped open and she groaned. "That dream..." Why did her memories have to start coming back? Why couldn't they stay away in the past?

"Vita?" She blinked as she saw Zwei sitting on her belly, looking concerned. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine." Vita muttered, before blinking as Zwei jumped off of her belly and landed on her breasts. "Oww... What are you..."

"You're crying!" Rein looked at Vita, tears swelling up in her eyes. "Why are you sad?"

Vita blinked and reached up to rub her face. Her eyes widened slightly as she felt tear tracks on her cheeks. "...Just a bad dream, nothing more." Zwei pouted, but nodded. "What time is it?"

"Chrono said we'll be at the planet soon, so I came to wake you up." Zwei still looked upset.

Vita smiled at her softly. "Hey, Rein... When this is over, you wanna go to the hotel?"

Zwei blinked. "The one with the water slides?" When Vita nodded, her bright blue eyes lit up in happiness as she bounced on Vita's large breasts. "Yay! Fun splash splash!"

Vita winced and nodded. "Yeah, but please stop bouncing on my chest, that hurts."

"Sorry." Rein pouted as Vita chuckled and got up from her cot, the small device floated away from her.

"Heh, I needed that nap." Vita smirked as she grabbed her red jacket and threw it over her shoulders, leaving the front unbuttoned, revealing her black, short-sleeved shirt that hugged her upper body, grabbing her blue cargo pants, she adjusted them slightly. "Nnngh... I gotta remember to take my pants off when I take a nap."

"Mommy just sleeps naked, so does daddy." Zwei blinked and tapped her chin. "You okay, Vita?"

"Yeah, just got a wedgie from tossing in my sleep is all." Vita slid a hand down her pants and adjusted herself before pulling her hand out and walking out of the room.

(-)

On the bridge...

Chrono nodded as he saw Vita and Rein, the latter in her small silver dress, walk onto the bridge. "Now that we're all here..." He gestured to Yuuno, who was wearing brown pants and a tan shirt. "Let me just remind you three that it's just a mission to go down and check things out, don't go starting trouble with the locals," he looked at Vita, "don't go burning the forest down," Chrono turned to look at Yuuno, "and don't be so cute that the locals want to keep you and make you the patron saint of one of their local gods."

"Mouu... That only happened once." Rein puffed out her cheeks and crossed her arms over her small chest.

"I think he was talking about me this time," stated Vita as she massaged her temples. About the only consolation that Vita had was that at least it was a war god. If it had been a sex god or goddess, she would have had to "deal" with it. It was bad enough that people drooled after her as she was now, she didn't want the gods doing the same.

"Yes, I'm sure it only happened once." Chrono deadpanned as he nodded to her. "Anyway, just be careful down there."

"Not going to drop us off any closer than that?" Yuuno frowned as he saw the clearing. "That's several kilometers from the temple."

"Yes, well, try to keep magic usage to a minimum." Chrono smiled at him. "As for teleporting you right to the temple, well..." He turned to the technicians. "What was wrong with it again?"

"The gem on the pyramid makes accurate teleportation impossible for at least six kilometers. And this is the closest clearing we could find." The technician shook his head. "As for dropping you off into the jungle, well... I don't think any of you would appreciate if we goofed and you fused with a tree forever."

The technician smirked as the three winced heavily. "Well, have fun, and don't get eaten by any giant snakes out there."

(-)

Moments later...

Vita sighed as Rein looked around nervously. "Are you worried about snakes?" Rein nodded and blinked as Vita held open her shirt slightly. "Here, hide in there, they won't get you."

"Thanks!" Rein smiled as she zipped between Vita's breasts.

"What are you looking at?" Vita gave Yuuno a slightly annoyed look as the blond blushed.

"Vita, um, I am a guy you know..." Yuuno trailed off as Vita smirked at him as she started walking towards the pyramid.

"What? A small flash of my boobs too much for you?"

**"Nah, boss sees Miyuki without any shirt on all the time."**

"THOTH!" Yuuno's face was red as he yelled at his device, causing Vita to laugh.

"Hey, you coming, Yuuno?" Rein called from under Vita's shirt. "Comfy in here."

"Just don't move around too much, Rein, okay?" Vita twitched slightly. She had seen some of the older girls in school drop their cell phones, pens, sometimes other stuff between their breasts and wondered why they did it.

Doubly so now, because Rein just kept fidgeting.

"Sorry." Vita sighed as Zwei calmed down, though spreading her arms and legs and laying diagonally across her breasts really wasn't what Vita had in mind.

"Next time, I'm bringing a bag." Vita muttered to herself.

(-)

Hours later...

"Ugh..." Vita wiped some sweat from her face. She had already discarded her coat, wrapping it around her waist, to try and cool down. "Should have worn a tank top."

"Or a looser shirt." Yuuno commented, he wasn't any better than Vita was, sweat dripped off his forehead. Unlike Vita, he had pulled out a red bandanna from his pocket and wrapped it around his forehead. When she gave him a dirty look, he sighed heavily. "Vita, I'm serious. With the amount that we're both sweating right now, we could walk around naked and not get much cooler than we are right now."

He blinked as she stood in front of him and frowned. "Uh, Vita..." The next thing Yuuno knew, he was on his back and rubbing his face. "Oww... Vita, what?"

"That was sick, Yuuno..." Vita muttered as she turned and left him blinking.

**"Smooth move, boss."**

Yuuno blinked a few times more before his eyes widened. "Ack! Vita, I didn't mean it like that! I just meant it was really hot and humid, come on!" He yelled as he ran after her.

"Yuuno..." Vita muttered softly. "I don't dislike you, but I don't want to walk around naked around you." Yuuno paused, frowning softly.

"Vita, I..."

Vita spun, an angry look on her face, and took several deep breaths. "Look, Yuuno, you're a nice guy, and I'm sorry I hit you, but don't just tell a girl that she could get naked and nothing would change. Things always change when you get naked. Always."

Yuuno really didn't understand what was going on, it was even worse as she looked at him with a hurt look in her eyes, before she turned and kicked a tree root, splitting it in half and causing it to raise up and practically become a door. Yuuno just stared, wondering how much she was holding back when she slapped him a few moments ago.

Especially since she split that tree root so easily and managed to rip it out of the ground partially.

_"Vita... Are you okay?"_ Rein squirmed on Vita's chest and popped her head out of Vita's shirt. Vita didn't answer her and Rein pouted and hugged Vita's sweaty chest. _"Just tell me what's wrong, please?"_

_"Nothing I want to talk about right now, Rein."_Vita sent her telepathically as the three of them finally got through the jungle and got into the clearing next to the pyramid. Vita and Yuuno both blinked as they saw a man with long dark hair, wearing shorts and nothing else, his tanned skin was gleaming with sweat and there were some scars on his muscled arms and chest.

The man turned to look at them, his dark eyes looked at them questioningly. "I would not come any further than you are right now." He mentioned to them to stop. "Ignore this warning at your own peril."

Vita frowned and stepped closer. "Just what are you..." She trailed off as she was bathed in a red light. "What the?" Her eyes widened as she felt a powerful force heading for her. Quickly throwing up multiple barriers, she gasped as they shattered as quickly as they formed, leaving her no choice but to spin, grab Rein and throw her to Yuuno moments before a powerful blast hit her back, shredding her shirt and tearing apart her backside.

"I warned her." The man muttered softly and shook his head.

"SIS!"

"VITA!" Yuuno and Rein ran towards Vita, who groaned as Yuuno touched her. "You're still alive, hold still..." Yuuno looked up as the light bathed both him and Rein and he was prepared to fight back when the light faded away. "What?"

"YUUNO! HELP HER!" Yuuno shook his head and put his hands to Vita's back, glowing a soft white.

"Resurrection!" He called out, sighing as he felt the healing energies start flooding Vita's body and making her wounds seal up and fade away. When he was done, he and Rein both turned to glare at the man, who had walked up to them.

"Interesting... Most people would be dead..." He leaned down and blinked as Rein zipped in front of him, her arms spread wide as she glared at him. "Yes?"

"You hurt my sister." The man's eyes widened as a white Belkan triangle appeared under her feet and her hands started to crackle with power. "You... BULLY!"

The man was blasted with a powerful lightning strike that sent him flying across the clearing hard and fast, slamming into the pyramid with enough force to crack the stone around him.

"How... DARE YOU?" Reinforce Zwei's body crackled with power, fire in one hand and lightning in her other hand. "I won't forgive you for hurting my** family!**"

Behind her, Yuuno shuddered as he heard her voice start to deepen. "Reinforce Zwei, stop it." He nearly stepped back as she looked at him, her eyes crackling with power. "Stop, you think Vita would want you to kill him? She's alive, so calm down, please?" He wasn't happy either, but killing the guy wasn't on his list of priorities.

Giving him third degree burns would suffice.

The man grimaced and stood up. "Wait, please... Let me explain."

Yuuno stood up and walked towards the man, his flames started to spiral around him. "Talk then."

"Listen, the gem on the top of the pyramid," he pointed upwards, "scans anyone who walks near. If they are evil, they are instantly killed, if not, they are left alone."

"My sister is not evil!" Rein zipped up to him, growling. "You take that back!"

He grimaced and nodded. "I agree, otherwise she would be dead now. But she has done a lot of evil things in her past, otherwise she would not have been attacked."

Yuuno's eyes widened. He knew what the man was talking about. "How can that thing know about Vita's past?"

"Just trust me it does... There is a way to help her though." He nodded as they seemed to calm down. "Carry her to the top of the pyramid." He chuckled at Yuuno's look. "I doubt that her sister would let me touch her right now."

"You got that right!" Zwei shook a fist at him and the man shook his head.

"I'll be at the top."

"Who are you?" Yuuno asked as he walked to Vita and rolled her over so that he could pick her up and blushed as her shirt and bra fell off, being too tattered from behind, exposing her generous breasts to him. Quickly grabbing her tattered coat, he threw it over her chest before picking her up and grimacing as it became a bit harder to walk. 'Dammit...' He didn't mind the view, but he was certain that Vita wouldn't be happy about him seeing her topless.

It was harder because his hormones decided to remind him that, yes, Vita was a woman, and yes, those were some lovely breasts, but he didn't want to deal with something like that now. 'Stupid uncontrollable urges.' He thought to himself.

**"Hey, boss, I took a picture, you want to see?"**

Yuuno blushed as Thoth Driver brought up a holographic image of Vita and shook his head. "Not now, Thoth!"

**"Okay."**

"My name?" The man said as he turned back to Yuuno. "Call me... Abby. That's all I will tell you for now."

Both Rein and Yuuno stared as the man started jumping up the pyramid with ease. It wasn't something that was too odd for them, since they could both fly, but for someone who didn't seem to be able to fly, being able to jump about ten meters off the ground in a single leap was rather... Unusual.

* * *

Yuuno: What's going on?  
Rein: Sis? What are you? Sis? Why are you acting this way?  
Yuuno: That's what... It was?  
Rein: Next time on Blood That Flows - Red, read it, please?  
? ? ?: You have no idea what happened, do you?

Told you that this chapter would make up for it.

Again, sorry for the short chapter before. Hope this one was better.

Man, Zwei is SCARY when she's angry, huh?


	110. Red the Tenth

Blood That Flows

Red the Tenth

I own nothing really. Nope.

* * *

"So, what do you want me to do with her?" Yuuno blinked as the man, Abby, he reminded himself, stood beside a door. Walking up to it, he blinked as he saw a room that was mostly empty, except for the pool of water in the middle. "What the?"

"Put her into the water." Abby said as he turned away from Yuuno. "She won't drown, if you're worried about that."

Yuuno frowned. "How can we trust you?" The man shrugged at Yuuno. "You think I'll just put her in the water and leave her..."

"You can stay, though it'll be hard to see once she's in the water." Abby turned back to look at him. "The water is magic." He sighed as Yuuno didn't let go of Vita. "Would you rather she get blasted again?"

"What?" Rein zipped by Vita, looking at her in concern. "What do you mean?"

"If she wakes up before being immersed into the water, she'll be blasted again."

"Will this kill her?" Yuuno asked him, causing him to shrug. "Dammit, I can't just..."

"I don't know. The things that happen are different for everyone." Abby shrugged at Yuuno. "I said you can stay in there if you want to, but that's up to you."

"I will." Rein nodded and looked at Yuuno. "You will too, right?"

Yuuno smiled at the small device. "Yeah, I won't let her get hurt." Walking to the water's edge, he gently placed Vita's body into it, before gasping as the water suddenly started glowing brightly and steam filled the room. "Rein?"

"Yuuno!" Rein called out, trying to find him. "Where did you go!"

"I'm right here." Yuuno called, though to Rein, his voice was going further and further away.

"What's..." Rein trailed off, gasping as she saw Vita, Signum, Shamal and Zafira, though Vita was much smaller looking and had no breasts, and their outfits weren't the neat ones that Hayate gave them, but just black slips that only barely covered them. "Everyone!" She zipped up to them only to gasp as her hand passed through them like she wasn't there. "What?"

"How many more pages?" Zafira asked Signum.

"Just fifty more." Signum flipped through the book. "Vita..." She turned and frowned as Vita walked off. "Where are you going?"

"Found a little rat... Not much magical power, but..." She held out a hand. "Let me take care of it."

"Fine." Signum nodded, tossing the book to Vita. "Just hurry up."

Vita nodded and walked off, the others disappeared and Rein found herself following Vita until the little redhead came up to a young boy. "Vita! No!" Rein called out, trying to stop her and finding that she couldn't do anything. "Why won't you listen to me?"

"Just relax, you'll be part of the Book of Darkness soon enough." Vita's eyes were dull, uncaring. "Just become one with the book and shut up."

The boy growled and stood up, running at Vita, who sighed heavily. "Fool."

Rein gasped as she saw Vita swing Graf Eisen into the boy's skull, cracking it and sending him down in a splatter of blood.

"Still alive?" When the boy tried moving, she nodded. "Good, now hold still."

Rein watched as the boy was flipped over and his Linker Core came out. "Vita, no!" She tried everything she could, even blasting a spell at Vita, to no avail. "Why, Vita? Why?" Rein asked, tears falling down her face as the Linker Core was absorbed completely and the boy fell down, dead. "Why?" Rein pulled herself into a ball, sobbing.

(-)

Yuuno frowned, he couldn't even feel Vita anymore, nor the water. "What's..." There was a flash that nearly blinded him. When he could focus again, he gasped in shock. There was Vita, naked and chained to a wall, bloodied and bruised. "What the hell?" He ran up to her and grabbed at the chains, only to find his hands passed right through her as if he wasn't there. "...Vita, is this... A memory of yours?" Hearing the sounds of a door opening, he turned and saw a man, a large man, walk into the room and grin at Vita, who could barely look up.

"Man, so long as we don't kill ya... You can't regenerate completely, can ya?" He chuckled as he stepped forward and pulled out a spiked glove. Yuuno's eyes widened as the man put it on and punched the young-looking Knight in the gut, tearing flesh from her and causing more blood to flow freely. "Though, I have ta admit, ya still heal pretty good." Glaring at her, he punched her in the face, causing Yuuno to gasp in horror as her flesh was torn off completely. "That was for ma brother, ya bitch. You and yer knights killed him fer no reason!"

"Stop it!" Yunno stood between them. "Don't, she's had enough!"

"It was hard enough to seal away most of yer magic, you stupid little... BITCH!" Yuuno could only gasp as the man punched Vita in the throat. "But, no... I can't seal away all yer magic, or ya just disappear and then come back." Looking down, he snorted. "Ya might look like yer a kid, but you sure as hell ain't nothing more than a murder weapon."

"Funny you should say that." The man's eyes widened as he turned just in time to have his head separated from his shoulders.

Signum spared him no more of her time before cutting the chains that held Vita up. "Don't worry, Vita... We'll get the master to heal you, I promise."

Vita just stared up, her eyes blank as Signum carried her and ran as hard as she could.

The scene darkened and Yuuno shuddered. "Vita... Is that what you went through in the past?"

Blinking as he heard crying, he walked towards it and found Rein, curled into a ball, sobbing. "Rein?" The small device looked at him, tears falling down her face. "Are you..?" He didn't get to finish as she zipped to him, hugging his chest and crying. "Rein?"

"Vita... I saw Vita... She was... She was... A monster and..." Rein trailed off as the sound of wind came up. Looking around, she let go of Yuuno's chest and looked around, before another scene popped into place, this one was of a snow-covered landscape. Both Yuuno and Rein's eyes widened as they saw Vita, Shamal and Signum, all naked and in a holed up barn. Even though there was a fire going, the three of them looked cold.

"Where's... Zafira..?" Vita managed to get out through clattering teeth. Signum shook her head and Shamal trembled as well.

"We don't know, I hope he's okay." Shamal said softly, though sighed heavily. "I haven't seen him for almost four days now."

"If our master would just give us some blankets... Or clothes when we weren't fighting..."

"Enough, Vita." Signum looked at her, her teeth clattering as she tried to stay warm. "Our master can do whatever he wants to us. Even this. We'll just have to tough it out."

Vita didn't answer her as the scene faded away.

"That was..." Rein whimpered. "Vita, Signum and Shamal... What..."

"These are Vita's memories..." Yuuno said softly. "Memories of her past... And how horrible it was for her and the others."

"But she did so many bad things, didn't she?" Rein looked at Yuuno, who nodded slowly. "Why?"

"...I don't know... But, I think it's because the pain of living was so bad, she needed to do bad things so she would forget the pain, even for a little bit."

"Vita..." Rein looked around, her eyes glistening with unshed tears. "I'm sorry, Vita. You're not a monster. Vita! Come back!"

(-)

"Where am I?" Vita looked around, seeing nothing but darkness. "What is..." She trailed off before gripping her head and falling to her knees. "Nnnaaaah!" Her eyes were wide as she panted. So many vivid, violent and bloody images passed through her head in a moment. "What... Was that?"

"Your past. Or rather, the past you had when you were a piece of the Book of Darkness." A familiar voice came from behind her. Turning, her eyes widened as she saw herself, or rather, what she used to look like, just in that black slip of a dress instead of her usual red outfit these days.

"Surprised?" Her otherself grinned at her. "I'm your memories... Everything that made you, you. All the pain, suffering and death that you suffered and caused others." She jabbed herself in the chest. "That's me. All in one little package." Seeing the stupiefied look on Vita's face, the loli shrugged and slowly walked around Vita. "Well, you wouldn't remember, seeing as I'm what the Book of Darkness created to store your memories. After every death, after every rebirth, I was just storing them. Filtering out what you didn't need to know so you could fight harder. Of course, you wouldn't know that, being an artificial human like you are." She sighed softly and tapped her chin. "Then again, all things considered, you are what you would have been."

"Huh?" Vita blinked and her smaller self smirked sardonically.

"You don't recall, do you?" The small knight looked at her, her eyes clouding over. "You don't recall the deal you and the others made to the Book of Darkness... In exchange for more power... When you died, you would become the guardians of the book and help it gain more power, for as long as you could." Before the confused larger girl could speak, her smaller self suddenly threw her head back and laughed. "Of course not! A failed product like you would never know what you promised all those years ago when you were still human!"

Vita's eyes widened. "What?"

"You don't remember, huh?" The smaller girl snapped her fingers and Vita gasped as she saw a bloody battle field. "Graf Eisen, a weapon given to you by your lord, enhanced with tremendous power by the Book of Darkness..." The mini Vita smirked at her. "It didn't help much when you had a hole blasted through your chest, did it? Ahh, the memories..."

Vita watched, horrified as her past self stared at the hole in her chest and looked up at the person who did it. "That was..."

"Signum, yes... Her first awakening in fact." The small Vita nodded. "The two of you didn't know each other back then, and you forgot about this when you first woke up as a program anyway. Besides, she had no will nor mind of her own at that time."

"But..." Vita felt weak in the knees and her stomach suddenly felt like empting itself.

"Oh please, like you were any better, beating people to near death just to suck their Linker Cores out." The small Vita walked forward. "You were always alone, you know."

"That's not..."

"True?" Vita gaped as her smaller self just snorted at her. "Tell me something, oh big breasted bimbo," Graf Eisen appeared in the small knight's hands and she pointed the pointed end at the surprised taller redhead, "do you think that your friends can accept you?" An image appeared and Vita stared, wide-eyed as Rein clung to Yuuno and calling her a monster. "I didn't think so. Even if you think you have others, they'll all abandon you. Your masters weren't kind in the past, and even though there were nice ones, they all left you." She walked up to Vita and stopped inches from the taller redhead. "Everyone leaves you, you're nothing more than a failure of a knight, one who ends up all alone."

"That's not..." Vita trailed off as another scene, this one of her rushing into battle, the other knights dead, and their opponent carved into pieces. "What?"

"The master of the book at that time didn't even care to regenerate the other knights. You were quite tormented from that..." Her smaller self chuckled. "It took five years of constant searching before you completed the book, always a little late, weren't you?"

Vita growled and stood up. "You... How dare you? You think that I don't know I was hurting? I know I was."

"And yet, you physically attacked your leader... The silver-haired one." Vita's eyes widened in shock. "Don't you think she was suffering as well?" She shrugged and turned away. "It doesn't matter, nothing matters anymore."

"...You're holding back, aren't you?"

"What would attacking you accomplish? I'm you after all." The smaller Vita snorted. "Or rather, you with all your memories."

"And all my pain and suffering?" Vita blinked as her smaller self laughed. "What?"

"You have no fucking clue, do you?" Vita gasped as her smaller self spun and glared at her. The sheer amount of deep hatred and pain that those eyes contained. "Your pain and suffering that you remember are nothing to what **I** remember. Every hurt, every cut, every death by your hands, I have all of those memories, all the time that you were alone, I was there, absorbing it when the Book died and you were reborn again." The small Vita took a deep breath. "So, what good is it? You can't comprehend, but maybe when you're alone again. After all, you went from human, to construct, back to being human after several millenia."

"Vita!" The taller of the two stopped and turned, just in time to have a small object crash into her chest. "I'm so sorry, Vita!"

Vita looked up as Yuuno, cloaked in flames, rushed to her. "How did you two..?"

"Rein and I used Wide Area Search and I amplified it with my Holy power." Yuuno blinked as he saw the small Vita behind her. "Two..."

"Who the... Oh yes, the one who froze me." The small Vita snorted and turned away. "Just leave now, huh?"

Vita stood up and gently took Rein off of her chest. "Hold on a minute, you two..." She turned to face the small Vita before kneeling and turning the little girl around.

"What are you..?" The small Vita's eyes widened as she was hugged, her face pressed into the larger Vita's breasts. "What?"

"I know that you hurt, I know that all you wanted was for someone to take that pain away from you... Hayate did it... Nanoha, Fate, Yuuno, Mrs. Takamachi, Reinforce, Signum, Shamal, Zafira... and Rein, my little sister... They took my pain away from me, sharing it... I'm not alone, not anymore, never again." Vita smiled softly as her smaller self trembled. "And... You're not alone, you can rest... I found my home, my family... My parents... My sisters... My brother... I live with them now. My friends bring me so much joy."

"You're... Lying." Her small self trembled and Vita shook her head.

"No... I'm not. Hayate, the other knights, Reinforce, Rein Zwei, they're my family... Yuuno, Nanoha, Fate, Arisa, Suzuka, they would go through hell to help me, and I would do the same for them." She closed her eyes as her smaller self started to cry into her chest. "...You were right though... I was hurting, so much... But, because of that, I couldn't see how much pain the others were in, and how I was never really alone. They were there for me since the beginning. I just couldn't see it through my own pain and suffering."

"Promise me something..." The smaller Vita whimpered softly. "Never let them go. Always keep them close... I'm so tired... So tired."

"Then rest, where the past is, in the past, the future... That's for us to make."

"Us?" The small Vita looked up confused. "What?" Her eyes widened as her taller self kissed her on the forehead. "Vita, what?"

"The future, where I can protect everyone's smile to the very end."

"That was... My wish for Hayate..." The taller Vita nodded. "She was an Angel of Light..."

"That transcended time and fully accepted us, regardless of our past..."

The small Vita closed her eyes and sighed softly. "I'm disappearing... Vita... Promise me... Promise me that you'll never, ever..."

"Shh..." The taller Vita quieted her smaller self. "I don't need to promise you that... Because you and I both know, that we'll never let anything bad happen to our family, ever."

"In the past..."

"Or the future."

"Thank you."

Yuuno and Rein both blinked as the smaller one disappeared and the fog and darkness cleared up, leaving Vita kneeling in water. "What... Just happened?"

Vita turned and Yuuno blushed as her coat fell down, revealing her chest to him and Rein. "My past, my present, my future... I... I dealt with the past" She closed her eyes. "Funny, I feel... Like a burden was taken off my shoulders."

"It sure wasn't your breasts." Yuuno said as he pulled his shirt off and tossed it to her. "Put that on."

Vita's face went red as she grabbed the shirt out of mid-air and quickly put it on. It was quite tight around the chest, but at least it was covering her breasts. "Um, yeah... Sorry, Yuuno."

"It's okay." Yuuno smiled and Rein pouted. "What's wrong?"

"I don't think Vita looks good in your shirt."

**"I beg to differ, her shirts don't let you see just how perfect her breasts are like Boss's shirt does."**

"THOTH!" Yuuno yelled at his device, his face red. Why couldn't his device be normal?

As they walked out of that room, Vita, Yuuno and Rein looked around for that guy and were surprised to find that he wasn't around. "Funny, I would have thought he would be here to say something." Yuuno sighed, wondering just who that guy was.

As they walked down the pyramid, Vita took up the rear and smiled as she looked at Rein and Yuuno. 'I can walk forward to the future without my past bothering me... I'm not alone anymore...' She closed her eyes and an image of Zafira, Signum and Shamal popped into her head. 'No, I've never been alone, I was just too blind to notice that they were always there with me.'

"Hey, Yuuno." Vita looked at the shirtless boy as they got to the bottom of the pyramid. "You learned a bunch of new spells on that other world you, Nanoha and Fate went to right?"

He nodded to her. "Well, yeah, why?"

"I want you to teach me and Rein some of those spells."

"Huh?" Yuuno stared at her and Vita sighed softly.

"I was giving it some thought, and well... Reinforce taught all of us what she knew about Black magic, but I was thinking that there had to be more than what she was teaching us. And Nanoha said that you were the one who figured out how to make Mrs. Takamachi's style of magic mesh with your style, so..."

Yuuno nodded at her. "Sure, I can't teach you Holy magic, but I can teach you the Shamanism that Zelgadis and Amelia both taught me."

Vita nodded as Rein floated and landed on her shoulder. "Works for me."

* * *

Val: My turn! Rawr!  
Fate: Oh, you think so, huh?  
Val: Yep! Next time on Blood That Flows - Red, I'm here! Rawr!  
Fate: Oh really?

These last two chapters were inspired by the StrikerS Sound Stages where Vita and Rein Zwei go over the past.


	111. Red the Eleventh

Blood That Flows

Red the Eleventh

I own nothing really. Nope.

* * *

Meanwhile, on Earth...

"Sorry that I made you wait for so long, Fate." Lindy smiled softly as she sat in the living room. Seeing Fate and Val rough housing a little bit had her worried, mostly for the furniture, since both Fate and Val were a lot tougher than normal people.

A fact that she was reminded of as Fate spun a little too fast and the green-haired toddler was flung across the room, smacking his head against the wall and getting to his feet, none the worse for wear.

"That was fun!" The boy gushed and ran at Fate again, letting out a small growl as he dived for the blonde and tackled her to the ground. "I win!"

Fate giggled and patted him on the head. "Yes, yes you did." The boy was surprisingly heavy for his size. It almost made her wonder how much Lindy had to pay to get the whole place reinforced to support Filia's weight, if Val was any indication, Filia had to be extremely heavy. "Can I sit up now?"

"Okay." Val chirped and got off of her, causing Fate to laugh softly as she sat up.

Lindy smiled as Fate got on the couch. "So, what did you want to talk about?"

"It's my barrier jacket, both my normal and Sonic forms..." Fate sighed softly. She didn't mind showing some skin in her Sonic form, but her normal outfit... "I feel that it's not... Durable."

Lindy raised an eyebrow at that. "Well, to be honest, you never were much for soaking up damage, even your Rubin Blitz form was meant for speed over durability."

Fate nodded, she knew that. "Yes, but... It feels like I can barely withstand even some of the weaker attacks. And speed is good, but taking a hit and being taken out because of it, it doesn't sound good. I still can't beat Signum in a match and Yuuno's defenses are so tough and Nanoha can soak up almost as much damage as Signum can and deal out more, and then there's Hayate, who can throw out spells stronger than Nanoha normally and almost as fast. Vita doesn't even use magic half the time when she spars with us anyone and can throw us around with just pure strength Reinforce is, well, Reinforce and..." She blinked as Lindy held up a hand.

"I understand that you want to compare yourself to your friends and be better than they are, you can't be better than them all the time."

"But..." Fate had a worried look on her face as Lindy smiled at her.

"We all have our strengths, but you are right, your outfit isn't very durable." Fate nodded and Lindy tapped her chin. "Well then... I'm going to head to Mid-Childa in a few days for a meeting. You want to come with?" Fate blinked several times. "I know some people who can design really practical outfits, maybe something can catch your eye?"

Fate nodded and smiled at Lindy. "Thank you." Her eyes widened as she heard a childish growl and a body crashing into her back, sending her tumbling to the ground.

Lindy sighed and was just thankful that Val and Fate had made sure to clear the floor of anything that could break...

Like the wooden coffee table... And all the chairs...

Lindy winced as the two rolled into the wall and sighed as she didn't have to worry about a television falling down and breaking at the very least.

"Rawr!" Val let out a yell as Fate rolled onto her belly and he jumped onto her back. "Ha!"

"Help! The mean Dragon has me!"

"No one will save you now!" Val laughed as he grabbed Fate's hair, though he made sure not to pull too hard. Mommy would be mad at him if he hurt someone by pulling on their hair too hard.

Lindy shook her head and fought back the urge to laugh as Fate started crawling around and bucking like a horse to get Val to get off. The girl was really good with children, which was slightly surprising, all things considered.

'When she decides to become a mother herself, her children will adore her.' Lindy smiled as Val and Fate continued to rough house.

(-)

Three days later...

Reinforce, dressed in her usual apparel around the house, a sweater and some jeans, stood up as the door opened and Vita called into the house. She nodded as the redhead walked into the living room. "I had to tell the school that you were under the weather, Vita. So you've got today oof!" She took a step back as Vita practically lunged at her, wrapping her arms around Reinforce's body tightly and clinging for dear life. "Vita?" Reinforce asked after a few moments and realizing that the girl was shaking slightly.

"I'm so so-sorry..." Vita murmured with her face buried into Reinforce's chest.

Reinforce blinked, confused as she rubbed Vita's head while hugging her back. "For what? Don't tell me that you ate Signum's ice cream when she wasn't looking."

"What?" Signum's voice carried out from her room as she came out, looking irritated. "Who ate my ice cream?" She blinked as she saw Vita hugging Reinforce and shivering in the silver-haired woman's arms. "Vita? Reinforce? What's going on?"

"I'm sorry... For how I was... I never thought how hard it was on all of you. All I cared about was how hard it was for me and..." Vita's words degenerated into a garbled mess as her legs gave out and she started sobbing hard into Reinforce's chest.

Reinforce's eyes softened as she hugged Vita tightly. "Shhh... Shhh... It's okay, Vita..." Kneeling down, she positioned herself so that she could hug the distraught girl easier. "I never blamed you for it. It was my..."

"NO!" Vita looked up, shocking Reinforce. "I... I asked the book for more power... And..." She hiccuped as Rein Zwei floated into the room, concerned. "And when I died, I would become its servant, and then I took it out on all of you over the years and..."

"Vita." Signum said, her tone cool and calculated, causing Vita to stiffen and look at her, tears welling up in her eyes. "Regardless of what we have done in the past, the past is the past and we cannot change it." Though she, Shamal and Zafira had, as of late, been stocking up on various alcohols to try and forget some of their worst memories. "That being said, Reinforce doesn't blame you, why do you think she does?"

"Because I made her think that I hated her when I was just mad at everything else..." Vita blinked as Reinforce hugged her again, her hand on the back of Vita's head as she rocked back and forth slowly. "Reinforce?"

"I'm... Glad that you didn't hate me, Vita... I always thought that you did..." Vita shook her head. "..I guess we never spent time alone, huh?"

"Yeah..." Vita trembled slightly. "Then when you came around and started sleeping in Hayate's bed with me... I felt... I thought you were taking her away from me..."

Reinforce closed her eyes and softly sighed. "And I thought you were just being selfish and wanted her for yourself."

"I just didn't want to lose her... And I thought you were going to take her away and..."

"Vita..." Reinforce said after a few moments of letting the redhead cry softly. "Would you like to go out somewhere today? Just the two of us?" Vita looked at her, blinking in confusion. "It might help us relate to each other."

Vita nodded. "Sure, um, lemme get cleaned up first." Unlike Yuuno, Vita hadn't taken too many extra clothes with and was in need of a shower and a change.

Reinforce nodded, smiling as Vita stood up and ran for her room. "How was the mission, Zwei?"

"Really good, though I wonder who that Abby guy is. Did you know that Yuuno's really, really good with barriers? Yuuno gave Vita his shirt when she lost hers and then he taught me and Vita some new spells and things went boom!" She threw her arms and legs wide as she recounted the details as only she could. "Plus I saw some of Vita's past, Vita was a bad girl, mommy, but she was really sad and she never got a hug. Signum needs a hug too." Rein zipped over to Signum and put herself face-first down on Signum's chest in an attempt to hug the pink-haired knight. "You all need more hugs."

Reinforce nodded and stood up. "I need to change as well." Her sweater was drenched in tears and she wanted to look somewhat nice when she and Vita left.

Signum blinked as she and Rein were left alone. "What do you mean, you saw some of Vita's past?"

"Saw her memories and Vita talked to me and Yuuno about them." Zwei nodded and floated up to look at Signum, her face downcast. "It was a really bad time, huh?"

"Yeah, it was... I don't like to remember everything that I did."

"Is that why you, Shamal and Zafira drink that smelly water?" Signum gave a surprised look at Zwei, who sighed softly. "I asked mommy and she said that Vita, daddy and myself aren't allowed to drink it because it's not for us."

"I see..." Signum trailed off, nodding softly. "We don't drink a lot, just enough so that the memories stop." She sighed softly. "We were all pretty bad people and did a lot of bad things."

Zwei nodded before concentrating. Signum blinked as Zwei turned into the size of a small child and hugged her at her waist. "Zwei?"

"This form is harder to control my magic in, but..." Zwei hugged her tightly. "You need a hug. The past can't hurt you. You got daddy, mommy and me now. Plus all our friends. You don't need that water... It's stinky."

Signum smiled softly and knelt down, hugging Rein tightly. "Thank you, young knight."

They stayed like that until Reinforce had come back and took a picture of the two.

It was strange to the taller Reinforce that neither Signum nor her daughter seemed to mind her having a picture like that.

* * *

Fate: Looks like it's time to meet that woman on Mid-Childa.  
Lindy: Yeah.  
Fate: Eh? What's this?  
? ? ?: Stay away!  
Fate: Next time on Blood That Flows - Red. I won't hurt you.


	112. Red the Twelfth

Blood That Flows

Red the Twelfth

I own nothing really. Nope.

* * *

Days later...

Fate blinked as Lindy hung up her phone and looked at her apologetically. The two were heading towards an office building and Lindy sighed softly. "I'm sorry, Fate, I need to get to a meeting. Just standard stuff, but since I'm here, I can't really refuse." Fate nodded and Lindy sighed softly. "And, about that designer..."

"Yes?" Fate perked up slightly, she really could use a new outfit for her standard design.

"Turns out that she fell ill recently." Fate looked downcast. "Thankfully, she got to the hospital and is fine, but as she's retired, well, she may not help you at all."

"She won't?" Fate blinked in confusion.

"She's... Weird." Lindy chuckled softly. "She once designed an outfit for myself and Leti that was nearly transparent." Fate blushed, her eyes wide at the thought of that. "And quite... Breezy, since neither of us had underwear on when we used it." Fate's face was glowing by this point. "Though, I have to admit, it was quite useful for defense, even if it was slightly embarrassing." Lindy giggled softly at Fate's look. "I'll let you in on a secret, Fate..." She winked at the teenager. "I met my husband in that outfit."

"I couldn't imagine why." Fate muttered, horribly embarrassed at the thought of being in such an outfit. She couldn't imagine what Hayate would do to her like that.

Though the thought of seeing Yuuno's reaction to her in such an outfit did tempt her mind enough that she actually ran the thought through her head.

Lindy blinked as Fate's eyes went white and she shook her head rapidly, trying to clear the blush off of her face. "Um, Fate?"

"Uh... Nothing..." Fate stammered as she turned away. "So, um, where is she?"

"Her name's Enoa Atenza, and she's in the Mid-Childa General Hospital. Just take a taxi there." Lindy smiled and gave Fate some cash. Fate nodded and turned to leave, causing Lindy to shake her head and head into the building.

(-)

After paying the man with the money Lindy had given her, Fate walked into the hospital and looked around. "Hello." She walked up to the receptionist. "I'm looking for Enoa Atenza..."

"Ah, yes." The receptionist nodded and smiled at Fate. "Just take the elevator up to the fifth floor, then go down to room 546, she should be there."

"Thank you." Fate bowed and turned to the elevator and blinked as she saw two people she didn't think she'd see. "Shamal! Zafira!"

The two turned to her and Shamal smiled. "Hello, Fate, what brings you here?"

"I'm visiting someone, what about you two?" Fate walked up to them and smiled as Zafira nodded to her.

"I'm here learning some more medical techniques." Shamal smiled softly. "Your mother taught me that Resurrection spell of hers not too long ago, I was hoping to show it to them... Oh, sorry, need to be at the meeting, see you later."

As Shamal walked off, Fate walked to the elevator. "How about you, Zafira?"

"Not much, I was just here with Shamal, since there's not much to do between missions on Earth these days due to school."

"Didn't Vita say something about increasing her hand to hand?" Fate asked as she looked at him while pushing the elevator buttons.

"She's learning boxing, due to her growing height and strength. I'm also teaching her some martial arts that I've picked up over the years to help her with her balance issues." Fate bit back a laugh as Zafira said that with a straight face. "If you want, I can teach you some techniques."

Fate grimaced and stepped off the elevator with Zafira. "I don't know if that would work, Zafira, I mean, I'm still mostly Mid with some different hybrid choices thrown in, I'm not..." She trailed off as a scream was heard coming down the hall. Looking at Zafira, the two rushed towards the sound of the scream.

Never once did Fate look at the floor she was on. If she had, she might have stayed on the elevator.

After all, she was supposed to have gotten off on floor five, not floor six.

Rounding a corner, Fate and Zafira both stopped as they saw a couple of doctors talking with some nurses quietly.

"I don't know what we can do with him anymore. We may just need to put him out of his misery." One of the doctors said, shaking his head.

"Doctor, he's still just a five-year-old boy."

The doctor sighed and nodded. "I know that, I just..." Something caught his eye and he turned to see Fate enter the room they were just in. "Hey! You can't go in there! Stop!" He moved to grab Fate but was stopped by a vice-like grip on his arm. Turning to look at the hand grabbing his arm, he gulped as he saw a man in a black shirt, black pants, blue and white hair and pointed wolf ears looking at him with narrowed eyes.

"Don't, you won't like what happens next." The man growled and tossed him aside before walking to the door and leaning against it. _"Fate, you better know what you're doing."_

Inside, Fate looked at the huddled, trembling form in front of her. "Hello?" She said softly and the form straightened up and glared at her. "A boy?" She tilted her head slightly and looked at him. He was filthy, had spiky red hair, wild blue eyes and lightning crackling around his body. "I won't..."

"STAY AWAY!"

Fate's eyes widened and she got a half-second warning before lightning and something else lashed out from the boy's fingertips towards her, burning her hands, arms, and shredding her shirt, leaving her in a mostly burned up bra that barely covered her breasts anymore. "Stop that." She said softly as she grabbed his hands and gently clasped them, causing his eyes to widen in shock and fear. Sure, that had hurt, a lot, her hands were probably bleeding right now, but it lacked focus to truly hurt her, which was a good thing right now.

That wasn't why Fate had walked up to the boy, she could feel his power and looking at his eyes, she could see more than the rage and crazed look that most people could see.

She saw pain, loneliness, deep sadness and confusion.

The same eyes that stared at her in the mirror every day for over a year, even with counseling.

"You're lashing out, because you don't know why people are treating you the way they do." Fate said softly as the boy stopped his magic attack. Kneeling in front of him, she gently wrapped her arms around his body and put her finger tips to the back of his head, nudging him to rest his head on her breasts. "Someone you loved betrayed you, didn't they?" The boy sniffled and nodded against her, wrapping his arms around her tightly. "And you don't know what to do, do you?"

The boy shook his head, tears falling down his face and splashing onto her skin.

"I was once like you." Fate said softly. "All I could feel were negative feelings, nothing good about myself. But, you don't have anyone to tell you that you're a good person, do you?" The boy stiffened and Fate just rocked back and forth slowly. "You aren't alone. You have someone who will make sure that you're always okay."

"Who?" The boy's voice was cracking as he sobbed into Fate's chest.

"Me." Fate said softly and smiled as he leaned back, looking at her in shock. "Because I know how painful it is to be rejected by someone you love and think that you're alone in the world." The boy was trembling now. "You aren't alone. I'll stay here with you, okay?" When he threw himself at her, crying loudly, she just smiled at him. "My name's Fate Inverse... What's yours?"

"E...Erio..."

Fate smiled and closed her eyes as she rocked back and forth. "Erio, you aren't alone. I'll make sure that you're never alone again."

(-)

Zafira raised an eyebrow as he heard that through the slightly open door. _"That's a big promise, think you can keep it?"_

_"Maybe, think you can get Shamal to come up here? My hands are bleeding really badly and there's something about the lightning he hit me with."_

Zafira blinked at that, wondering what was so special about the lightning, but shrugged it off as he called Shamal to come see them.

(-)

A little later...

Shamal shook her head as she healed Fate's hands. The boy, Erio, wasn't letting her go and the doctors weren't letting her leave with him, so she was forced to go into the room where the two of them were. If it wasn't for the fact that she was certain that she could defend herself if the boy tried something rash, she would have been nervous at the look he was giving her. "I swear, Fate, if I wasn't around, you'd probably break both of your arms trying to spar against Vita."

Fate just smiled at her as she rubbed the boy's back. "Erio... Can I please leave for a few seconds?" She sighed as he tightened his hug. "I promise you, I'll be right outside..." She looked at Zafira and Shamal for support as Erio shook his head against her breasts. "I'll leave the door open, you'll be able to see me, I promise I won't leave you alone, okay?"

"But you're leaving..."

Fate sighed softly and moved so she could look the boy in the eye. "I promise you, I will not leave you alone. I need to talk to someone, okay?" Erio sniffled, his eyes watering up and Fate sighed heavily, ruffling his hair and kissing him on the forehead. "Erio... Will you let Shamal and Zafira watch you?" The boy whimpered softly and Fate sighed heavily. How could she convince him to let her go and talk to the doctors?

"Erio..." The boy blinked at the male voice and stared at the giant wolf that walked up to him. "I'll let you ride my back if you let her go." He walked up to Erio and gently nudged the boy with his muzzle before sitting down.

"Zafira's a lot of fun to ride." Fate whispered to Erio. "He used to give me, Nanoha, Hayate and Vita rides all the time when we were really tired."

"You can still ride on my back, Fate." Zafira practically rolled his eyes at her as she blanched.

"I couldn't do that! I mean, I'm too heavy, I'd hurt your back and..."

"I've carried Shamal, Signum and Vita on my back off the battlefield while limping and bleeding before, Fate, you aren't as heavy as that."

"Are you sure?" Fate asked and Zafira nodded as she stood up and got on his back, Erio still clinging to her. "Erio, come on." Her eyes widened softly as Zafira stood up with no problem. "If you let go, you'll be able to ride Zafira."

The boy slowly, hesitantly let go of Fate and grabbed Zafira's fur as he turned around. Zafira walked to the door and the doctors frowned at him. "Move."

"I'm sorry, but that child is..."

"Nothing more than a child." Shamal stepped up. "One who suffered a heavy trauma and is starting to recover. I shall make sure that he does not go anywhere he should not, but he needs to be able to leave this room on his own."

The doctor narrowed his eyes at Shamal. "Just who do you think..."

"No, who do _you _think you are?" Fate spoke up, her eyes narrowed as she hugged Erio from behind. "You are supposed to be doctors, my baby brother is heavier than this boy is."

"He attacks us every time we come close to him." One of the nurses spoke up and gasped as the boy's eyes seemed to glow darkly at her. "See? He wants to do something right now."

Fate sighed heavily, idly wishing that she had some pull with the Bureau. "What would it take you to allow us to take this boy from here?"

"You'd have to have a General or an Admiral sign off and... Why are you grinning like that?" The doctor gulped at the look on Fate's face.

"Well, it just so happens that I know an Admiral very well... I can have her here in only a few minutes if that would satisfy your conditions."

"Even so, we can't just..." The doctor stopped as Erio yawned and turned to snuggle against Fate's chest. "See? He's asleep, we can just..." His eyes widened as he took one step and several electrical bolts appeared in the air, along with several spikes that grew out of the wall, and four green gems floating in mid-air. "What?"

"I think," Shamal spoke up softly, "that none of you will be touching this boy until we hear the full story behind him..."

"I'd also like to know why his magic is so unusually strong." Fate added, causing one of the doctors to sigh and nod back to the room.

"Let me explain..."

***Flashback***

"In here!" A male voice yelled before kicking the door down and rushing in.

"I don't know how you Bureau dogs got in here..." A scientist said as he grabbed a syringe and needle. "But I think I can AHH!" He screamed as his hand suddenly became bloody paste. "You..."

He didn't get to say anything more as he was shot in the head, sending him flying back to the far wall, knocking him out.

"A little overkill with that first shot, eh Lanster?"

"Sorry, Voltz." The young man chuckled softly.

Voltz shook his scarred face. "Seriously, Tiida, you don't need to..." He trailed off as he saw the bound and trembling form against the wall. "Dear gods..." He shuddered and ran up to the child. "He's still alive, quick, get me a medical team, STAT!" He was glad that he was transferring to the Gulf Special Rescue Unit soon, he hated seeing cases like this.

Tiida Lanster nodded and did just that.

***End Flashback***

"It was later discovered that the boy was being used as a Guenna Pig in several illegal experiments to cause his magical power and ability to grow abnormally fast." The doctor sighed at their looks. "When he came to, he lashed out every time we tried to come close to him. One of the nurses even lost a hand when she had a needle, and that was just to make sure that his immune system was working right."

Fate's face was pale as she hugged Erio to her tightly. "Shamal... Could you please get Miss Lindy to come down here? I need to talk to her."

Shamal nodded and quickly left the room.

"Doctor... Does this boy have any family?" Fate looked at him, causing the doctor to shake his head. "I see..."

_"What are you planning, Fate?"_

_"I don't know, Zafira, I don't know, but I can't leave him here alone. I just can't."_

Zafira just nodded, trusting Fate to do the right thing when the time came.

(-)

An hour later...

Lindy sighed as she saw the young boy sleeping against Fate, hugging her tightly. "So, this is why you called me here?" Seeing the flushed look on Fate's face, she nearly laughed, the girl was so easy to tease, it was almost a crime. She turned to the doctor and raised an eyebrow. "I assume that there's a reason that I'm needed to sign out this boy. Aren't his parents around?"

"Officially?" The doctor raised an eyebrow, before turning to a nurse who had a book. "Read this, it should enlighten you as to what's going on."

Raising an eyebrow, Lindy took the book and started flipping through it. "Looks like notes... And official papers... How did you turn this into a book?"

The doctor shook his head. "Look at the spine, Admiral. It's a ringed binder designed to look like a book."

"Oh, well, now I feel stupid." Lindy gave him a half smirk and the doctor just snorted at her. "Let's see..." After reading a few pages, she looked at Fate, who was rocking the boy softly. "Fate, you'll want to see this."

"Huh?" She blinked a few times in confusion. "About what?" When Lindy showed her the pages in question, her eyes widened in shock. "That is..."

Lindy nodded and took the book back to look through it. "I don't know whether I should be impressed or saddened about that fact..." Lindy frowned as she looked over something written in red. "What the heck is this? Abnormal Linker Core... Far too large... Tests inconclusive." She looked at the doctor. "What?"

"We don't know." He sighed heavily. "I've never seen a Linker Core react to standard tests like that to be honest. On top of that, well, it's just..." The doctor shuddered visibly. "I'm not a mage like you or that girl are, but even my limited awareness can feel just how... Dark and evil that magic feels. I don't want any part of it."

"I see... Then you'll have no problem with me signing the papers needed to check him out today?" Lindy just closed her eyes and smiled serenely. "Also, I will need everything about Erio erased, he was never here, nor did anyone ever see this child before, right?"

The doctor nodded slowly. "Uh, right, no child, you were just signing papers to clarify something."

"Indeed." Lindy's smile never moved from her face. "I do not think that I need to remind you that any and all records of said boy that never existed here..."

"What records?" The doctor asked as he turned to leave. "You'll have the papers you require in less than an hour, Admiral."

"Miss Lindy?" Fate blinked in confusion at her. "What's going on?" When Lindy looked at her, her face had a serious look on it.

"Fate, Zafira, Shamal, I want you three to bring that boy to my office in twenty minutes."

The three just looked at each other in confusion as Lindy turned and left.

(-)

Later...

"So, what did you want to show us, Miss Lindy?" Fate blinked as Lindy snapped her fingers and all the shades in the room closed in an instant. "What?"

"What I'm about to say is confidential. This room is sealed to prevent people from listening in with anything. The only people that need to know about what I'm about to tell you are you three, myself and those closest to us, understood?" Lindy looked at the three, who nodded. "I see he's sleeping well..." The boy, Erio, was laying on a cot made out of several blankets that Shamal had gathered in a short amount of time.

Plus it was easier than carrying him around all the time.

"I think he's just passed out." Shamal spoke up softly. "What do you mean by confidential?"

"The report..." Lindy opened the book and slid it across her desk. "Read that page..."

Fate, Shamal and Zafira did and blinked. "What does this mean?"

"Unless we can get a complete scan of him, I can't say for certain, but that ranking, the power that he outputted at peak..."

"This is from... Some research facility?" Lindy nodded at Shamal's question. "What were they doing?"

"Experimenting on him, finding out what he could do and trying to draw out all his power... Fate, you felt his power, what did it feel like?"

"Almost like Black magic, but..." Fate's brows furrowed a bit as she thought about it. "Wait, are you saying he might be a Mazoku?"

"Possibly, but I doubt it. He could just have a natural affinity for it, but that's also doubtful. The fact is, if people realize that he has such abilities hidden inside of him..."

"The Bureau would do anything it could to get him to join and draw them out completely." Zafira muttered, causing Lindy to nod.

"I don't want to speak ill of the Bureau as a whole, but, Fate, remember how I was trying to recruit you and Nanoha officially?" The blonde girl nodded. "This wouldn't be recruitment, they would force him to join."

"What should we do?" Fate asked and Lindy smiled softly.

"Well, if he was to say... Be the ward of a guardian who could object to such a decision... However, you're too young to adopt him officially..."

"So, what can be done?" Fate asked and Lindy just smiled.

"Leave that to me, as for the boy, well... I hope your mother doesn't mind another body in her house for a few days at least."

Fate smiled softly. "I'm sure that she won't."

* * *

Quattro: Well, now, it's my turn.  
Sein: No it's not! It's mine!  
Jail: Now, now, it's all our turns.  
Sein: Yay!  
Quattro: Bah! Next time on Blood That Flows - Red, read it or bad things will happen to someone.  
Jail: Now, now, it's not time to do bad things right now.


	113. Red the Thirteenth

Blood That Flows

Red the Thirteenth

I own nothing really. Nope.

* * *

Meanwhile...

She smirked as she saw the liquid draining from the tube. "Most excellent..." Chuckling, she tapped a few buttons on a console and nearly started laughing as the girl slowly opened her eyes. "Good, I was starting to wonder if maybe I over-did it..."

"I think you did, Quattro." Said Cyborg looked back to see Uno and Jail walk into the room as the naked young girl got out of the tube. Uno continued to speak as she looked at the purple-haired child. "She's what? Five years old?"

"Six, I believe, but yes, about that age." Quattro nodded and Uno shook her head. "What is it?"

"For a five-year-old, you sure aged her body fast..." Uno looked at the girl, who may have only been a child, but she looked closer to thirteen or fourteen at that moment. "I swear, if you dyed Sein's hair purple, the two of them could get away with being twins almost."

Shrugging, Quattro looked at the girl and nodded slowly. "You're right, perhaps I _did_ go a little overboard with the rapid aging and the body enhancements. But a young child would be useless to us."

"Indeed." Jail nodded at her. "I'll need to do some tests on her body in a few days, Quattro, to make sure that there's nothing wrong with her that you didn't foresee." The cyborg shrugged at her. "For now, get her dressed in something."

Quattro smirked at him. "What? You want me to put her in a bodysuit?"

Jail shrugged as he turned and left. "It's up to you, however, I only have your sisters wear them because they help generate more output from your I.." He stopped and looked back at them. "Oh yes, I almost forgot, speaking of sisters, another one is going to be awakened today, you may want to meet her." Chuckling, he left the room.

Uno looked at the girl. "What's your name, girl?"

"...Lute...cia..." The girl rasped out softly.

Quattro chuckled at Uno. "Don't worry about her, Uno, I made sure to download relevant information into her head." Uno raised an eyebrow at her. "Direct information feeds about what she needs to know to help m, err, us out."

"Where is my mother?" Lutecia asked softly as Uno turned the naked girl around and walked her slowly, since the girl's legs seemed to not work completely yet, over to where an equally naked, purple haired woman floated unconsciously in a tube. "...She is my mother?"

"Yes." Uno nodded and looked back at Quattro. "How does she know about this woman?"

"I made sure that she would know what her efforts were going for." Quattro chuckled softly. "Anyway, Lutecia, you're going to need an outfit..." A slow grin came to her face and her eyes glinted softly. "And I think I have the perfect outfit for you."

Lutecia just blinked as Quattro left the room. "...What outfit?" She asked Uno, who shrugged and put a lab coat on over Lutecia's shoulders. "What's this for?"

"To keep you from getting too cold, dear." Uno smiled as she patted Lutecia on her back and gave the girl one last look over. "...Man, for someone who's only six, you're more developed than Sein is." Not that that was saying much, considering how petite Sein was, but Lutecia was almost as developed as Dieci was, which was far more impressive.

Lutecia just blinked, not sure how to take such a comment.

(-)

"Hey! She's awake!" A loud and cheerful voice was the first thing that greeted her as she opened her eyes.

The next thing that greeted her was a smiling face, green eyes and blue-green hair that was long enough to hang off the person's shoulders. "Ah..." Her face was heating up, she was sure of it.

The person in front of her stepped back and giggled at her. "She's cute, can I train her?" The next thing that happened left the newcomer blinking as the girl that was up close started to rub the top of her head. "Mouuu... Tre-nee's mean."

"I'm not mean, but you still need to finish your training before you can train others." A more gruff voice spoke up and she turned her head to look at the source of the voice, before staring.

The woman was _huge!_ Easily the tallest person in the room, not to mention muscled and radiating a sense of power that made her seem to stand out even more than she already did. The deep purple hair and yellow eyes helped out a lot in that regard as well. "Tre?"

Tre nodded, a small smile on her face. "Indeed. This green ball of energy is Sein." She put her hand on Sein's shoulder. "This," she motioned to a brown-haired, brown-eyed girl who was standing to the back quietly, "is Dieci."

"Hello." Dieci smiled at her. "Nice to meet you, Nove."

"Nove?" She blinked slowly, digesting the word. "That's my name?"

"Yep, yep!" Sein grinned at her. "Due and Cinque are a little busy right now, as is Qua-nee and Un-nee, but you'll meet them soon enough." Her eyes were shut from the force of her grin while she held a finger straight up. "Hey, doctor."

Turning, Nove blinked as she saw a man with long purple hair, yellow eyes and wearing a white coat over a suit, walk up to her and look her over. "Interesting... It looks like everything came out properly. Why don't you get acquainted with your sisters then, Nove?"

Nove nodded and looked down at herself. "...Why are we all in these blue suits?"

"Don't worry about it." Sein smiled at her. "We can modify your outfit later if you want to, maybe something that hugs your butt more?"

Dieci shuddered at that. "Sein, when I tried that, you couldn't keep your hands off of mine."

Tre snorted as Sein face-faulted. She was honestly thinking about seeing if she could get her outfit with anti-Sein shielding. Having her butt and breasts groped when they weren't in training was starting to get annoying.

Oh well, Sein was almost done with her training and was going to be able to train one of the remaining four sisters soon enough.

She felt sorry for them, she really did, but it was better one of them than her after all.

Jail smiled as Nove walked out with the others and turned back to the remaining four cyborgs that had yet to wake up. "Amazing, I'm glad that I stopped the assimilation process with you four..." To think that they would start to develop physical differences due to the DNA he merged with them.

The pointed ears were interesting, though nothing special...

The fact that two of them had tails and two of them had clawed hands and feet on the other hand was quite interesting.

Still... Even without his assistance, he couldn't delay them from fully integrating the DNA and their cybernetics for any longer than a year.

And that was being optimistic.

Then again, this was highly experimental, he might be able to not awaken them for ten years if he tried hard enough.

Sighing, Jail just hoped that he made the right decision when he decided to splice their DNA like he did.

Cinque and Due, both in the practice field, looked up at the walkway as Tre walked past. "Hey, Tre!" Due called out, grinning at her taller sister. "Cinque's almost beaten Dieci's record of turning cows into paste!"

Cinque blushed at that. "I'm still not used to the loss of depth perception, Due..."

"You could get the doctor to get you a new eye." Tre rolled her eyes as she walked down the stairs that led from the over-head walkway down to the training area. "Anyway, Due, Cinque, I want you two to meet your newest sister, Nove."

Due looked up and grinned as she saw a short redhead walk out from behind Tre. "Ooooh! She's cute!" When Nove's face got slightly disgruntled, she giggled. "Aww... It's like she's trying to figure out if she's embarrassed or upset."

"Or both." Nove muttered, crossing her arms over her chest. "...Does she always act like Sein?"

Tre chuckled. "Due's more mature than Sein is, if you're worried about that. She's just excitable around new things."

Nove scratched the back of her head, frowning slightly. "Like when Sein ran off to see what that one woman was talking about?"

"Uno, and yes, I assume so." Tre nodded, wondering why Dieci followed Sein, before shrugging it off. It was weird that Sein would willingly go anywhere near anything Quattro did these days, since Sein refused to be alone with Quattro at any time for some odd reason. Then again, it may have had something to do with the long stretches of time that Quattro disappeared over the past two years. Tre had been paying more attention in the past few months, but even before that, every time she got back from one of those trips, she had an incredibly... Satisfied and almost evil look on her face.

Tre made a mental note to ask Sein about that sometime in the future.

Due crossed her arms under her breasts, which, she noted with a small grimace, were slightly smaller than Nove's were. The small redhead's chest was just **huge** for her short and compact frame. "Comparing me to Sein, I shall not forgive either of you two! For that, I'm not letting either of you have any cake tonight!"

Cinque sweat-dropped and went blue in the face. "Um, Due... You made..." She gulped slightly. "A cake?" Due nodded. "And... Um... Is it done yet?"

Due tapped her chin and looked up aimlessly. "Hmm, I think it'll be done... Right about..." She grinned as a muffled, yet still loud, explosion went off in the kitchen. "Now."

"That's what I was afraid of." Cinque moaned and bent over, slumping downwards. "Can you please stop exploding the kitchen every time you cook?"

"Why? It's more fun this way." Due grinned as she bounced out of the area to go get her cake.

"I told you we never should have downloaded that bootlegged show from Non-Administered Planet 97." Tre shook her head as Cinque stood up, a soft blush on her face. "I know you like to see the explosions and the doctor likes to see more mundane science, but I really think that the Mythbusters probably wasn't a good inspiration for Due."

Nove just looked at them confused.

"Anyway, Nove, this is Cinque." Tre nodded to the short silver-haired girl. "She'll be training you in various things, mostly about how to interact with the rest of your sisters and on missions for awhile."

"Okay." Nove nodded and Cinque smiled at her. At least she seemed pretty understanding. "What about you, Tre?"

"I'll be helping you with your close range combat, but Cinque is your primary trainer, always ask her for help before coming to me." When Nove nodded, Tre turned and walked back up the stairs. "I need to make sure that we don't have a tidal wave of dough coming from the kitchen again."

Cinque nodded and giggled softly. Well, at least they didn't have to worry about having stuff to cook with after that fiasco. "Nove, I think we'll go over some basic stuff until the doctor gives you some your equipment." The redhead nodded at her. "And relax." Cinque smiled at her. "Just because I'm training you doesn't mean that we can't be friends. After all, we are sisters, we should get along."

Nove just blinked several times, not sure how to take that. "Um... Okay..."

"Besides, I want you to develop on your own, in your own way. If you have questions, don't be afraid to ask, but I want you to become your own person." Nove felt her cheeks heating up at the smile that Cinque was giving her. She didn't know what term to use to describe just how cute Cinque was at that moment, but one thing was for certain...

If she and Cinque were enemies and Cinque smiled like that... Well, she was almost certain that she would lose all will to keep fighting the girl.

(-)

Sein blinked as she looked into Quattro's lab. Her eyes widened as she saw a girl, who had to be about her age, with long purple hair, a white lab coat on over her shoulders and nothing else. "Oh wow..." Sein gasped as she walked up to the girl, who had turned away from the naked unconscious woman in the tube to look at her. "Wow... You're beautiful!"

The girl just blinked at her, wondering what Sein was doing when Sein suddenly moved and put her hands on the girl's chest, rubbing and squeezing her breasts.

"Wow! You're almost as big as Dieci is." Sein grinned appreciatively when the girl didn't react negatively to her groping. Giggling, she dropped through the floor, only to reappear behind the girl as she continued to squeeze her chest. "Yep, almost as big. Dieci's are a bit fuller though..."

The girl's face was starting to get a little red, though her eyes didn't betray any sort of emotion at that moment. "Um... What are you doing?" She asked, her voice soft before her eyes widened slightly as Sein's hand moved down and lifted up her coat from behind.

"Oh wow, your butt is nice and soft, really soft." Sein giggled as she stepped back when the girl turned to look at her fully. "Sorry, I just couldn't help myself, you're so pretty! My name's Sein." She tilted her head slightly as the girl was panting at her. "Um, what's your name?"

"Lutecia..."

Sein smiled and nodded at that. "Lutecia huh? Can I call you Lu?"

"I... Guess so." Lutecia shrugged and went back to looking at the woman in the tube.

"So, who's that?"

"My mother." Lutecia blinked as Sein fell to the floor. Turning, she looked at the girl, who was sticking her butt up into the air as she twitched. "Are you okay?"

"Your mother?" Sein jumped up and looked at Lutecia's body closer. "But... She's far too young to have a daughter as old as you are!"

"...I am only six years old."

Sein fell over again, twitching and drooling slightly. "Heeheheheheheh... Only six years old and she's got bigger boobs than I do."

"You'll have to forgive Sein..." Lutecia turned as she saw a girl with spiky brown hair, though she had a long, thin ponytail on the back of her head, walk in. "She likes to grab girls breasts and butts for some reason."

"Not just any reason!" Sein stood up and pointed at the newcomer. "Dieci, you just don't get it! To know how a person feels, to feel the changes of their bodies, to compare everything and never stopping until you find the perfect body, THAT is why I grope women!"

Dieci sighed softly. "So, why do you only grope me and Tre then?"

"Your bodies are so close to being perfect that I can taste it!" Sein grinned at her.

In truth, even Sein didn't know why she liked to do what she did, but the feeling of another person's body was always pretty nice, and the reactions she got was always funny.

"Anyway..." Dieci turned to look at Lutecia. "My name's Dieci, and that's Sein. Let me say hello properly..."

"Lutecia." Sein grinned and hugged the girl from behind, this time keeping her arms across Lutecia's mid-section. "She's cuddly too!"

Sweat-dropping, Dieci walked over and grabbed Sein's arm. "I'm sorry, Lutecia, we'll try and keep Sein from doing too much to you, okay?"

Lutecia nodded as Dieci practically dragged Sein out of the room. "...That was weird."

(-)

"Aww... Come on, Dieci, I wasn't going to do too much to her, she was getting so flustered, I wanna know how far I could go."

Dieci dropped Sein onto the ground and sighed. "Why are you like this?"

Sein sighed and Dieci blinked as she suddenly became somber and slightly melancholic. "Sometimes I have these dreams..." She sat on the ground, pulling her knees to her head as her eyes glossed over slightly. "I sometimes have dreams of a woman holding me, and I can suckle on her breast... But I was really small, like a baby or something."

"But, weren't you made in a lab?" Sein shook her head.

"No... I was born to someone before being made into a cyborg, I can't remember who though... I heard that Un-nee, Du-nee, Tre-nee and Qua-nee were cloned from the doctor and Cinque-nee and Nove were cloned from someone, but I think the rest of us were born normally."

Dieci blinked at that. "Oh..."

"You'd need to ask the doctor if you wanted to know more..." Sein sighed. "It's just... I want to know... Who was that woman? Why did she let me go? Can I ever find her again?"

"...So you grope breasts in hopes of finding her?"

Sein shrugged. "Maybe, I'm not certain."

Dieci leaned back against the wall and slid down until she was sitting next to Sein, before wrapping her arm around Sein's shoulders, hugging her. "Hey, just take it easy with the groping, okay? I'm sure that Tre wouldn't mind it so much if you didn't do it all the time like you do."

Sein turned to her, smiling, before turning her body and hugging Dieci. "Thanks, Dieci." She sighed as Dieci hugged her back. "Thanks for listening."

"What are sisters for," Dieci pulled back and winked at Sein, "right?"

Sein nodded, smiling at her. "Yeah."

* * *

Due: Well, that was interesting.  
Lutecia: You are?  
Due: Name's Due!  
? ? ?: What about me? Next time on Blood That Flows - Red.  
Due: Wait a minute, aren't you?

Eh, what can I say? The thought of the Numbers and Jail watching Mythbusters makes me chuckle.


	114. Red the Fourteenth

Blood That Flows

Red the Fourteenth

I own nothing really. Nope.

* * *

Hours later...

"So, you're the new girl." Lutecia blinked as she finished putting on her outfit that Quattro had given her. It was a simple black outfit, her pants hugged her legs and butt tightly while her short-sleeved shirt was snug around her breasts, shoulders and midriff, which revealed, if Due looked close enough, that she wasn't wearing a bra and likely wasn't wearing any panties either.

"I guess... You are?" Lutecia looked at the new person. She had short reddish hair, was a little shorter than Sein was and was wearing the same outfit that Sein and Dieci were wearing.

"My name's Due, you've already met Sein and most of the others." Due grinned at her. "Your name is..?"

"Lutecia."

Due nodded and blinked a few times. "Wait a second, aren't you..?" She turned to look at the unconscious woman in the tubes. "You were that baby that Quattro was looking over, aren't you?"

Lutecia gave a small nod to the redhead. "Yes, she is my mother." For some reason, Due had a weird look on her face. "Yes?"

"You're older than you should be..." Due said slowly, before her eyes widened and she found herself stumbling. "What?" She winced, closing her eyes as her body suddenly glowed brightly.

Lutecia looked a bit confused as Due's hair turned from red to blonde and a small ball of energy appeared from her chest. "What is that?"

"Like I know." Due groaned as she fell to one knee. "What the..?"

"Ow! My head!" An annoyed and new voice spoke up from the ball of energy. When the glow subsided, Due and Lutecia were both blinking at a naked, flat-chested redheaded tiny, winged girl. "Ugh... What the hell? Where am I? Where did that noise go? Who are you two?" She pointed at the two, eying them suspiciously. "Answer me or I'll burn you all to dust!"

Due blinked a few times at the small girl. "Well," one thing she noted was that the girl's blue eyes contrasted her red hair quite nicely, "my name is Due... This girl is Lutecia." It was odd, for some reason, she felt almost normal, or at least a lot calmer than usual. "Don't know about the noise, but you're at the place where I live, if you burn us to dust, you won't get any of my pudding tonight."

"...What flavor?" The small, demon-like creature looked at her curiously.

Due grinned at her. "Special chocolate. It's really good."

"Hmm..." The redhead crossed her legs and hovered in mid-air. "Fine, I, the mistress of fire, will not burn you to dust if you let me have some of that pudding."

Due nodded at her. "Of course... Um, what's your name?"

The girl blinked in confusion. "Um... I... I... I am... I... ...I can't remember" An outright dismayed look on her face appeared and tears welled up in her eyes. "I can't remember anything other than that music, and then the tubes."

"Tubes?" Lutecia asked, tilting her head curiously as she walked up next to Due.

To the small creature, it was a little odd to see the two standing next to each other, since they were about the same height, but ignored that as she answered, her eyes squeezing shut as tears started to leak down her face. "Yeah... I remember tubes poking my body, then pushing themselves into any holes I had... Then a helmet on my face, a draining sensation, then nothing... I can't..." She trembled and put her face in her hands. "I don't even know who I am."

A moment later, she found herself in Due's hand as the blonde rubbed her back gently. "Wha?"

"Hey, it's okay if you can't remember your past... You're here now, so, we'll help you, okay?" The small device nodded. "But first thing we gotta do is get you some clothes... Then a name." She looked at Lutecia. "You wanna come with? If you're going to live here, you might need to know where everything is."

"...I guess." Lutecia blinked as Due grabbed her arm and dragged her out of the room.

"Great!" Due grinned at them. "Then after we get her some clothes and you a look around, we can have dinner tonight."

Lutecia's stomach chose that moment to growl loudly. "...My belly hurts a little."

Due laughed and threw her arm around the younger girl. "Don't worry, we'll deal with that as soon as we all eat!"

The little creature looked at the two and nodded. At least these two didn't seem like bad people. "Hey, Due... Um, we were unisoned, right?"

Due looked at her, nodding. "Yeah. For about three years or so, why?"

The creature stared. "Woah... I don't remember any of that."

"Probably a good thing, otherwise you'd have felt Sein's hands all over you." Due laughed softly. She wondered if it was normal to feel so comfortable talking to a Unison Device before shrugging it off.

It was pretty hard to get any closer than the two of them had been for the past three years after all.

(-)

"Hey, doctor." Jail blinked and turned to see Due, for some odd reason, her hair was blonde, and Lutecia walk into his lab. "I'm just showing Lutecia around, is that okay?"

He nodded and tilted his head as he saw Due holding something. Well, he wasn't sure if she was holding anything, but the way that her hands were cupped together made it seem like she was holding something. "What's that?"

Due grinned at him. "Congratulations! You're a grandfather!" She giggled as Jail blinked several times at her. "It's a girl!" She opened her hands, revealing a small redhead with an amused look on her face. As far as Jail could tell, she wasn't wearing anything other than a small wash cloth that she had wrapped around her body.

"You were right, Due, he does look funny like that." The little creature smirked at him as she floated upwards. "I would have preferred some clothes first, but this was funny."

Jail chuckled softly. "Well, it's been so long since I saw your hair in its normal form, I nearly forgot that you were a blonde, Due." She beamed at him. "As for you... Uh..."

The device pouted at him. "I don't remember my name."

Jail shrugged at that. "Well, for now, I guess you can be called... Hmm... Number fifteen..."

Due shook her head as the small device's face turned bright red. "WHAT KIND OF STUPID NAME IS THAT? I'm not a number! I have a name! Just because you can't come up with a good name doesn't mean I should be a number!"

Jail raised an eyebrow as beads of sweat covered his forehead. "Due?"

"I tried calling her Due Jr and she threatened to burn my boobs!" Due crossed her arms over her chest and pouted. "I'm sorry, okay?"

"Maybe you should see if your sisters can come up with a name?" Jail suggested and Due's eyes lit up at that.

"Hey! Not a bad idea! Come on you two!" She turned to the door, before frowning. "Oh yes, doctor... Lutecia says she's six..." She grabbed Lutecia's shoulders and shoved her close to the doctor. "She looks closer to fifteen to me."

"Well, Quattro did inject her with age accelerating drugs..." Jail trailed off as he saw Due's upset face. "Don't worry. I'll do some tests on her body in a week to make sure that there's no complications."

Due nodded and blinked as she looked at what was behind Jail. "...You're not a device specialist."

Jail chuckled at her. "No, but I do know how to make them... Your sister, Nove, is going to need this equipment if she wants to use her I.S. properly." After all, it wasn't hard to test to see what I.S. powers each of the Number had. The hard part was testing just how powerful the DNA he spliced into some of the Numbers was.

Considering how messed up Cinque's body had ended up when she had tapped into her DNA's power, he wasn't taking any chances.

Even if the thought of being able to have someone so powerful that even the strongest of Aces and teams of Strikers wouldn't be able to handle them was appealing, he just couldn't allow any of his girls to get injured badly.

As he watched Due, Lutecia and the device walk out of the room, he sighed and closed his eyes.

Memories of a weapon so powerful that it could devastate entire solar systems in moments filled his mind, followed by brief flashes of a man laughing at the weapon as it was used on him before returning the power with interest.

He frowned as another memory surfaced. 'I wonder...' He trailed off and walked to the computer. He would need Uno's help on this matter. Considering that he almost had all of the Knight Valkrye Armor, other than the spear and the heart, he was content to take his time a little bit on this endeavor.

'I hope to whatever God is listening that none of them survived... or worse, passed on their powers.'

Because if that was the case, something just as bad as the Mazoku might exist out there.

'The sins of the past come to haunt the present indeed.' Closing his eyes, a flash of a woman with the kindest, softest red eyes filled his mind, before being replaced by a grave. 'Precia, I wonder if you ever regretted any of your experiments.'

Considering the weapons that were created from the time of Al Hazard, Jail wondered how many survived the calamity.

All he could hope for was that this was one sin of the past that didn't come to bear fruit in the present.

(-)

Quattro shook her head as she saw her sisters, though she had a hard time thinking of them like that, since they were all engrossed in some sort of conversation involving a small Unison Device on the table. 'I wonder what they'd say if they knew that there was an army of those worthless things here?'

'Probably demand that we free them, Master Levi.' Quattro's voice spoke up in her head, causing her to mentally smirk.

'Yes, that would be true, wouldn't it?' Considering that she had found several more sites as of late and Lutecia was finally out, she was starting to get slightly impatient.

'Thinking about turning her into one of us?'

Looking at Lutecia, who was slightly bent over, Levi mentally shook her head while admiring Lutecia's form. 'No... She's not worth it. At least not yet. Maybe later, when she's had some time to mature and get stronger.'

After all, it just wouldn't do to have someone who wasn't properly molded in the correct image to be an underling.

Nove looked at the device on the table and frowned softly. "So, you want us to help you remember your name?" The device nodded at her. "And, we can't use any names that are like ours?" Again, another nod. "Okay..." She looked at the others, unsure how to start this.

"Naomi?"

"Pass!" The small device shook her head at Due. "Doesn't sound right."

"Etna?" Tre blinked as the device suddenly started shivering. "What?"

"It felt like death was touching me in a bad place." The device whimpered and rocked herself back and forth slowly.

"So, that's a no, huh?" Cinque tapped her chin. "Hmm... Kairi?"

"For some reason, I think you'd have to give me a giant key, I think I'll pass."

"Maria?" Dieci spoke up, getting a shake of the device's head.

"How about Natasha?" Sein grinned at that. "Then we have to find a boy to be Boris and we can go find a stupid moose and..."

"Due..." Tre sweat-dropped and looked at her blonde sister. "Have you and Sein been watching some weird shows again?"

Due shrugged at her. "Just a badly animated show involving a moose, a squirrel and an overly eager announcer."

"Sayaka?" Lutecia spoke up softly, getting a shake of the device's head.

"Nah... I don't think it fits."

"She would need breasts for that." Quattro spoke up, causing the device to twitch in annoyance. "Though, considering how big Tre's breasts and butt are, I think it might be an improvement to have someone so flat around here." Quattro rolled her eyes at the way Tre twitched. "Anyway, I need Lutecia."

"You should take Dieci with you." Tre said and Quattro shrugged.

"I'm going to go where there's a lot of cows..." Quattro gave a lazy smirk as Dieci blushed hard. "I can't trust the thought of her using her cannon on those poor cows."

Due looked at Dieci and pouted. "Why do you want to take away the milk I use for cooking? What did those poor cows do to you?"

Dieci sweat-dropped as Lutecia followed behind Quattro. "But, I've gotten better."

Cinque looked at Tre, who was looking on with amusement. "It could be worse." Dieci and Tre both looked at her in confusion. "At least we're not on a mission with cows... Quattro might say something about Tre and Dieci would accidentally shoot Tre when Tre was chasing Quattro into the field of cows." The small girl bit her lower lip in amusement as Tre groaned at her and Dieci blushed hard.

"Don't tell me that you think she's right and my breasts and my ass are too big." Tre muttered, groaning as she felt a familiar pair of hands on her breasts. "Sein, stop phasing through the table to fondle my breasts."

"But they aren't too big, I think they're just right." Sein phased her head through the table, grinning at Tre. "Besides, Cinque-nee's just teasing you a little bit, you know she doesn't care about that."

Cinque chuckled before pouting softly. "You make it hard for me to be the strict older sister, Sein, when you say stuff like that."

Sein grinned and stopped squeezing Tre's breasts before going over to Cinque and hugging her. "Oh, come on, you're just a big softy, we both know that." She giggled as Cinque sighed and hugged her back, softly patting her back. "See?"

Tre sighed and rubbed her forehead. "Excuse me..." She turned and walked off.

Nove just looked at the small group in confusion. Other than Quattro, who seemed to be really mean, and Uno, who was really busy, most of her sisters seemed rather pleasant to be around.

Though, she had to admit, they did seem rather silly. She wasn't complaining though. At least they seemed to like each other.

(-)

Meanwhile...

As she stood in her room, in front of a mirror, Tre twitched as she stripped out of her outfit, revealing her naked body to herself. "...I do not have a fat ass..." She muttered as she turned around and put a hand on her butt while looking over her shoulder.

"Then again..." She sighed, looking at herself. Was Quattro right?

Groaning, she walked over to her bed and flopped down on it and closed her eyes. Then again, she might have just been tired.

Now if only she could figure out how to relax enough to go to sleep.

Rolling over, she flopped onto her back, causing her breasts to bounce slightly and groaned. "Damn Quattro..." She twitched a bit more as she felt a hand touch her thigh. "Sein." She sat up as Sein phased through the bed and looked at her. "Just what are you doing?"

"Um, making sure that you're okay." Sein sweat-dropped as Tre growled and grabbed her by her hair and pulled up. "Yeeowww! What the?"

"So you decide to slip into my room when I'm naked?" Tre twitched as Sein grinned at her nervously. "Just what is your deal anyway?"

"Um... I wanted to help my big sister out and I just wanted to see what I could do to help." Sein sighed as Tre dropped her down. "Tre?" She blinked as her taller, older sister sat back down on the bed, sighing. "...Don't tell me what Cinque said..."

"It's what Quattro said," Tre interrupted her as she pulled her knees up to her breasts, "it wouldn't bother me so much, but she keeps reminding me all the time..."

Sein blinked at Tre. "Hey, come on, you're not..."

"I do have a large ass, and my breasts are huge... Maybe she's right about..." Tre couldn't finish that as she felt Sein slip up behind her and hug her. "Sein?"

"Quattro's just being mean..." Sein said softly and Tre shivered softly as she felt that Sein had, somehow, gotten out of her suit and was just as naked as she was. "You should know that you're very pretty, Tre."

Tre twitched slightly. "Yeah right, you just like groping me."

Sein shrugged as she hugged Tre more. "Maybe, but Quattro's just being mean."

Tre snorted, but didn't resist as Sein gently moved her so that she was laying down. "So..." She blinked as Sein crawled on top of her. "Sein?"

Sein smiled at her. "I'm going to prove that Tre-nee is very pretty right now." She giggled as Tre blushed heavily.

The look on her face after Sein got started on her body was almost enough to make her laugh.

"Don't worry, Tre," Sein smiled at her sister, "we're just getting started."

The soft whimper that escaped Tre's lips was all the motivation Sein needed to really get started.

There weren't too many words that escaped from either of them from that point out for the rest of the day and into the night.

* * *

Quattro: Lutecia: We're here.  
Lutecia: Where is here?  
Quattro: Where we begin your training.  
Lutecia: Understood.  
Quattro: Next time on Blood That Flows - Red.  
Lutecia: I shall succeed.


	115. Red the Fifteenth

Blood That Flows

Red the Fifteenth

I own nothing really. Nope.

Short chapter again. Sorry everyone.

* * *

Elsewhere...

Lutecia blinked as she, Quattro and three large, white, humanoid machine like things appeared in front of a large temple. "Where are we?"

"This is where you will begin your training." Quattro said to her as she threw Lutecia a pair of gloves with a gem in the middle. "Those belonged to your mother, with Uno's help, I managed to manipulate them so that you can use them as your own."

Lutecia nodded and put the gloves on as Quattro ordered.

"Now then... You will be following me into this temple and fighting any beasts or guardians inside." When Lutecia didn't respond, she sighed. "Idiot girl, you'll be using your magic and that summoning power."

"Summoning?" Lutecia blinked and Quattro groaned before she took her glasses off, her eyes flashed red for a moment and Lutecia's body stiffened.

"Good, now listen to me, your mother was a summoner. Those gloves were hers, I'm pretty sure that all the data you need to summon is in them." Lutecia nodded slowly, her eyes seemed to stare off in the distance. "Good, now then, you're going to go in there, do what you need to for your magic and not come out until you retrieve the item inside."

Lutecia nodded as she walked into the temple.

'Think she'll die?'

"Well, if she does die, then it's no loss for me."

'Master Levi, you think she can summon?'

"Nope." Levi grinned as she allowed her eyes to turn a bright red and her hair to grow and the color to change from brown to light blue with dark tips. "Still not very strong..." She muttered to herself.

'What do you mean, Master Levi?'

"Quattro, I'm barely able to change my body the way I want to right now." She looked at her hand and squeezed it into a fist. "Plus, I'm still corporeal." It could be a side-effect of merging with Quattro like she had, but it wasn't that big of a deal at the moment. "That stupid human mother and clone..." She growled, power pooling around her and snapping at things dangerously.

She chuckled softly and a small grin came to her face. "Oh well..."

'Master Levi?'

"Don't worry, Quattro, I'm just thinking about the look on that worthless clone's face when she sees what I have in store for her." Her shoulders shook as she chuckled, before throwing her head back and laughing.

"HOHOHOHOHOHO OHOHOHO OHOHOHO!"

If the machines had been human, they would be trembling at that moment. As it was, they weren't, but the wolves that rushed from underground hideouts were quickly vaporized by the machines.

"I really should give these things names." Levi shrugged at that.

'How about the Megah?'

"Megah huh?" Levi smirked at that. "Fitting name..."

(-)

Lutecia slid to the side as a stone golem appeared in front of her and tried stabbing her with a sword. The gem on her device glowed and she held out a hand, a purple beam of light escaped from her fingertips, smashing into the golem and destroying it.

She looked at her hand before continuing on. She didn't understand what was going on, but that was fine with her.

Stepping into a new room, Lutecia saw a signet case on a pedestal in the center of the room. As she walked towards it, she stopped when the door behind her closed and several stone creatures appeared. "You are the guardian of this place?" She asked softly.

The golems didn't move towards her before falling apart.

Lutecia just blinked in confusion, before the rocks that made up their body started to spin and move around in a circle in midair, merging together into a much larger and thicker body than before. "This is..." She jumped back as the thing moved. It looked like it was moving slow, when it suddenly snapped its arm forward at surprising speeds, crashing into a hastily created barrier, and sending Lutecia flying across the room, slamming into the wall with a loud and wet sound.

Grimacing, her eyes closed, Lutecia looked at the creature as it moved towards her. "No... Mother..." She whimpered, before her device started to glow brightly and a diamond magic seal appeared under her feet. "What is this..?"

The bright glow became a sphere which enlarged until a human-sized creature with four eyes, a long scarf, and wearing a dark outfit, or maybe it was just dark, Lutecia's vision was swimming a little bit at the moment and it was hard for her to focus on much. "You are..." Her eyes closed and she fell to the ground, unconscious.

The newly summoned being zipped down and grabbed her before turning its attention to the large stone creature. An angry buzzing sound was heard from the creature before a spike appeared from its forearm.

Unlike Lutecia, the creature, even with Lutecia under one of its arms, was much faster, and stronger physically than she was.

The large golem creature didn't last long until it was a pile of rubble.

"Well, well, well..." The creature turned and buzzed dangerously as Levi walked up to it, flanked by her three large machines. "I was wondering if I would have to step in and finish that thing off myself." She smirked as she looked him over. "I do have to admit, summons are a bit stronger than I thought they were." When the buzzing didn't stop, she rolled her eyes and snapped her fingers. "Get back to where you came from." She had a feeling if the creature could show more emotion than what it was, it would have a shocked look on its face as it disappeared. "As for you..." She looked at Lutecia and snorted. "Pathetic."

'She needs more practice.'

"And more hands-on training." Levi snorted as she walked past the downed Lutecia and up to the signet case. "I just came for this."

'Don't you think that it could be interesting if we used her?'

Levi stopped opening the case and a leer came to her face as she looked at Lutecia. "Well, well, well... Who would have thought you would have such... Good ideas, Quattro?"

Maybe the girl just needed some incentives?

And looking at Lutecia's curvy legs, butt and back, Levi knew the right kind to give her.

* * *

Ginga: Yay! Yay!  
Subaru: It's our turn next?  
Ginga: Yay!  
Quint: Next time on Blood That Flows - Red.  
Ginga: Read it or I'll kick some butt!  
Quint: Not with your form screwed up like that you won't.  
Ginga: Sorry, mommy.


	116. Red the Sixteenth

Blood That Flows

Red the Sixteenth

I own nothing really. Nope.

Very short chapter. Sorry everyone.

* * *

"HIYAH!" An excitable voice caused her to look up from her book and shake her head.

"Ginga, you're still kicking wrong."

The little girl blushed and nodded. "Okay, mama!" She shifted slightly and her mother sighed loudly. "Mama?"

"Ginga, you're bending your knee wrong, if you kick like that in a real fight, you're going to end up seriously injuring yourself just because you were trying to be quick about it."

"Sorry, mama!" The girl shifted her knee and started kicking again. "HIYAH!"

"Dear..." She wheeled her chair to look behind her and smiled as she saw her husband and youngest daughter walking through the park to come and meet her. "How are you feeling?"

"Just fine." She smiled at him. "How was school today, Subaru?"

"BORING!" The young girl pouted and then ran off to train with her sister.

"She kept complaining about how school doesn't let her spend time with her mother." He chuckled at her. "I sometimes wonder if maybe we should find more people for her to spend time with."

"I wouldn't worry too much." Quint looked at the children, sighing softly as she was reminded, again, that she couldn't use her legs. "I was pretty shy when I was little too."

Genya chuckled and shook his head. "You? Shy? The woman who came up to me one day and told me, in no uncertain terms, that we were going to go on a date and I was going to enjoy it."

"And you didn't?" Quint raised an eyebrow at him, laughing softly as he blushed.

"Well, I can't say that I didn't, but then again, considering how nervous I was on our first few dates, I'm surprised that you would stay with me."

She smiled up at him as she looked at their daughters practicing. At least Ginga was able to take the tips she gave to heart and was helping Subaru correct her form. "Oh, I don't know. All I saw was a suave and mature man that had this feeling about him that turned me on something fierce." Chuckling at him, she pulled him down for a quick kiss on the lips. "And I wasn't wrong, there was something suave and mature about you."

Genya chuckled at her. "You just like older men, huh?"

She grinned at him. "You complaining?" He shook his head and she smirked at him. "Good, otherwise I'd make you sleep on the couch tonight."

He raised an eyebrow at that. "The last time I was forced to sleep on the couch, you ended up slipping in with me and neither of us got any sleep that night."

Quint nodded and turned back to look at her daughters. "Well, you know that my hips aren't broken... Though I can't do much more than lay on my back." She blinked as he squeezed her on the shoulder.

He smiled at her. "I wouldn't worry about that, Quint."

Quint sighed softly. "I hate this..." When Genya asked what she meant, she clarified. "I was an active Bureau member, honey... I went and solved cases, saved people's lives, passed on my paperwork to others who couldn't be out in the field so they knew what was happening. And all I've been doing for the past few years has been sitting on my butt, doing paperwork and trying to teach my daughters Shooting Arts."

"You've done well with that one." Genya motioned to the girls. "They're not as fluid as you were, but they're pretty accurate with it."

Quint nodded and sighed softly. "I guess at least I get to see them grow up... Zest didn't even get to know his daughter."

Genya patted her on the shoulder as she sighed, knowing that she wished that she could have saved Megane or Lutecia. "You can't keep blaming yourself for what happened, Quint."

"I know." She sighed, closing her eyes. "I know... I just... I just... Wish I could have done more for the two of them."

"You did all that you could have." Genya said softly. "The best you can do is carry the memory of your friend and her daughter with you for the rest of your life."

Quint nodded, sighing heavily. "Yeah..."

"Mama!" Subaru waved to Quint. "Lookie!" She punched the ground and Quint's eyes widened as a bright blue pathway appeared under her feet. When Ginga made a blue-green colored version of the same move, she shook her head in amazement as the girls ran on the Wing Road, giggling the whole time.

"Amazing." Quint was impressed. She didn't think that either of them were ready to create their own Wing Roads just yet.

"Well, they are your daughters." Genya smiled as he tapped her shoulders. "Maybe we should go in early so they can eat?"

Quint laughed, knowing that he was right.

After all, they were growing girls, and Belkan magic **did** burn up a lot of calories really quickly.

* * *

Xellos: I honestly didn't expect to see you again. Next time on Blood That Flows - Red. What's going on? That... Is a secret.

Sorry for the VERY short chapter. The next chapter will be longer.


	117. Red the Seventeenth

Blood That Flows

Red the Seventeenth

I own nothing really. Nope.

* * *

Back on Earth...

Xellos raised an eyebrow as he saw the familiar, very familiar, form of Rangort appearing in front of him. "Never thought I'd see you again."

The dark-skinned beauty, dressed in gray pants and a blue top that left her rather muscled armed bare, crossed her arms under her impressive chest while glowering at him. "If it was up to me, I'd kill you right now." Her eye twitched as he chuckled at her.

"Well, it's not really up to you." He leaned back in his chair and grinned at her. Finding out that gold was worth an incredible amount on this planet, he had imported just enough to purchase a nice, if a touch small, place for himself in southern Japan. It wasn't like he had much to do, unless the chibified version of his master said that she needed him to fetch something or put someone in their place. Humanity on this world had some interesting entertainment.

Not to mention that there were some great beaches just outside of the condo he had bought a couple of years ago.

"Yes, well, part of me still wants to murder you right here and now." She said, causing him to raise an eyebrow while keeping his eyes closed.

"Only part? What about the rest of you?" He chuckled at her, only to stop when she grabbed him by his outfit and yanked him up, kissing him on the lips.

The Mazoku was so shocked, that his eyes popped open. A moment later and she released the kiss, dropping him back into his seat. "You..."

Rangort's face was flushed as she looked at him. Her eyes, damn her eyes were similar color to her hair and contrasted nicely against her skin. "Let me make one thing clear, Mazoku, if it hadn't been for certain circumstances, I would have never wanted to see you again." Besides the fact that just thinking about him seemed to give her body shivers.

"I... See..." He nodded slowly. "So... Circumstances?"

Rangort smirked at him and snapped her fingers. "Yes, circumstances."

"DADDY!" Two small voices yelled at the same time and Xellos was surprised a second time as two pair of arms wrapped around him while Rangort smirked at him some more.

"What the heck?" He blinked as he looked at the two that were hugging him, before looking at Rangort. "Interesting, didn't know that you made a couple of servants. Nice joke, by the way."

Rangort sat cross-legged in mid-air and shook her head. "Sorry to say, but they aren't servants like you are to Zelas... You're the reason that they exist." The two that were hugging Xellos didn't let up and he just blinked in confusion. "Look at their Astral signature if you're confused."

Xellos frowned softly and looked at the two more closely. "Holy... And..." His eyes snapped open and he snapped his head at Rangort. "Holy and Black magic in one Astral being? That's not possible! Mixing the two energies together like that is crazy."

"You're telling me." Rangort snorted. "Unlike Huraker and Dark Star, it seems like these two are capable of handling both energies at the same time..."

"And how the heck is that possible?"

Rangort gave Xellos a flat stare. "Considering what we were doing for that one month... And consider that it was Dolphin who... Force fed chocolate that could affect even our Astral Bodies..."

"But... It's not possible." Xellos sputtered as the one on his left, with light purple hair crawled into his lap to look at him, her eyes were a soft lavender as she pouted at him.

"Don't you like us, daddy?" Her skin was tanned and the way her lip trembled caused Xellos to twitch at her.

"First of all, don't call me that, secondly, how is this possible?" He looked at Rangort, who shrugged.

"I asked Valwin and Vrabazard, neither of them have any clue. Don't you Mazoku sometimes mate with humans and make half-Mazoku that way?"

"Very rarely, and we have to merge with a corporeal body first." Xellos wasn't sure what to think at the moment. "So, you're telling me that these two..."

"Are your daughters, yes." Rangort nodded at him.

"But, it's still not..."

"They were born from a mixture of your Black magic and Rangort's Holy magic." A deep male voice spoke up and Xellos trembled slightly as Valwin appeared in the room, a miniature tree between his fingers. "I have to admit, this world is rather interesting. But as for my nieces there, Xellos, you are responsible for how they came into being. Your Astral Body left a bit of itself inside of Rangort's Astral body, which transformed into these two."

Rangort sighed and leaned back in the air. "Honestly, if we had known this was possible, I would have avoided coming to this staff world all together."

"Daddy's a statue!" The second girl, this one with white hair, dark skin and yellow eyes giggled as she climbed up and squeezed down on Xellos' head. "See?"

"As much as Gaav was moonlighting around with Ragradia, I'm pretty sure that this wasn't a possibility that crossed anyone's mind." Xellos was twitching, hard.

Rangort snorted at him. "Even if you don't know what to think, the problem here is that they exist and that's a problem in and of itself." Xellos blinked at her and she sighed. "Let's just say that because they're a mix of Shinzoku and Mazoku, that things really haven't been... Pleasant at home." She growled as she remembered the Dragons that were under her rule trying to "purge" the demonic taint of their lord.

That hadn't lasted more than a few seconds, but the minor Mazoku causing problems because of it was more problematic.

"How... Is this even possible?" Xellos asked, getting a shrug from both Rangort and Valwin. "Great..." He wasn't even sure if his master knew how this was possible.

(-)

On the red world...

Zelas frowned softly, causing the small blonde girl, who was dressed in common travel clothes, to look up at her. "It seems that something's bothering Xellos." The information she was getting from her miniature self from the Blue world wasn't really complete, but something regarding Xellos and something unusual did catch her attention. "Well, dear, you want to go and check up on him?"

The girl nodded and walked up to Zelas before they both disappeared in a flash of black energy.

(-)

Back on Earth...

Valwin was almost certain he was the first to notice, but considering that no one was surprised as Zelas appeared behind Xellos, and she had appeared in only a moment from when he felt her power appear, he didn't see any change in anyone, except the twins', expressions.

Then again, it almost seemed like she was announcing her presence on purpose. The last time he had faced her, he couldn't tell where she was coming from and the two had to break off mutually, due in part to Vrabazard coming to his aid and Dolphin coming to hers.

This time, though, he couldn't feel any malice coming from her. Granted, she was a master of controlling her emotions and not letting anything get to her, but this was unusual.

Not to mention the little blonde-haired girl next to Zelas' legs. "Didn't think you liked humans, Zelas."

She smirked at him. "Normally, I don't, Valwin, but I've learned that they can be good company in small amounts." Pulling out a cigarette, she raised an eyebrow as she saw the two girls hanging off of Xellos. "Making servants now, Xellos?" Her cigarette lit up and she took a drag from it. "You should know to at least wait until you've replaced Hellmaster or Gaav."

"They're not exactly..." Xellos trailed off and sweated as Zelas raised an eyebrow at him. "That is to say, master... Apparently these two... Well, uh, you remember how I was with Lord Dolphin and Rangort for a month the last time you were on this world?"

"Hmm..." Zelas took a closer look at the children, then at Rangort, before finally at Xellos and shaking her head. "You could have told me that you were going to turn me into a grandmother so soon."

"Well, you see..." Xellos blinked a few times as his master's words penetrated his mind. "Wait, what?"

"Though, I really wish you would have waited another two thousand years. You're still so young to be having children all on your own." She chuckled as Xellos started twitching and Rangort fell down to the ground. "So..." She suddenly appeared in front of Rangort and grinned at the Shinzoku. "After all this time of being enemies, I guess you're now my daughter-in-law, hmm?"

Valwin felt like taking his hat off and rubbing his forehead, if he had one, he had long forgotten. "Um, Zelas, just what do you mean?"

Zelas shook her head slowly. "Let me tell you a story, Xellos... About someone you should have known about a long time ago."

"Who?"

"Your father." Zelas wasn't surprised to feel shock from everyone in the room, well, the blonde girl having the same shock as the rest was surprising, but she shrugged that off. "It was... Well, just before Shabranigdo woke up last time, there was this human male that thought he could court me. I was amused and went along with it."

"Surprised you didn't kill him." Rangort said as she stood up fully and moved so that she was between Zelas and her children. Truth be told, she wasn't sure if she lost a lot of power or not by making the twins. It wasn't something that the Shinzoku on their staff did after all. And she had seen that the Mazoku Lords had all gotten weaker since the last time they had fought.

Not a tremendous amount, but still, weaker than what they had been before the barrier had gone up.

And, even though she wasn't sure what to think of her children, she was worried that her power was weakened as well.

"Well, to be honest, I almost did." Zelas chuckled at Rangort. "But, as we spent time together, well, I found that I had less intentions to harm him and more to do something else to him." She looked up and ceiling and shook her head and looked at the little girls that were looking at her intently. "Well, I finally did reveal that I was one of Shabranigdo's retainers to him. What he said to me was... Quite shocking." She smirked at the interest in Rangort and Xellos' faces, even if they weren't looking any different than usual, Rangort's slight scowl and Xellos' indifference, she could feel the interest coming from both of them. "He said to me 'I don't care if you're a Mazoku Lord, you're the most beautiful woman I ever met'," she laughed at the sheer shocked expression that Rangort had, "well, it didn't take the two of us long to go to the next level."

"But, don't you need to have a coporeal body for that?" Valwin asked, getting a nod from her.

"Oh yes, it wasn't hard to find a body to inhabit for awhile, manipulate it into looking like me and then copulating." Seeing Rangort blanch at the mental images, she nearly laughed at the poor Shinzoku. The little girls, all three of them, didn't seem to understand what was going on exactly. "Anyway, when I decided to leave, as Hellmaster was summoning us for his plans against Ragradia, I jumped out of the body," she smiled as she looked at Xellos before sighing softly, "but he left a little something behind in me."

"So, that's why I'm so much different then?" Xellos asked, getting a nod from Zelas.

"Yes, but considering how Hellmaster was, letting anyone know about what happened exactly was suicide for you."

"I see..." Xellos nodded at her and she sighed. "Master?"

"Go ahead, this is a lot to take in, huh?" He nodded and, with a grateful look on his face, disappeared from the room.

"There's something that confuses me." Rangort looked at Zelas. "If he was originally half Mazoku, how is he pure Mazoku now?"

"I purged his soul of his human side completely, let him live as a child for a few months, before feeding him enough power that he became the servant you know today." Zelas looked at her cigarette before dismissing it completely. "Of all the other lords, only Dynast knew something was different..." Her eyes darkened and malicious power started crackling around her.

"He found your lover, didn't he?" Valwin wasn't surprised as she looked at him, nodding slightly. "And, did something, you couldn't even turn him into a Mazoku when Dynast got done with him, huh?"

"I don't like thinking about it." Zelas said as she looked at her grandchildren. "So, what's your names?"

"We want daddy to name one of us!" The two said at the same time, getting a chuckle from Zelas.

Rangort shook her head. "Sometimes I wonder if they're truly half god or half demon, considering how often they do things that remind me about you Mazoku so much, but then they do things that..." She shook her head. "What am I going to do?"

Zelas shrugged at her. "Why ask me? Aren't we enemies?"

"You're also their grandmother..." Rangort groaned and felt like smacking her head against the wall for all the good it would do her. "This is so complicated."

Zelas shrugged at her. "Well, to be honest, if you and Xellos had these children, I'm pretty sure that none of our servants can really say anything about the truce, other than it'll have to continue as long as they're unhurt."

Rangort saw the gleam in Zelas' eyes and blinked. "And if anyone should hurt them..."

"Well, let's just say that they'll wish that they hadn't."

Valwin shuddered as the two females started laughing evilly. He hadn't even thought that Rangort _could_ laugh like that until now. "So, I can assume that this changes nothing about the truce?"

Rangort glared at him. "I think it makes the truce more permanent, don't you, mot, err, Zelas?"

Zelas chuckled and nodded. "Indeed. After all, we can't have a family be forced apart by war, now can we?"

Valwin shook his head. This... Was going to be interesting.

But, again, his mind replayed the image of darkness and light, once split, coming together and wondered if maybe Rangort's children were the cause of the image.

Even if they weren't, he actually... Liked those two kids.

After all, it wasn't every day that he got to be an uncle.

* * *

Nanoha: Hey! Miyuki-nee.  
Miyuki: Hmm?  
Nanoha: How come I'm so short and you're not?  
Miyuki: Uh... Let's ask Yuuno.  
Yuuno: Next time on Blood That Flows - Red.  
Miyuki: Read it or mom might cause some trouble.  
Lina: I'm not even IN the next chapter!


	118. Red the Eighteenth

Blood That Flows

Red the Eighteenth

I own nothing really. Nope.

* * *

"Hiyah!" Nanoha let out a yell as she and Miyuki did some light sparring in the dojo. Light being subjective most of the time, considering that they were just using normal wooden training swords, it was light for them.

The tears in the walls, ceiling and floor didn't mean much for them as Miyuki parried a thrusting attack by Nanoha before slapping her wrists with the short wooden sword in her left hand. "Nice try, Nanoha." Miyuki panted and rubbed the sweat off of her forehead. "I think that's enough for today."

Nanoha nodded and grimaced at the way her sweat-soaked shirt clung to her body. "Bleah, I could use a bath."

"Hang on." Miyuki smiled as she grabbed a towel. "I'll join you."

Nanoha smiled as the two left the dojo together.

(-)

"Ahhh!" Nanoha sighed as she slipped into the bath, her eyes closed as the hot water relaxed her muscles. "That was a good practice." Miyuki nodded as she stretched in the bath, grimacing as she felt her bones pop. "Ne, Miyuki-nee..." Miyuki looked at Nanoha, who was looking at her chest and pouting. "How come you have such big boobs and I got small ones?"

Miyuki sweat-dropped at that. "I don't think that mine are that big, I mean, I'm pretty sure that yours will..." She yelped as Nanoha slipped up behind her and grabbed her breasts. "Hey!"

"See? Miyuki-nee has big boobs and I got really small ones." Nanoha pouted as she squeezed Miyuki's chest. "See?"

Miyuki twitched slightly. "Nanoha, one, I'm an adult, and two, you're still growing, so, please, could you stop squeezing me?"

Nanoha let go of Miyuki's chest and pulled away, sulking. "But my boobs are, EEEK!" She yelped as Miyuki's larger chest pushed into her back and her older sister squeezed the young girl's soft breasts. "M...Miyuki-nee!"

"Hmm... Feels normal to me." Miyuki nodded as she rubbed and fondled the girl's chest. "Why are you so worried?"

Nanoha sighed as Miyuki kept squeezing her breasts. "Because I'm worried that I'll be small and flat and everyone else is going to be tall and beautiful and, OWW!" Tears welled up in her eyes as Miyuki pinched her nipples hard. "What was that for?"

"For being stupid." Miyuki let go of Nanoha's chest. "You'll grow as tall as you will, and your breasts will get bigger. Mom told me once that she was short and her breasts were rather small when she was younger. Just eat right, okay?"

"And let Hayate-chan grope my breasts?" Nanoha gave her a flat look and Miyuki shrugged at her.

"Maybe, if you think it'll help you grow." Miyuki shook her head. "You don't need to worry, Nanoha, I'm sure that you'll grow up to be a beautiful woman."

Nanoha smiled at her as she shifted in the water and hugged her sister. "Thanks, Onee-chan... Mouuu..." She put her face against Miyuki's breasts and pouted more. "I still think it's unfair that you have such big boobs. Vita-chan, Suzuka-chan and Fate-chan all have big ones too." At least Arisa wasn't too large, otherwise her friend would hold another thing over her. Nanoha's eyes snapped open as Miyuki drove her knuckles into her scalp. "OW! OW! OWW!" When Miyuki stopped doing that, she looked up, tears falling from her eyes. "What was that for?"

"For being stupid, again." Miyuki shook her head as she got up from the tub. "Just relax, Nanoha, you're still growing."

Nanoha sighed and relaxed in the water as Miyuki toweled off and walked into the changing area. "Easy for you to say..." She muttered softly and pouted, dunking the bottom portion of her mouth into the water, blowing bubbles out of annoyance.

After all, Miyuki didn't have to deal with the fact that all the other girls in her class had growing breasts and she, well, had such small breasts that some girls were teasing her and saying that she should probably have stayed in elementary school until her breasts grew in. It just wasn't fair.

When she heard a yelp outside of the bathroom, she quickly stood up and ran for the door, ignoring her nudity. If something bad was happening, she needed to act quickly.

(-)

Miyuki shook her head as she closed the door behind her and draped a towel over her shoulders as she bent over to grab another towel and wipe her hair down. "Shee, can't Nanoha ever relax?" As much as she loved her sister, things like that were annoying.

"BAH!" Miyuki stood straight up and spun around, the towel on her shoulders falling down behind her as she turned to face the person who snuck up on her.

"I'm sorry!" Yuuno's face was bright red as he stood there, seemingly unsure if he should run or stay and enjoy the view. The best thing he could do was stare, his face bright red while he tried to turn away. When the door behind Miyuki opened up and Nanoha, completely naked and dripping wet, ran into the room, he couldn't stand it anymore and he slumped down, trembling. "I'm sorry, sorry..." He covered his eyes, his face completely red.

Nanoha and Miyuki were both blushing and mumbled something as they stepped back into the bathroom and closed the door. "Hey, Yuuno..." Miyuki spoke out from behind the door. "Can you hand me my bra and panties?"

"BWAH?" Yuuno fell over and stared at the door. "You gotta be kidding me!" He whimpered as Miyuki poked her head out from behind the door. "...Okay."

It didn't take long to get both girls their clothes and dressed up. When they stepped out of the bathroom, they saw Yuuno sitting on the floor of the dressing area, trembling and rocking back and forth. "Why?"

"Yuuno?" Miyuki asked as he looked at them, his face still red. "You okay?"

"No!" Yuuno shook his head, his face red. "I like you two, and then you two show up naked, and then there's Vita who keeps showing off her breasts and Hayate likes hugging me and Fate likes to show off her swimsuits to me and," he was trembling at that moment, "and you're always showing me your body, Miyuki and now Nanoha ended up naked and... I can't take it!" He yelled, his eyes squeezing closed and forcing out a couple of tears. "It's hard on me, every time I see you girls, I have to adjust my pants because it's hard to concentrate, you're all so pretty and... Arrgh!"

Nanoha and Miyuki were blushing as they looked at each other, then back at Yuuno. For some reason, they really had no idea what to say.

"Excuse me..." Yuuno stood up and walked into the bathroom, closing the door behind him fully.

Nanoha sighed and looked at Miyuki. "We screwed up, huh?"

Miyuki nodded and could only hope that Yuuno wasn't too upset at them over this.

And even if he was, she had ideas how to make it up to him.

* * *

Zest: I think it's time to go home. Huh? What's that? Next time on Blood That Flows - Red.  
? ? ?: Everything is mine.


	119. Red the Nineteenth

Blood That Flows

Red the Nineteenth

I own nothing really. Nope.

* * *

Back on the Red World...

He sighed softly as he walked down an empty road. "It's been too long." He had let himself grow a short beard, mostly because shaving it with magic or his weapon was a pain. His hair had grown quite long and he had to tie it in a ponytail behind his head these days.

Though, he had to admit, this world was great for taking his mind off of things. Rolling his shoulders, his cloak fluttered in the breeze that came up. Tapping his finger, he was about to call his weapon up, when he blinked at a sudden spike of magic from a fair distance away. Pursing his lips, he took off flying in that direction, his spear snapping into existence part way into the flight.

Landing at the edge of a village, he stared at the destruction that lay before him. Houses were on fire, buildings destroyed, bodies mutilated and disfigured beyond all recognition. "What the..?" He took one step towards the village before he felt his whole body throb from something. Turning around, he almost sighed in relief as he saw a familiar face. "Luke, I need your..." He trailed off as he saw the young mercenary stand there, hunched over. "Luke?" Honestly, he was surprised that he remembered Luke's face and name after not seeing him for almost two years, but that wasn't something that he was concerning himself with at that moment. Something was wrong with him, the way he twitched, the aura of power that surrounded him, and the fact that he was alone. "Luke, what..?"

**"Luke's not here..."** His voice had gotten very dark as he looked up, his eyes glowing red. **"Zest, you can forget about seeing him ever again..."**

Zest frowned at that. "What are you..?"

He didn't to say anything more as red energy rushed at him, consuming him in a massive explosion.

**"Yes, this one is better."** Luke squeezed his hand into a few a few times. **"I must find her, the one who faced me without fear last time."** A slow grin came to his face as he thought about making her see fear for the first time. **"I bestowed upon you the gift of my death last time... Lina Inverse. How will you react when you find out that I have returned yet again?"**

Letting loose a yell, a black dome of power escaped from his body, spreading miasma out in all directions.

(-)

Elsewhere...

Sherra frowned, the way her body resonated with a powerful Black magic source caused her to shudder. "That is..?"

(-)

Dolphin pouted as she put down her chocolate. "How did he get free again?" It looked like the fun time was over. "Better go talk to Zelas."

(-)

Vrabazard growled. "Ruby-Eye..." His howl caused the mountains he was in to erupt violently.

(-)

"Shabranigdo..." Luna, who was holding onto a pitcher of water, gasped and dropped it in shock. "He's back?"

(-)

"What is that?" Lyos asked as he stood on a mountain-top, looking towards the East. His eyes were wide and he couldn't help but shudder violently. Every piece of his being was telling him to run or fight, or both.

(-)

"Gourry-dear..." He blinked as his wife frowned in concern. "Something's wrong."

He nodded, he felt it too. "Yeah, I... Look out!" He grabbed his wife and their young son and jumped out of the way as a body crashed down where they had been a moment ago. "Who the heck?"

"BOOM!" Their son giggled as he kicked his legs up and down.

"Is he okay?" Gourry asked as he walked over to the burned and battered man. His eyes widened as the man twitched slightly. "He's still alive, Sylphiel!"

Sylphiel nodded and put their son down on the road before walking over to the man and putting her hands on his body. "Resurrection."

The man groaned as the healing spell washed over him. "Stop... That... Man..."

Sylphiel and Gourry could only look at each other in confusion.

* * *

Lina: Wait a minute? You mean Shabranigdo's back? How the hell did this happen? Next time on Blood That Flows - Red, countdown to destruction!  
Lindy: Don't we usually not tell the title?  
Lina: Bah! It's not the title anyway. Read it, or I'll really cause some trouble!


	120. Red the Twentieth

Blood That Flows

Red the Twentieth

I own nothing really. Nope.

* * *

Back on Earth, the following morning...

Lina raised an eyebrow as she saw Fate and a young, redheaded boy standing by the front door. "You know, Fate, I hope that this won't become a habit of yours."

"Well, I thought it was a custom or something around here to bring people home with you." Fate blinked as Lina suddenly grabbed her stomach, laughing at that. "Mother?"

"I'm fine, I just found that funny." Smiling, Lina walked up and looked at the boy as he clung to Fate's leg tightly. "Well, hello, what's your name?"

The boy's face turned as red as his hair as he saw the gentleness in the woman's eyes. "E...Erio..." His eyes widened as she reached out and ruffled his hair.

"Well then, Erio," Lina smiled as he buried his face in Fate's leg, "you want to get washed up for breakfast?" The boy turned his head and perked up. "Seeing as I don't know how much you'll eat, I'll just have to make sure that there's more food than any of us can eat."

She laughed as she heard his stomach grumble. "Well then, shall we eat?" Erio and Fate both nodded and Fate led Erio to the sink to wash up. "So, Fate, did you get that one thing taken care of that you wanted?"

Fate stopped mid-step and groaned. "I forgot." After all the excitement with Erio and being told that she was responsible for him, a think like getting her outfit changed seemed really minor.

Lina shook her head and chuckled. "Don't worry about it, you can do that at any time."

Fate nodded and smiled softly as she helped Erio wash his face.

Lina shook her head. Well, this was going to be an interesting morning.

(-)

In Dimensional Space...

"Um, ma'am..." Leti raised an eyebrow as she looked at the bridge hand who was turning to look at her, his face pale. "I got bad news."

"What?"

"A high class X magical signature has appeared."

Leti's pupils shrank as that piece of information sank into her head. "What world?"

"Non-Administrated World 500."

Leti frowned, technically that world was out of the Bureau's jurisdiction, but if she didn't do something, then she would never hear the end of it. "Very well..."

She just knew that this was going to come back and bite her in the ass somehow.

(-)

Grimacing at the noise from a screen that appeared above his bed, Chrono cracked an eye open and tried to move his left arm, only to find it pinned under a warm and soft female body, his right arm was likewise pinned. "Filia, Amy, I love you two a lot too, but if I don't answer this soon, the video's going to turn on and people will see you both naked." He wasn't surprised as they moved and allowed his arms movement. He was pretty thankful for that, actually, his arms were starting to both go numb and cramp up from the two of them using them as pillows. "Chrono here." He pushed the audio only button.

_"Enforcer Chrono, this is Admiral Leti."_

"What is it?" Chrono asked, his mind now fully awake.

_"A powerfully strong X class signature has appeared on Non-Administered Planet 500. I need you to gather a team."_

"How long can you give me?"

_"Two hours."_

Chrono nodded and bit his lip as the screen turned off. "A team, huh?" If it was X rank, then it had to be a Mazoku, and high X ranks were reserved for the ones who could devastate entire planets with ease.

Whatever the case was, he just hoped that none of them would be upset about being asked to go on what was, basically, a suicide mission.

Really, X ranked missions were called A.Y.N. missions. Anyone willing to go on them had to either be supremely powerful or nuts.

"What are you going to do, Chrono?" Filia asked, her face a worried mask.

Chrono got off the bed and started to gather his clothes. He'd wash up quick and then make some phone calls. "I'm going to ask Lina, Hayate and their families if they'll lend me their strength again."

"We can..." Chrono turned to face her and shook his head. Amy narrowed her eyes at him. "Chrono..."

"The last time we were there, you nearly died, Amy, you can't..."

"I'm going and you can't stop me, besides, you'll need someone on the ship who's been to that planet before." Amy crossed her arms under her breasts. "Filia?"

Filia shook her head. "I'm going to stay here." She looked away, her face flush. "I still haven't been feeling well lately." Turning to look at Amy, Filia frowned softly. "Actually, now that I think about it, you've been ill too."

"BAH!" Amy shook her head. "Just because I'm a little sick, don't expect me to take it easy. If there's danger, I've got to be there to make sure that the team has proper support."

"Actually," Lindy spoke up as she stood outside of the room, "as much as it would be good for you to go, Amy, I do need you around here."

"But..."

"No buts, Amy, I'm in need of some help today, so you'll need to stay here with Filia."

Chrono nodded, internally grateful. "Sorry, Amy." He blushed as Amy suddenly lunged forward and hugged him from behind. The feel of her naked breasts to his bare back was quite pleasant. "Amy, if you don't let go, we're going to get into trouble."

Amy nodded and let go of him. "Come on, we need to get ready." Filia smiled as the two went to get washed up, before sighing and flopping back onto the bed. It didn't take her long to fall back to sleep. As worried as she was, she was exhausted.

After all, she had only gone to sleep an hour ago.

(-)

A bit later...

Rubbing her face as she walked out of her room, Signum shook her head as she saw Vita, dressed in only her panties, sleepily walk out of her room, scratching herself under her right breast. Grabbing the girl by her shoulder, she spun Vita around and pushed her back into her room. "Put a shirt on." Really, Vita was lucky that it was mostly women in the house. And even then, she was lucky it wasn't Hayate who saw her.

After all, the last time that Vita had woken up in the morning and walked out without a shirt on and passed Hayate, the shorter girl had dragged Vita over to the couch and had molested Vita's chest for almost twenty minutes before Vita fully woke up.

Signum would know, she had recorded the whole thing to prove a point to Vita.

But, Signum suspected that Vita wanted Hayate to grope her like that. It gave the growing redhead an excuse to get off in the morning without dirtying her own fingers after all.

Of course, Signum didn't know if that was true or not, but she did suspect it.

"Morning, Signum." She turned to look at Shamal as the latter wrapped a robe around her body. "Vita sleep walking again?" The slight bang and muffled curses from Vita's room was her answer. "Poor girl, she needs to wake up faster."

Signum shook her head. "Actually, it's more amusing to see her stumble around half asleep some days."

Shamal raised an eyebrow at that. "I forget, have you shown Vita that video that you took of what Hayate did to her one morning?" Signum blinked a few times, before slowly shaking her head. "Maybe that's why she keeps doing it? Besides, where did you put that video anyway?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about." Signum said as she walked towards the kitchen. "Let's help get breakfast set up before Hayate or Reinforce wakes up."

Shamal frowned, for some odd reason, she thought she saw the faintest signs of a blush on Signum's cheeks. 'What was that all about?'

As they walked into the kitchen, Zafira looked up and stretched. "Morning." He nodded to them as he stood up on all fours. "What's on the agenda for today?"

Signum shrugged at him. "I'm not sure. Vita and Hayate have school, Reinforce is tutoring Zwei on magic and giving her history lessons. My day is mostly open today, not sure about Shamal's..."

Shamal sighed softly. "More meetings on Mid-Childa, I'm afraid. Lots of lectures from people that I don't know talking about how all magical healing is going to be changing soon."

"Really?" Signum looked at her and she nodded.

"Yeah, looks like the bosses finally gave the go-ahead to start using the hybrid magic style for healing purposes." Shamal frowned softly. "I'm worried that there's not enough medics who have enough magic to cast some of these spells and not pass out, however."

Signum nodded, the spells that Testarossa and Reinforce had been teaching her were a pain to use for long periods of time. She couldn't argue with the results however. Just the fact that she could fight at longer distances than most Belkan Knights of the past was quite appealing.

Before any more conversation was said, Vita, now dressed in a tank top that barely covered her chest and only brushed against the top of her white panties, walked into the kitchen and blinked as the phone rang. "Morning, Yagami residence, Vita Yagami speaking." The sleepiness in her eyes seemed to vanish as her skin turned an interesting shade of pale on them. "I see... I'll make sure to tell them, okay, thanks Chrono..." She hung up and turned to look at her fellow knights, a serious look on her face. "There's trouble, serious trouble, we're all going to need to participate in this one."

A few moments later, Reinforce, Hayate and Rein Zwei all wandered into the kitchen. Upon hearing what was going on, they all nodded and went back to their rooms to get dressed quickly.

Breakfast could wait until they were on the ship, but something that was so bad that Chrono needed all of them made them all wonder...

And worry.

(-)

"No." Her voice was firm as she looked at the children in the room. "This isn't something I want any..."

"Mom, we're going." Nanoha said, looking at her mother stubbornly. "You said it yourself, you can't beat something that powerful on your own, we're going to help."

Lina grimaced, dammit, why did Nanoha have to be as stubborn as she was? It wasn't just Nanoha, Fate, Yuuno and even Miyuki were all giving her the same look. Turning to look at Shiro for support, she nearly groaned as Arf was giving her the same determined look and Shiro was fighting back the urge to laugh. At least Erio was playing with Arashi in another room, so that wasn't a problem right now. "This isn't the same as before, Nanoha... We went last time not knowing that Dark Star was merged with Vorfeed and coming to destroy everything, this time, we know that a really strong Mazoku," and she had a feeling she knew who it was too, "I just can't..."

"Mom," Fate spoke up softly, but her voice was firm, "we aren't going to let you go off to fight against a Mazoku so powerful that you can't win alone, we're coming to help."

"Besides, we're far from helpless." Yuuno spoke up. "We've all learned what we could from you and been training in new spells all the time. We'll be a big help."

**"Boss is only helpless around the pretty ladies."** Thoth spoke up, which caused Yuuno to groan and slap his forehead. Why wasn't his device more normal? **"But boss is really strong and he wouldn't slow you down."**

**"Master is strong too."** Raising Heart piped up from under Nanoha's shirt. **"Bardiche agrees about Miss Fate too."**

**"Yes, sir."**

Lina felt like banging her head against the wall. "I can't guarantee that any of you who go will come out of it alive. If it's who I think it is, he won't care about torturing any of us, he'll only care about destroying us so he can destroy the world, do you understand?" She nearly screamed as they all nodded. Why were they all so damn stubborn?

"Mom..." Miyuki spoke up, her sword hand on Gorun Nova. "Regardless of what you say to us, we're going to go with you."

Sighing, Lina nodded and sat down in her chair. "Fine..." She looked at Arf, who was starting to get excited. "I need you to stay here though, Arf."

"What? WHY?" She jumped up on the table and Lina was just thankful that she was in her child form at the moment. "I can fight!"

"I know." Lina smiled softly and ruffled her hair. "But I need someone to help watch over Erio and Arashi today." When Arf sighed, she nodded at her. "If not for them, I wouldn't care if you came with, okay?"

"Alright." Arf sighed, and pouted.

Lina looked at Shiro and raised an eyebrow. "And you?"

"If you want me to come with..."

Lina sighed softly. Honestly, she didn't want him to, but she had the feeling that he would like staying home even less than she would like him there. "No, I don't want you to come with, but, I'd feel better if you did." She smiled as he nodded at her.

"I'll call Arisa-chan and Suzuka-chan and let them..."

"No." Lina spun on Nanoha and made her stop. "This is one time I have to say no about this."

"But, they can be a great help and..."

"Arisa has part of the Blue Dragon's soul inside of her, and Suzuka was genetically designed to be able to fight against Mazoku and Shinzoku, I know, but if Arisa goes, there's a good, a VERY good chance that the Shinzoku in her will wake up and she'll become the Shinzoku. Do you want that?"

"But she..." Nanoha pouted as Lina narrowed her eyes. "Okay..." Nanoha had forgotten about that part, that unlike Yuuno, who drew his powers from a god, Arisa had a god's soul inside of her.

Nanoha was still tempted to go call Arisa, but Yuuno squeezed her shoulder and shook his head. "Yuuno-kun..."

"Nanoha, you heard your mom, besides," he smiled at her and Nanoha felt her face heating up for some odd reason, "between you and Fate, I'm sure that there's nothing that we can't beat."

"Nyahahahahaha..." Nanoha smiled and nodded at him. "Right!"

Lina shook her head and sighed softly. Dammit, why did kids always think they were invincible? Still, she wasn't taking any chances. Getting up, she walked over to where the Weapons of Light were adorned on her wall before taking down Galveira, Bodigar, Ragudo Mezzagis and Nezzard.

Turning, she tossed Bodigar and Ragudo Mezzagis to Shiro while gripping Nezzard. "I have a feeling we're going to need these this time."

Two hours later, on Leti's ship...

Leti looked at the group that Chrono had assembled. Raising an eyebrow, she looked at him as he shrugged. "Welcome, all of you, I'm not surprised to see the Yagami family, nor Mrs. Takamachi, but you kids..." She raised an eyebrow as she looked at Fate, Nanoha and Yuuno. She then turned to see Miyuki and Shiro standing there and shook her head. "This isn't a game, why are you two with?"

Miyuki narrowed her eyes at the Admiral. "One, I missed out last time, and two, I'm not going to sit around while my sisters go and rush off to fight when I've got the power to fight back."

Leti rubbed her forehead. Honestly, she would have left the non-magical one behind, but it was hard to argue with someone who had a magical sword that could cut through damn near any magical attack. "Fine, but don't expect me to bail you out while you're out there."

"What are we facing?" Vita asked and Leti nodded to her.

"About two hours ago, a powerful magical signature came from Non-Administered Planet 500, this is easily in the same class that Death Bringer was in."

Nanoha tried and failed to fight back a shiver at that name.

"As such, we're going to assume that it's a very powerful Mazoku until otherwise proven." Leti wished that Lindy was the one leading this expedition, she'd know what to expect more, but the woman was busy with other matters these days. "I wish I could tell you more, but that's all that I've got for now." She blinked when Lina stood up. "Yes?"

"Considering that the Mazoku from my homeworld... Which is the planet you were mentioning, correct?" Leti nodded at Lina's question and she sighed. "Considering that most of the Mazoku that would be ranked that highly are in a truce with the Shinzoku, I can only guess that there's one Mazoku doing this."

"Which one?" Leti asked as everyone stared at Lina.

"The Dark Lord of all Mazoku, the Ma-Oh, Ruby-Eye Shabranigdo, the source of all Mazoku and Black magic on my home world."

"The Demon King?" Leti's pupils shrank when Lina nodded. "...I'm beginning to hate Mazoku," she grumbled softly, "anything we should know about this one?"

"Other than the fact that he's the most powerful Mazoku? He's split into seven pieces on my world, each one is bonded with a human soul..."

"He shouldn't be too hard then..." Chrono nearly fell over when Lina glared at him. "Sorry, I mean, compared to Dark Star, he was at full power and combined with Vorfeed, this should be easy, right?"

Lina shook her head slowly. "Doubtful. Dark Star and Vorfeed had a weakness we could exploit then, we can't exploit the same weakness here."

"Why not?" Leti was confused, if Dark Star had been more powerful, why was Lina looking like she was preparing for death?

"Because, we used Cephied and Shabranigdo's power to deal with Dark Star and Vorfeed, plus the Weapons of Light and a spell that combined all of that to split him apart and cause him to be reborn. Shabranigdo won't have that same weakness. And if he's been awake long enough, then there's nothing that can really be done to stop him."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean..." Lina's eyes narrowed slowly. "If this is Shabranigdo, and he's been able to purge the human soul that he was bonded to fully, then he won't have a weakness. Even a fragment that's only a seventh as powerful as he is fully is more powerful than any of us could handle if it was at full strength."

Sitting down, Lina gripped her legs and tried to focus on something other than what was coming up. If it was Shabranigdo, she wasn't sure if she could beat him, even with all the help she had, and the Weapons of Light helping her.

The last time, he had been awake for less than three days and he still nearly killed her.

She didn't know how long this fragment had been awake for.

And that was just terrifying.

* * *

Lina: It's time to rock. This isn't going to be fun.  
Nanoha: Don't worry, we'll tear him apart! Limb from limb!  
Leti: That... Might be a problem.  
Lina: Next time on Blood That Flows - Red. Everything's going to hell!  
Fate: Read it, we're going to need support.

I admit, I accidentally created a plot hole later in the story, thus I had to have certain things change in this chapter.


	121. Red the Twenty First

Blood That Flows

Red the Twenty First

I own nothing really. Nope.

* * *

On the Red World...

"Your Highness! Your Highness!" He looked up as an adviser ran into the room. "Your Highness, I am sorry for interrupting."

"It's okay." He gave a lazy grin to the man. "You should know that my doors are almost always open, so, what's the problem?"

"A large army of Mazoku are heading here, for Seiryuun!"

"WHAT?" Phil stood up, his eyes wide. "How large?"

The man shuddered as he pulled out a scroll and unrolled it, shaking violently. "By all our scouts reports, the army outnumbers ours by at a margin of at least five to one."

Gritting his teeth, Phil turned to his other advisers and swung his large arm to the side. "Quickly! Gather our forces, secure the walls and move civilians to the safe houses."

"Yes, sir!" The advisers stood up and went to deliver their orders.

Phil narrowed his eyes. If only his father had not passed away a few months ago, he would be feeling more positive about this.

"Father!" He looked up and smiled as his two daughters walked into the throne room. "Is it true, a horde of Mazoku are heading this way?"

He nodded, sighing softly. "If there was ever a time that Seiryuun could use a miracle, now would be that time."

"Do not worry, father, between the royal mages, Amelia and myself, we shall handle these Mazoku with ease! OHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHO!"

"Gracia, that's scary." Amelia said, trembling slightly as she sweat-dropped before looking at her father. "Daddy, I've sent messenger pigeons out to various places. I hope that I can find a few strong Allies of Justice to fight against these dark forces."

"So do I, Amelia, so do I." King Phil said as he looked into the sky as the clouds started to gather. 'How... Appropriate.' Standing up, he started to walk through the castle, his daughters following him. "The first thing we need to do is make sure that our fortifications are strong enough to hold against the hordes of Mazoku, also, we need to make sure that the civilians are in the safe houses."

"The Knights are already moving the civilians, daddy." Amelia spoke up as they turned another corner. "If things go smoothly enough, we'll have all the civilians in safe houses shortly before the Mazoku arrive."

"And the magicians are fortifying the lines."

King Phil nodded, that was good. "I hope that will hold them."

"If you're talking about that horde of Mazoku heading this way, I doubt it." Phil looked up at an open window at the figure sitting there. "You'll need someone who's skilled in Shamanistic magic to pull this off."

When he jumped out of the window and landed near them, Amelia's eyes sparkled in happiness. "Mr. Zelgadis!"

"I'm glad you're here." King Phil nodded to him. "The power of Justice and Pacifism drew you to us in our time of need, huh?"

"Uh, no, I was just heading in this general direction when the Mazoku started gathering." Zelgadis smirked slightly and snapped his fingers. "Also, I picked up some help along the way."

Looking at where he was pointing, Amelia's eyes widened. "Mr. Gourry! Miss Sylphiel!" She then saw the third person behind them and smiled more. "Mr. Zest!" Even with his beard and tattered clothes, she could tell it was that knight that helped her out two years ago on that one mission. Running up to Sylphiel, she gave the woman a hug. "How is your son?"

Sylphiel smiled at her. "We were bringing him here to meet you, actually. He's in a safe house right now."

Gourry looked at Naga, Amelia, then at Zelgadis, then back to his wife, before finally looking at Zest. "Even with all of us and your entire army, we would need a miracle to pull this off." Even with his skill, Mazoku had always been bad news.

"We'll have to make due." Naga said as she walked up to him. "We always have."

"Yeah, but making due and having an extreme amount of firepower is usually what you need in a situation like this." A familiar voice had the group spinning around to see a group of people standing in the doorway with a familiar face in the front, grinning as she wore long blue pants and a short-sleeved shirt.

"Lina?" Zelgadis stared in shock, before rubbing his eyes. "You're really here..."

Lina just grinned at him. "We can play catch up later, we've got an army to stop."

The grin on her face was infectious.

The overwhelming odds suddenly seemed far less overwhelming at that moment.

(-)

"It's good to see you again." King Phil smiled at Lina. "I see some familiar and some new faces, welcome, all of you."

"As much as I wish this was under better times, we do need to plan." Chrono spoke up. "Do you have a meeting room where we can get everyone to meet?"

Phil nodded at him. "Of course we do." He turned to a young man in the room. "Gather all the magical and military leaders to the conference room, now!"

"Yes, sir!" He bowed and ran out.

"Come." Phil gestured the group to follow him. "I must say, Miss Lina, I'm surprised that you came back."

"Regardless of my current life, this world is still my home, and besides," she grinned at him, "a chance to have you owe me more is just great."

The two of them started laughing while the others behind them sweat-dropped.

"If I didn't know those two as well as I think I do, I'd think that they don't care about the oncoming army." Zelgadis muttered.

"In my experience, the one who acts relaxed and laid back before a battle tends to be the most effective fighter." Reinforce said as she walked forward.

"Considering it's Lina, I'm not surprised." Zelgadis chuckled softly as the group came to a room with a large table in the middle.

"Admiral," Chrono spoke up and put a small disk in the center of the table, "what are we looking at?"

A screen popped up, surprising the King, as well as the other military leaders of Seiryuun. When it was explained that it was just a scrying device, they nodded in understanding.

"I wish you wouldn't make it sound so simple, anyway, turns out that the Mazoku army," the screen changed and several gasps were heard as the screen showed Seiryuun, as large as it was, was starting to get surrounded by many, many black dots, "got there pretty quickly after we teleported you down."

"Figures..." Lina muttered softly and narrowed her eyes. "We're going to need to split up a bit if they're surrounding the whole city."

"The military will be nothing more than a distraction against Mazoku." One of the generals said in disdain. "We can, however, make sure that none of the Mazoku harm civilians."

"A distraction's better than nothing..." Chrono muttered as he looked at the group and sighed, it was almost painfully obvious that most of the mages that Seiryuun had wouldn't be enough to deal with this threat. "I'm not going to step on any of your toes," he said to the locals before turning to the group he brought with, "but I think we can split our forces up a bit."

Lina nodded and looked at the map with narrowed eyes. If only she knew what side Shabranigdo was on. Even if she did, she wasn't sure she could beat him without a clear shot of the Ragna Blade. And there was the fact that the Mazoku lords knew what she could do, if they teamed up with Shabranigdo there was no way she could win. "What's your suggestion then, Chrono?"

He nodded at her. "I figure we need three different groups among our best mages. One group will stay at or near the city walls, helping the defenses, a second group will be in the middle of the Mazoku army, and the last group will be bombarding them from above."

"Hayate-chan, Fate-chan, Reinforce-san and myself are good at bombarding." Nanoha raised her left hand.

"Vita, myself and Zwei will take the fight to the Mazoku directly." Signum nodded to the others.

"Gourry, Amelia and Zelgadis will join you, they're really good at that." Lina grinned at her friends and looked at Zest. "What about you?"

"I'm not much for standing around, I'll be joining in the crowd fight."

Lina nodded and looked at the others. "The rest of us will stay behind, either to fortify defenses," she looked at Zafira and Yuuno, "aid in healing," she nodded to Shamal and Sylphiel, "or give support fire."

"This is a dark day for us indeed." King Phil spoke to the group. "But let's pray to Cephied for divine projection and go out, face down our enemy forces with the power of Truth and Justice. With these on our side, we shall once again prove that humans will not be defeated easily by any forces. For, if we win today, it will be a major defeat for the Mazoku, not only will they have failed to take down Seiryuun, but the Demon King, Shabranigdo, will have fallen in battle. Good luck, and may Cephied protect you all."

(-)

A bit later...

"Kind of a corny speech, huh, Phil?" Lina asked as she and Phil walked out of the castle. The groups were splitting up at that moment as it was. Yuuno, Nanoha, Vita, Gourry, and Miyuki were going to go to the East side, Chrono, Signum, Hayate, Zelgadis, and Amelia were heading to the North side, Reinforce, Zafira, Vita, and Shiro were heading to the West side, and Fate, Naga, Shamal, Zest and Lina herself were taking the South Side of the city. Leti couldn't give where Shabranigdo was, since the aura he was putting out was too distributed amongst the other Mazoku.

He shrugged at her. "Good luck, Miss Lina."

"You too." She nodded and blinked as she saw Naga, Amelia, Shiro and Miyuki standing there. "Yes?"

"It's good to see you back, Lina." Naga grinned at her as she wore her familiar outfit. "But don't think this changes anything! Just because I revealed that I'm the Princess of Seiryuun and you're a mother doesn't change the fact that you're still my rival!"

Lina sweat-dropped heavily before pulling something out from behind her. "Naga... Here." She tossed a weapon handle to Naga, who caught it easily.

"Hmph! I know you don't think highly of my skill, Lina, but a weapon handle? Mazoku can't be clubbed to death, you know."

Lina grinned and nodded. "Oh, I know, but that's a Weapon of Light, Naga..."

"Weapon of Light?" Naga's eyes widened as she looked at it. "Like... The Sword of Light?"

"Yep, but that's an Axe, I figure you could use the extra fire power."

"OHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHO!" Naga threw her head back and laughed before pointing the Axe at Lina. "How kind of you to give me one of the most powerful weapons to ever exist! I shall make sure to repay you a thousand times over!"

Lina sweat-dropped at that. "Actually, just make sure you return Bodigar to me, I'm only lending it to you."

Naga stopped laughing, pouted and nodded, before turning and flying away.

"Mom..." Miyuki looked at her. "I don't think I can stay close to the wall..." She stopped when Lina smiled at her.

"I trust you and Shiro to do what you think is best. But..." A slow grin came to her face. "If you do go and fight... Give 'em hell."

Miyuki just grinned and nodded as she ran to the East.

"Good luck." Shiro smiled as he walked up to her and gave her a kiss.

When the kiss ended, Lina nodded as he walked away. "You have Nezzard and Ragudo Mezzagis, right?"

Shiro turned and smirked as he pulled out the weapons. "Don't worry, I know what to do with them."

"Miss Lina..." Lina looked at Amelia as the latter stood there, trembling. "I..."

"Amelia? What?" She blinked as Amelia ran and hugged her tightly. "Woah, hey, what's wrong?"

"I'm glad you're back, Miss Lina. Even if only for a little bit, I missed you so much."

Lina's eyes softened as she hugged Amelia and rubbed her back. "Hey, come on, it'll be okay."

Amelia nodded and surprised Lina when she leaned up and kissed her on the cheek. "AMELIA!" Lina's face was red as Amelia hugged her. "Please don't tell me that you're into women."

Amelia shook her head and pulled away from Lina. "No... But, Miss Lina, I want you to know that you're the sister I never had and always wanted." When Lina blinked at that, Amelia turned to go to the West side of the city. "And I was afraid I wouldn't get to tell you that I really did missed you."

Lina blinked a few times. "And you give everyone you really miss a kiss?" She laughed as Amelia face-faulted. "Don't worry about that, but, Amelia..." The younger girl stood up and Lina walked over to her and gave her another hug. "Thanks."

Amelia just smiled and hugged her back.

Lina stepped back and sweat-dropped slightly. "You know, I'm not used to having to look up to look you in the eye..."

"Well, it has been a couple of years, Miss Lina." Amelia smiled at her. "Though, I have to admit, I never thought I'd have to get shirts that were extra large in the chest like Gracia did."

Lina sweat-dropped, while Amelia wasn't... As gifted as Naga was in the chest, the younger, though slightly taller than her, girl had a chest that most people in the world would kill to have.

And considering some of the things she had seen on Shiro's world, she knew that some of the men would want breasts like that too.

* * *

Yuuno: It's time.  
Nanoha: For the sake of the future.  
Fate: We shall fight.  
Hayate: Against overwhelming odds.  
Signum: To protect those we care about.  
Vita: And smash against the tide of destiny itself.  
Lina: Next time, on Blood That Flows - Red.  
Amelia: We fight for Justice!  
Zelgadis: And life itself.

That got more poetic than I thought it would. Anyway, here's an Omake for ya.

* * *

"Miss Lina! Miss Lina!"

Lina blinked at Lindy. "Yes?"

"A powerful Mazoku Lord is on the loose and threatening the universe!"

Lina sighed. "Is it the holiday season already?"

* * *

I was talking to a friend of mine and he said that Lina had become rather jaded when dealing with the end of the world, and gave me that Omake. Thanks, Rising Dragon!


	122. Red the Twenty Second

Blood That Flows

Red the Twenty-Second

I own nothing really. Nope.

* * *

On the East side...

"Say, I was wondering something..." Gourry looked at Yuuno. He was thankful that his wife wasn't going to be heading out to fight and was preparing the tents to heal people. From what he heard, that Shamal woman was going to help with some defenses before pulling back and doing the same as Sylphiel.

"Yeah?" Yuuno looked at him as they flew over the top of the wall and touched down on the grass outside.

"How come your ship didn't use that big white beam against the Mazoku like you did before against Dark Star?" The look of confusion had Yuuno nearly face-faulting. "What?"

Yuuno shook his head. "Nothing, hold on a second." He had thought Gourry had a bad memory, or at least that's what Lina had told him about their adventures together. _"Hey, Chrono, Gourry's wondering why we didn't Arc en Ciel the Mazoku army."_

_"The ship Admiral Leti's using doesn't have an Arc en Ciel equipped to it."_

_"Oh."_

_"Just a head's up, everyone."_ Leti's voice broke into the conversation. _"I just got word back from HQ, they're going to be sending the entire fleet of ships this way, all of them equipped with Arc en Ciel."_

_"Why do I not like the sound of that?"_Vita's voice spoke up.

_"Because, if we don't contain this crisis before they get here, they're going to fire the Arc en Ciel and vaporize everything."_

_"WHAT?"_Everyone yelled at the same time.

_"The Bureau has decided that the threat the Mazoku possess is far too great. If it was just a few, they would send a ship or two, but this many? They're going for a scorched Earth policy here."_

_"How long do we have, Admiral?"_

_"About two and a half hours, everyone."_

Yuuno was pale as he looked at Gourry. "If you were wondering, well, stop wondering, the ship didn't have one equipped onto it." He looked at Miyuki and Gourry. "We have another problem... If we don't finish this battle in under three hours, a whole fleet of ships are going to appear, and they're going to destroy everything to get rid of the Mazoku."

The shocked looks on Miyuki and Gourry's faces matched his.

"Here they come!" Nanoha yelled as she flew straight up. "Divine... BUSTER!" Shooting at the tide of Mazoku and slowly moving Raising Heart upwards, she nodded as several Mazoku dissipated with one shot.

(-)

South Side...

Zest grimaced as he heard that news and looked at the others. Naga was confused by the voice in her head, but had a grim look on her face. "So, guess we don't get to play around, huh?"

"Wasn't planning on it." Lina said as she stood on the top of wall and looked out.

"Why do you look familiar to me?" Zest looked at Lina, who shrugged at him.

"Dunno, really. Though you look familiar to me as well..."

"Um, mom, Zest, you two met about five years ago..." Fate spoke up, sweat-dropping heavily. "When Garoth took over Mid-Childa..."

"Oh yeah!" Lina snapped her fingers. "Guess I forgot."

Zest blinked as he looked her over. "Wait, you're the Hero of Mid-Childa?"

"Guess so." Lina nodded to him and looked at Fate. "When did you meet him?"

"He helped me train a couple of years ago." Fate nodded, before her eyes narrowed. "We've got company."

Lina smirked and grabbed Galveira. "Well then... Light Come Forth!"

Naga and Zest both stared at the beam of destruction that split the Mazoku forces. "Woah!"

Lina grimaced as she saw her handiwork, while impressive, that created a less than sizable dent to the Mazoku that were incoming. "Don't just stand there! Get in there!"

Zest nodded as he called up his spear and shifted into his Blast Mode. His spear at the ready, his eyes narrowed as he split a tree-looking Mazoku in half before slicing off the head of one that looked like some sort of weird chicken."

"OHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHO!" Naga laughed as she stood taller than Lina and held Bodigar. "Light Come Forth!" Laughing, she flew into the fray, slashing her way through several Mazoku with ease and blasting ones that got too close to her with Elmekia Lances.

"How many Mazoku are here?" Fate asked Lina as she held Bardiche in its Zambar form while charging up a new spell.

"All of them, now just fire!" Lina didn't like yelling at her children, but now wasn't the time to ask a question like that.

Fate nodded and held her hand out. "Dimension... Burst!" Three quick, transparent spheres erupted from Fate's finger tips, slamming into and through several Mazoku, eliminating them instantly. "So that's how it works." Fate whispered softly. "Thank you, Precia-mama..." She muttered to herself before rushing in. "Elmekia... Zambar!" The Zambar blade turned a pale yellow as Fate started slicing into Mazoku left and right, dismembering and destroying them with ease.

Grimacing at the size that kept coming, Fate flew straight up and glared. "Bardiche... Dragon Slave Zambar!"

**"Yes, sir!"**

Closing her eyes, Fate started to chant softly. It was a good thing that Bardiche kept a solid record of all the Black Magic spells that she had used over the years, otherwise she would have never remembered how to use this spell.

_"Darkness Beyond Twilight_  
_Crimson Beyond Blood That Flows_  
_Buried in the stream of time_  
_Is where your power grows_  
_I pledge myself to conquer_  
_All the foes that stand_  
_Against the mighty gift bestowed_  
_In my unworthy hand..."_

Fate's eyes snapped open as Bardiche Zambar turned from yellow to red. _"Let the fools who stand before me, be destroyed by the power you and I possess!"_

"DRAGON SLAVE ZAMBAR!"

Gripping Bardiche with both hands, she swung the massive blade over the back of her head before swinging down as hard as she could, a powerful red and yellow beam of destructive energy launched itself from the blade and spiraled into the group of Mazoku, before exploding spectacularly.

Fate had aimed towards the back of the group, so that no one on her side would get hurt.

Still, that explosion was still much larger than she thought possible and did consume a good chunk of the Mazoku.

Fate's eyes widened as the smoke cleared and even more Mazoku seemed to be coming out of the destroyed ground. "What the heck is going on here?" She gasped as several dozen Mazoku flew up to meet her in mid-air.

**"Rubin Blitz Mode!"**

Fate was grateful as her body was covered in that red metal that wrapped itself tightly around her arms and legs, supporting her in the areas she needed to be supported across her mid section, chest and neck, before Bardiche became a smaller, thinner blade.

With her increased speed and compressed magic, Fate easily avoided the Mazoku's charge and slashed through them with contemptuous ease while blasting any that tried to come close to her.

(-)

North Side...

Zelgadis grimaced as he looked at the on-coming horde of Mazoku. "Okay, so, if we don't get this situation under control in a short order..."

"Death from above." Chrono nodded as he pulled out a hilt to a sword. "Which means you can't hold back."

Zelgadis nodded and looked up as he felt a large amount of magic being charged. Seeing Hayate standing there, her book open and staff in the air, he narrowed his eyes. "What is she doing?"

He got his answer a moment later as several circles appeared in front of Hayate who swung her staff forward as each one started to fire a powerful beam of energy at the Mazoku. "Hræsvelgr!" She cried out as the oncoming Mazoku army was flattened by several large beams at once.

"Woah..." Zelgadis nodded appreciatively. It wasn't quite as impressive as a Dragon Slave, but to fire that many shots in one spell was pretty good.

Signum raised an eyebrow as she saw the Mazoku get cut down with ease. _"Hayate, I need to know, how did you do that? Destroy the Mazoku so easily, I mean."_

Hayate's voice was giggling slightly as several black spheres appeared around her. _"All my normal magic is like Nanoha-chan's normal magic, except that it's tainted by Black magic instead of being tainted by Holy magic."_

_"Ah."_ Signum nodded as she held her sword up. "Astral Vine." She supposed it made sense, after all, Hayate **was**the Mistress of the Tome of the Night Sky. "I guess being tainted by a Mazoku for centuries would leave the Book and Reinforce with a Black taint to their magic."

Not that Signum cared one way or the other, she was just curious. "Laevatein! Shiden Issen!"

The flames that spiraled around her sword were tinged orange as she used the flames to burn through several enemies with ease. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Zelgadis, in his Chimera form, easily ripping through several Mazoku with his Astral Vine and Blam Blazer spells.

**"Schlangeform!"**

Popping a cartridge, Signum snapped her still red blade up and the metal separated, becoming a metal whip that spiraled around her and towards enemies further away, splitting them with ease.

Further to the side, Amelia smashed her magically enhanced fists into several Mazoku, sending them crashing into others, defeating them as easily as anyone else there. "For attacking the peace-loving people of this city, I, Amelia Wil Tesla Seiryuun, second in line to the throne, shall not forgive you!" Clapping her hands together, she let them glow for a moment before pulling them apart and shaking them up and down like she was shaking a rug. "RA TILT!"

A rather impressive blue-white wave of energy escaped from her finger tips, rushing forward like an unstoppable wave of power. Amelia grinned slightly as several swords flashed through the air, impaling the flying Mazoku with ease. She wasn't going to let anyone down today.

(-)

West Side

"They're here." Reinforce stated as she created several black energy spheres. "Go." She snapped her hands down as the spheres launched their magical energy at the Mazoku, destroying several of them. She nodded as she saw several slightly yellow pillars of spikes stab out of the ground, slaughtering at least two rows of Mazoku with ease.

Holding her hand up, she narrowed her eyes at the black sphere of energy that gathered there. "Diabolic Emission." Reinforce spoke softly before throwing the sphere down into the horde and nodding as it expanded and took out a good chunk of the Mazoku with ease. Only a few Mazoku that had taken that hit directly were still standing, and she sniped them with a few Elmekia Lances to put them out of their misery.

Still, something was bothering her, where was Shabranigdo in all of this?

On the ground, Vita growled as she and Shiro charged into battle while Reinforce flew overhead, destroying Mazoku left and right while Zafira took care of any stragglers that got away from Reinforce's attacks. "OUT OF MY WAY!"

**"Raketenform!"**

Vita grinned as her weapon gained a spike and a rocket thruster that sent her launching into the horde of enemies. "Now... Blam Blazer!" She yelled, Graf Eisen suddenly glowed white as it was engulfed in Astral Energy, allowing her to slam into and through several enemies with ease. Noting that Shiro was doing as well as she was, despite having no magical power, she mentally chuckled. "Well, can't let him have ALL the fun!" She grinned as Graf Eisen returned to normal. "Let's go, Eisen!"

**"Jawol!"**Her device cried out as Vita cast another spell into it as she flew into the melee.

(-)

"Admiral..." One of the bridge hands nodded to Leti. "It's as we feared, there are more Mazoku gathering."

"Where?" Leti narrowed her eyes. At this rate, they were going to have to upgrade the ranking of this world to SSS if there were this many Mazoku running around.

"North of Seiryuun, and seemingly staying there." A screen popped up with Leti asked for it. "I'm not sure why, but it looks like a lot of Dragons and some humans, or human-like people, we're not sure yet, are fighting against them."

Leti frowned as she looked at it. "What's with this red energy?" She cursed when the hands on the bridge all shook their heads. "Keep an eye on it."

"Ma'am..."

"Yes?" Leti blinked as the two battles were shown side by side. Something was definitely odd, the red energy in the mountains was far more potent than the red energy around Seiryuun, but the energy around Seiryuun was growing. "Keep an eye on this."

Whatever it was, she knew it couldn't be good.

(-)

"Lord Shabranigdo." He turned to look at some mid-level Mazoku that had come up to him. Honestly, he couldn't even remember this one's name, having come into existence sometime since he was last released, well, the first time he was released. "The battle... Does not go well... All the low-level Mazoku you sent out are getting slaughtered, and even the few that get close to the city are being destroyed by spikes from the ground, fire and other spells and..."

"Fire? How does... Holy magic..." He narrowed his glowing red eyes. Honestly, this human frame was such a limitation, but for now it was necessary.

At least until he had all the pieces in place.

"Are the Shinzoku here?" The Mazoku shook his head. "Then how?"

"A human boy is casting the fire from the walls and..." The Mazoku started to tremble. "Lord Shabranigdo, I don't doubt you, but there's the Holy magic, which humans aren't supposed to have, a pink haired woman using a sword in ways I've never seen, reports of six Weapons of Light, including two Swords of Light, a redheaded woman using a hammer, four women in the air who can fly and use magic I've never seen, one of them is completely red and moving so fast that even I can't follow her and..." He whimpered as the human form of Shabranigdo narrowed his eyes.

"You really have no faith in me, huh?" He walked forward and patted the Mazoku on what passed for its shoulder. "Do not worry, all will be well, but as for you..." He grinned as the Mazoku screamed as its body was torn apart. "Do not doubt me ever again!"

Crossing his arms, he looked at his human host. "So weak..." To think that he would just give up his soul like he did. Chuckling, Shabranigdo shrugged it off, humans were so weak.

Still, it was because of the human soul that was in him last time that he was beaten. "Rezo..." He growled and squeezed his hand into a fist. "If you hadn't interfered, I would have won and this world would have been destroyed long ago."

"It's still weird how you know what happened to one of your soul fragments, Lord Shabranigdo." A female voice spoke up and he turned to see several Mazoku, all human-shaped and covered in cloaks, walk up to him. "Even if all your fragments are technically connected to each other, it's still weird."

Shabranigdo grinned at them. "Well, I didn't expect to see the eight of you here so soon."

"Well, you did send for us as soon as you were awake, Lord Ruby Eyes." A second Mazoku spoke softly. "We would have came to your aide last time, but as you never sent for us..."

"Yes, yes, none of us knew that Lina Inverse could call forth that power. But, it seems that several strong opponents are here today." He looked around at the group confused. "Where are the last two?"

"Gen and Gou are at Dragon's Peak, keeping the Elves and Dragons too busy to join in down here." The female-sounding Mazoku stood up and looked at him fully. "It's doubtful they will fail, after all, you created all of us a thousand years ago."

Shabranigdo chuckled before turning his head and frowning. "...Odd..." He could have sworn he felt something familiar, but it wasn't there anymore. "Now, go, and deal with those defenders as you see fit."

The Mazoku nodded as they disappeared.

(-)

"This isn't good." Xellos frowned as he faded out of the Astral Plane and materialized on a hill, looking down at the battle.

"Daddy..." He turned to see his two daughters look at him in worry. "Are you going to have to fight against Lord Ruby Eyes?"

"It's not possible." Xellos shook his head and looked behind the twins at the others who had gathered there. "All things considered, if I went to fight against Lord Ruby Eyes, I would then be a traitor to my race, but still an enemy of the Shinzoku. If I helped him, well, then I'd be breaking the truce." He had a rather... Grim smile on his face. "And quite frankly, I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place."

Rangort crossed her arms under her breasts, lifting them up slightly. "As long as no high ranking Mazoku helps Shabranigdo, we'll be willing to let the fight continue as it is." She blinked at the grimace that came across Xellos's face. "What?"

"It seems... Lord Ruby Eyes isn't taking any chances this time..." His eyes opened and even Rangort felt a tremor of fear at his next words. "He's sent the Mazoku assassins out."

"Assassins?" Rangort blinked at him. "They can't be any stronger than Mid-level at best, why do you worry about them?"

"Mid-level or not," Zelas spoke up as she stepped forward, "these Mazoku are almost as strong as Sherra was before she became Dynast."

"I wish you wouldn't mention that." Sherra said as she sat in a tree, looking down at the battle. "When is he going to become his real form?"

"Going to join in then?"

Sherra growled and turned her head to glare at Valwin. "Look, you tree-smoking Shinzoku, unlike you, the slut, the hothead, Zelas, Dolphin, Xellos and Riksfalto, **I**have never seen Lord Ruby Eyes, so I want to know what he looks like."

Twitching, Rangort glared at Sherra. "Do you have to call me that?"

Smirking, Sherra crossed her arms under her chest and narrowed her eyes at the Shinzoku. "So says the slut that slept with Xellos."

Rangort cracked her knuckles and took a step in Sherra's direction when Dolphin got in front of her and grinned. "Now, now, Rangort dear... I could feed you more of my chocolate." She laughed when Rangort's face went from angry to disturbed in a second flat. "And, you, Sherra..." She turned to glare at the other Lord. "Please stop antagonizing the Shinzoku, after all, none of us intended for Lord Shabranigdo to be re-awakened unless an all-out war came into being."

Xellos sat down and stared at the battle with a sense of dread. Something wasn't right, and it wasn't just the assassins. "What's up with all the miasma?"

"Been wondering that myself, actually." Valwin pulled the miniature palm tree from his mouth to look at the battlefield. "It's condensing, but... Not near the humans."

Xellos blinked as his daughters hugged his sides. Sighing, he awkwardly ran a hand over their heads. He wasn't sure if he was cut out to be a father like this. _"Hey, Lina, we have a problem."_

_"BAH! Xellos, how'd you get into my head?"_

_"A secret."_ Xellos smiled as Lina yelled at him mentally. It was actually pretty easy to figure out how this telepathy thing worked, especially after it was used on him by Lina a few years ago. _"Anyway, you have a major problem heading your way."_

_"Yeah, what?"_

_"Lord Ruby Eyes has dispatched some Mid-level Mazoku to deal with you and your friends."_

_"...How bad is it? You wouldn't tell me unless it's bad."_

_"They're almost as powerful as a high ranking Mazoku. Lord Ruby Eyes created them a thousand years ago, so..."_

_"They're like Zelas, Dolphin, and Hellmaster then, huh? Great..."_

_"It's worse for you... Even though I was there, as was Riksfalto, Huraker and the other Mazoku Generals and Priests, we would not have done as well as we did without their aid back then."_

_"...Say what?"_

_"Miss Lina, Hellmaster and the original Dynast both lost their Generals and Priests and even Gaav was sealed into a human soul. Even with my help, that was still a battle that was harder than it seemed. These Mazoku, assassins, are incredibly powerful. That's all the help I can give you."_

_"Gee, thanks for the warning."_Lina drawled as Xellos cut off the communication.

"Guess I'm the last one here." The others turned to see Vrabazard appear behind them. "So, he really has returned." He looked at Zelas and Dolphin before snorting. "Surprised you two aren't out there helping him."

"Unlike what you think, Shinzoku, we Mazoku **do **keep our promises." Zelas narrowed her eyes at him. "This situation should never have happened." When she found out just how this happened, there would be hell to pay.

Vrabazard snorted as he walked over to Valwin and sat on a rock.

He really doubted that the humans could actually handle even a single fragment of Shabranigdo, but he would see.

* * *

Signum: I've lived my life, knowing that I've done terrible deeds. Yet, for all of that, I cannot say that I would like to go back in time and fix them. But, today, I stand here as a warrior born of fire. Next time, on Blood That Flows - Red, my heart, my courage, all will be on the line.


	123. Red the Twenty Third

Blood That Flows

Red the Twenty-Third

I own nothing really. Nope.

* * *

_"We've got a problem."_ Lina's voice was heard by all of them. _"Seems that some rather strong Mazoku are heading our way."_

_"They wouldn't happen to have blue cloaks and charging right at us, would they?"_Signum shot back to her.

_"Probably."_

_"Swell."_Signum muttered as she narrowed her eyes at the approaching figure. "You are?"

A large sword came out from the right sleeve of her soon-to-be opponent. "You can call me Saber."

Signum blinked a few times. "Where I'm from, that's a fictional character's name. Please tell me that you're not blonde with an incredibly flat chest."

"HOW DID YOU KNOW!" The Mazoku bellowed at her as it staggered back, as if struck.

Signum sweat-dropped slightly. "...I was kidding." Still, it would be best to end this now. "Astral Vine!" Snapping her sword up as it glowed slightly, she rushed forward and slashed at her opponent. Signum's eyes widened as Saber blocked the attack with the sword it was using, before throwing its cloak away, revealing a fairly muscular and green haired man grinning at her.

"As was I." Putting some force into his arms, Signum found herself pushed back in midair. "Although, I could take that form if it would make it easier for you to stomach a loss."

Signum shook her head. "I would rather you not, after all, if you were her, you would end up being tentacle raped in hundreds of badly drawn fancomics."

Saber sweat-dropped at that. "I have no idea what you're talking about." He shook his sword and pointed it at her. "But I would rather you start fighting and stop yapping." A moment later, Signum seemed to disappear, only to reappear in front of him, her sword clashing against his. "Impressive!" He could see her muscles and feel her magic straining against him. "The last time I got to fight, this wasn't nearly as much... FUN!"

"AHHNGH!" Signum yelled as she was tossed back by a burst of strength from the Mazoku. As she slid across the ground, her eyes widened as he rushed in, swinging his sword down, gripping Laevantein with both hands, she swung up to meet his one-handed swing downwards. The resulting shock-wave from their swords clashing destroyed every Mazoku in a twenty meter radius.

"Not bad!" He let out a yell as he seemed to disappear, a moment later, he re-appeared, slamming his sword against hers before a knee slammed into her stomach, or tried to. "Interesting." He grinned as she slid against the soft ground. "Instantaneous barriers, huh?" This was starting to become fun and interesting.

Signum stared as he held his sword straight into the air. A moment later lightning crackled around the blade as he swung at her head. Swinging Laevantein in its path, Signum let out a groan of pain as the lightning crashed from his sword through Laevantein and onto her body, sending her crashing to the ground in a crackling, twitching heap.

"Is that all?" Saber said as he walked forward. "I expected more from you." The tip of his blade dragged on the ground as he narrowed his eyes. "Or maybe I thought you were far better than you were." Growling, he rushed forward and swung his sword down, only to miss as Signum rolled out of the way and swung her weapon back at him. His eyes widened as it elongated and spiraled around her before the tip seemed to disappear under the ground, before reappearing under his feet and aiming straight at his face.

Signum grunted and stared as she saw the results of that attack.

"Is that all?" He smirked at her as he held the tip of the blade in his hands. "A metal sword, even one that's magical, cannot hurt me the same way that you hurt those low level peons." He seemed to disappear before reappearing right in front of Signum and swinging down, shattering her weapon near the hilt and kicking her away. "Pathetic, really, I had expected more from you. Or maybe I thought too highly of your skills." He smirked as she took to the air. "That won't save you."

Signum's eyes widened as he appeared next to her, an open palm just under her breasts as he smirked at her. "Die." A moment later, searing hot pain erupted from her side as a blast tore a hole through her body and sent her to the ground in a spray of blood. "Pathetic, really." He watched her with narrowed eyes as she bled and gripped at her right side with her left hand. "To think that you were someone that my master thought was strong. Oh well, better to overestimate someone so pathetic than underestimate someone who's actually a threat."

Saber was about to turn away when a burst of fire caught his attention. Turning to look at Signum, he blinked as she was engulfed in fire, before she disappeared. "What the, AHHH!" He screamed as a slashing sensation cut at his back, turning around, he stared at Signum, who was panting slightly while holding her damaged side with her left hand and in her right hand... "I broke that weapon!"

"If I didn't learn a trick or two from Testarossa and Bardiche, I couldn't call myself competent." Signum pulled her hand away from her side to reveal that while her hand and side were covered in blood, the skin was no longer bleeding profusely.

"What the?"

"I had to cauterize the wound, otherwise I would have bled to death." Signum narrowed her eyes as he chuckled at her and pointed his sword at her again.

"Even if you can fix your weapon and your side like that, I'll make sure you never get up with my next move."

Grimacing, Signum held her sword to the side and panted softly. If he hit her with an attack like that again, she probably would die, as it was, she was having trouble not passing out. "I was going to save this for Shabranigdo, but I have no choice, Laevantein!"

**"Ja!"**

"Do it!"

**"Böe-Modus."**

Saber's eyes widened as Signum was engulfed in a bright light. When it was over, she swung her sword down and he stared at the new look to her body. Laevantein had gotten covered in some sort of silver-tinted metal, and her body's armor looked more metallic, however... "Pink and black coloring?"

"My master and sister," she really wasn't sure what her relationship with Hayate was, considering that Hayate had basically adopted her and the rest of the knights and given them her last name, "thought that pink and black flames were neat."

Saber had to nod at that, the pink on the bottom with black on top done in such a way that made it look like flames was neat. "Fine, but now you can die while looking 'neat'!" He yelled as he rushed forward, his sword crackling with lightning as he swung at Signum's weakened side.

What happened next wasn't something that he could explain.

As his sword got closer, a powerful barrier popped up, stopping his sword cold. Before he could react, Signum stabbed her sword straight into his chest and slashed outwards, lobbing off his right arm and tearing a hole in his side. As he started to fall to the ground, Saber looked up at Signum's impassive gaze. "But, you were... Wounded, how..."

Signum cut him off with a single slash, carving through his body and causing his body to fall apart in a moment. "Even if you break my weapon, cut up my body and pin me to the ground like an insect, I will never submit to someone like you."

Touching down on the ground, she grimaced at how badly her side was killing her. Still, she couldn't let anyone down. Looking around, she saw several Mazoku rushing towards her. A small grin appeared on her face. "Today is a good day to die... For you!" Letting out a yell, she rushed forward to deal with the Mazoku around her.

* * *

Hayate: I shall not fail. I promised myself that I would use my power to shape a future that no one has to grow up in tears for. Next time, on Blood That Flows - Red, I shall not fail, I promise.


	124. Red the Twenty Fourth

Blood That Flows

Red the Twenty-Fourth

I own nothing really. Nope.

* * *

Hayate narrowed her eyes at the cloaked figure in front of her. "And you are?" She nearly yelped as two daggers rushed from the cloaked figure's sleeves and bounced off of her barrier with a clang.

"Not bad." A soft, almost feminine voice spoke up. The cloak disappeared to reveal a rather thin person in loose blue pants and long-sleeved blue shirt that hung to their body loosely with soft facial features, red eyes and gray hair. The person smiled as Hayate blinked and looked on in confusion. "Are you surprised by what you see?" The person had their arms crossed over their chest and Hayate just had the most confused stare on her face ever.

"Um... Are you male or female?" Hayate sweat-dropped as the person suddenly stiffened and glared at her. "I'm sorry, but you're covering your chest with your arms and I can't tell if you have boobs or..."

"I'M A GUY!" He yelled at her, a thin sword appearing in his hands from nowhere. "GAH! I can't believe how right Saber, Gen and Gou were... I really need to change my voice, hold on a second." Hayate blinked as he seemed to grimace and clear his throat. Hayate grimaced at the noise, it almost sounded like he was trying to spit some snot out of his throat. "There, is that better?" His voice was slightly deeper, more cultured and definitely male.

Hayate nodded, though she found herself blushing slightly. Dammit, she just _had_to fight an enemy that had a sexy voice, didn't she? "Yes."

"Good." He nodded and swung his sword to the side. "Shatter to the winds!" He grinned as his blade shattered and the fragments flew at Hayate faster than even he could see. When a bubble appeared around her, absorbing and blocking the shattered blade fragments, he dropped the hilt of his sword, only to replace it with a simple looking spear. "As for my name... Call me Archer."

Frowning at her opponent, Hayate held her staff into the air. "My name is Hayate Yagami."

"Well, now that introductions are over." Archer grinned at her as he threw his spear at her. When she flew up, he put his hands into his pocket and chuckled at her.

Hayate heard a noise behind her, turning, she held an open palm out as the spear flew right at her. Grimacing as it crashed into her barrier, she yelped as a sharp and painful sensation crossed her forehead. Reaching up, she gasped as she felt blood on her finger tips. Turning, she frowned at Archer. "Hey, if you keep this up, I might have to go Tsundere on you!"

Archer gave her a non-plaused look. "I have no clue what that word even means." Between the fingers on his left hand was a small dagger, which he threw at Hayate. He merely raised an eyebrow as it bounced off of her shields, which he was quickly starting to appreciate their strength

"It means I'm going to carve you up!" Holding an open palm, a sphere with a ring around it appeared in front of her. "Go, Scatter Burst!"

Archer raised an eyebrow as the ball of magic seemed to bubble before breaking off into smaller blasts that arched off and missed him entirely. "What is the point of something so worthless?" Crossing his arms, he rolled his eyes as the energy was spent. "Like I said, what was the point of that?"

Hayate grinned at him. "Oh, nothing... Unless you look behind you." Lowering her hand, her book opened up and flipped through a few pages as she held her staff high.

Archer blinked before a bright light flared up behind him, turning, his eyes were wide as the points of light were all the magic that Hayate had expelled a moment before. "You..." He turned back to glare at Hayate, who just smirked as her Belkan Triangle spun rapidly under her feet.

"Konvergieren!" Hayate called out as she swung her staff down.

Archer spun around as the lights all rushed at him. Holding up a hand, a large circular object appeared. "Nice try, but I've blocked far hARD!" He gasped and was pushed forward as a powerful strike landed on his back. Turning, he saw several black spheres rushing at him. "You little bitch, a distraction?"

Hayate was grinning at him. "Well, what did you expect? A fair fight?"

Growling, Archer snapped his wrist out and a whip appeared, before Hayate knew what was happening, the whip snapped into her black spheres, detonating them in an instant. "Now then." His eyes widened as several swords seemed to fly out of his opponent's body and slice into his body before he could react. Grimacing, he took stock of the fact that he had a sword in his neck, one through his left wrist, one in each leg and three in his chest. "Enough!"

Hayate's eyes widened as he seemed to disappear, before reappearing in front of her, slashing with two swords, the first cut across her upper chest, tearing through her armor like it was nothing and cutting into her upper chest, just above her breasts, while the second one slashed across her legs, causing blood to flow out as she staggered back in mid-air with a shocked look on her face. "What?"

"Pathetic, really." Archer narrowed his eyes at her, a powerful force of magic was building up in his his left hand as he held it out at her. "You can just die."

Hayate gasped as a large white sphere of magic rushed from his hand towards her, obscuring her vision of him as it closed in.

"Well, that's that, now, who's next to die?" Archer said as the ball connected with his prey. He knew that she wouldn't survive that. Looking around, he wondered who his next prey would be.

An instant later, his view of the surrounding battle field was obscured by total darkness. Looking around, he wondered what was going on before he heard some whispering, turning, he stared, shocked as the girl he had killed was standing there, below him while she held her staff up high. "HOW?"

"Teleportation. I moved out of the way at the very last moment." Hayate grinned at him. "As for this, well, this is a hard spell to cast, and I don't want you getting away."

"What is this?" He looked around at the dark dome that he and the girl were in.

"Dark Dome Encase." Hayate looked at him as her Belkan triangle spun around her feet. "It's not going to dissipate until one of us is dead and unable to fight. Now..."

Archer's eyes widened as he saw a second triangle pop up from Hayate's feet, making it look like she had a six-point star under her feet. He looked up as several triangle runes appeared, surrounding the two of them. "Fine then..." Narrowing his eyes, several arrows appeared around her from all angles. "You better cancel, or you'll end up hurt!"

Hayate just grunted as a circle appeared around the triangles and electricity arced up from the points of the two triangles to her staff.

"THEN DIE!" Archer snapped, all the arrows flying at Hayate at one time.

Hayate's eyes widened and she coughed, blood escaping her mouth as three arrows punctured her gut, one in each lung, just under her breasts, one through each shoulder, her legs were pierced as was her right arm.

"Now you can..." Archer trailed off as Hayate grinned at him. "What?"

"You're too late." She whispered, her voice pained as her spell completed. "Ragnarok Dome... BUSTER!"

Archer screamed as magic that was composed of Black, Shamanistic, White and Belkan energies crashed into his body from every direction.

Hayate slumped as the spell completed, the arrows in her body dissolving. Looking up slowly, her eyes widened and she trembled as he appeared, unhurt. "...you..." Her voice was soft and weak from the pain and the blood loss she was suffering.

"Heh..." Suddenly his color turned white. "That was impressive, Hayate Yagami... If we weren't enemies... I would have liked..." His body started to fall apart at that moment. "To have been your..."

Hayate smiled and fell to the ground as she lost consciousness. "Reinforce... Rein... Vita... Shamal... Signum... Zafira... I'm... I'm sorry everyone... I failed.." Tears escaped her eyes and mixed with her blood as she fell to the forest below.

* * *

Fate: My time has always been short, full of random coincidences. Perhaps that will stop happening soon. Next time on Blood That Flows - Red, coincidence or occurrence, it's my turn to fight.


	125. Red the Twenty Fifth

Blood That Flows

Red the Twenty-Fifth

I own nothing really. Nope.

* * *

Fate blinked as she looked at her opponent, still dressed in the blue cloak and hood. The blonde was currently in her Sonic Form and grimaced at the lack of protection at that moment, but she couldn't keep her Rubin Blitz mode going forever, it just put too much of a strain on her and Sonic Form was barely noticeable these days. "You are?" She blinked as her opponent reached a hand through her sleeves and used a very long, and apparently sharp, nail to cut the cloak open.

What was revealed to her was a woman wearing boots, a loose black dress with a top that looked more like a tank top than a dress top. Her breasts were large, but not obscenely so. She had long silver hair that ran down her back and her red eyes glittered with both amusement and haughtiness.

"Human, for catching my attention," Fate stared, that voice, she knew that voice, "you have the honor of dying by my hand."

Fate shivered softly. She knew that voice.

It was her own. After all, she heard it every time she sung for Karaoke.

She still didn't know why Signum kept asking for private songs though.

The woman's eyes narrowed at her before lashing out with a kick so fast that even Fate couldn't see it coming.

**"Defensor Plus."**

The barrier existed for maybe a moment before shattering and Fate felt a powerful strike hit her in the jaw, sending her spinning through the air.

"Not bad, you managed to survive one of my kicks." The woman nodded at her. "You may call me, Mokka."

"I am..." Fate's eyes widened as the woman was instantly on her, her left leg raised into the air as she smirked lazily down at Fate.

"Know your place!"

Even with Fate's strongest barrier, the kick smashed through with no trouble, hitting her on the head and sending her down into the ground, causing a rather large impression in the dirt below.

Up in the air, Mokka flicked her hair to the side and narrowed her eyes. "Still alive, huh?" Stretching her arms, she grinned, before rushing down to the ground and landing next to the hole that Fate made. Shaking her head as she looked at the girl's butt as the girl continued to try and get out of the ground, she smirked and pulled her foot back. "Like I said, know your place!" She blinked as Fate disappeared in a yellow flash, only to reappear a few feet away in front of her, her long blonde hair and face were quite dirty. "Well, it looks like you know your place, down in the dirt."

Fate twitched slightly. "And you are a very arrogant person."

Mokka grinned at Fate. "Why thank you, I try." She seemed to disappear, before reappearing just above the girl, forcing her to look up. "I give you credit, you've lasted longer than even a Gold Dragon."

Fate held up Bardiche and using her defensive spells, she tried to hold off the powerful kick from this Mazoku. Her eyes widened as the kick smashed through her shields and into Bardiche's blade, shattering it and sending her tumbling to the ground. "Nnngh..." She groaned and looked at her left arm, which was badly discolored and twisted wrong. From the pain, she could tell that the bone was broken in several places.

Quickly getting to her feet, she yelled in pain as her broken arm was suddenly jerked forward.

"Oh my, such delicious pain." Mokka practically purred as she looked at Fate while wiggling the fingers in her left hand. The Mazoku started laughing as Fate fell to her knees and cried out in even more pain. "Such folly, going against me, my dear."

Fate looked up at the Mazoku as she flipped her wrist, as if she was wrapping something around it, before pulling and turning. "AHHHHH!" Fate cried out as she felt her arm being yanked and she was forced to go with the pull as she was pulled along the ground and into the air, being spun around and around at an ever increasing speed.

"Yes! Cry in pain! Scream! Bleed!" Mokka started laughing as she spun more and more. Unlike a human, she couldn't get dizzy and the way that Fate's bones would snap and the blood coming from her hand and arm was just incredible. "THERE!" She yelled as she stopped spinning and slammed Fate into a large rock, causing the girl to whimper in pain as she tried to get the world to stop spinning all around.

Mokka chuckled as she snapped her wrist up and several nearly invisible strands of wire glinted light into the sun. "My, my... I almost cut your arm off there." Chuckling, she stepped down on the girl's right knee and applied pressure until she heard a loud crack that had the blonde screaming and reaching for her knee. Mokka smirked before slowly walking around Fate and kicking her in the side, causing her ribs to crack loudly as the girl was sent tumbling along the ground into a rock.

Walking up to the girl slowly, Mokka smirked as she saw the various minor Mazoku standing there, waiting for their chance to get at the girl. "Now then..." Reaching down, she grabbed Fate by her hair and lifted her up to eye level. "Do you want me to kill you, or would you rather they do the job for me?"

Fate trembled in her grasp before pointing a shaky finger at her. "Di... Di..."

Mokka grabbed it and casually snapped it backwards, breaking it as well. "Die? Yes, we both know that you're going to die, I was wondering how you wanted to die."

Mokka's eyes widened as something sharp snapped into her back. "What the?"

"Dragon Slave... Zambar..." Fate grinned softly.

**"Yes, sir."**

"Wait, what?" Mokka's eyes widened as the strongest Black magic spell erupted from inside of her, causing her to release Fate by throwing her into a tree where the girl slumped to the ground and trembled in pain.

Screaming as the explosion engulfed her, Mokka couldn't believe that she had been duped by such a ploy. Granted, she had never seen such a thing in the previous war and she hadn't seen much of anything in the past thousand years due to certain circumstances, but this was still unacceptable. "Yoooooouuuuu!" She growled as her form twisted and shifted. Her body increased in size by four, her skin turned green and her teeth became long and very sharp while her eyes glowed a bright red.

Fate looked up and whimpered softly as Mokka grabbed her again, this time her hand was so large that it was able to wrap around her torso with ease.

"Now then!" Mokka's voice growled out as she slammed Fate into her other palm and started to push together. "I think I'll squeeze you until you explode." She laughed as Fate struggled to get free and screamed in pain. "Yes! Scream! Scream until your body bursts from the pressure, scream until you die!"

The best part was, in her mind, there was no one around that could stop her, no one that could interrupt her, no one that could...

Slice her hands off and grab the girl as she fell. "GAAAAARHH!"

"It's one thing to fight and kill an enemy, it's another thing to do it so cruelly." A male voice spoke up and Mokka stared at the tall man in a weird metallic outfit. "My name is Zest, I shall be your executioner."

Mokka growled as she stood up. "You have no, GAHH!" She fell to her knees as Zest, using his one hand and spear, cut her legs off at the knees and bringing her closer to his level.

"Like I said, I am your executioner here."

The next thing Mokka knew was that blade, swinging down right between her eyes and cutting her body in half before she exploded into nothingness.

Zest said nothing as he grabbed the girl's device and flew into the castle. She was going to need medical treatment for this brutal of a beating.

* * *

Nanoha: If you are my opponent, I shall not hold back! Next time on Blood That Flows - Red, Zenryokku Zenkai!

I love me some voice acting jokes. Sorry, Fate, I don't dislike you. No, really, I don't. I like you.  
Fate: *Whacks the author with Bardiche Zambar* Jerk!


	126. Red the Twenty Sixth

Blood That Flows

Red the Twenty-Sixth

I own nothing really. Nope.

* * *

Nanoha looked at her opponent, she couldn't tell who was in there, nor could she see if there was any distinguishing features.

**"Master, warning."**

Nanoha nodded and floated back as the Mazoku threw its cloak off, revealing a body that almost made her throw up.

The legs were skinny and there seemed to be tubes connected from the ankles up to its hips. The worst part was, there was no skin and she could see its muscles throb. The abdomen and hips seemed to barely be covered and Nanoha was just thankful for the lack of visible organs, at least until she looked at the creature's chest and saw a heart beat in the center while seemingly pumping something throughout the creature's body. Its arms were thin while clawed hands flexed slightly.

Nanoha turned green as she looked at the face in more detail. There was half an eyeball in the creature's right eye and the rest of the flesh wasn't there, its mouth was covered by some sort of metal mask.

"...dis...usted?" The creature rasped at her. "Yo...ie now."

A powerful wave of dark energy was launched at her from the creature's left arm.

**"Protection Powered."**

Nanoha held up Raising Heart as the blast connected to her barrier. "Raising Heart."

**"Alright."**Raising Heart said as it popped a couple of cartridges.

"Divine Freeze Buster!"

"...mm?" The creature sounded slightly surprised as a beam of super cold ice slammed into it, encasing it an instant and freezing the air around them both as snow started to fall to the ground.

Nanoha nodded, at least that was taken care of, now she could...

There was a creaking and cracking sound and Nanoha just stared as the ice shattered, causing more snow and ice to fall to the ground below. "...No...nough..." It rasped out before holding a hand out at Nanoha and its arm stretched out, rushing out at her.

"What are you, Dhalsim?" Nanoha yelped as she dodged the arm, only to yelp as the fingers bent around and started stretching towards her. "Hey! That's not fair!"

"...is...ar...ot fai..." The creature continued to rasp out before several pink spheres appeared around it.

"Then I hope you don't mind a few Divine Shooters to the face!" Nanoha yelled as she rolled out of the way of another stab at her face. "SHOOT!"

The Mazoku barely moved as it was bombarded from several angles at once with several spheres. The worst part was the Holy attribute each one was hitting it with. Suddenly his body was covered in a black glow that reminded Nanoha of flames.

"...ice...ry..." The creature rasped as the flames died down and it looked up at her. Its arm was back to normal, which Nanoha was thankful for. "...an...ie now." Its arms suddenly started glowing black and the sky around them darkened.

Nanoha frowned as her vision started to decrease. What was going on here?

**"Master! Visibility is reduced significantly."**

Nanoha nodded. "Raising Heart, Assault Mode, now!"

**"Ignition!"**

Nanoha closed her eyes as her outfit changed. The dress disappeared and became more of a bodysuit, wrapping around her torso and legs tightly. She felt her hips wiggle slightly as the outfit clung to her waist snugly. She rolled her shoulders and closed her eyes as metallic sleeves wrapped around her arms before doing the same to her legs. Raising Heart came to rest between her breasts and getting wrapped around in a metal casing the left the bottom half revealed while covering her shoulders and chest while wrapping around her back, where six wings, three on each side, pointed down. Her shoes became encased in a hard metal while wheels appeared on the bottoms of her feet. Across her face, a pink visor appeared while on her left arm, a large cannon formed and on her right arm, a shield in a diamond shape with a whip pointing out of the end formed.

Opening her eyes, Nanoha smiled softly as data lit up on the screen. "Alright, got you!" She spun around and snapped her whip out, smiling softly as her visor's visuals switched views from normal to magical. There was a lot of static, but she could make out the creature's body.

"...essive..."

The hairs on the back of Nanoha's neck were the only warning she got before several sharp objects crashed into her from behind. "AHHH!"

**"Protection Enhanced."**

Nanoha stopped flinching as the attacks stopped hitting her, being absorbed into her barrier. "Raising Heart... Thank you."

**"No worries, my master. We fought Mazoku before, let's show him Zenryokku Zenkai."**

Nanoha grinned and looked at the Mazoku even as more explosions ripped into her barrier. "Okay, you monster! Time for _you_to die!"

"...ou can... mans ar... weak..."

"Not this one!" Nanoha growled as her wings slid up and making it look like she had a six-point star on her back. "Raising Heart! Zenryokku Zenkai! Chaos Enhance!"

**"Ignition!"**

Nanoha bit her lower lip to keep from crying out as her body was flooded with the Chaos energy that she inherited from her mother. Closing her eyes as a golden corona engulfed her, she felt the energy saturate her body and push the darkness away as she glowed like a miniature sun.

The creature staggered back as it saw Nanoha's hair turn gold. "...olden... ther..." It trembled as Nanoha opened her eyes and looked at him, the whites in her eyes had turned black while her normally blue-purple eyes had become a deep gold in color.

**"I have had enough of you Mazoku always threatening my friends and family!"**Nanoha called out in a voice that had the Mazoku unable to move.

Well, the voice and the fact that it was covered in golden binds as Nanoha pointed her cannon at it, golden energy condensing at the tip. **"Goodbye, Mazoku, may we never see each other again. Chaos Cannon Supreme!"**

The Mazoku could only stare as the energy rushed at it, engulfing it in an explosion that left it vaporized.

**"Raising Heart, how much time do we have left like this?"** Nanoha grinned as a display came up, showing the time to her before she looked at the hordes of minor Mazoku on the ground. **"Then they can all enjoy a taste of this Chaos!"** She took aim and fired several powerful shots into the crowd before flying down and extending her whip. **"None of you will leave here alive!"** She screamed as the massacre began.

* * *

Yuuno: I've come a long way. I'm not the same weak child I was when Nanoha found me as a ferret. I'll prove it! Next time on Blood That Flows - Red, I'll show you that I'm not the same.


	127. Red the Twenty Seventh

Blood That Flows

Red the Twenty-Seventh

I own nothing really. Nope.

* * *

Yuuno was looking over the hordes of Mazoku as he sent another wave of flames at the minor Mazoku, destroying several that got close. "This is annoying."

"My, my..." A rather bored and feminine voice spoke up behind Yuuno. Spinning around, his eyes widened as a blue cloaked being appeared in a swirl. Taking off the cloak, Yuuno felt like groaning as he saw that the person had long white hair, green eyes, breasts that were almost as large as Vita's were and was only wearing some sort of metal bikini over her breasts and crotch. "Such a powerful warrior." She drew her hands up to her lips and he shivered as she licked her fingers. "It's almost a shame that we have to fight."

**"Boss..."**

"What is it, Thoth?" Yuuno twitched, no doubt his device was going to say something rather perverted and make things worse for himself right then and there.

**"Vita's better looking."**

Yuuno smirked as the Mazoku twitched at the statement.

"Oh, so, this Vita..." She narrowed her eyes at him. "Oh, I see... It's not just her, you desire several women." The woman disappeared before reappearing behind him. Before Yuuno could react, her arms wrapped around his chest as she pressed her breasts into his back. "It's hard, isn't it? To have such beautiful women around and unable to... Deal with it." She whispered into his ear and Yuuno shivered, both at the voice and the effect she was having on him.

**"Boss, really, if you need something to look at, I've got pictures."**

"Boss, is it?" She whispered to him while rubbing his chest. "Tell me, boss... What is your name?"

"Y...Yuuno Scrya..." Damn his hormones, did they _have_ to act up **now**of all times?

"Well, Yuuno... Just tell me... Which one do you desire the most?" She whispered to him. "I can become any of them, allow me to become your desire."

Yuuno shuddered before a pillar of fire erupted around him, forcing the Mazoku to leap back while yelping in pain. Her eyes widened as he spun and glared at her. "Listen you! I might like all of them like that, but I wouldn't use you to help me! I care too much for them!"

She growled at him. "Dammit, if I can't get you one way, I'll get you another!" Yuuno stared as she cloaked herself in darkness before her body shifted and became larger. When she was visible again, scales appeared on her arms, her hair had become barbed at the end and her torso was covered in fur while her face had become hideous. "I hate looking like this, but if I can't get you to join me, I'll kill you!" She growled as she was about to lunge at him, but found herself suddenly wrapped in chains. "What?"

"I'm glad that you did that..." Yuuno smiled at her. "It makes it easier for me to hurt you." His hands started to glow as a glint came to his eye. "So... Goodbye. RA TILT!"

"You think so?" Her eyes narrowed and Yuuno gasped as she seemed to disappear, his blast passing through where she was a moment ago. "Nice try, little boy." Yuuno gasped as his arms and legs were suddenly grabbed from behind and he sank into the stone partially, leaving just the front of his body out of the stone. The woman, back in her normal form, reappeared in front of him. "Nice trick tying down my Astral Body like that, but, you left a hole in it."

"What hole?" Yuuno grunted as he tried to move, but found he couldn't.

The woman grinned as she got up close to his face. "You're human." She grinned as Yuuno's eyes widened when her fingers pushed into his face, not harming the skin, until she pulled down and out, tearing a chunck of flesh out of his face. As Yuuno cried out in pain, she chuckled and looked him over. "Hmm... I wonder..." Trailing her bloody fingertips down his body, she stopped at his pants and grinned. "I wonder just what you have in there."

Yuuno growled and even though his face was bleeding, he tried to ignore the pain and focus on her.

She raised an eyebrow at him. "A barrier around your pants?" She squeezed her hand into a fist. "That won't work!"

"No, but this will, Ra Tilt!"

"Huh?" She stared as a Ra Tilt was fired from the barrier around Yuuno's pants straight at her face. When the white energy connected, she was thrown back and trembled as her face started to smoke. "Ugh... That... Didn't feel too good."

"I hear it comes out if you use peanut butter." Yunno muttered and sighed as he disappeared from where he was, only to reappear in mid-air, flexing his arms and shaking his legs. "Damn, that really hurt!"

Groaning, the woman was grabbing at her eye as she looked up and glared at him. "You got that stuff all over my hair and eye! Look at them! They're ruined thanks to you!"

**"Hey, boss, how about we shoot the moon?"**

Yuuno grabbed at his face as he tried to heal the damage, or at least stop the blood flow as the woman let out a shriek and rush up at him. "Well, that couldn't hurt, alright, let's do it!"

Just as she got close to touching him again, Yuuno was suddenly surrounded by a corona of Holy flames. "I blame an all night anime marathon for my next technique."

The woman glanced around as she was surrounded by flames. "What is..." Looking back at Yuuno, she gasped as he held his hands above his head, a point of light appeared there before he slowly pulled his arms apart. "What's that!"

"A crescent moon..." Yuuno grinned as he grabbed it and then threw it at her. Her eyes widened as it split into two and slammed into her sides, pinning her in mid-air even further.

"What is this?" She gasped as flames pooled at Yuuno's feet, before spiraling around his body and condensing in his open hand, which he held above his head. "What are you doing?"

Yuuno looked at her and his eyes had lost that calm that they had before. There was a manic, almost insane look in them now as the fire spiraled into a shape. "For trying to use my friends forms against me, I shall never forgive you!"

"What is that?" She struggled to get free as the flames seemed to get hotter than before. 'Why can't I move?' She thought desperately to herself.

There was an eruption as the flames got larger and spiraled even faster together. "This... IS MY DRILL!" Yuuno yelled as he grabbed his wrist with his other hand and rushed towards her. "TAKE THIIIIIS!" He screamed at her as he flew right at her, flames spiraled behind him as he left the ground.

If she had blood in her face, she would be paling as he created fire in his open palm that started to spin. "SECRET TECHNIQUE! FLAME... DRILL... BREAAAAAKKKKKEEERRR!"

She let loose a scream as the spinning fire connected with her chest, the spiraling energy basically drilling through her body and tearing her apart as the force of the blow sent her spinning away until she exploded, lighting up the sky with her death. "Impressive..." She managed to breath out at the end as she exploded to nothingness.

* * *

Lina: Well, looks like it's my turn. Unlike the kids, I don't have anything poetic to say, so, just read the next Blood That Flows - Red, or I'll really start some trouble.

Yuuno shouldn't be allowed to watch Gurren Lagann, I think. Even if it was a late night marathon he caught.


	128. Red the Twenty Eighth

Blood That Flows

Red the Twenty-Eighth

I own nothing really. Nope.

Sorry people, it's a short chapter.

* * *

Lina looked at the cloaked figure in front of her. "So, you're one of the Assassins I heard about?"

"You're well informed." A masculine voice reached her ears as the cloak disappeared from around the Assassin. He had pale skin, a thin body, bright blue hair and red eyes. He was wearing an almost skin-tight black body suit as he grinned at her. "You're the one Lord Ruby-Eyes told us about, what luck! I get to kill you."

Lina raised an eyebrow as she looked at him, Galveira was resting in her hands. "Really? Where is Shabranigdo? Too afraid to come and get this old woman himself?"

The Mazoku started to laugh at that. "Oh, you're funny. My name's Kruez, Lina Inverse." He smirked when Lina was slightly startled to hear him say that. "Don't be so surprised, like I said, Lord Ruby-Eyes told me about you and just a piece of information..." A slow grin came to his face as his body was covered in a dark aura. "You aren't going to leave here alive."

"Right," Lina drawled out, "listen, as much as I'd enjoy a fight against you, I don't think, Light Come Forth!" Quickly taking aim, she let loose with an arrow.

"Nice try." Kruez whispered as he disappeared. "A Weapon of Light? Never seen one like that before, but if Gorun Nova couldn't kill me, then I doubt that weapon can." He reappeared behind Lina and struck at her neck, growling slightly as she spun, both avoiding the attack and firing another Light Arrow at him.

Lina grimaced as he disappeared before the attack could hit him. "You know, speaking of that, I thought I knew all the powerful Mazoku there were. Your name escapes me."

"Heh, you wouldn't hear about me, I haven't been around since the last war." Kruez appeared in Lina's shadow and lashed out at her back, before he growled as she dodged it with almost stupid ease. "I must know," he said as he disappeared to avoid an Elmekia Lance, "how is it that you're able to dodge so well?"

"I have almost ten years of non-magic combat training under my belt." Lina flew into the air as he appeared in front of her and took a swing at where her feet were a moment ago. "Haven't been around, huh? What? The Lord you work under told you to go away?"

He disappeared as she shot another arrow at him. "I only serve Lord Ruby-Eyes. He created the ten of us to be the strongest Mazoku who weren't directly affiliated with his subordinates."

Lina dropped to the top of the wall and rolled out of the way as a hand tried to grab her from under the floor. "Interesting, I see now." She smirked as he pulled himself through the stone floor. "You're not really that important."

"What?" Kruez blinked at her and Lina just grinned and shrugged her shoulders.

"You're nothing more than a gopher, maybe a message boy. It's sad really." She shook her head and grinned at him. "I mean, if you were a high-level Mazoku, I might see you as a passive threat, but, really, sending you here against me? I guess Shabranigdo doesn't think too highly of your skills."

"I would shut up if I was you, you know nothing."

"Oh, I get it." Lina nodded. "You're just a redheaded step-child that doesn't mean anything to Shabranigdo. You try to make yourself seem important, but we both know that the only important Mazoku are Dynast, Dolphin, Zelas, Xellos and Riksfalto. You? You're nothing more than some unimportant dog yapping as loudly as it can while the big dogs eat the food in front of them." She jumped back and slowly turned away from him. "It's quite sad, really. You could be a major threat, but instead, you're just..." She turned to look at him with pity in her eyes. "An unimportant Mid-Boss."

"SHUT UP!" He growled and rushed at her, his vision red. "I'll not take this from you, you will duuurgh..." He stopped and looked down as a black, crackling blade of energy pierced his chest. "...What?"

"Ragna Blade, no chant." Lina muttered softly as the Chaos energies pierced the Mazoku. "It's mostly useless without a chant, but when you're that mad, it's pretty easy to hit you with it." She smirked at him as his body disappeared into nothingness. "Besides, I need to conserve my strength."

She really didn't want to start coughing up blood in the middle of the battlefield after all.

* * *

Reinforce: If you shall come after me, I shall fight. Should you threaten my family, I shall never allow you to leave. Next time on Blood That Flows - Red, I will protect my family.


	129. Red the Twenty Ninth

Blood That Flows

Red the Twenty-Ninth

I own nothing really. Nope.

* * *

Reinforce narrowed her eyes as she floated in mid air, several dark spheres floated around her. Normally she would create the spheres and fire them off all at the same time, but with how resilient these Mazoku were, she had to improvise.

Plus some of her cascading spells had an interesting effect on the Mazoku around her. It was almost like they were drawn to her spell bombs before the bombs erupted mercilessly on them. Still, she wished that she hadn't volunteered to be separate from Hayate when this more powerful opponent appeared. If things kept going the way they were, she was going to have to use some spells she didn't want to.

"Well, looks like you're the last one." The Mazoku threw its cloak off of its body to reveal a female with a small chest and soft features, including short green hair, green eyes, her body was covered in some clothing that looked like it was more at home on some peasants than a Mazoku. "By the time I'm done with you, the other eight will have finished their opponents off."

Reinforce narrowed her eyes as more black spheres appeared at her command. "Watch your tone, girl."

"My name is Seliss, and you?" Seliss grinned at her.

"Reinforce Yagami." Reinforce crossed her arms over her chest and narrowed her eyes. "And I don't like people threatening my family." She snapped her arm out and a blast of white-hot plasma snapped out of her open palm towards the Mazoku. The blast passed through the Mazoku's body and Reinforce stared, before groaning in pain as her leg was suddenly stabbed, turning, she blinked as she saw a second, and a third and a fourth one. "What the?"

"Only one of us is real." The copies of Seliss spoke up. "However," the one that had bloody fingers suddenly rushed her and punched right at Reinforce's face, only to find that one of the spheres rushed at her and exploded between them, "we're all capable of hurting you!"

Reinforce's eyes widened as the one that rushed in punched her in the gut. If not for her armor and the barrier she created at that moment, she would have been spitting up some blood at that moment. Even so, she was thrown back several feet in mid-air. Shaking her head, Reinforce looked back at Seliss and grimaced at how there were now almost eight copies of the Mazoku in the air.

One of the copies grinned at her and both of her hands started to glow black for a moment, before she snapped her wrists forward and sent a powerful black wave at Reinforce, who grimaced as she shot several Black magic beams into it, causing the attack to detonate before it got to her. "Bloody Dagger." Reinforce whispered as she snapped her wrist and several thousand red and black daggers appeared around her and soared at the Mazoku and her copies.

"Nice try." Reinforce gasped and looked up as another copy of Seliss came rushing down, swinging a sword at her head. "But I should tell you, that I can be any of my copies at any given moment, and even the Dragon Slave can't hit all of us at once." Seliss growled as a triangular barrier appeared and blocked the sword easily. "You're stronger than I thought you'd be."

Reinforce frowned as a sphere formed in her open right palm. Punching forward, she mentally cursed as the copy just smiled at her as her Diabolic Emission spread out in all directions, destroying part of the wall and any Mazoku that were unfortunate enough to be near them at that moment. Looking up, she almost swore as the other copies of Seliss all were just outside of the destructive dome.

"What's the matter?" Reinforce looked at the clone that was still smirking at her as she floated back. "Can't hit me?" As the Diabolic Emission receded, Reinforce was about to retort when a glow caught her attention. Looking up, her eyes widened as all the clones had attacks charged up and were firing at her. "Like I said, you're going to die, along with everyone else here today. Lord Shabranigdo is going to make sure of it."

Reinforce narrowed her eyes. "Photon Lancer, Dark Genocide Shift."

Seliss blinked as dark energy spear tips appeared in front of Reinforce and fired at the onrushing energy, causing them to explode in mid-air.

"I told you." Reinforce said as she narrowed her eyes while a Belkan Triangle appeared under her feet, pitch black in color. "Do not threaten my family."

The next thing Reinforce knew was that her arms, legs, stomach and neck were all grabbed by a copy of Seliss while two other copies floated in front of her, both giggling as they held swords out. One of the clones floated behind Reinforce and the device could feel the blades touch her through her jacket. "This is the end, too bad for you."

Reinforce closed her eyes as images of the Wolkenritter's time on Earth flashed through her mind, of Hayate's happiness, of Vita growing up and the embarrassing moments the redhead had to endure, as well as Zwei calling her mommy and... 'Zwei...' Reinforce's eyes snapped open, pitch-black in color before a white dome erupted from her, engulfing all eight of the clones in one go.

"What? What is this?" Seliss said as her fake copies shattered to the wind and Reinforce turned around to look at her with narrowed, angry eyes. "What's going on?"

_**"A spell from long ago, a power of pure evil that drains existence from its victim and returns it to the void of nothingness, Almagest."**_

"What are you?" Seliss was shivering at how Reinforce's voice seemed to be completely different than before. Well, that and how things seemed to be different for some reason. Was the area getting smaller? She gasped as Reinforce held her hand out and the sphere shrank and became smaller with each moment. "What is this?"

_**"Like I said, a forbidden, evil spell that I would never teach Hayate or my daughter, one of ten spells that are so evil I wish I never learned them in the first place."**_ She wasn't sure if she should thank Nanoha's Chaos energies or curse them for allowing her to remember these spells. They were powerful, incredibly powerful, but each one had a cost to them.

This wasn't even the most powerful of all the spells. Looking at her opponent with narrowed eyes, Reinforce slowly closed her hand into a fist, causing the sphere to go with it. _**"Begone, Mazoku, enter the void of nothingness, and never return."**_

The last thing Seliss ever did was scream in terror as the sphere disappeared from reality.

Reinforce closed her eyes and took several deep breaths as she tried to purge the energy from her body. _**"These spells, I thought I had forgotten them, why is it that I have them now?"**_ She had gone to great lengths to make sure that Hayate never knew about these specific spells as she helped her master work out new, safer magic.

After all, the last thing she wanted was for Hayate to become a soulless killing machine.

* * *

Vita: It's my turn next! Let's smash him, Eisen!  
Graf Eisen: Jawol!  
Vita: Next time on Blood That Flows - Red. It's smashing time!  
? ? ?: We shall see.

I wonder if Reinforce should go "NAIVE WEAKLING!" when doing that.

Yeah, totally ripped from Dissidia there.


	130. Red the Thirtieth

Blood That Flows

Red the Thirtieth

I own nothing really. Nope.

* * *

Vita looked up just as a metal spiked ball flew right at her head. "What the hell?" She sweat-dropped as she saw the destruction on the ground. "Who the hell throws a freaking mace?"

"I do." A deep, grutteral voice spoke up and Vita spun around to see a huge person in front of her. He was at least four times her size, with deep green skin, long gray hair, huge muscles and fangs that pointed upwards. He held his right hand out and down towards the mace and Vita stared as it flew through the air and into his grip. "Now you face Belselk, the strongest of the ten!"

"What are you? A Dark Jedi or something?" Vita yelped as he chuckled and swung his mace at her stomach.

"I have no idea what that means." Belselk grinned as she floated back and away. "You think it'll be that easy?"

Vita's eyes widened as the spiked ball detached from the hilt and rushed at her, slamming into her stomach and sending her flying back before Belselk grinned and pulled his arm back, causing the spiked ball to start spinning around and around above his head. "Now, you can just take this to the grave!"

Vita slid to a stop in mid-air, gripping her stomach. "Graf Eisen!"

**"Jawol!"**Her device cried out as she popped a cartridge and a spike formed on one end of the hammer while a rocket formed on the other end that lit up, causing the redheaded teen to rocket upwards while spinning around and around as the spiked ball came rushing down at her.

Vita was almost certain that she would have no trouble with a mace, no matter how strong it was. She had increased the weight to Graf Eisen several times since she had started growing, since her strength had increased so much. As things were, Mary was complaining about not being able to find anymore parts to increase the weight of Graf Eisen.

She was understandably surprised as the ball crashed into Graf Eisen's tip and almost broke her arms as both Graf Eisen and the mace slammed into her body and drove her into the ground below.

Chuckling, Belselk retracted the mace and smirked at her. "I told you, I'm the strongest of the ten."

Vita grimaced and was thankful she was able to get a barrier up to absorb the blow to her front and back, otherwise she was sure that she would have a few broken ribs from that attack. She held up a hand and grinned as a white glow appeared on her fingertips. "Blam Blazer."

Belselk just grinned and held an open palm out, allowing the attack to hit his hand harmlessly. "Is that all?"

"Nope." Vita's voice came from behind him and he turned in time to see a spiked hammer slam into his face, sending him tumbling through the air. "Now! Eisen!"

**"Gigant form!"**

Belselk shook his head as the hammer suddenly became much larger in mid air. "You're open!" He swung his mace forward and Vita stared as she was only partially through her swing as the mace slammed into her stomach, sending her flying into the castle walls. "I don't know how you disappeared from the ground before, but it's not enough." He would smirk if his face allowed it as he saw the large hammer shift and shrink to that much smaller hammer size. "I do enjoy a good beat down."

Vita groaned as she pulled herself from the debris and grimaced as she looked at her dress. Her eyes widened slightly as some blood seeped through her clothes. It wasn't much, so she just assumed that he just broke her skin, but the worst part was the fact that her dress now had holes in it. "Damn you!" She growled as she looked up.

"Vita!" She blinked and turned as she saw Reinfore Zwei flying towards her. "You're hurt!"

"I'm fine, I told you to stay and help Shamal and Zafira." Vita blinked as Zwei shook her head.

"No! I felt you and Signum fighting and I couldn't stay behind anymore, plus you were closer than she was and Shamal said it was okay!" Zwei swung her arms up and down as she floated in front of Vita. "Plus," she pointed at Belselk as the Mazoku stared down coldly at them, "he's a bully! Come on, let's take him out together!"

Vita nodded at that as she stood up. "You're right, if Signum's in a fight, I think the rest of our friends are as well, they could use some help."

Both Vita and Zwei frowned as they looked up at Belselk. "You? Help your friends? You're nothing to me," the mace was swinging around his head faster and faster than before, "and you'll join your friends in death."

"That's it!" Vita yelled at him as Zwei floated towards her.

"UNISON IN!" The two yelled at the same time and Belselk blinked at the large increase in magical power while Vita's outfit repaired itself while changing to a deep blue color, her hair lightened from red to orange and her eyes became a bright blue color.

"Interesting, didn't know fairies could do that." He muttered as he swung down and frowned as Vita seemed to disappear, only to reappear in mid air in front of him. Before anything more could happen, several binds snapped into place around him. "What the?"

"Astral bind, a trick I learned from Yuuno." Vita grinned as Graf Eisen returned to Gigant form, this time though, the weapon was glowing golden. "As for this..."

_"Vita!"_ Zwei called to her sister. _"We have to hurry, this spell takes too much concentration."_

Vita nodded as she was sweating heavily, she could feel Zwei sweating as well as she swung the hammer down. "So you can just... TURN INTO LIGHT!"

Belselk growled and shattered the binds just fast enough to put his arms up to block the attack. Even though he did that, he couldn't stop the downward force that sent him crashing into the ground below.

When Graf Eisen slammed into the ground, Vita panted heavily as a wave of energy erupted from Graf Eisen, going outward and enveloping various minor Mazoku that got too close, causing their bodies to dissolve into motes of light. Smiling, Vita returned Graf Eisen to its smaller hammer mode and wiped her forehead. "Damn, didn't realize it would be so hard." There was no way she could have combined all of the Astral magic that she knew into Graf Eisen without Rein unisoned with her. "Rein?" She could feel the small device in her still. "What's wrong?"

_"They're getting hurt! All of them! We have to hurry and help them!"_

Vita nodded at the urgency and took off to go and see if she could give someone help.

She just hoped that she wasn't too late.

Moments later...

A large green hand tore its way out of the ground, followed by a large green body that was smoking and trembling as it pulled its way out of the ground, shaking and falling over itself. "That damn near killed me..." Belselk growled as he, after pulling himself free, grabbed his jaw and snapped it back into place.

Popping his neck side to side, even though he didn't need to, Belselk let out a loud howl as his body became covered in dark energy and his body shifted.

His skin remained the same color, though his hair disappeared while his lower fangs shrank and his upper fangs grew larger. His body doubled in size and he dropped to his hands and feet as his form became more bestial. Large wings appeared out of his back and a long reptilian tail erupted from where the base of his spine would be.

The transformed Belselk growled as he held up his right claw. "Fairy... DIE TO BERSERK!" He stood up on his hind legs and let out a loud howl and sniffed the air before turning and growling. "HERE BERSERK COMES!" With a single flap of his wings, Berserk was now airborne and flying after Vita.

* * *

Rein Zwei: I won't let you! I won't let anyone hurt them! Next time on Blood That Flows - Red, I will stop you!

The name change was quite intentional. For those of you who are trying to guess, Wild Arms is your hint of the day.


	131. Red the Thirty First

Blood That Flows

Red the Thirty-First

I own nothing really. Nope.

* * *

This was it, she could feel the ground getting closer. The worst part wasn't that she was going to die, the worst part was leaving the others behind and not seeing them grow up and be happy. No, she was going to leave them all alone. She tried, she tried so hard to call up any magic, but she was too injured, too much blood lost. "Everyone..." She mumbled as she felt her book and staff disappear into the pendant form and reform on the palm of her hand. Squeezing it, Hayate smiled sadly. "Goodbye." She whispered softly.

When she stopped falling, some part of her mind noted that it wasn't as painful as she imagined it would be. She wasn't wet, so she didn't hit any water. Opening an eye painfully, she stared at what she saw.

"Don't say that, Hayate. We still love you."

"Vita-chan..." Hayate turned her head and saw why Vita looked so different. "Rein-chan, what..."

"Daddy!" Rein had tears in her eyes. "You can't die! You're my daddy!"

Hayate smiled and tears started welling up in her eyes as Vita held her bridal style. "Zwei, Vita..." She winced as the pain of her injuries started to catch up to her. Coughing, she, Vita and Rein's eyes widened as some blood came out.

"Hang on." Vita gripped Hayate and turned to fly towards the castle and get Shamal.

"BERSERK CRUSH!" Vita paled as she saw that Mazoku from before, looking a lot different than before, rushing at her. "DIE!"

"Vita!" Zwei popped out of Vita, causing the girl's coloring to go to normal. "Get daddy to Shamal. I'll fight him!" She threw up several barriers in an attempt to stop the Mazoku.

"But..."

"GO!" Zwei yelled as she flew at Berserk. "Come on, you ugly bully! Why don't you fight me?"

"FAIRY DIE NOW!" Berserk opened his mouth and a pillar of yellow fire erupted from it right at Zwei.

The blue haired device flew straight up and fired a green spear right into Berserk's eye. "Elmekia Lance!"

Berserk let out a cry of pain and took a swipe at Zwei's body. The small device was thankful that she was so small as she flipped around the claw and formed another Elmekia Lance before driving it into the Mazoku's skull. She gulped when it shattered on his skin.

"That not hurt BERSERK!" The Mazoku spun around and opened his mouth and leaned in to bite Rein Zwei, the small device quickly flew away. "RUN! BERSERK WILL EAT YOU!"

Rein Zwei frowned and looked back as the Mazoku chased her through the air. "Yes, keep trying to eat me, I'll show you a spell mommy taught me and daddy!"

Flash...

_Reinforce looked at Hayate and her daughter and shook her head. "Now this spell, it needs a special chant before you can even begin to call its full power up."_

_Zwei and Hayate both sweat-dropped as Reinforce told them the spell. "Do we have to?" Hayate hung her head as Reinforce nodded._

_"As I understand it, the spell only works this way." Reinforce shook her head. "Believe me, I do not want to say something so corny either, especially in battle, but the spell was only used once before and the chant was a part of it."_

_Zwei nodded and her eyes sparkled. The chant actually sounded kind of cool in her opinion._

End Flashback...

Still, the charge-up time on the spell was something to worry about. Zwei looked up into the air and grinned as she saw a point that would work perfectly. Snapping her hand out, she nodded as a circle appeared in mid-air. Spinning around, she snapped up several barriers around Berserk, as well as many binds around his body. When Berserk growled and started snapping the binds and barriers, she gulped and then blinked as she remembered something that she had watched with Vita on the internet a few months ago. "Well, hope it works." A Belkan triangle appeared under her feet as she held her hands out in front of her. "BLINDING FLASH!"

Berserk screamed as a bright flash of light took away his eyesight and screwed with his Astral sight. "ARRRRGH! KILL! BERSERK KILL!"

Zwei shot straight towards the light colored circle in mid air and, as soon as she got on top of it, she held her hand straight up as a pink circle appeared in her hand while a large pink ball started to form. "This is the spell mommy taught me and daddy!" The ball started to get larger and larger as the huge amounts of magic of all types were being drawn to it, seemingly spinning around and around in mid air. "My hand glows with an awesome power!"

Down below, Berserk shook his head as his vision started to return. "Where..." He blinked as the area started to get extra bright. "What?" Looking up, he grinned as he saw the little fairy was just standing there. "Berserk KILL!" He flapped the wings on his back and rushed at her. "DIE NOW!"

"The glowing power tells me to reach out and grasp hold of VICTORY!" Zwei called out as the pink ball was tinged black, red, gold and white. "Now take THIS! All my anger, sorrow and ALL OF THE LOVE OF MY FAMILY!"

Berserk's eyes widened as Rein Zwei pointed her open palm down at him. "WHAA..?"

**"STARRRR... LIIIIIIIIIGGGGGHHHHTTTT! BREEAAAAAAAKKKKKKEEERRRR!"**

The large ball suddenly shrank to a pin-prick before shooting out and becoming a large beam of energy that came crashing down like an unstoppable river torrent. Before the Mazoku could think of what to do, the beam slammed into his body and sent him crashing into the ground with an explosion that rocked the ground, consuming everything for almost one hundred meters in all directions.

Rein panted heavily as she floated towards the castle and sweat-dropped as she saw the outer walls of the city were almost completely destroyed by her attack. "Ooopsie..."

_"Rein..."_ She heard Vita's voice in her head. _"What was that?"_

_"Mommy taught me and daddy Nanoha's Starlight Breaker."_

_"...This is going to sound stupid, but what reason could she have had to teach you the **Starlight Breaker**?"_

_"Self defense."_ Rein giggled softly as she could practically hear Vita's stupefied look across the telepathic link they had open.

* * *

Nanoha: All the assassins are down! Everyone, let's find Shabranigdo and end this!  
Yuuno: Wait, what's that?  
Lina: Next time, on Blood That Flows - Red, read it.  
? ? ?: I never thought I'd see you again.

Why do I hear the God/Burning Finger theme song in my head right now?


	132. Red the Thirty Second

Blood That Flows

Red the Thirty-Second

I own nothing really. Nope.

* * *

Meanwhile...

Leti frowned as she saw the numbers and the maps, there was no denying it now. "Get me a line to them all, now!"

"Yes, ma'am!" The technicians nodded and started opening various lines for Leti. "It's open."

"Listen to me everyone who can hear this, we've got a problem. There's some sort of dark energy heading your way from some northern mountains."

_"Say what?"_ Lina yelled over the mental com link. _"What kind of energy?"_

"We're not sure, it seems almost like a diffused version a Mazoku."

_"I see, thanks."_

(-)

Lina grimaced as she thought about that, it had been a long time since she thought about what Mazoku were made up of and it sounded familiar to her.

_"Do you know what's going on, exactly?"_She heard Chrono's voice over the mental link.

_"Looks like some sort of Mazoku energy is heading our way from the north. But I don't..."_

_"Miasma."_

Lina blinked at the interruption. _"Amelia?"_

_"Miasma is what Mazoku put out, have you forgotten, Miss Lina?"_

_"Gimme a break! It's been twenty years since I gave serious thought about the specifics of Mazoku, let's see you remember something from twenty years ago!"_

_"Sorry, but it sounds like Miasma is heading our way. If it's that much, then, um..."_

_"We're likely going to die from poisoning."_Zelgadis's voice broke through the connection.

Lina grimaced and frowned as she got a message from one of the non-magical messengers that Fate and Hayate were receiving medical attention due to severe injuries. "Nnngh..." She blinked as Zest landed next to her. "Take charge here, I need to check on them."

He nodded as she took off to check on the injured children.

He didn't blame her. She was a mother after all.

(-)

"Lord Shabranigdo!"

He growled as some minor Mazoku rushed up to him. "Yes?" He was so close to doing what he wanted to do.

"All eight assassins are dead!" The Mazoku cried out. "And hundreds, if not thousands, of Mazoku have fallen as well."

"All of them?" He was still in his human hosts body and raised an eyebrow. "Even Belselk, Derk and Divas?"

"Belselk was defeated by a redhead with a giant hammer and killed by a fairy. Derk was killed by some girl with a giant cannon and Divas was consumed in Holy magic!"

"Holy, huh?" Shabranigdo slowly grinned. "Good to know." He snapped his fingers and pointed the Mazoku in question, causing it to scream in pain as he evaporated.

Shabranigdo grinned slightly. While he did expect some of the assassins to die, to find out that all of them had failed was more than he had thought possible. Oh well, it wasn't going to set his plans back.

In fact, them dying was just what he had hoped for. To have all eight die was well beyond his expectations.

Especially with all the Miasma in the air. He was thankful that Dragon's Peak was so close to where he was sealed away a thousand years ago.

If it wasn't, he wouldn't have been able to do what he was about to do. As a body formed in front of him, he grinned. "It's time." He muttered as his flesh shredded, red claws ripped through his hands and his body took on a more crab-like form as he got several stories in size. "Welcome back, my servant."

Said servant looked at him with no emotion in his eyes.

"Oh well, I'm sure that you'll regain more of yourself soon enough." Shabranigdo would have grinned if his mouth allowed it while he stood to his full height. "Our enemies are out there... Deal with them."

"Of course." The servant nodded and bowed.

(-)

Xellos' eyes snapped open as Shabranigdo fully formed just north of Seiryuun. The feel of the Demon King was a draw, he could feel it. Part of him wanted to help Ruby Eye end the humans, and he was certain that Zelas, Dolphin and Sherra all felt the same way. He blinked as he felt a hand dig into his shoulder, turning to look, he stared at a rather large pair of breasts obscuring his view of Rangort's face.

"Tell me, Xellos, why shouldn't we go down there to fight?"

Xellos was about to answer when he felt something that he thought impossible. "It's... Not possible." If what he was feeling was true, then things were going to get really bad really fast.

(-)

"GRAH! Shabranigdo dammit! First that hammer, then that pink beam! How the hell can I be so beaten?" Belselk groaned as he tried to stand up. "And in my beast form for crying out loud!" He was smoking and twitching as he kept trying to stand up. "What kind of monsters are they?"

"You'll never find out." A familiar voice answered Belselk and the Mazoku gasped as he saw who it was.

"You, but... That's not possible."

It was the last thing Belselk said as a blade of glowing energy sliced through his body, ending his existence for good.

(-)

Lina twitched as she saw Fate and Hayate getting medical attention from various healers. "How are they?"

Vita didn't even turn to look at her as she watched over Hayate. "If we were any later, Hayate couldn't be saved and Fate's going to be out for a few minutes at least." And that was only because they had gotten to Fate so fast. She looked up as Yuuno dropped down and walked up to them. "Hey."

Yuuno nodded and Vita and Lina both stared at way his face was scarred. "...What?"

"Yuuno, you've got three bloody claw marks on your face, what happened?"

Yuuno grimaced at Vita's question and rubbed his cheek. He had already taken care of the worst of it, but he was almost sure that he was going to have scars from his cheek bone down to his jaw from it. "A Mazoku nearly ripped my face off then trapped my arms and legs in the stone walls."

"That the worst you took?" Lina asked, getting a nod from him. "Good, you got lucky, we could use the extra help soon." She was almost certain Shabranigdo was going to make his move soon.

"Where's the rest?"

Lina shook her head. She didn't know. "Been trying to get ahold of them, but no luck."

_"MISS LINA!"_

_"It's... Shabranigdo!"_Zelgadis's voice broke through and Lina flew up and stared at the glowing form of the Demon King. She shivered slightly. The size of his body and aura of overwhelming power was just as she remembered it.

The worst of it was that she had a lot more to lose now than she did the last time she faced him. "Where's Nanoha?"

She was going to need all the extra fire power she could get.

_"Hey, Lina, remember how you told us to get you any extra help if we could find it?"_ Leti's voice broke through Lina's thoughts. _"I hope you like the extra help we found."_

Lina blinked, wondering what they were talking about when a new form appeared in front of her. "Luna!"

Luna grinned at her sister. "Sorry I'm late."

Lina grinned back at her. "Good to see you here, now let's..." Her eyes widened as her left eye began to glow and throb. "...Nanoha..." She gasped and turned to the East, her face pale, before a determined look came to her and she flew off in that direction as fast as she could, followed by Luna, who was wondering what was going on.

(-)

**"Master, only twenty seconds left."**

**"Enough time."** Nanoha whispered and blinked as a new display came up and she turned to the North to see Shabranigdo standing tall while his aura glowed brightly. **"So, he's shown himself."** She took aim with her cannon and started to focus energies into it. Nanoha only had a few seconds before she would have to cancel the mode, so she decided to make this last shot count. **"Supreme Chaos..."**

Her eyes widened and her body went numb as blood came pouring out of her mouth. Looking down, she stared as the end of a sword pierced her chest. When it was pulled out, she fell to her knees as the Chaos magic started to pour out of the wound and start to go out of control. As her mind started to fade, the last thing she saw was a faded yellow trench coat, a long sword and faded red hair. **"W**ho..?"

(-)

"NANOHA!" Lina yelled as she saw her daughter, in Assault Mode, leaking blood and Chaotic energies all over the place.

Luna looked around and her eyes narrowed as she saw someone with a bloody sword start to walk away from Nanoha. "You..." She unsheathed the Flare Sword and flew at the person responsible while Lina landed next to Nanoha. "How dare you hurt my niece?"

The person turned around and parried her sword with his own and her eyes widened as she saw his face. "But... You can't be alive."

Lina's hair was starting to turn golden as her eye glowed brightly while she put her hands over the wound in Nanoha's chest. "Come on, come on. Calm down, Nanoha." She had to close her eyes as a pulse of Chaotic magic erupted from her daughter's bleeding form.

"Interesting." The Mazoku said as he looked at her, causing Lina to still and look up slowly. "I didn't know that you would be here."

"It... It can't be..." Lina said softly as she looked the person over. He was just as tall as she remembered, the sword in his hand, the arrogant look, the way he was actually holding off her sister's weapon with his own, the trench coat; though she had to admit, the hand-shaped mark in the middle was new at least. "Demon... Dragon... Gaav..."

Gaav just grinned at her. "I'm... Back."

* * *

Lina: What the hell? Gaav? How is this possible?  
Nanoha: GAAAAAAAAAHHH!  
Lina: Dammit! Next time on Blood That Flows - Red.  
Gaav: You may need more than what you have to beat me this time.

And you guys thought it was going to be simple. Yes, Belselk's dead now. Everyone thought he died to the Starlight Breaker, and he nearly did, but he survived. Just barely. Then Gaav killed him.


	133. Red the Thirty Third

Blood That Flows

Red the Thirty-Third

I own nothing really. Nope.

* * *

Lina grimaced as she looked at Gaav. When Nanoha let out a cry of pain, she shook her head. "Luna, take care of things here, I'm sorry."

Gaav blinked as Lina and Nanoha disappeared in a black and gold flash. "That was interesting." He turned to look at Luna, who had moved her blade and was about to thrust forward. "Too slow." He stepped forward and punched Luna in the face, sending her crashing to the ground in a heap. "And you're supposed to be the strongest human of all."

Luna rolled to her feet and narrowed her eyes at Gaav. For the first time in her life she was cursing the fact that she was more content to stay at home and not take up adventuring like her sister had been.

"I never knew her to be a coward." Gaav snorted at her as she took a defensive stance. "You're pathetic. The Knight of Cephied that fought me during the Koma Wars was much stronger."

"To be honest, I thought it was a mistake on Cephied's part." Luna said as she got to her feet, her sword started to sparkle with energy. "I was never much of a fighter, I preferred to live my life peacefully if I could help it." She held her sword at a downward angle to her left as she walked towards Gaav before spinning and striking at him. "Also, that girl is her daughter."

Gaav twisted his blade to parry hers. "Interesting, didn't know that she had a daughter." With a push, Luna found herself sliding back. "As powerful as that weapon is, you're not strong enough to hurt me with it, much less Shabranigdo."

Luna narrowed her eyes. "I wouldn't be too sure about that." Gaav looked at his sword and raised an eyebrow at the crack in the blade.

Gaav smirked at her and put the sword on his shoulder. "Well, it's interesting, you can't really hurt me with that weapon of yours. Kind of sad actually."

"What?" Luna frowned as Gaav smirked at her.

"That sword is the reason that Riksfalto lost her eye." Gaav's eyes narrowed slightly. "Well, I've got other things to do, I'll be back to kill you later."

Luna cursed as he disappeared. If he went after the people without magic, it would likely be a slaughter.

She just wondered where he was going as she took off into the air.

(-)

On the ship...

Leti stared as Lina appeared on the ship. "What the hell?"

Lina didn't say anything as she had her hand over Nanoha's chest. Considering the damaged gem by Nanoha's twitching form and the golden energy that was bleeding out of Nanoha's body, it didn't take long for Leti to put some pieces together. She didn't know all of the information, but she had an idea of what was happening.

Despite being almost split in half, Raising Heart formed two wings and started to glow as it floated in such a painful looking way that even Leti couldn't help but feel sorry for how it was trying to help despite being cracked and nearly falling apart. Reaching in, she ignored how her skin was burning and tingling from being so close to the Chaotic energies, and grabbed Raising Heart. "Just calm down, you. You need to be fixed up or you'll be no good to anyone."

**"Ma...ter... hu...t... he..p... ...er..."**Raising Heart's voice bleeped several times as the gem flashed slowly, before stopping and going dim and dark.

Leti turned to the ship's tech people and gave them Raising Heart. "Get that thing fixed up and working again." They nodded and took off to get the device fixed. Turning back to look at Nanoha, she may not have shown it, but her heart went out to Lina for this. If her son was in that position, she didn't know what she would do.

The worst part about all of this was, the energy that Nanoha was producing just wasn't natural. She didn't have any idea what she could do to help.

Looking at the clock that she had set up to count down the arrival of the fleet, she grimaced.

There was just over an hour of time left.

(-)

Meanwhile...

Gourry panted slightly as he finished off the last of the Mazoku around him. Straightening up, he looked at Miyuki as she walked up to him. "Pretty good."

She smirked at him as she sheathed Gorun Nova onto her shoulder sheath. "You're as good as my dad said you were." Miyuki sweat-dropped as Gourry looked at her in confusion.

"Who's your dad?"

"Shiro Takamachi." Miyuki sweat-dropped more as Gourry's clueless look didn't go away. "My mom's husband. Lina..."

"Oh!" He nodded, blinking a few times. "So... He's the guy with the scars, right?" Miyuki nodded and Gourry rubbed the back of his head with his free hand. "Sorry, I'm not good at remembering people."

"Really?" A male voice spoke up and Gourry and Miyuki spun to see a large man with a faded yellow trench coat, a long sword and faded red hair and eyebrows grinned at them as he appeared. "Then I suppose you don't remember me."

"Sorry." Gourry gripped the Blast Sword as Miyuki re-ignited Gorun Nova as she took a stance while the man held his sword against his shoulder. "Never saw you before in my life."

The man twitched slightly as he looked at the two. "You don't remember me? I'm Gaav."

"Not at all. Why? Do I know you?" Gourry slowly stepped to the left while Miyuki moved to the right.

Gaav smirked at Gourry as he noticed Miyuki moving in from his side. "Nice try." He grabbed Gorun Nova on its blade, much to Miyuki's shock. "Even if it it Gorun Nova, no human could hurt me with such a thing."

"Then how about this?" Gourry asked as he swung the Blast Sword at Gaav. The Mazoku Lord just smirked and swung his sword to parry Gourry's blade.

Gaav's eyes widened as the metal blade cut through his sword with ease. Twisting out of the way, he avoided Gourry's slash down and threw Miyuki to the ground before jumping back and looking at his shattered weapon. "An impressive weapon. To cut through my blade with such ease is pretty impressive."

Gourry smirked at him as he and Miyuki both repositioned themselves against him. "I think it's pretty good myself."

Miyuki narrowed her eyes as she jumped to the air while Gourry rushed in. "Dammit!" She cursed as Gaav showed that he had a lot more agility than his frame suggested and dodged their attacks before punching her in the face and Gourry in the gut, shattering his armor and sending the two of them flying back in a heap. "So, your name is Gaav..." She jumped to her feet and started to circle the chuckling Mazoku. "You're a lot stronger than those ones I've been killing all day."

Gaav just smirked at her. "You remind me of someone, but if you must know, I'm one of the strongest beings in this world. Gorun Nova might be able to harm most Mazoku, but it's not enough to harm someone of my level."

Miyuki smirked at him. "Oh really? Gorun Nova, the sword the slashes."

Gaav's eyes widened as the blade suddenly became serrated and a wave of energy rushed at him.

Miyuki stared as a large red aura erupted from Gaav, taking the form of a multi-headed Dragon and the beam crashed into the wall of energy before dissipating. "What the hell?" For a brief moment, she thought that she heard the howl of several Dragons at once.

Gaav grinned at her. "You're impressive. What's your name?"

"Miyuki Takamachi, eldest daughter of Shiro and Lina Takamachi." Miyuki took a stance with Gorun Nova by her face as she narrowed her eyes at him. "And I won't be beaten by the likes of you."

Gaav raised an eyebrow at that. "Lina? You're the daughter of the Lina that nearly killed me?"

Miyuki smirked as she heard that. "Sounds like mom."

"So I killed your sister then." Gaav smirked as Miyuki's face darkened and her emotions turned pitch black with hatred towards him.

Gorun Nova's edge seemed to spin as if it was a chainsaw as Miyuki rushed in, yelling while swinging at Gaav's head. "You did NOT kill my little sister!"

Gaav chuckled as he dodged around Miyuki's strikes and jumped up as Gourry joined Miyuk in attacking him. "I have to admit, you two are far better than I thought you would be, especially without magic."

"Then how about we add some?" A male voice spoke up. "RAAAA TILLLT!" A blue-white beam engulfed Gaav for a moment before his aura disrupted the attack with ease.

"Damn." Zelgadis growled and pulled his sword out. "Astral Vine!"

Gaav chuckled as he saw the three weapon users in front of him. "I have to admit, it's impressive how good you three are, but..." His eyes started to glow as his aura erupted around him and he held his hands forward. "NOT ENOUGH!" He roared as a giant wave of power erupted from his hands and crashed into the three of them, causing them to cry out and go flying back. Even with their blades diffusing and dispelling the power, it was still so overwhelming that they couldn't keep up with the power.

When the energy dissipated, Miyuki groaned as she slowly pushed her body off of the ground and saw that Gourry was in the same position while Zelgadis was trying to get off of his back while Gaav walked forward slowly, confidently.

"RA TILT!" Two voiced called out at the same time and Gaav grunted as he was blasted from two frontal angles. Roaring in defiance, the spells dissipated, though Gaav noted that the one from his left was much stronger than the one from his right.

"I don't know how you came back, but I will not allow you to murder these brave defenders!"

Gaav shook his head and looked at the one who spoke. "You're that little girl I nearly killed years ago.." He raised an eyebrow as he saw her appearance now. "I must say, you've grown into quite the woman." Gaav looked at the other one who attacked him and raised an eyebrow. "Interesting, I didn't know that there was more than one Sword of Light."

"This is the Shine Sword, made by studying the Sword of Light." The blue-haired boy spoke up as he narrowed his eyes at seeing Gaav unhurt. Even Riksfalto had been put off by multiple Ra Tilts, and this guy shrugged them off with ease?

Gaav chuckled as he saw the other three stand up. "Really? This might be..." A grin came to his face that showed off his teeth. "Rather fun to play with all of you."

* * *

Gaav: It's time for all of you to die. I guarantee you that at least I'll enjoy killing each of you.  
Miyuki: Next time on Blood That Flows - Red, read it, I think we're in trouble.


	134. Red the Thirty Fourth

Blood That Flows

Red the Thirty-Fourth

I own nothing really. Nope.

* * *

Miyuki frowned as she looked at Gaav and the way he was smirking at them. "How can he be so confident?"

"Because he's the strongest enemy right now." Zelgadis spoke up as he took a step forward. "Shabranigdo might be his boss, but Gaav was, when he was alive, about a fifth as powerful as Shabranigdo's full power. Shabranigdo, however, is only a seventh as powerful as he should be." And with any luck, he'd never get to full power ever again."

A red glow filled the area and Zelgadis chanced a look to the North and shivered as Shabranigdo held out his hand and fired a huge red beam at Seiryuun, destroying the northern walls and a good chunk of the city inside.

"You humans really have no chance at all." Gaav grinned at them. "Just give up."

Amelia frowned and pointed at Gaav. "Tell me something, Demon Dragon King! How come you're working for Shabranigdo!" Gaav had a surprised look on his face at that. "The last time we faced each other, you were on the run from the rest of the Mazoku because you betrayed them and Shabranigdo."

Gaav frowned at her. "Why would I do that?"

Zelgadis blinked at that. "Wait a minute... Do you remember what happened on Dragon's Peak?"

Gaav scratched his shoulder as pain came to him. "Somehow I was beaten by that girl when she used the Ragna Blade on me. Though that makes no sense, I've been hit with that spell before. That thing hurts."

Zelgadis had a slightly confused look on his face. "I wonder... Gaav, do you remember attacking us because you thought we were working for Hellmaster?"

"Bah, little punk, don't like him that much." Gaav tilted his head. "But that's enough of that, now you can die."

"Mr. Zelgadis?" Amelia looked back at him. "What's going on?"

"Either Gaav can't remember everything when he died... Or Shabranigdo purposely blocked those memories." Zelgadis narrowed his eyes. At least it was Gaav and not Hellmaster that stood in front of them. If it had been Hellmaster, they would all be dead at that moment.

Being dead once was bad enough, Zelgadis really didn't want to experience it again.

Gaav smirked at them. "Well then, it's time for you to all die."

Chrono narrowed his eyes as he took off into the air. "I don't think so."

Gaav looked up and raised an eyebrow. "Interesting, you can fly and cast magic at the same time?"

"You should pay more attention to yourself." Gourry quipped as he stabbed at the hand-shaped mark on Gaav's chest. His eyes widened as Gaav ducked under the blow and struck him in the jaw, sending him tumbling back and landing on his back.

"Visfarank!" Amelia's hands were glowing yellow as she rushed in to punch up at Gaav, who snarled at her and punched downwards at her fist. When the two fists connected, there was a powerful shock wave that cracked the ground under them, kicked up dust and forced the two to back off.

Gaav looked at his hand and frowned at the damage he had. "Impressive."

Amelia grimaced and gripped her hand. Even though he hadn't canceled the spell, Gaav hit _hard_. She had actually forgotten how strong he really was.

"Blaze Tilt!" Chrono called out as his spell fully charged up before pointing the Shine Sword down at Gaav, letting loose a deep blue beam at the Mazoku Lord.

Gaav narrowed his eyes at the beam of energy as he let loose another roar of power as his aura surrounded him. He grunted as the beam connected to his body, but with a flex of his body, the magic shattered around him. "Is that all?" He smirked at Chrono's shocked look. "Impressive, combining two different styles of magic through that Sword of Light you have, but you're not strong enough."

Zelgadis grimaced as Gaav chuckled. It was true. Even Lina could barely scratch a Mazoku Lord, and that was with her using the Ragna Blade.

The only chance they had was to hit Gaav with the Blast Sword, but he was keeping an eye on Gourry out of the corner of his eye. It was times like this that he wished that he was stronger.

Still, he couldn't give up. Slamming an open palm on the ground, he called forth one of his favorite spells. "Goz Vu Row!" A dark shadow raced along the ground towards Gaav, who smirked and merely stepped on the shadow, causing it to break apart. "Dammit!"

Gaav chuckled at him. "A spell of that level against me?" He snapped his left hand out and a ball of energy rushed out and slammed into Zelgadis at such high speeds that the Chimera had no chance to dodge. "How pathetic."

"I have an idea." Amelia whispered to Gourry and Miyuki. "Your weapons can enhance magic, so, if we do this right, we might stun him long enough for you two to get in there and strike him down."

The two nodded as Amelia's hands glowed. "But we need a distraction."

"Try this!" Chrono called down as he pointed Durandall down at Gaav.

**"Eternal Coffin!"**

Chrono pointed Durandall down at Gaav and paled as the Mazoku smirked at him and his spell failed to fire. "What?"

"Magic cancellation, you think that I would let you get that off?" Gaav smirked at him. "Now then..."

"Ra Tilt!" Amelia clapped her hands and sent two blasts out, one at the Blast Sword and one at Gorun Nova, both weapons glowed with power before Gourry and Miyuki swung their weapons out, a spiraling white energy erupted from them before converging on each other and becoming much larger.

Gaav's eyes widened as a huge and fast moving energy ball slammed into him, causing him to cry out as he was sent flying back into the distance.

"Did we do it?" Chrono asked as he touched down next to the others.

"Not likely." Zelgadis muttered. "Even if we did, we still have Shabranigdo."

Chrono grimaced, that wasn't going to be fun. "Well, we need to..."

"Just lay down and die." A familiar voice came from behind them. Turning around, the whole group was blown away as Gaav reformed behind them, letting loose a powerful energy sphere that forced the ground to crack and fall apart around him. "I must admit, that stung a little." He took a step forward and blinked as his foot touched something. Looking down, he grinned and picked up what he saw. "Gorun Nova... The Sword that Slashes."

Miyuki grimaced as she looked up from her position on the ground, before paling as Gaav held Gorun Nova in his hands. "This is bad."

"You don't know the half of it. Let me show you what a Mazoku can do with a Weapon of Light!" Gaav grinned and swung his weapon in a wide arc, allowing a powerful wave of energy that tore the ground apart went rushing at the group. "You're all dead!" He laughed as he watched the energy cascade upon the group.

"Wide Area Protection!" Chrono yelled as he jumped in front of the others and cast a barrier in front of them and hoped that it was enough to hold off the attack.

His eyes widened as the barrier shattered in an instant. The next thing he saw was a blinding light as the attack crashed down on all of them.

* * *

Chrono: This is it? This is as far as I go? Next time, on Blood That Flows - Red. I... I'm sorry.


	135. Red the Thirty Fifth

Blood That Flows

Red the Thirty-Fifth

I own nothing really. Nope.

* * *

Gaav chuckled as he saw his attack shatter the flimsy defense spell that had been thrown up at the last moment. Looking at Gorun Nova, he shook his head. "To think that they forced me to go this far." Still, there was something about what that Chimera and that large breasted girl said that bothered him. Why would he have betrayed Shabranigdo and have to worry about Hellmaster? As much as he didn't like the smaller Mazoku, even he knew he couldn't beat Hellmaster.

The large Mazoku closed his eyes and frowned. Now that it had been brought up, why did it seem like he was missing a large chunk of his last life?

Plus there was something, something missing from deep within. What was it?

He was taken out of his musings as the energy finally dissipated and he saw the results of his attack. "What the?" He stared as he saw that not only were they all alive, but not a single one of them was hurt worse than before.

Gaav wasn't the only one confused, Chrono was blinking in confusion. The last thing that he knew was that the energy had shattered his barrier and he was about to die. "What happened?"

"Sorry I'm late." A familiar gruff voice spoke up. Chrono turned to see Zafira, in his human form, holding Nezzard. "Almost didn't make it in time." He looked at the weapon in his hands and nodded in appreciation. "This really does enhance magic of the user."

"What the hell?" Gaav narrowed his eyes at the weapon in Zafira's hands. "Another Weapon of Light? Is someone selling them for a copper a dozen?"

"Not quite." Zafira gripped Nezzard and pointed the clawed trident at the Mazoku Lord. "Nezzard, the Claw that Gouges." Both Gaav and Zafira's eyes widened as the three prongs not only started to glow brightly, but the two weapons seemed to hum in harmony.

"I see..." Gaav smirked at him. "When a Weapon of Light is close to another one, they resonate and get stronger." He chuckled as Zafira took a stance in front of him. "You really think that you're a match for me?"

Zafira just narrowed his eyes as he held Nezzard in a defensive posture. Truth be told, he was actually nervous about this. He remembered how good a fighter Miyuki was, and if Gaav had beaten her with the Sword of Light, he wasn't sure what his chances were.

Gaav smirked and was about to take a step forward when a powerful shot hit him square in the back. "What the?" He spun to see an older man in a weird body suit, a face with some scars on it holding another Weapon of Light. "Another one?"

"My name is Shiro Takamachi. I heard you nearly killed my daughter. Prepare to die." He said in a very calm voice while Ragudo Mezzagis hummed in his hands.

Gaav chuckled and looked at the lance in Shiro's hands. "And who told you this?"

"I have my resources." Shiro said as he squeezed the Lance tightly and nodded at Zafira. The Guardian Beast let loose a roar as he rushed in and stabbed at Gaav's back with Nezzard. The Mazoku turned and grabbed the weapon with his open hand and grinned at Zafira.

"Not a bad try, but even if it's not a weapon I've seen, none of these are strong enough to harm me directly." Gaav smirked and swung his sword back as Shiro rushed in with his weapon.

"No!" Chrono yelled out. "Don't let those weapons touch!"

"What?" Gaav blinked as his blade touched Shiro's.

The effect was instant and tremendous.

As the blades crossed, they seemed to merge together and release a tremendous amount of energy skywards that forced Gaav to throw Zafira away as he grabbed Gorun Nova with both of his hands. "What... IS... THIS?" He screamed, feeling the terrifying energy better than any human could. He could actually feel the energy pulling and tearing at even his Astral form.

Shiro smirked at Gaav as the winds tore around them. "I was betting on this." Gaav's surprised look almost had him laughing. "If this is terrifying enough to scare the gods, I wonder what it does to demons."

Gaav grit his teeth as he found himself unable to pull away. "What... How?" Despite his power, this was tearing at every fabric of reality. "DAMMIT!"

Chrono shook his head and frowned. "We need to stop that. Anyone got any clues?"

"If Lyos or Yuuno was here, we could combine some Black and Holy magic to do it." Zelgadis muttered. "I can't think of anything else."

Chrono grimaced as the winds picked up. "Damn, if this keeps up, the Dimensions themselves will be torn apart. _Yuuno, where are you?"_

_"Moving to reinforce the barriers around the city so Shabranigdo doesn't kill everyone right away."_ Yuuno's voice was scared and panicked. _"Why?"_

_"We got another Mazoku that's kicked our ass over here and right now we could use some Holy magic. Just lob a giant fireball at the big pillar of light to the East."_

(-)

**"Boss, big problems, everything's going to fall apart soon, look East."**

Blinking, Yuuno turned and paled as he saw the pillar of energy. "Keep the barrier as best as you can, I gotta take care of this!" He yelled at whatever mages were listening as he took off into the air.

As he got over the wall, his eyes widened at what he saw.

**"Boss!"**

Yuuno nodded and landed next to Chrono. "What the heck is going on? Who's that?"

"Explain later, we need some Fusion magic." Zelgadis muttered as he began chanting a spell.

Yuuno nodded as he began channeling Holy magic. When the fireball between his hands went from orange to white, he lashed out with everything he could at where the weapons were crossed.

"Gaav FLARE!" A red ball of energy was launched from Zelgadis's fingertips and caught Gaav's attention.

'Why would he..' He grimaced and groaned as he felt the energy was just too powerful, there was nothing he could do.

An image came to his mind. For some odd reason, the image of a blue Dragon didn't anger him.

In fact, he almost felt...

At ease.

The next moment, the Holy fireball and the Gaav Flare slammed into the two weapons, causing them to forcibly cancel their power in an explosion.

"Dad!" Miyuki gasped as she saw her father, several feet away, laying on his back while smoke rose from his body. She ran to him and helped him sit up, sighing as he groaned in pain. "What the heck did you do?"

"Made a gamble." Shiro chuckled softly and winced at the pain that ran through his body at that moment. "Never doing that again."

Chrono quickly grabbed the two Weapons of Light and looked around.

Of Gaav, there was nothing to be seen.

(-)

Elsewhere...

Reinforce frowned and shook her head. The Mazoku that had attacked her after dealing with that one major problem hadn't been too powerful, but considering the amount of evil that she had felt until just this moment, she had felt it was better to not be in contact with anyone until she felt mostly okay.

_"...force? Reinforce, can you hear me?"_

_"Admiral Leti, yes, I hear you, what is it?"_ Reinforce replied, her mental voice was cold and dark.

_"Listen, Shabranigdo's not the only force on the field who's really strong, there's someone named Gaav on the field and even if our forces beat him, they'll be too worn out to deal with Shabranigdo."_

_"What should I do about it?"_

_"Lina's given me a plan on how to delay him. But, if it fails..."_

_"I will likely die."_ Reinforce nodded, narrowing her eyes. _"Very well, what is her plan?"_

When Leti told her the plan, Reinforce sweat-dropped. She didn't sweat-drop very often, but found that anything that she heard from the Takamachi family would often have her sweat-dropping. _"That is..."_

_"I know, but Lina said that if it works, it'll buy you some time, if it fails, get out of there."_

Reinforce nodded as she cut communication off and turned to look at Shabranigdo as he started to move towards Seiryuun. "...I really hope this plan works."

(-)

Up in the ship...

Leti looked at Lina, who was glowing gold and black, as was her daughter. "Are you sure that plan will work?"

**"It's the best chance we have at the moment. A Mazoku is ruled by its Ego. If they think they're inferior, they will be."** Lina's voice was twisted, distorted. **"It won't be too much, however, for someone of Shabranigdo's level, but anything that can buy even a few minutes time for the rest of them is better than nothing."**

"Can they win?"

**"If Shabranigdo's purged his human soul, then no one on the planet can defeat him."**

Leti gulped and looked at the time again.

For some reason, she had the feeling that this battle was going to come down to the wire.

(-)

Shabranigdo looked at Seiryuun and let out a yell before his aura erupted around him and rushed towards the city. As it washed over the city, he chuckled as he felt the fear and terror from the people inside. 'Such delicious emotions.' It had been far too long since he had felt them in such quantities. Chuckling, he took a step forward and grinned as he felt the land crack and fall apart under his feet. "Yes..." Opening his palm, a large beam of energy rushed out towards Seiryuun, destroying the wall and the people behind it with ease. He took a few more steps forward, before stopping in confusion.

Just behind the wall was a green barrier and a young male human with blond hair and a scarred up cheek holding out a hand and glaring at him. "You will not pass."

Shabranigdo chuckled before opening his mouth and firing a powerful Black magic blast at the barrier. He was slightly amused when the barrier held, despite the power he just launched at it. "Impressive defenses. Even most Mazoku don't have barriers that strong." When a green circle appeared under the boy's feet, Shabranigdo narrowed his eyes before they flashed and the circle disappeared. "Now, now, no trying to attack."

Shabranigdo blinked as he felt a tremendous force of energy. Turning to look, he frowned, wondering just what could create energy that was that incredible. "Gorun... Nova?" He swore that he felt that energy over there, but the other was one he couldn't place. He turned and frowned as the boy was no longer around. Oh well, if he wasn't going to be there at first, he could die later.

"Elmekia Flame!" Several voices yelled out at once, the Astral magic lashing out at him.

"Pathetic." Shabranigdo growled as the energies were disrupted by his aura. "Come on, if you can't do better than that, then burn under a deluge of lava!" With a wave of his hand, the ground, trees, grass and even the water just North of Seiryuun melted and turned into lava that rolled towards the proud city.

"Freeze Arrow!" The same mages called again, firing several freezing blasts of energy at the oncoming torrent.

"That's not enough." Shabranigdo chuckled before blinking as a tall woman with silver hair, red eyes, and a form-fitting black body suit flew up and held up her hand, a large block of ice appearing above her head.

"Atem Des Eises." The woman intoned and several ice beams lashed out, hitting the lava and instantly cooling it.

"Interesting." Shabranigdo said as he stepped on the newly cooled lava. "And you are?"

"Reinforce Yagami." Her eyes narrowed and she shook her head. She just hoped this crazy plan worked.

"I see." Shabranigdo chuckled and held up his hand, a glowing sphere of energy forming there as it crackled with power. "I'll remember that name."

"I see, so you're the boss of all Mazoku, and for all that power, you're afraid of us." Reinforce said softly and blinked as the ball of energy disappeared.

"What?" Shabranigdo's voice was curious.

"You send several Mazoku who are far more powerful than the rest of the drabble that we've been fighting, several on our side end up injured or dead because of it. Are you so afraid of us that you cannot fight us without us being in a state of being unable to fight back?"

"You're saying that if you had time to recover, you could put up a better fight?" Shabranigdo narrowed his eyes. "Very well then. I will give you enough to heal your wounded, but I shall crush any who attack me."

"Give us five minutes." Reinforce said as she looked at him. Internally, she was just glad that she used that forbidden spell a little while ago, it made it easy to put up a brave front.

"Take your time, it won't matter in the end." Shabranigdo chuckled as Reinforce flew into the city.

'I can't believe that plan worked.' Reinforce thought to herself.

(-)

Vita frowned as she looked out at the West side of Seiryuun. She would have gone to help the others on the East side, but something had her worried about this side. Floating through the air, her eyes widened as she saw someone leaning against a rather destroyed tree. "Signum!" She yelled as she rushed down to the downed knight. "You're alive, aren't you?" She touched Signum's shoulder and ducked as Signum suddenly rolled to her feet and swung Laevantein right at where her neck was a moment ago. "It's me!" Vita grabbed Signum's arm and gasped at how easy it was for her to move Signum's arm into a less aggressive pose. "Are you..?"

She looked at Signum's eyes and paled at how unfocused Signum's eyes were. When Signum suddenly fell down to her knees, slumping, Vita grabbed her and flew back to the recovery area. "Dammit, what happened?" She blinked as she heard Laevantein ping. "Who did this to her? Was it one of those super powered Mazoku that attacked?"

**"Ja."**

Vita grimaced and blinked as she felt Signum starting to go limp. "Hey! Don't you dare... Don't you dare die on me!" Vita did the only thing she could think of in that situation.

She jammed an elbow into Signum's bloodied side.

"GAH!" Signum's eyes snapped open and she stared at Vita. "Are you trying to kill me?"

Vita let out a breath of relief as she touched down near the medical staff. "Shamal!" She called out, causing the blonde to look up from where she was healing Hayate. "Help her!" Vita was dragging Signum, who was starting to fall out of consciousness again.

Sylphiel, who was near Shamal, nodded to one of the healers, who took over healing Fate, so she could grab Signum from Vita. "Leave her to me."

Vita nodded, thankful as Signum was being laid down on one of the tables and healing magic started to flow into her body. Closing her eyes, she just hoped that they could deal with things quickly.

* * *

Shabranigdo: It's my turn to do one of these. And you humans, this might be interesting.  
Vita: This is the last one you're ever going to do! Next time on Blood That Flows - Red.  
Shabranigdo: It's time for all of you to die!


	136. Red the Thirty Sixth

Blood That Flows

Red the Thirty-Sixth

I own nothing really. Nope.

* * *

Reinforce sighed as she looked over the medic tables as Hayate was receiving treatment. She knew that the others were working on a plan to deal with Shabranigdo, but, she just couldn't bring herself to care at that moment. "I should have been there." She whispered softly, upset at herself. "Why couldn't I..."

"Reinforce," said woman turned to Vita and looked at the redhead in confusion, "forgive me for this, but..."

The next thing Reinforce knew was that she was on the ground and her jaw really hurt. Standing up, she narrowed her eyes at Vita, who was walking past the carts that she knocked over in her impromptu flight. "You had better explain yourself or..."

"Or what?" Vita snapped at her. "Listen, don't you **dare** go all 'I should have been there, it's my fault Hayate got hurt' on me!" Vita was inches away from Reinforce, their breasts pressing against each other as Vita narrowed her eyes at the silver-haired woman. "She probably had to go up against some sort of really strong Mazoku like the rest of us did. Look at her. Hayate might have been beaten up really badly, but she's alive, which means whoever did that to her isn't or is in worse shape than she is. You trained her to use her magic better, you did everything you could to prepare her for those kind of situations. It was bound to happen sooner or later, so don't you dare go all...argh." Vita took a deep breath and took a step back. "Sorry, I just don't want you upset over something you couldn't avoid."

Reinforce took a deep breath and nodded. "You are right. Thank you." She started to walk away from Vita before stopping and looking at the busty redhead. "When this is over, Vita, you and I, if we are both still alive, going to have _words_." When Vita gulped and went blue in the face, she nodded in satisfaction.

Still, as she looked at Hayate's slightly pale face and the blood stains on her outfit, she couldn't help but grimace. 'What happened to you?'

Hayate suddenly coughed and turned her head to look at Shamal, who was healing her. "Did you see? I didn't die." She coughed again and groaned. "Throat hurts..."

"Here." Shamal held out a bottle of water and offered it to the injured girl. "Hey, calm down!" Shamal stared as Hayate drank the whole thing.

"PAH!" Hayate smiled and lay back down, her face more relaxed than it had been a few moments ago. "That was good."

Shamal blinked and looked at the empty water bottle in her hand. "...That was a liter bottle." Hayate giggled and Shamal sighed. "You're going to need to use the restroom if you're not careful."

Hayate shook her head. "Not right away. Help me up." She raised her arm up and gasped, her eyes wide as pain ran through her. "ITE!"

"Calm down!" Shamal pushed Hayate's arm down gently. "You almost died on us. I healed the worst of the damages, but you're still not going to be able to do much until I get more healed up."

"Shamal..." Hayate gave her a look. "Just fix what's needed... Others are hurt too, I can just fly and bombard from a distance if I need to."

"Hayate, if you get hit, you'll..."

Hayate smiled and nodded. "I know, but..." She grit her teeth as she tried to stand up, pain just rushed through her body at that moment. Hayate let out a whimper as a hand touched her injured shoulder. Looking at the hand, she stared at Reinforce. "What?"

"Just relax, I bought us a few minutes." Reinforce was dismayed at how easy it was to push Hayate back down onto her cot.

"I have to..."

Reinforce shook her head. "No, not right now." She looked at Shamal. "Just keep healing her as best you can." Shamal nodded and wiped the sweat off of her forehead. "Are you okay?" Reinforce frowned at Shamal, who nodded.

"Yeah, just a little tired, that's all. I'll be fine."

Reinforce looked at Fate, who was no longer being healed and was just laying there, her breathing even and relaxed. When she asked a medic, she was told that she put Fate under a light sleeping spell so that the healing magic could work through her body. It would wear off momentarily.

It was still disheartening to see so many of her allies so badly hurt.

(-)

"Explain this to me again..." Chrono frowned at Zelgadis while he tried to ignore what Vita did to Reinforce. "What do you mean we don't have a chance?"

Zelgadis sighed and shook his head. "Every time we've fought against these beings, we've only been able to win because of outside interference. The first time that Gourry, myself and Lina fought Shabranigdo, we only won because she cast the Giga Slave on him and Rezo's soul caused Shabranigdo to hesitate long enough for Lina to kill him. The first time we fought Gaav, Hellmaster Phibrizzo killed him. And Hellmaster killed all of us when we went up against him."

"Okay, that makes sense, but you're not explaining why we don't have a chance." Yuuno frowned in confusion.

"You thought Gaav was bad? Shabranigdo's more powerful."

"But you said that Gaav was the strongest being around." Chrono frowned and Zelgadis nodded.

"Yes, Gaav is stronger right now, but Shabranigdo's more powerful."

"That doesn't even make sense!" Chrono felt like banging his head on a wall. "How is that possible?"

Zelgadis sighed heavily. "Alright, here's the breakdown. Shabranigdo created five lords when he was split into seven pieces and sealed into human souls. Gaav was one of them. Because Shabranigdo gave them so much power, each lord has about a fifth of Shabranigdo's power, and at best, Shabranigdo has about a seventh of his full power. So, Gaav's stronger than him in that sense. However, since Shabranigdo's the Demon King, the source of all Black magic, it means that he's more powerful."

"Oh..." Chrono blinked, nodding. "Well, that makes a bit more sense..."

"Gaav had to cast a spell to cancel our magic. Even if it was just his aura, he still had to cancel it that way." Amelia spoke up.

"Shabranigdo doesn't have that weakness." Zelgadis muttered. "He just has to will Black magic to dispel and it will."

"What about Shamanistic magic?" When Zelgadis frowned, Chrono groaned. "What?"

"His Astral body is too big. It's like..." Zelgadis frowned as he tried to think of the words needed. "Anything we could do would have the same results as a bunch of bandits, a pet Dragon and a nut-job sorcerer would have against Lina."

"We still have Yuuno's Holy magic..." Zelgadis shook his head and Chrono groaned. "What now?"

"Cephied, the source of all Holy magic, couldn't kill him. And the first time Shabranigdo was awake, it took the Knight of Cephied and Ragradia to seal Gaav into a human soul and Shabranigdo in ice. That piece of Shabrangido's still alive, just unable to move and that was a god who couldn't do anything to him."

"Hey!" Gourry frowned at Zelgadis. "Even if it seems impossible, I'm pretty sure that we can win. I mean, we can't just give up, right?"

"I know, I couldn't face Lina in the next life if we failed here." Zelgadis smirked at him. "So, we've got to find a way to win, that's all."

"You make it sound simple." Miyuki grumbled and looked at the weapons they had. "We have three of the Dark Star Weapons... Where's the other..."

"Ohohohohohohohohoho!" Naga jumped down to land in front of the group, holding Bodigar. "Sorry I am late, had some trouble with some of the Mazoku out there." She blinked as the others sweat-dropped. "What?"

"Well, for one, I'm surprised you didn't spill out of your outfit." Chrono dead-panned as he looked at the overly buxom woman. "And for two, what do you mean you had trouble out there?"

Naga pouted at them. "They kept injuring the Dimos Dragons I was summoning and it took awhile to get one to blast them all to dust." She looked up at Shabranigdo and gulped. "Um... How are we supposed to defeat him? I can't summon anymore of the Dragons and my golems aren't much help right now."

Zelgadis walked up to Naga and took Bodigar from her. "No, but this will be helpful." He snapped it outwards as the weapon suddenly lit up, causing Nezzard, Gorun Nova and Ragudo Mezzagis to start glowing as well.

Zafira raised an eyebrow as he looked at his weapon. "I take it that you have a plan?" Zelgadis nodded and held his weapon out.

"The Weapons of Light are strongest when close to each other. Any magic cast through them will be a lot stronger than usual." Zelgadis looked at Yuuno, then at Gourry. "Even so, some Holy magic and that Blast Sword of yours, they should be able to give us a chance."

"But you just said..." Chrono trailed off when Zelgadis shrugged. "...Ugh... You make no sense."

"To be honest, while I don't think any of have a chance, we have to try."

Shiro shook his head. At least things made a lot more sense why his wife was the way she was. 'Still...' He looked at Shabranigdo and narrowed his eyes. "I don't think we can delay any longer."

Chrono nodded and turned to Shabranigdo, frowning. 'Amy, Filia, if I don't come home, I'm sorry, I really am.'

Miyuki sighed and blinked as Vita and the small Reinforce walked, and in the small girl's case, flew, over to them. "Yes?"

"That bully was going to blast mommy! I'm going hurt him!" Rein frowned and turned to Shabranigdo and shook her fist. "Just you wait, you bully!"

Vita smirked as she shouldered Graf Eisen. "Well, you heard my sister... Fate, Signum, Reinforce and Hayate will join us when they're better." Left unsaid was that Hayate, Fate and Signum might be well enough to fight for the rest of the battle. None of them wanted to think of that. They were already down Nanoha and Lina wasn't there either.

(-)

Shabranigdo chuckled as he saw the humans gather in front of him, curiously, there were several of the Dark Star weapons among them. "Well, I hope you've had enough time to recover."

"Yeah, and aren't you going to be sorry!" A busty redhead with a red dress and silly hat shook her fist at him while holding a hammer. A small fairy floated over to the redhead before glowing brightly and changing the redhead's appearance.

"Well," Shabranigdo chuckled at them, "show me the power you humans have. Until it no longer helps you."

* * *

Shiro: I never thought I'd be in a battle such as this.  
Miyuki: Living on Earth never really prepared me for something like this.  
Chrono: Even Dark Star himself...  
Vita: Don't worry, we'll stop him!  
Reinforce: Next time on Blood That Flows - Red.  
Rein Zwei: We shall not surrender, you bully!


	137. Red the Thirty Seventh

Blood That Flows

Red the Thirty-Seventh

I own nothing really. Nope.

* * *

Shiro knew that the battle was going to be hard. Lina never talked too much about the battles she had in the past, stating that she never wanted to think about how close she came to dying each time.

She never mentioned the fact that Shabranigdo could manipulate the ground around them to do whatever he wanted to do. Dodging out of the way of a pillar of fire, he cut through it with Ragudo Mezzagis and shuddered as it turned to dust after he cut through it. Hearing Shabranigdo chuckle, Shiro looked up at the Demon King and gaped he was surrounded by several yellow balls of energy.

When Shabranigdo waved his arm, Shiro found himself forced to twist and dodge as several yellow energy bolts struck out at him from all directions. "Nnngh!" He grimaced as his left shoulder was clipped by one. "Enough of this!" He growled as he spun his weapon in a circle, slashing through the blades, before spinning and slashing downwards, a wave of energy escaping from his blade, before he twisted and lashed out with the Lance of Light again, this time a wide arc of energy slammed into the needle thin energy beams that were striking out at him.

Growling as more energy needles appeared around him, Shiro closed his eyes and started spinning, slashing up, down, at various angles, tearing through the ground, the air hummed with power as more and more of the needles were evaporated.

Opening his eyes and panting slightly, Shiro looked around him and nodded. Other than the tears in the ground from his attacks, there wasn't anything around him, which he was thankful for. 'Getting old sucks.' Granted, he wasn't that old, but he was a bit older than his wife.

He then shook his head and wondered when he started to think of himself as old.

Raising his weapon above his head, he grinned as it started to glow brightly. "Ragudo Mezzagis, pierce him!" Swinging down, a powerful beam of energy lashed out and slammed into Shabranigdo's side with a bright explosion.

When the light cleared, Shiro grimaced as he saw no change in the Demon King's appearance. "Damn."

He was answered with several purple beams of energy that came from a creature that only had a head and a snake-like body. Spinning backwards, he cut the energy in half as it got close to him.

'This is going to take awhile.' The retired ninja thought to himself.

(-)

"Astral Bind!" Yuuno snapped his hand out as several rune circles appeared in mid-air and chains popped out of them, rushing towards Shabranigdo. The Demon King looked at him and his eyes flashed, causing the chains to stop in mid air before shattering. "No way!" Yuuno gasped in surprise.

"Nice try, but magic of that level would not even begin to harm me."

"No?" Shabranigdo and Yuuno both turned to see Vita holding Graf Eisen in its Gigant Form high above her head. "Then, what about THIS?" Sweat was covering her face as the weapon glowed a soft golden color. "TURN INTO..." She stopped as Shabranigdo raised his hand up and caught the weapon. "...light?" Vita meeped as Shabranigdo smirked and squeezed his hand, crushing Graf Eisen in his hands. "HEY!"

"A powerful attack, no doubt the one you used to destroy Belselk." He opened his mouth as a red and black ball of energy formed there. "But this is my pillar, you are nothing to me!"

Vita grimaced and flew away as a giant red blast soared right through where she was a moment ago. "What was that?" It had the same feeling as that Nemesis Breaker that she had seen Reinforce use once before. Just a lot more powerful and a different color. Returning Graf Eisen to its normal form, she was relieved that her weapon wasn't completely destroyed. "I'm sorry, Eisen. Forgive me?"

**"Ja."**

Vita nodded before looking at Shabranigdo. "Damn, Rein, I don't wanna stress Eisen anymore." She returned it to its pendant mode around her neck. "You okay with that?"

"Of course!" Rein's voice was enthusiastic. "We'll hurt him even worse for hurting Eisen!"

Vita nodded and smacked her fist into her open palm. She wasn't sure what she could do, considering that most of her spells needed Graf Eisen, but she had a few tricks up her sleeve. "Shall we, Rein?"

"Right! Böe-Modus!"

Vita closed her eyes as her hat became silver, her dress became black where it was normally bright red and silver gray where it was darker in color. Vita opened her eyes again and looked at her gloves, which looked like gauntlets at this point. "Well, let's see if Shari's right about this Blast Mode..." A large metal sphere appeared in front of her and she pulled her arm back before punching forward, her metal covered fist connected with the ball and sent it flying at such a speed that it ripped through the horn on Shabranigdo's left side and crashed through the ground, leaving a giant crater.

Vita stared, shocked. Sure, she had used that Astral Vine spell that Reinforce taught her, but she never thought that the results of the attack would be that.

"I see..." Shabranigdo chuckled and looked at her while the other magic users were busy with more giant snake and Dragon-shaped appendages that came out of the ground at his base. "That's interesting." He held up a hand and pointed the palm at Vita. "Now you can just, ARRRGH!" He cried out as something struck his hand. "What the?"

He spun to see a woman with pink hair and a metallic flaming outfit pointing a bow at him. "Who are you?"

The woman didn't answer as she formed another arrow and fired it at him.

"You..." Shabranigdo growled at her and was about to do something when a burst of flame scattered in front of him. "That fire..." He spun to see Yuuno holding a ball of flame in his hands. "Holy?"

"TAKE THIS!" Yuuno yelled and lashed out with a giant blast of Holy magic right at Shabranigdo's face. The Demon King put his hand up, blocking the attack, though he was grimacing on his face.

Shabranigdo let loose a yell as he lowered his arm, just in time to take an arrow in his left eye. Screaming in pain, he turned back to the one who fired the arrow. "You will die."

"If I die, then at least it will be in a battle such as this." She said, wondering how she was able to hear him over such a distance before shrugging it off as one of his abilities.

Flashback...

_"Signum!" Shamal stared as the pinkette stood up. "You're practically, hey!" Shamal found herself on her ass as Signum pushed her away. "What are you doing?"_

_"Can't... Let them fight alone..." Signum panted as she grabbed Laevantein and floated upwards. I'll be fine."_

**_"Bogen Form!"_**

_"Dammit, Signum!" Shamal stared at the blood that was running down Signum's leg as the swords woman called forth her Blast Mode. "Get down here, you'll die!"_

_"I can't let them fight alone..." Signum panted as she notched an arrow and took aim. "If I can do even a small amount of damage, then I will. Fix the others first."_

End flashback...

Signum panted, her vision was starting to get blurry. Shamal might have been right, but she couldn't let her friends and family die without at least trying to fight back.

Her vision went black for a moment. When she shook her head to see again, her eyes widened at the bus-sized ball of energy rushing at her. "...Too late..." She gasped, feeling her Blast Mode cancel out due to her injuries. "No..." She groaned, unable to really do anything as she was too tired and hurting too much. "Nnngh..."

The next thing she knew, the energy erupted in front of her, scattering into motes of energy. "Signum, you should get healed."

"In...Verse..." Signum nodded to Fate, who was in her Rubin Blitz mode. "Care...ful, he's strong."

Fate nodded as she gripped Bardiche in its thin blade form. Turning, she narrowed her eyes at the Demon King. "I just got healed, so, you go and finish getting healed. I would hate for you to be dead because you're as stubborn as the rest of my family."

Signum nodded and floated down to the ground. She blanched at the look Shamal was giving her. "Uh..."

"Get on the table and let me work on you, Reinforce has something for Hayate." Shamal shook her head. How was it that everyone was so freaking stubborn around here?

(-)

Fate took a deep breath and was charging up a spell in her left hand while she held Bardiche in her right. "Now..." The spell was clear in color and in the shape of a ball that slowly spiraled. Letting loose a scream, she slammed the spell into her blade, changing the color from yellow to clear. "Dimension Blade!" She rushed forward so fast that the world seemed to streamline itself. If she was to compare it to anything, she would compare it to how everything looked in the Star Wars movies when they went into hyper-drive.

Shabranigdo didn't know what happened to him, one moment his attack was cut apart, and the next moment, a deep gouge in his face appeared, causing him to cry out in pain. "That..."

The Mazoku Lord let loose a low growl as his aura exploded outwards from him, knocking Vita, Yuuno and Fate out of the air and forcing the mages on the ground away from him. "You will not win this battle!"

Bouncing off the ground, Vita grimaced as she looked up. Even with the Blast Mode she had, that had hurt all the way down to her bones.

'What the hell kind of monster are we facing?' She thought to herself.

(-)

Miyuki grunted as she gripped Gorun Nova. Whatever the hell Shabranigdo did, it really... "Urgh." She grimaced and felt herself suddenly heaving. Quickly bending over, she expelled the contents of her stomach onto the ground at her feet. "Yuck, what was..."

"Miasma." Amelia supplied for her as she cast a quick healing spell on Miyuki. "It makes anything living sick."

"You're not affected by it." Miyuki pointed out as she stood up and noticed that the others were in similar conditions as she was. She nearly jumped as Yuuno landed near her. "So, now what?" She blinked as Amelia's hands started to glow.

"Now? Now we fight from a distance and hope that we can take him down." Amelia was trembling slightly and Miyuki didn't blame her. As powerful as Shabranigdo was, could any of them take him out?

**"Boss, bad news, his power's increasing."**

Yuuno stared at Thoth. "Are you serious?"

**"His power's increasing as much as Vita's breasts did in the past year."**

Yuuno grimaced, that wasn't good. 'At this rate, I don't think any of us are going to win.' Still, he had to try something.

(-)

On the ship...

Leti looked at him and shook her head. "Remember, we can't drop you down right onto the zone, you'll need to make your way there on your own."

He nodded and looked at the weapon that she gave him. "This is..."

"I know it probably won't be too useful to you, but get it to Fate when you see her. You do know what she looks like right?"

He nodded. "Of course I do. She's the blonde girl with the red eyes and the really neat sword weapon."

Leti nodded grimly. "Whatever aura he's putting out is screwing with our landing sensors. We'll drop you off a couple hundred meters away. Move as fast as you can."

He smirked at her. "Don't worry about that. After all, the hero needs to have a dramatic entrance."

Leti just rolled her eyes as he was transported down to the surface. "Well, whatever, good luck." She turned and walked to the medical bay. Somehow they had gotten Nanoha to that room. Shivering, she fought back the urge to throw up. That energy was just too crazy.

And she wasn't even in the room. She couldn't imagine how bad it was now.

**"AAAAAAHHHHHHHH!"**

Leti winced as she heard Nanoha's scream of pain. 'It's times like this I'm glad I'm normal compared to the rest.' Still, they weren't going to have much time at the current rate.

(-)

He touched down at the base of a mountain to the North of Seiryuun and gulped slightly as he saw Shabranigdo to the distance, firing various spells and blocking nearly everything that came his way. "Alright, guess this isn't going to be easy at all." Putting his hand over his shoulder, he nodded as he felt his sword there. "Let's go."

Running down the mountain, he grimaced as he really wished that he could fly, if even for a short distance. His eyes widened as his legs hit something that came out of a bush, causing him to tumble end over end for a few feet before sliding on his face a bit further. "Nnngh... That hurt." Standing up, he turned to see what it was that tripped him.

He came face-to-face with a large body. Taking a step back, he looked up and stared at the large man that looked back at him with curiosity. The strangest part was, he actually felt that he _knew_ this guy.

Well, that and the feelings he was feeling for the guy were enough to make him queasy. "Who..?" His eyes widened as the man grabbed him by his shoulders and lifted him up to look at him closer.

"Sorry, got you confused for someone else." The man dropped him down and turned to look at Shabranigdo, his eyes narrow. "You better hurry, unless you want your friends to die."

He nodded and took off running. Who was that guy? Why was he familiar?

And why did seeing him cause feelings he wasn't used to feeling outside of seeing women on the beach?

(-)

A little later...

Zafira grimaced and slammed the base of Nezzard into the ground as more Steel Yolk came rushing up through the ground, snapping into the constructed Dragon-looking creatures. "Look out!" He yelled at Amelia, who had her back to another one.

The Dragon thing was stopped a moment later as a large stone fist punched it into the ground.

"OHOHOHOHOHOHOHO! You think I'll let you harm my little sister as long as I can summon my golems, you have another thing coming!" Naga smirked as she stook on her golem's head, directing it and several others to keep Seiryuun as safe as possible.

To anyone that knew her, it would come as a shock that she could actually control the golems as well as she was.

"As if I care." Shabranigdo pointed his finger at the golem she was on, and a light purple beam of energy rushed out, slamming through the golem and causing it to crumble. "You will all die soon."

As he walked forward, he chuckled as he saw that metal-clad redhead, the blond boy and that fast blonde girl with the red armor in front of him. "You can all be crushed together."

**"Voller Ehrgeiz."**

Shabranigdo let out a cry as half of his hand was sliced in half. "Who?" He took a step back as a large man with a spear and a metallic coat stood to face him.

"My name is Zest."

Shabranigdo chuckled as Zest suddenly stumbled and fell to a knee. "It's too bad. It looks like you've pushed yourself beyond what you can do." Several Dragon-shaped creatures shot out from Shabranigdo at that moment, heading for them, before they were sliced into pieces.

"Gourry!" Yuuno gasped as he saw the man. He was bruised and bloodied, but still standing.

"I'm fine." He smirked at Shabranigdo while holding the Blast sword. "Still, we're going to need a miracle."

Shabranigdo chuckled as the other humans stood in front of him, most of them looking worse for wear, but still willing to fight. "You won't find any gods to help you here."

Yuuno frowned and blinked as he caught something out of the corner of his eye. Turning, he stared. "A... Dragon?"

"What?" Shabranigdo turned and stared as a giant blue and white serpentine Dragon that was as large as he was rushed at him, mouth open and roaring loudly. Shabranigdo growled and put his hands out, catching the Dragon's jaws and sliding across the ground for several meters before he squeezed down and ripped the Dragon in half, causing the body to fall apart.

"Water... And ice?" Chrono blinked in confusion. "Wait, where have I..?"

"Sorry I'm late!" A new voice spoke up, causing the others to turn and look. "Was out of the country when this happened. That ship of yours was really helpful for getting me here."

"Mr. Lyos!" Amelia smiled as the Knight of the Aqua Lord grinned at her.

Looking at Fate, he pulled a second weapon from his shoulder and tossed it to her. "Fate! Catch!"

Blinking, the blonde caught the weapon and stared. "This is... Galveria..." She looked at him and Lyos nodded to her.

"You mom wanted you to have it for this fight." Lyos frowned as he looked at Shabranigdo, who was recovered and walking towards them slowly.

"Well, well, well... Ragradia's power still lives." Shabranigdo chuckled as he stood tall above them all. "I should stop holding back then." His aura flashed as he started to gather even more power than before. "Come, humans and knights of the gods, let's see if you can stand against my true power!"

* * *

Shabranigdo: All of you will be crushed, here and now!  
Lyos: Don't think so, you slimy bastard!  
Fate: We will win!  
Yuuno: Count on it.  
Shabranigdo: You'll need a miracle.  
Chrono: Next time on Blood That Flows - Red.  
Vita: We will end this!


	138. Red the Thirty Eighth

Blood That Flows

Red the Thirty-Eighth

I own nothing really. Nope.

* * *

"Anyone got a plan?" Lyos asked as water spun around his sword. "Yuuno and I can use our Holy magic from two different sides, he's pretty much weak to that, right?"

Zelgadis nodded and looked at the five weapons that they had. "While you do that, we can attack with the Dark Star weapons." He looked at Vita, Amelia, Gourry, Zest, who was standing up again, and Naga. "Can you four do your best to distract him?" They nodded and Zelgadis turned to Chrono. "We'll be casting our strongest spells with the Weapons of Light. If I'm right, then these should be enough to take him down."

"Are you done?" Shabranigdo called out as a burst of his aura erupted from him and towards them. "You will not win this fight!"

Yuuno created several strong barriers and gaped as they started to crack under the pressure. "You've gotta be kidding me!"

"MOVE!" Chrono and Zelgadis yelled at the same time as everyone got out of the way of the bombardment attack.

**"Hey, boss, care to do what Lyos did?"**

Yuuno smirked as a data circle was formed in mid air. "Thanks, Thoth."

**"No problem."**

Yuuno flew along the sides of the castle while Lyos ran to the other side of Shabranigdo. "Take..."

"THIS!" Lyos yelled out as the two Holy magic users lashed out with attacks that struck out at the Demon King from his left and right sides.

Shabranigdo grunted as the two attacks pushed into his hands and started to slowly push him back. "You..." He growled and let loose a cry as he started to force the magic down. His eyes widened as he saw the five Weapons of Light glowing as the users stood in a circle, the Bow of Light in the center. "This is..."

"Taste the power of the Dark Star weapons!" The blonde girl yelled out as all five of the weapons attacked him at the same time. The five beams of energy formed together before becoming a giant spear that soared, straight and true towards Shabranigdo's center.

On the ground, Fate stared as the giant spear head continued on. "Did we get him?"

Her question was answered a moment later when the spear head broke into pieces. "That wasn't too bad, humans." Shabranigdo chuckled as he revealed two more arms and hands. "Not too bad at all. You almost had me."

"He grew extra arms?" Miyuki gaped. "That's cheating!"

"We moved beyond fighting fair when you brought in all the Dark Star weapons, metal that can hurt me and magic that can hurt me." Letting out a grunt, Shabranigdo balled his hands into fists, destroying the Holy magic attacks that were hitting him. "For Shabranigdo... It's MORPHING TIME!" He slammed his fists together as he stepped towards them.

"I admit, for humans, you really are troublesome." Shabranigdo said as he continued to step forward, before he started to chuckle. "Even though none of you shall live to see the end of today, I will remember all of you as valiant fighters. None have ever given the Demon King Shabranigdo such a challenge in a long, long time."

Miyuki growled as she gripped Gorun Nova tightly. Even with all of their power, were they really helpless against such a creature?

"Excuse me." Miyuki's eyes widened and she spun around, only to get punched in the gut, knocking the air out of her and causing her to drop the Sword of Light. "I believe that I'll be using this."

"Y...You..." Miyuki groaned as she tried to stop him. "Do...Don't..." She punched the ground when he disappeared with Gorun Nova.

Shabranigdo blinked as he saw who appeared in front of him. "Gaav, I see you have Gorun Nova now."

Lyos stared as the one known as Gaav chuckled and turned to face the group. "I take it he's really strong?"

Amelia gulped. It was bad enough when they had to fight Gaav when he was alone, now he had Shabranigdo behind him **and** Gorun Nova? "He's at least as strong as Shabranigdo is right now."

"I told you humans, didn't I?" Gaav smirked as the sword began to glow and the edge became serrated. "That you should see how a Mazoku wields Gorun Nova."

"Where's your sword?" Shabranigdo asked and Gaav just chuckled.

"They broke it. This is a suitable replacement, I think..."

Shabranigdo chuckled. "Then do it, Gaav. Show them the true power of the Demon Dragon King."

"Oh, I will..." Gaav's eyes flashed. "Lord Ruby Eye Shabranigdo!"

The next thing anyone knew, Gaav had spun around and was stabbing Gorun Nova into Shabranigdo's body.

"What?" The Demon King stared as Gaav's aura erupted from him, becoming a multi-headed Dragon that lashed out, the heads snapping and grabbing his limbs, shoulder horns and even his neck.

"I made a vow, a thousand years ago, when you and Hellmaster forced me to fight Ragradia, that I would never forgive you two for making me fight my lover!" Gaav let loose a howl as Shabranigdo's aura tried to overpower his. "HUMANS!" He bellowed. "FOCUS YOUR ATTACKS ONTO ME! SHOOT SHABRANIGDO THROUGH ME!"

"You won't get awa," there was an explosion on Shabranigdo's head and he snapped back, yelling in pain, "WHAT?"

"Again!" Hayate's voice was heard and Vita turned, her eyes sparkling with happiness.

"Hayate!" The girl was there, her hair, eyes and wings were all gold-tinted as her Belkan triangle spun around under her feet.

Hayate panted as she channeled another spell. 'Reinforce, will this work?'

'Yes. But remember, when this is over...'

'I know, I'll be completely helpless again.'

'At least until you recover properly.' Reinforce sent back as the two channeled more and more magic into a giant ball in front of them while a Belkan triangle appeared between them and the ball. 'We're combining the Ragnarok Breaker and Diabolic Emission with Chaos magic, we need a name for this.'

Hayate smiled, even as she was sweating and panting. 'I've got an idea...' Lightning crackled around her hands as the spell neared completion.

"HURRY!" Gaav yelled. "ATTACK ME! USE MY BODY AS A FOCAL POINT FOR HIM!"

"How..." Shabranigdo grunted as he fell to a knee. "How can you betray me?"

"Because," Gaav smirked at him, "I'm still partially human." Gaav let out a powerful scream as several Ra Tilts slammed into him. Groaning, he focused the energy through his body and amplified it with his own as he poured it into Shabranigdo.

"You..." Shabranigdo let out a groan as the four Weapons of Light, and one copy of the sword that was in him, blasted his body. "I... ARRRRAAAAAAHHHH!" That pain didn't compare to the pain of the Chaos spell that blasted his body.

His screams were drowned out by the massive explosion that was brighter than the sun and many times louder than a bomb going off. A massive wave of power erupted from Shabranigdo's body, forcing everyone back as the ground was torn up under Shabranigdo and Gaav in all directions, destroying most of the Northern and Eastern parts of Seiryuun and even clipping the castle before the power started to ebb.

"Did... Did we do it?" Hayate asked as Reinforce held her close. The two were looking towards the center of the explosion and gaped as Shabranigdo stood there, seemingly unharmed. "No way!"

"To think... Humans could wield such power against me..." He raised his head to the sky and raised his hands. "You have no reason to despair anymore..." His body turned white and started to crack and fall apart. "To think that my plan would turn against me like so... Marvelous job, defeating the Demon King."

As they watched him crumble to dust, Amelia looked around and frowned. "Where did Miss Miyuki end up?"

(-)

Miyuki groaned and blinked as she realized that she wasn't as hurt as she should have been. "What?" Her eyes widened as she saw Gaav standing above her. "Y...You..."

"Thank you." He smirked at her, dropping Gorun Nova onto the ground next to her. "For lending me that thing. Tell that boy..." He grimaced as the hand print on his chest opened up again and black tendrils of energy started to leak out of his body and mouth. "Tell that boy with the water Holy power thanks... For making me remember who I was."

"You're dying." Miyuki blinked and Gaav laughed at her. "What's so funny?"

"Ultimately, all Mazoku want destruction. Even of ourselves. But we can take our time. Shabranigdo and Hellmaster forgot that we can just wait. That's why I hated them so much, forcing us to fight..." Gaav fell to his knees and smirked as his body started to fall apart. "I loved Ragradia... I wish... I had told her that..."

Miyuki stared as his body slowly faded away. "How the? Come on!"

"That much... Power... I let... Myself... Die... To stop... Shab...ra...nig...do..." Gaav's voice faded away again, leaving Miyuki to blink in confusion as she stared at where he was a moment ago.

Standing up, she picked up Gorun Nova and started to walk towards the blast zone. "...Man, Nanoha's going to be upset that she didn't cause all of this." She chuckled, grimacing as her body hurt from that punch Gaav landed on her. "Cheap shot, you dead bastard."

* * *

Yuuno: That... The battle's over.  
Chrono: That was hard.  
Vita: You two are boring, go sit in the corner. The fight's over, now it's time to recover. Next time on Blood That Flows - Red.  
Rein Zwei: It's the final chapter!  
Fate: Feels like it's been a long time coming.


	139. Red the End

Blood That Flows

Red the End

I own nothing really. Nope.

Fairly long chapter here people.

* * *

Gourry shook his head as he looked at the destruction. "Damn, that's..." He trailed off as he saw a body next to his. What surprised him was that the woman looked a bit like Lina, but her chest was a bit larger. "This is..."

"The Knight of Cephied." A male voice spoke up and Gourry spun to see a tall being in a robe of some sort, a funny hat on his head and a miniature palm tree in his fingers. Behind him was a woman with short blonde hair and a traveling outfit as she held a lit cigarette between her fingers. "...I see..."

"It really was to be expected." The woman spoke up as she looked at the body. "Lord Shabranigdo wasn't going to let her live if he could help it. Though, to use a psychic attack..."

"When did this happen?" The man turned to the woman, who shrugged at him. "Zelas, you know, don't you?"

"Of course I know." She rolled her eyes. "Not all the Mazoku that were in that crowd were fighting, you know. Some of them were my spies." Zelas took a deep breath as she looked at the downed body of the Knight of Cephied. "After Gaav left her and she took off into the air, one of my spies noted that she fell to the ground rather fast and grabbed her head, screaming in pain..."

"So, Shabranigdo attacked her mind?" The man crossed his arms and sighed heavily. "I thought you Mazoku wouldn't attack humans like that, it's beneath you to attack weaker creatures after all."

"Valwin, if you wanted to break the truce because of this, I could understand, though, I'm not sure that..."

"Zelas, as angry as I am for losing another Knight of Cephied, I'm not going to break the truce over this." He turned to look at her. "Unless you, Dolphin or Dynast were responsible."

"Uh..." Gourry spoke up to the two. "Excuse me, but, who are you?"

"Beastmaster Zelas Metallium and this is the Air Dragon Lord Valwin." Zelas spoke up to him. "The dead woman is Luna Inverse, the Knight of Cephied."

Gourry's eyes widened. "Wait, Inverse?" He looked at her in confusion, frowning. "But, is she..."

"I believe that Miss Luna is Miss Lina's older sister." A familiar male voice spoke up as a purple-haired, closed eyed priest appeared in front of Zelas. "As for the power of Cephied, that will be reborn into someone else on this staff soon enough."

Gourry looked at Xellos and then back at Luna. "...Can't any of you bring her back? I mean, she is Lina's sister..."

"Even if Lina has done all of us great favors in the past," Valwin spoke up as he walked up to the downed body of Luna and took her sword from her, "we cannot just break the rules of reality all the time."

"Speak for yourself, we do it all the time." Zelas piped up, smirking at the Shinzoku. "But, he is right. We can't bring her back as a human. She'd be a Mazoku if I did it, or a Shinzoku if Valwin did it... And, to be honest, we don't like turning humans into Mazoku, they tend to be very rebellious."

Gourry frowned at them. "Oh, come on! Gaav's as strong as any one of you and look what he did! You're telling me that you can't bring her back to life?" He pointed at Xellos. "You, especially, you owe Lina at least a couple of favors by now."

Xellos grimaced at that. "I do hate to owe people favors, though bringing her back just as she was, I doubt that I can pull that off completely..."

"Can't you just bring her back without the power of Celphide or whatever his name is?"

Zelas raised an eyebrow at him. "I'm surprised, I thought you didn't know her?"

"I don't. But it's for Lina's sake."

Xellos shrugged and looked at Valwin, who was looking the body over. "Well?"

"It's not too cold, perhaps we could. But I don't give any promises." Valwin spoke softly. "A god's soul quickly reincarnates, whether that god is Cephied or Shabranigdo." The human's soul that it's attached to generally cannot be brought back to life." Wind gathered around Valwin as he put his hands on Luna's body. "But, this goes against the natural cycle of life. All that lives must eventually die."

Gourry nodded. "I know that, but, Lina doesn't live anywhere near here anymore, yet she came to fight against Shabranigdo, can't you give her this one favor?"

"We'll see." Valwin muttered softly.

(-)

"Miss Miyuki!" Amelia gasped as she looked at the limping swords woman. "Are you okay?"

Miyuki gave her a flat look as she limped towards the healers. "I've got a broken left femur, my right ankle is badly bruised, my right hand feels like crap, I might have a concussion and I think that I've got some internal injuries from when Gaav punched me. So yeah, I'm just fine."

Amelia blushed softly. "I'm sorry. Here, I'll heal you."

Miyuki sighed as Amelia put her hands to good use, concentrating healing magic onto her injuries. "You know, you never answered my question."

"What question?"

"How come you weren't affected by the miasma?"

Amelia blinked and sweat-dropped heavily. "Well, when going against Mazoku, it's a good idea to cast a quick spell so that you can recover from the effects quickly."

"That's it?" Miyuki blinked as Amelia nodded. "That's... Kind of a lame explanation." Amelia just shrugged at her.

(-)

Meanwhile...

Chrono rubbed his forehead as a healer worked on Zest at a nearby table. The man was more-or-less okay, just extremely exhausted from having his Blast Mode on for so long. _"Yes, Admiral Leti, call off the strike. Shabranigdo's dead."_

_"You're sure?"_

_"Yes, I'm sure. You can call them and tell them that we don't need the Arc En Ciel to blow the planet up. But..."_ Chrono looked at the destroyed ground and shook his head. _"But, this is going to be a problem, we're going to need some crews to help with reconstruction down here."_

_"But, they aren't..."_

_"We did kind of help destroy this castle and city, Admiral, the least we can do is clean it up for them."_ Chrono smirked slightly as Leti sighed and conceded the point. _"How is Nanoha?"_

_"Finally resting, I think..."_

_"You think?"_

_"The security cameras can barely get a feed, but it looks like Nanoha's stopped screaming and she's not... Um, sorry, Chrono, I'll call you back."_

Chrono just blinked as Leti cut the conversation off. "What the?"

(-)

On the ship...

Leti stared as Lina practically floated out of the sick bay. "Lina?"

**"Call... Your people and tell them to stop coming, I need to... Bleed this off properly."** Lina's hair was completely golden at that moment, as were both of her eyes and there was a powerful golden aura surrounding her.

When Lina held up a hand, the whole ship was rocked as powerful energy formed just outside of the hull. "What the hell?" Leti gasped as Lina dropped her arm down and the ship shook again, this time tilting in the direction that Lina had dropped her hand.

**"Chaos Orb. I tossed it into deep space where it will continue on until it explodes on its own.** It's safer than sending it to the planet below." Lina took a deep breath as the aura disappeared and she was speaking in her normal tone of voice again. "As for Nanoha, she's alive..."

"And..?" Leti blinked as Lina's hair was closer to a golden sunset than the firey red it was before.

Lina looked at her, tears welling up in her eyes, they were at least normal, one red and one gold. "I don't know, okay?" Lina turned to look back at the hospital room. "The only thing that kept her alive was the Chaos magic, but it was killing her at the same time, trying to rip her apart. You know how hard it was to keep her from turning into a fine red mist?"

Lina blinked as Leti squeezed her shoulder. "What?"

"She's alive, that's all you can ask for right now. Let her rest and we'll try to heal her more fully." Leti was a mother as well, she understood Lina's problem at that moment. "Go and rest. They beat Shabranigdo."

Lina smiled softly and nodded. "I need a little rest... Ten minutes..."

Leti wasn't surprised as Lina walked back into the medical bay to sleep.

If their positions were reversed, she would have done the same. "You two, contact the fleet and let them know that we have the situation under control now."

The two hands nodded and went to work at sending the good word out.

Leti shook her head. 'Man, if people ever hear about this...' Her thoughts trailed off and she frowned. 'No... If they knew everything that happened..." Looking at the room where Nanoha and Lina were, she shook her head. 'Man, I must be getting soft. Lindy would never let me hear the end of it if something bad happened to them...'

It was always such a pain to hide stuff from the official reports after all.

(-)

"Mommy! Daddy!" Rein flew over to her parents and gave Hayate a kiss on the cheek, before flying up to Reinforce and kissing her cheek too. "You're alive!" She smiled, tears welling up in her eyes. "I was worried!"

Vita chuckled as she looked at Zwei, before frowning at the way Reinforce was holding Hayate. "...What's wrong?"

Hayate sighed softly. "Reinforce... To heal me so that I could help... Had to force my magic to overextend itself for healing... Right now... Um..."

"Hayate's as weak as she was when you came into her life." Reinforce said sadly as Vita's eyes widened.

"But..." Hayate shook her head. "Hayate!"

"I'll be fine, Vita-chan." Hayate smiled at her. "It's like a really, really bad muscle tear. I'll recover, it'll just take a long time." Hayate chuckled softly. "Though... I have to admit, I wasn't expecting my muscles to feel so weak..."

"I told you, Hayate..." Reinforce sighed as she looked at the girl in her arms. "The magic was flooding your body at such a rate that when it left, most of your voluntary muscles shut down. You'll get your ability to walk back before your magic returns though."

Hayate sighed and nodded. "It's okay. At least it happened so I could protect my family from someone like that."

Reinforce sighed softly. At least Hayate was taking it better than she thought.

Then again, they both knew that there was a possibility that Hayate would never walk nor use magic ever again, having burned her magic out like she did.

Reinforce just hoped Hayate's positive outlook was correct and that she would be back sooner than expected.

Vita sighed softly. "Signum's out cold from blood loss, but she's getting treatment right now." She wouldn't say what Shamal had to do to make sure that Signum wouldn't try getting up again. "Zafira's fine, just tired. Everyone else is getting treated for injuries and exhaustion right now."

Hayate nodded and closed her eyes as Reinforce hugged her while carrying her bridal style. "Reinforce, can we find some place to relax?"

"Sure." Reinforce nodded to her.

Vita sighed as she went to find a place to sit down. She needed to digest all that happened in her mind before something else happened.

(-)

"Something's been bothering me." Sylphiel looked at Zelgadis, who spoke up randomly. "Where are the Golden Dragons? You would think that they would have been coming here as fast they could to fight against Shabranigdo."

"I believe that I can answer that." A familiar voice spoke up as a bright yellow light appeared, nearly blinding all of them, before it reformed into the form of a tall male with golden hair and eyes. "My apologies, but we had our hands full in the mountains, dealing with the minions of Shabranigdo that were there."

"Milgasia." Zelgadis frowned as he recognized the Dragon. "If you're trying to apologize..."

He shook his head. "No. I would have come, but we did not have all of our weapons ready. And we had several young that needed protection against the Mazoku." He blinked as the humans looking at him seemed to get angrier. "I apologize, but we were very busy as well."

"Sorry," Sylphiel spoke up as she stood up, "we're all tired, we had to deal with Shabranigdo and Gaav."

"Gaav?" Milgasia's eyes widened. "How? He died on Dragon's Peak."

Sylphiel shook her head. "I do not know. If you wish to stay, please make yourself useful and heal the injured."

The Golden Dragon sweat-dropped at being ordered around, but nodded and went to help the exhausted healers. He would tell them more about the battle later.

At least Memphis wouldn't be too upset at him for taking so long to get back.

He hoped.

Elves weren't really predictable in their behavior.

(-)

Sighing as she saw the way Lina was asleep, she shook her head and gently lifted the tired woman up and put her on the bed next to Nanoha. "This will be easier on your back." She whispered softly, wiping the tears from Lina's eyes. "Rest well, your daughter will recover and be active again, soon enough."

She shook her head as Lina groaned and cracked an eye open. "L...ady...Night...mares?"

A finger was pushed to her lips. "Shhh... Rest my child. You and your daughter need your rest." Lina nodded and closed her eyes, rolling and hugging Nanoha before relaxing fully and falling asleep.

The golden outline of the woman stood fully and looked to the world. "Hmm..." She then looked at Lina and smiled softly. "Just relax now." Her hand flashed as a golden light covered the area. "Still, I shouldn't tarry here any longer..." She leaned down and kissed Lina on the cheek. "Sleep well, my child."

The golden outline of the Lord of Nightmares disappeared as the energy swirled around before collapsing into itself.

(-)

Xellos, Valwin and Zelas all stilled as the energy washed over the area. "This is..." Zelas raised an eyebrow as the ground was slowly put back to normal. It was interesting that she couldn't feel any lives in the city that had been ended, but, then again, considering who the energy was from, it wasn't a surprise to any of them. The Lord of Nightmares would do as she saw fit and none of them could do anything about it.

It was pretty hard to argue with the being that put Hellmaster down with nothing more than a snap of her fingers.

Hearing a groaning, Valwin looked down to see Luna open her eyes and stare at him. "What..?" Her eyes widened as she shot straight up and held out her hand. "...What is..?" Something was wrong. Very wrong. "What..?"

"You died." Valwin spoke up as he shook his head. "How do you feel now?"

"Empty... Like I'm..."

"Missing the power of Cephied." Valwin finished for her as he stood to his full height. "You, Luna Inverse, are no longer the Knight of Cephied. May your life from here on out be a peaceful one." He disappeared in a swirl of wind.

Xellos just grinned at the way that Luna was looking at nothing, surprise on her face. "Well, as much as I'd love the meal, Miss Inverse, I must get back to my children."

Children, that was still something so unusual to him.

Besides, he didn't want Rangort to corrupt them away from their Mazoku side fully. Oh, the arguments that were going to ensue from how to raise the children were going to be fun.

Zelas shook her head as Luna looked at her in confusion. "You died, the godly portion of your soul would reincarnate almost instantly. I guess the Lord of Nightmares took pity on you." She smirked at Luna and knelt down to look the woman in the eyes. "I'll be taking back the Staff of Bone from you later. Also, I suggest you find someone to help you train and get stronger. You're pretty much a normal human like the rest of them."

Gourry frowned, not understanding anything. "Well, uh... Come on, you should get a healer to look at you."

Luna nodded, still in a state of shock. That feeling of emptiness... Was very unsettling.

(-)

Amelia frowned as she looked at Chrono. "So, what are you and the others going to do?"

"Right now, I've got some more questions than answers. I mean, Shabranigdo... Isn't he supposed to be sealed into humans? If that's the case, how'd he get free? And who was the host?"

"I know who it was." Both Amelia and Chrono blinked at Zest. "His name was Luke. I saw him alive a few months ago."

Chrono blinked. "Well, that's a bit convienent." Zest shrugged at him. "So, where was he?"

"A small village to the North and East of here. Luke said that he was going to stay there for awhile with Milina. There was some bandits in the area that were preying on the fishers of that village."

"Playing bodyguards?" Chrono raised an eyebrow as Zest shrugged.

"From what he said, it was easy work and got him some room and board for awhile."

Chrono nodded and frowned softly. "Well then, I think the thing to do is visit this place. I'm curious if anyone knows what happened."

Zest nodded at him and looked at everything, before sighing. "Princess, I wish you well with your kingdom's rebuilding."

Amelia nodded and sighed softly. "This is going to take years to fully rebuild." She turned to the others and bowed, smiling. "Thank you for aiding Seiryuun in our time of need."

Chrono nodded and blinked as he got a message. "Actually, since we didn't stop Shabranigdo until the fleet was almost here, well, there's a lot of Enforcers and other Bureau members on various ships..." He broke into a small grin as he heard Leti's laughter on the other side of his link. "I'm pretty sure that, since they're here, they wouldn't mind... A few days of hard work helping you rebuild your city."

Amelia smiled at that. "Well, if that's the case then, send them on down. We'll put them to work right away."

"I'd stay, but I have a few things I need to clear up first." Chrono said as he and Zest walked away. A moment later, a bunch of Bureau members appeared in front of Amelia.

"Alright you guys. Since you're all here to work, there won't be any trouble if myself, my father or my sister gives you an order for how the city should look, right?" Amelia smiled while putting her palms against each other and tilting her head. The cuteness of her face, combined with how pretty her body was shot down any sort of complaint they might have had.

(-)

Vita nearly jumped as she saw Reinforce walk up to her. "Um... So, where's everyone?"

"On the ship. You, myself, Chrono, and Zest are the only ones still on the planet." Vita nodded and Reinforce turned as Zest and Chrono walked up to them. "So, I take it things are in order now?"

Chrono nodded and jerked a thumb behind him. "Since they're out here, they're already getting paid, so, a few days with a few hundred people working around the clock should speed things up."

"What about patrolling Bureau space?" Vita raised an eyebrow as Chrono sighed. "Well?"

"Let's just say that not every Enforcer and Striker team has a ship with an Arc En Ciel equipped. We still have enough people to do some bare bones patrolling."

"Provided nothing major happens in the next ten days, we shouldn't have a problem." Zest nodded to them. "...Where did Lyos go?"

"He's going to stick around here for awhile, help Seiryuun's defenses until the city's back on its feet." A new voice spoke up. Turning, they blinked as Zelgadis and Luna walked up to them. "As for myself," Zelgadis continued to speak, "I'd like to come to your world."

"Huh?" Vita blinked at him.

"Well, considering that I'm as skilled as I am, I'm a little miffed that those Mazoku would go after children rather than myself. Plus, from what I've seen, your style of magic is pretty flexible, I wouldn't mind learning a few things myself. Besides, I'm sure that you guys wouldn't mind learning some Shamanistic magic."

Chrono nodded, smiling. "That'll be great. I'm sure that the Bureau would love to know more about this world's non-Black magic." He looked at Luna. "And, what about you?"

"You come from a world that uses magic and technology like my sister's world?" When Chrono nodded, Luna sighed softly. "I'd like to see it." He blinked at her in shock. "I... I don't have Holy magic anymore, and, I'll be honest, I used that to be so strong."

Chrono nodded at her. "I'm sure that we can find you some people who can help you out."

"Thank you." Luna nodded at him. "...How's my niece and sister?"

Chrono shrugged at her. "Well, I didn't hear that they died, so I'm sure that they're alive. Anyway, we should get going. _Admiral Leti, we're ready for pickup."_

_"Four of you?"_

_"Make it six. These two want to come with us to our world."_

_"You know, if it wasn't for the fact that you're Lindy's son, I wouldn't even listen to this suggestion."_

As the teleportation began, Chrono wondered what Leti was talking about.

(-)

On the ship...

Fate looked at Yuuno. "Hey, she's alive, right?" As much as she was trying to comfort him, she found her own words hollow, weak and full of sadness. Fate blinked as Yuuno grabbed her hand and squeezed hard. She looked at him more closely and found that he was having a hard time holding back his tears.

She didn't know what made her do it, but the next moment, she pulled him into a hug and the two buried their heads into the other one's shoulder, letting their bodies shake with soft sobs and cries as they were told that Nanoha's body was so flooded with magic that anything they could do wouldn't help her.

"Thanks, Fate." Yuuno said as he pulled away and wiped his eyes. The blonde girl nodded while blushing and wiping her eyes as well. "Still, if only..."

"Yuuno, why haven't you taken care of those marks yet?" Fate asked as she cupped his cheeks and ran her thumb down the scar marks on his cheek. "Don't tell me that you think scars are cool." Yuuno shook his head and blushed softly.

"Well, I can get them removed and..."

"Don't." Fate was blushing now as she looked at him. "I think it makes you look interesting."

Yuuno cracked a small smile, as did Fate, at that moment, before they were both giggling against each other. "Thanks, Fate."

"For what?" She let go of him, smiling and blushing softly. "At least Nanoha's alive, right?" Yuuno nodded and two sat down, sighing heavily. "You know, when she gets better, we're going to have to treat her to a good dinner."

"With how much we can eat?" Yuuno asked and Fate's eyes turned white and she nodded slowly. "We'd have to find an all-you-can-eat buffet for that."

Fate shrugged as she thought about it. A buffet like that sounded good.

The two blushed hard as their stomaches demanded food at that moment. "Um..." They looked at each other before heading out to see if they could get some food.

(-)

As Zelgadis and Luna were led to some rooms to rest, Zest frowned softly. Zelgadis had said that he already talked to his friends about leaving, so they understood at least. Luna was going to need to go to her home and explain to her parents, but for now, there was something they needed to take care of. "There." He pointed to the map. "There's a small village right there."

Chrono nodded as the ship moved closer to that place. "Zest, I'm curious, would you say that the Bureau was accurate in labeling this world SS class threat?"

"Fairly accurate." Zest nodded. "Even without a threat like that every day, there are creatures here, human, non-human, Mazoku, and various monsters that would be more of a threat than most people could handle. I would, however, recommend this place as an excellent training ground for more advanced members of the Bureau."

Chrono nodded, though he had some reservations about it, himself. "Well then... Shall we?"

Zest nodded as the two walked over to be teleported to the surface.

(-)

Appearing just outside of the village, Zest frowned as he saw the damages to the buildings. It wasn't major, but there was a lot of damage there that wasn't there the last time he was here. Granted, it may have been months ago, but there was something in the air that just felt like something bad had happened.

As they walked into town, Zest was sure something bad had happened. "What is..."

"Young man..." An old voice spoke up and Zest and Chrono both turned to see an older woman there. "You look familiar somehow..."

"The last time I was here, you may have saw me talking to a man named Luke."

The woman's eyes widened. "Oh, that poor boy..." She shook her head. "It was about a month ago..." She sighed heavily and looked into the distance. Turning, the two saw a burned down shack on the other edge of the village. "They lived on the edge of the village. One day, Luke was helping the fishers, it was a bit stormy out and..." She shook her head. "When he got back, his woman was dead on the floor."

"What happened?" Chrono looked at her and she sighed heavily.

"It was horrible... Bandits killed her." The woman sighed heavily and shook her head. "Which is odd... There haven't been bandits here in years. Not since that nice Inverse girl came by here about five years ago. Ah, I remember it well, she tore those bandits apart like they were nothing and saved the whole village. It was amazing."

"Yes, well, excuse us." Chrono nodded to her as he and Zest walked towards the hut. "You think it's odd?"

"How bandits suddenly appeared, killed one woman then didn't bother attacking the rest of the town? Of course." He was tired and sore and he was certain that his magic ability was heavily compromised from that last battle.

Zest was almost certain that if he had to fight a few bandits, he might have broken a sweat against them in his current condition.

As they got close to the house, Zest and Chrono both grimaced at the smell. "Must have burned a skunk or something." Chrono muttered as he looked at the place. "...Doubtful we'll find out what really happened here..."

"I can tell you." The two spun around as Xellos walked out from some shadows. "But, as you know, I can't tell you everything."

"Because you don't know?" Chrono narrowed his eyes as the Mazoku waggled his finger. "Why are you out here?"

Xellos put on an air of boredom. "Oh, I just happened to be in the neighborhood and I thought I'd follow you two."

"Mommy and Daddy want to know why Lord Ruby-Eye came back." The silver-haired girl spoke up as she popped out from Xellos' legs.

"Carona!" Her purple-haired twin pouted as she popped out from behind Xellos. "You know daddy doesn't want to give away secrets like that."

"Lena!" Carona frowned and pounced on her sister. "You ruined my fun!" She tackled her twin and the two started to roll around on the dirt. It wasn't the first time that they fought over something stupid and it wasn't going to be the last. Rangort had told them that they weren't allowed to zap each other with their power.

And when mommy was in her Dragon form and telling you you couldn't use magic against your sibling, you listened.

Xellos sighed softly. "Yes, well, Rangort thought they could use time with their father." He shrugged and looked at the place. "Huh, that's odd." He walked forward and frowned as the head of his staff glowed. "Well, I can safely say that there were no bandits that did this..." Xellos turned to look at them. "As for the rest, well... Excuse me, I have some hunting to do. Lena, Carona, let's go."

"Okay, daddy!" The twins chirped up as they appeared next to Xellos.

Xellos smirked and looked at Chrono. "By the way, tell Lina hi for me." He chuckled as he and his daughters disappeared.

"What do you think that was about?" Zest asked, getting a shrug from Chrono.

"If I knew, I'd be omniscient." Chrono sighed softly. "Well, whatever the case was, we have more information. So..."

Zest nodded, he did miss his home, even if it had some painful memories. "Let's go home."

(-)

Back on Earth...

"WAAAAAAHHH!" Arisa was pale as she, Arf, Suzuka, Erio, Kyouya and Arashi were at the hospital looking at Nanoha. "What happened?"

Lina was tired looking and exhausted as she shook her head. "She nearly died out there." At least her hair had mostly returned to normal.

Mostly, because there were a lot of strands that still had a golden sheen to them.

"Onee-chan..." Arashi looked at Nanoha, who was pale in the face and just barely breathing. "Onee-chan, come on..." He walked over to his sister's bed and pushed on it. "Up! Up!"

Lina sighed as Arf picked up her son. "Arashi... Nanoha... Nanoha's really hurt right now and needs her rest, okay? As soon as she's better, she'll play with you, okay?"

Arashi pouted, but nodded. "Okay, mommy."

Lina sighed, her boy looked ready to cry at that moment because his big sister wasn't playing with him. "Your sister will be fine, Arashi... She just... Needs rest." For once, she was glad Shiro took Yuuno, Fate and Miyuki home after getting Nanoha checked in. She was also grateful that the Bureau was helping out and making up a cover story so that she didn't have to explain where Nanoha got that hole in her chest.

Still, Nanoha's body was rejecting any healing magic and Lina couldn't diffuse any more Chaos magic from Nanoha's body. It was the only thing keeping her alive at that moment.

It was going to be a long, long road to recovery.

(-)

Chrono groaned as he walked into his home. "I'm WAGH!" He yelped as Amy and Filia suddenly grabbed him and hugged him, sandwiching him between them. "Um, glad to see you two as well..."

"Chrono..." Amy, who was in front of him, blushed as she hugged him tightly. "Filia and I have some news for you."

"Uh, okay..." Chrono blinked as the two stepped away from him. "What?"

"We're both pregnant..." Amy began.

"With your children." Filia finished for her.

Chrono looked between them, several times, before his eyes rolled into the back of his head and he fainted dead away.

In the kitchen, Lindy fought back the urge to follow Val's example and start rolling on the floor laughing.

Chrono really did take after his father in more ways than one.

- Red End


	140. Peek Yagami

Blood That Flows

Peek

Yagami

I own nothing really. Nope.

Okay, here's the deal with this arc. It's called Peek, as in Sneak Peek. It's going to be made up of mini-arcs that focus on only a few characters at a time. In addition, unlike previous arcs, each mini-arc is only going to be a couple chapters long at most. Which means, more character development. Whee!

Also, due to how short each mini-arc is, I'm not going to be doing anymore "next episode segments". Especially since arcs like this one are just one chapter.

And, I won't be updating this story every day anymore, due to me being mostly caught up with what I have written.

* * *

"Vita." Reinforce said sternly as the redhead blinked at her.

"Um, yes?" She was rather tired, they had just gotten home last night and other than Reinforce, everyone else was asleep.

Looking at Reinforce, Vita was slightly dismayed to see that the silver haired woman was not only cleaned up and dressed from the previous day, but also fully awake and seemingly dry from whatever bath she took that morning. One thing that Vita couldn't understand was how Reinforce was the last one to go to sleep on any given day but always the first one to wake up the next morning.

Vita really wanted to know that trick, it would make it easier to be dressed properly instead of wearing a white muscle shirt and panties that didn't fully cover her butt that she threw on in the morning.

Reinforce crooked a finger and beckoned Vita to walk over to where she was sitting on the couch. "Tell me something, Vita... Do you remember what you did to me yesterday?" Vita's face was blank for a moment, before her eyes went blank and her face paled as she started to sweat. "Now then, we can deal with it now, and you'll be sore for a little bit, or we can wait until after breakfast and you'll have to suffer your punishment while everyone can look at you."

Vita gulped and looked at Reinforce's eyes. Seeing as there was no way out of this, she sighed and hung her head. "...Right now, I guess." The next thing she knew, she was pulled down and her stomach was resting on Reinforce's legs. "Umm..." Vita whimpered as she felt Reinforce put her left hand on the small of her back while her right hand patted her butt.

"Remember, Vita... It's not nice to punch people in the jaws." Reinforce pulled Vita's panties down to her knees, exposing her bare bottom to the air before lifting her hand up and bringing it down on Vita's butt.

Vita winced as her butt was slapped. The sting from Reinforce's hand really did hurt. But the worst part was, in her mind, was the fact that she was just laying there and she knew that she really couldn't do anything to get away from it. "Ah!" She cried out as Reinforce slapped her butt again, this time hard enough to get her bra-less breasts to bounce from the hit. "Oww!" Vita could feel tears welling up in her eyes as Reinforce continued with her treatment.

"Tell me, Vita," Reinforce slapped Vita's butt again, "are," another slap, "you," another slap, "ever" yet again, another slap, "going," Reinforce was letting some anger get into her voice, and her slaps picked up in strength, "to," Vita let out a loud cry as Reinforce's spanking was turning her pert bottom as red as her hair, "hit," the slaps were coming down harder and faster than before, "me," Reinforce panted a bit as she held her hand up high, "again!"

A loud crack on Vita's butt had the girl jumping off of Reinforce's lap and grabbing her butt. "No! Noo! I'll never! Owww! I'll never do that again! Oww!" Tears were falling out of her eyes as she scooted along the floor.

Reinforce nodded and winced, Vita's butt was a lot more muscular than she thought. "Now, go stand in the corner for a few minutes."

"But, I..." Reinforce gave her a look that had her scrambling and crawling towards the corner.

"Just stand there for a few minutes, Vita, don't," Vita gulped as her hands were on her panties, "just leave them there."

"But, what if the others see me?" Vita whined as she stood straight up, her red bottom was practically throbbing in pain.

"Then you better hope they sleep longer." Reinforce nodded and hoped that a little humiliation would teach Vita a lesson.

Besides, it wouldn't have been the first time that someone walked in on her after a spanking.

(-)

Zafira stretched as he raised his head and looked around sleepily. "Mmm?" He could have sworn he had heard a familiar noise a little bit ago, but shrugged it off. Yawning slightly, he trotted from his bed roll in the hallway, he turned down any offer to have his own room after Hayate offered it to him, still, there was an empty room just for him in case he ever changed his mind, into the living room and looked at Reinforce, who seemed to be a touch upset as she looked at the wall. Turning his head, he merely raised an eyebrow as he saw Vita standing with her face against the wall, her panties around her ankles and her bare, round ass on display for anyone to look at.

If it wasn't for the fact that it was Vita's bare butt, he'd appreciate the view more. Oh, Zafira knew that Vita had a very lovely rear end and was growing up into a beautiful woman, but he couldn't look at her like that. She was too much like a sister to him.

Though, if she ever had a boyfriend, or even a girlfriend if she swung that way, Zafira knew that he'd have fun at playing the over-protective older brother.

"Morning, Zafira." Reinforce nodded to him and Vita stiffened in the corner. "Don't you dare try to cover yourself, Vita." The redhead whimpered and Zafira sighed, feeling sorry for her.

"Reinforce, don't you think she's had enough?" Reinforce looked at him, slightly annoyed. "I'm sure that she's sorry for what she did, and it's early in the morning." He looked at Vita and saw her squirming slightly. "Unless you want to clean up a mess on the carpet..."

Reinforce looked at Vita and twitched slightly. "Have you learned your lesson, Vita?" The girl nodded vigorously. "Alright then, pull them up and you can get out of there." The words were barely out of her mouth when Vita was dashing from the corner to the bathroom while holding her panties above her knees. "She really should thank you."

Zafira would shrug, but he was in his wolf form. "It is rather early in the morning. You could have at least waited for her to go to the bathroom."

"I guess..." Reinforce nodded and sighed. "...You think I'm too hard on her?"

"You're very strict, yes, but I don't think you're too hard, myself." He shook his head. "You never spank her for no reason. Hell, you hardly have to give a warning and Vita shapes up. She's a teenager though, hormones are going to make it a bit difficult." He had seen too many teenagers to not know what they could be like. "Why did you spank her this time?"

"I don't appreciate getting hit in the face outside of sparring." Reinforce sighed softly.

Zafira had nothing to say to that. "Excuse me." He wandered back to his bed, leaving Reinforce alone in the living room with her thoughts.

(-)

"Morning, Signum!" Signum groaned and cracked an eye open. In front of her, Shamal was sitting, smiling with her eyes closed and in a nightgown that was partially open, revealing a good amount of cleavage to the sleepy swords woman. "Good to see you're awake. You've been out for a long time."

Signum licked her lips and tried to sit up but blinked as she found two things that were odd. The first was that she wasn't wearing a shirt. Not too unusual, considering how her side felt that morning. The second thing was that she couldn't move her arms or legs to help her. Looking at her wrists, she raised an eyebrow. "Shamal... Why are there binds around my wrists and ankles?"

"I have no idea what you mean." Shamal's voice was still in that very pleasant, very nice tone and Signum started to sweat slightly.

"You're pissed, aren't you?"

"What? Just because you went and nearly got yourself killed? Or the fact that you never came in until Vita dragged your dying carcass to the healers? Or maybe it was how you pushed me aside when I knew you needed to heal?"

Signum actually did gulp as she saw Shamal's eye twitching with that last one. "They needed help, I will not run when I can help."

"Yes, and you're incredibly weak, sore and unable to break those binds I put on you, aren't you?" Shamal opened her eyes and Signum almost wished that she could just pass out.

Shamal didn't get angry very easily. Hell, Shamal was less prone to losing her temper than she was, normally.

Seeing Shamal's eyes show nothing but anger, frustration, worry and fear made Signum almost wish that she was still unconscious.

Shamal could get _inventive_ when she was upset.

Which probably meant that Signum was going to be fed Shamal's cooking until she fully recovered.

(-)

"Daddy?" Rein Zwei frowned as Hayate looked at her, smiling. "Can you move?"

"Not very well, I'm afraid." Hayate smiled as she slowly shook her head. "I feel really drained and I can't make most of my muscles work."

"Will... Will you be okay?"

"Someday." Hayate sighed softly. "Your daddy will be fine, Zwei. Mommy will be taking me to the hospital to make sure that I'm taken care of properly."

"You won't be here?" Reinforce Zwei teared up as she looked at Hayate.

"Don't worry, I'll just be there for a few days at a time. It's just for precaution purposes, okay?" Rein Zwei nodded, sniffling. "Hey, I'm alive. And, hey, as soon as I'm on my feet again, how about I take you and the rest of the family out to a big fancy dinner?" When Rein Zwei's eyes lit up, Hayate smiled as the tiny girl hugged her, thanking her. "Don't worry, daddy will be just fine."

Hayate was sure she'd be fine. She just needed time to recover.


	141. Peek Mid Start

Blood That Flows

Peek

Mid Start

I own nothing really. Nope.

* * *

It was early morning on Mid-Childa and Zest took a deep breath as he stood in front of the door. It had been a couple of years. He wondered how his friends had been doing since he last saw them. Not to mention that he had to deal with a couple of hanger-ons that came to Mid-Childa. 'Not really.' He reminded himself, but he still wanted to check on them and make sure that they were where they were supposed to be.

After all, they were comrades of his on Non-Administered World 500.

"Morning." Zest nodded to the woman, who didn't even look up. "If you," she looked up and gasped, "Zest! You're back!"

"Good to see you too, Auris." Zest nodded to her and let a small smile grace his lips. "You've grown rather pretty since I saw you last."

The girl blushed heavily. "Oh, thanks. Anyway, yeah, he's here." Zest nodded as he walked in. Even if it had been a couple of years and an office change, Zest oddly felt comfortable about being here.

Though, when he walked in and saw just a bare desk and Regius stand at the window with his back to the door, Zest wondered if there was a new Ground Forces HQ built soon. "Regius?"

The man turned and raised an eyebrow at what he saw. "Zest, it's been a long time." Zest nodded as he walked forward. "I take it you found what you were looking for?"

Zest shrugged as he stood in front of the desk. "I managed to get my mind off of things. Why is your office so empty?"

Regius smirked softly. "We have a new HQ building ready to go. We're just finishing moving our stuff there."

Zest nodded. "I'm surprised it took so long."

Regius shrugged at that. "It's been going slow, between finding a good place for the new building and all the tech the R&D guys have come up with have kept us pretty busy and out of any new buildings until just now."

"New tech?" Zest raised an eyebrow before noticing something clipped to Regius' belt. "What the..?"

"A new toy that they came up with. It's called the Shine Sword."

"Looks like the Sword of Light." Zest noted and Regius nodded. "...They created a copy of the Sword of Light?"

"Yes. The upper limits aren't fully tested yet, but this thing is strong." He patted his belt and nodded. "More and more of these things are being made every day. I find it a little odd that you recognized it so quickly."

Zest shook his head. "No. Just yesterday, I was fighting alongside several people against several high-powered Mazoku on the world that I was on." Regius' blinked at that. "I would have died had it not been for a healer named Sylphiel and her husband Gourry.

"So, how..." Regius started and Zest nodded to him.

"Let's get some chairs, this is going to take awhile." Regius nodded and told Auris to get them what they needed. "You know, she can listen in." Regius blinked at Zest. "Something like this, it's important to know the details."

Regius nodded. A couple of years was enough to change anyone. "Just remember to visit Quint when you're done here." When Zest raised an eyebrow, he chuckled. "She said, 'I don't care if I still can't walk, I'm going to get out of this wheelchair and kick both your asses if he doesn't visit'."

Zest actually laughed at that. "I don't doubt it." Quint was always creative when she wanted to be.

(-)

Elsewhere...

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Leti looked at the person with her.

"Yes. I was mostly useless then, and considering how I am now, I need a change in my life."

Leti just rolled her eyes as they pulled up to the front door. "Well, I'm glad that you wanted my help, but remember this, once you start, you can't stop just because you feel that you can't cut it."

"I figured as much." Leti shook her head at the answer.

"Listen, Luna, you left home and you won't even stay with your sister, are you really sure you want this?"

"No..." Luna admitted as she opened the door to the car. At least it was similar to a carriage and she had no real trouble opening it up.

Except that one time that the doors were locked and she was in the back seat. How was she supposed to know that the little button thing was used to keep the handles from moving fully?

Leti shook her head. "If you don't want to do it, you shouldn't. Because they aren't going to let you quit in a few months."

Luna nodded, she figured that. "From what Zest told me about this place, it would be a good place to learn some different magic."

Leti just shrugged as she led Luna into the building. "The only reason I'm doing this for you is because it's a favor to your sister."

Leti would never tell anyone that she felt responsible for Nanoha's injury, not to mention Hayate's condition. She made a mental note to go see her son as soon as she could. "Thank you." Luna nodded to her and Leti sighed.

"Listen, they're not too strict on too much here, but you'll have to be here for at least five years before you can consider leaving them."

Luna smirked softly as she grabbed the small bag of clothes that she had. "Let's just say... I'm in need of some serious training."

As she watched Luna walk away, Leti shook her head and wondered why Zest would mention a place like this. Oh, she had nothing against them, but it wasn't something that she would have chosen.

Besides, Leti figured she would look stupid in a Saint Church nun outfit.

(-)

Meanwhile...

Zelgadis sat in a chair as he looked at the head instructor of the Bureau's mage forces. He had thought that being in that ship had been overwhelming. Having seen the feats of construction, steel buildings, horseless carriages, and small, flying ships, he knew that he was so wrong. Really, he almost went into shock when he saw the amount of people that were moving around outside. He had thought that Seiryuun had been huge, but this city just blew that out of the water.

He couldn't even begin to imagine how it had been for Lina when she first got to that world she was on.

True, it was another world, but he had heard that this Mid-Childa world was similar to that Earth world that the cities were pretty similar in size and population. The only major difference was the magic that people used.

Mizetto raised an eyebrow as she looked at him. "So, you want to join the Bureau?"

"I wouldn't say that." Zelgadis shook his head. "What I want, is to learn the magic that people on this world use." He hadn't heard too many details about the battle, but from the looks on the injuries that the people who had come to save his home world, he was a bit disappointed that he hadn't been able to attack.

He wasn't just disappointed in that, he was disappointed in himself. To think that a bunch of children were attacked and he wasn't pricked at his pride in ways he wouldn't want to admit.

The worst part was, none of those strong Mazoku attacked him, like he wasn't even worth their time and effort to try and kill.

"And in exchange, you'll share your vast knowledge of Shamanistic magic?" Mizetto raised an eyebrow. "I'm sorry, I don't really know what Shamanistic magic is."

Zelgadis nodded at her. "Shamanistic magic is divided among the four naturally occurring elemental spirits in nature, Earth, Fire, Water and Wind. A fifth branch is Astral. And along the way, White magic was developed in conjuncture with Shamanistic magic to make up for the losses of magic over the centuries."

"Interesting." Mizetto nodded as she thought about it. Casting elemental magic was hard for anyone who used Mid or Belkan magic. Most didn't even bother unless they had a natural affinity for an element. And even those that did have one didn't have a large variety of spells as there was no one who could teach them anything too interesting or useful. Occasionally there was someone who was born with more than one elemental affinity, but it was so rare that she honestly thought that such a feat wasn't really possible. "Using your style of magic, this Shamanism, how easy is it to learn the various branches?"

Zelgadis shrugged. "Fairly easy. I'm more apt with Earth-based magic than Fire, Water or Wind, I can use any of them as easy as Earth magic." There was hardly a spell he couldn't cast if he tried, as long as it wasn't Holy or Chaos magic. He considered himself passable with Black magic, at least compared to someone who specialized in it. After all, Zelgadis was fairly certain he would never be as good at it as Lina was.

"And Astral magic, I take it that it's not meant for using elements."

Zelgadis smirked at her. "Its use is for fighting against spirit creatures, like Mazoku."

Mizetto blinked, before slowly nodding. "Very well then, if you train our recruits with your magic, I'd be happy to help you learn some of our style."

Zelgadis nodded at her. "Thank you."


	142. Peek Mid End

Blood That Flows

Peek

Mid End

I own nothing really. Nope.

* * *

Elsewhere...

"Nakajima." He said as he finally found Quint in her wheelchair in the park.

The woman turned and smiled as she saw Zest standing there. He looked a bit tired and a bit thinner than she remembered him, then again, her memory may have been playing tricks on her. Zest did look a lot more... Chiseled than the last time she had seen him. "You're alive." It was nice to see him again.

He nodded to her. "Yes, Regius told me that you would be upset if I didn't visit you."

Quint narrowed her eyes at him. "So... You went to see Regius first, huh?" When he nodded, she bit her lower lip. "Well then..." She snapped her fingers and pointed at Zest. "Get 'im, girls!"

"BANZAI!"

Zest's eyes widened as a small, purple haired bundle of energy suddenly jumped out from behind Quint, though where the girl came from, he wouldn't know, and slammed into his chest. He was about to take a step back when he felt a body grab his legs. 'This is going to hurt.' He thought to himself as he found himself falling backwards.

"TIIIIMMMBEEER!" Quint yelled out as Zest slammed into the ground. Thankfully his own barriers reduced the impact. Sitting up as the one with the longer hair, Ginga, if he remembered correctly, jumped on his chest, he leveled a glare at Quint while the other one ran to her mother to ask if she did good.

"You did well, Subaru." Quint smiled and rubbed the young girl's head. "You deserved that for leaving all of us for so long." She looked at Zest's glare as the man sighed to her.

"I was angry, depressed and mentally lost, Quint. I needed to get my head on straight."

"By going to a world where you could have been killed?" Quint moved and leaned forward in her chair. "And leaving so soon? You think that you were the only one who was sad? Megane was my best friend, you're probably my best male friend in the whole universe. I loved Megane's daughter too! I would have adopted Lutecia if she survived. Do you know how much it hurts to go to Megane's grave every day and realize that my two best friends were gone for good!"

"I'm sorry." Zest blinked as Quint suddenly lunged forward, out of her chair and was grabbing his legs, pulling herself up to look at him. During that time, Ginga had gotten off of Zest and was standing to the side with Subaru.

"Sorry? SORRY?" Quint was inches away from Zest and glaring at him. "At least you could walk normally. I still can't move from this wheelchair very well. The doctors can't do jack for me." Quint was shuddering by that point. "Do you know how much it sucks that I can't move because of whatever I was hit with is screwing with normal healing."

Zest blinked and frowned. "Wait a minute... Weird... Power..." He groaned and leaned his head back. "Would I be able to make up for lost time if I said I know someone who might be able to heal you?"

Quint blinked, several times. "...What?"

"What you said... The power that stuck us... it was far from normal magic.." And after hearing about what Lina had to do to keep her daughter alive, Zest wondered if maybe, now that he thought about it, the power that nearly killed them a few years back was actually some form of Chaos magic. "I need to make a call." He just hoped that Lina wouldn't mind a trip to Mid-Childa.

Then again, considering how injured her daughter was, he figured that she might not want to leave Nanoha's side.

Either way, it was worth a shot to have Lina look at Quint. No one else in the Universe knew about Chaos magic as much as she did.

(-)

_"You want me to what?"_ Lina asked flatly.

Zest sighed and shook his head as he called on his personal phone. "I said, I'd like it if you could come to Mid-Childa for a little bit and look at my friend."

_"That's what I thought."_ Lina sighed heavily through the phone. _"I've got to get things in line around here, I have work I need to do, I need to stay close to Nanoha. I just don't have the time..."_

"You don't need to come right away." Zest sighed over the phone. "If you can come at all, it would be helpful."

_"...I'm not going to make any promises about coming to Mid-Childa. If you come to Earth, I'll be happy to look at her."_

"If it's possible." Zest nodded and turned off the phone.

"Zest..." He turned to see Quint rolling up to him with Ginga and Subaru walking behind her. "Will you join me? I'm going to see Megane today."

"Sure." Zest nodded, causing Quint to smile as she led the three of them to the graveyard.

(-)

Later...

"Hey, Megane..." Quint smiled as she looked at the small headstone. "How are you and Lutecia doing? Heh, yeah, it's crazy, you two probably haven't changed at all, huh?" Sighing softly, Quint shook her head. "Hey, remember that mission? Well, I might be able to get help fixing my legs. Zest said that I'll probably have to go to Earth first." She chuckled softly. "My husband's family was originally from Earth. It might be nice to introduce the girls to their roots." Not that Genya knew anything about his family history, since his family had migrated to Mid-Childa a long time ago.

Quint's eyes widened slightly and she blushed. "Sorry, Megane, I forgot. I brought Zest with today. And, yeah, he knows about Lutecia. Don't get mad now, I told him after you died, he had a right to know."

Zest looked at the grave and took a deep breath. "Hello, Megane..." He started as Quint rolled back. "...I wish you had told me about Lutecia." Taking a deep breath, he looked up into the sky. "If you must know, I needed to clear my head, I was stupid for going to such a world. But, I made some friends there and found interesting things out." He looked at the grave and sighed. For some odd reason, he felt really weird to be looking at a grave.

It was almost as if his body was completely numb as he was close to it, and he wasn't sure why.

He mentally shook his head. Now wasn't the time for those kind of emotions. "Let me tell you about these two people I met. They were interesting, and I think you would have liked them. Their names were Luke and Millina."

- Mid End


	143. Peek Four Start

Blood That Flows

Peek

Four Start

I own nothing really. Nope.

* * *

_"Come... Release..."_

Her eyes snapped open with a gasp. "Ugh... That again." She shook her head and looked at the young girl who was asleep before snorting. Even if she was a Mazoku, her current body liked to sleep once in awhile. Getting up and stretching, a hangover from when she was human, she was sure, she nudged the sleeping girl. "Get up."

"Yes, Master Quattro." The purple-haired girl, who looked like a teenager got out of bed silently. Quattro was slightly annoyed by the fact that Jail had her taking drugs to keep her from aging anymore.

Oh well, her nude form was rather pleasing to look at. "Lutecia." The girl looked at her, her eyes were full of curiosity and something else. She always found it amusing how Lutecia had a hard time standing straight in the morning when she did a good job on her missions. "Go get cleaned up."

Lutecia nodded and went to grab a towel and wrap it around her body. "...What if Wendi and Sein are in the bath?"

"If they're by themselves, I'd suggest waiting, otherwise get cleaned up and eat, I've got another mission for you today." Quattro nearly smirked as she felt emotions spike through Lutecia at that moment. "Now, hurry up."

When Lutecia left, Quattro shook her head. "So... Easy to manipulate." It was too bad that she wasn't doing much more than stimulating the girl a little. It wasn't like she had to hurry. The girl would soon be begging for more soon enough.

'Why not just break her to your will, Master Levi?'

Levi smirked at that though. "Because, Quattro, doing it slowly makes it... More enjoyable for me. To break her too fast, well, it would be too easy. Plus, right now, I'm not in the mood to do that to her." While it was fun to molest that girl whenever she could, it wasn't as enjoyable as it could have been.

She blinked as a knocking was heard on her door. "Yes?" The door opened and Uno walked in. "Morning, what can I do for you?"

"The doctor wants to see us." Uno looked around and frowned softly. "Where is Miss Lu?"

"Taking a bath." Quattro stated as she walked out of the room. It was pretty easy for her to mold her clothing onto her body whenever she wanted to. "Is he going to wake up another one of our sisters?"

"Soon." Uno nodded to her as she followed Quattro. "The only reason he hasn't woken them up fully is because of all the times he needed to give Wendi adjustments to her body."

Quattro rolled her eyes. "I knew that. I'm actually glad that he didn't wake up the other three any sooner. I never thought I'd see someone be worse than Sein when it comes to being excitable." When Uno laughed, she snorted. "You laugh, but at least you don't have to listen to the complaints of those two when they get grabby."

Uno just shrugged. "Tre keeps them in line fairly well."

Quattro rolled her eyes at that, but frowned. For some odd reason, Tre didn't complain too much when those two decided to grope her in the baths. Well, verbally at least, she still elbowed them, dunked their heads in the water and worked them extra hard in training when they were a bother. "I don't know, it doesn't seem to work too well."

"Ah, Uno, Quattro." Jail smiled as the two walked into the room. "Glad you could join us."

Quattro merely raised an eyebrow as she saw Tre, Cinque and Due there. Well, them and Due's little pet Unison Device. "What did you call us for?"

"I've finally, after all these years, found the second to last piece that I was looking for." He pulled out a remote and with a press of a button, called up a planet on the screen. "This is a rather remote, war-torn world, so finding out information was hard to do."

The device snorted as she saw the images of the world. "Looks pretty peaceful for a "war-torn world" there, doc."

Jail just smiled at the small redhead. "Yes, it does look peaceful. But at any given moment, some people, somewhere on this planet are fighting over the most stupid things." He clicked a few buttons until a large hill was revealed. "This is in an area that's more peaceful than most, at least for now. Anyway, Tre, Quattro, I want you two to take Nove, Sein and Dieci with you. Scout out the villages and double check."

"Double check?" Quattro raised an eyebrow. "What are we? Your scouts?"

"Unfortunately, unlike the other places I had you search, this one may or may not be correct." Jail shook his head. "Anyway, just go look. If nothing comes of it, then there's nothing wrong, correct?"

"I guess." Quattro shrugged at that. It wouldn't set her plans back at all. If the doctor wanted them to go find a weapon, what did she care?

Besides, she didn't care too much for her sisters as it was, even Dieci seemed to dislike her a bit. It would be hard to tell if she couldn't feel emotions like she did.

No, Lutecia was what she wanted. And if things didn't work out, well...

As Tre left to find Dieci, Nove and Sein, Quattro followed her, her eyes flashing red as she smirked. If things didn't work out with Lutecia, she could always...

Eliminate her.

(-)

Finding Lutecia was easy enough, the girl was just standing outside of the baths, completely dry. "I take it that Sein and Wendi are inside?"

Lutecia turned to her and shook her head. "No, Master Quattro, I was thinking about my mother."

Quattro nodded at that. "I see. Well, I got called to do a mission of my own. So you can stay here today." Lutecia's face fell slightly. "Just go look after your mother today. And for crying out loud, avoid Wendi if you can help it." The last thing she wanted was that impertinent redhead screwing up Lutecia's conditioning. She wanted a loyal weapon.

Not a pet.

Not yet.

Caressing Lutecia's face gently, Quattro just smiled at her. "You'll do fine. Just relax today."

Lutecia nodded and walked into the baths.

Quattro shook her head as she saw Lutecia's rear sway slightly as she walked into the bathroom. 'Soon.' Her eyes flashed red and she grinned. 'But first, more of those "Megahs" that should be there.'

'What if they're not there, Master Levi?'

'Bah, then we'll just figure out what to do next then. I still have a lot of them.' Levi chuckled as she walked past the storage area. If she unleashed every one of her "Megahs" on the Bureau, she was almost certain that she could take most of the magic users of the Bureau out before her forces were defeated. Chuckling, all she needed to do was make some modifications to them. "Hmm..." She looked at the small ball Gadget Drones before smirking. An AMF was nothing more than a minor inconvenience for a trained mage, but if it was powered up, it could be a real problem for even the strongest of mages. 'And if they have to fight a "Megahs" as well...'

She couldn't wait for the slaughter.

(-)

"Due-neechan!"

Due blinked as she was suddenly attacked by a Sein-shaped missile. "...You know, Sein, as much fun as it is to watch you tease Tre and train Wendi, you do need to stop trying to crash into me all the time."

Sein pouted and buried her face into Due's breasts. "You're not as fun since you got your adult body back." Her eyes widened as she felt Due's hands grabbing her butt. "Due?" She looked up to see Due grinning at her.

"Well, I might be more serious and put together, Sein, but I'm still the silly girl who loves to cook and blow up the kitchen at the same time." The two of them giggled as they separated. "So, what's up?"

"I'm going on a mission with Tre-nee, Nove, Dieci and Quattro." Due couldn't help but take note of how reluctant Quattro's name came out. She really didn't know why Sein seemed to dislike Quattro, but she wasn't going to say anything about it, since Sein never got in the way of Quattro's experiments. "And, well, Quattro's not likely to take Lutecia with us."

It was another thing that bothered Due. Quattro was supposed to train Dieci, but she seemed more content to work with Lutecia. Between that and Wendi's own random mood swings and violent outbursts, the last couple of years was slightly nerve-wrecking at times.

At least Jail had managed to help Wendi out and she was far less temperamental these days.

Oddly enough, those violent outbursts seemed to only happen around Quattro.

"What about it?" Due asked, shaking her head.

"Can you keep an eye on Lutecia?" Sein looked at her older sister and sighed. "I'm worried about the girl. I don't think it's a good idea to let Quattro be around her too much."

Due shrugged at that and smiled at Sein. "Sure." She blinked as Sein hugged her tightly. "Hey, you okay?"

"Mmm... Big sis Due is really kind." Sein murmured as she closed her eyes and rubbed her face in Due's breasts. "Plus her boobs are good too and, EEEK!" She jumped, letting go of Due as she rubbed her butt. "No fair! Pinching me like that!" Sein pouted as she rubbed her butt.

Due's eyes were narrowed as she grinned at her perverted younger sister. "I think... It's time to teach you another lesson..."

"Um, I have to go on the mission." Sein gulped as Due suddenly pinned her to the floor. "You know I can phase through this, right?"

"True, but it'll be worse for you later." Due smirked as she straddled Sein's waist while pinning her hands above her head. "Now then..."

Sein's eyes widened as Due flexed her fingers in her right hand and brought it down to her body. "Hey, wait, I, BWAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!" She started thrashing as Due's fingers started tickling her under her armpits, across her breasts, up to her neck, down to her belly and over to her other side. "!"

"Okay!" Due smirked as she let go of Sein and stood up. "Come on then, let's go find Lutecia." She smiled at the redheaded device, who was smirking and floated after her.

"Hold on, Meister!" The blue-eyed device flew after her.

Sein twitched and giggled before rolling over and grinning as she saw Due walk out. "My sister has a nice ass."


	144. Peek Four Two

Blood That Flows

Peek

Four 2

I own nothing really. Nope.

* * *

Nove blinked as she, Sein, Dieci, Tre and Quattro appeared on a hill just to the outside of a small farming village. "So..."

"See what you can find out." Tre said as she wrapped her gray, hooded traveler's cloak around her body more. She had to admit, Due was right, this cloak was kind of nice, since it kept the high winds from pushing their hair against their faces.

Dieci adjusted the bandaged package against her back. "Nove and I can search the village below."

Tre nodded and looked at the mountain. "Sein and I will check out those mountains there." The blue-green-haired cyborg perked up at that. "Quattro?"

"Might as well go with Nove and Dieci." Quattro shrugged as Tre nodded, grabbed Sein and flew off into the distance. "Ugh... Those two..." Really, feeling raw excitement from Sein was not the feelings she expected to feel. What was Sein going to do on that trip anyway? Fondle Tre worse than usual?

(-)

Sein fought the urge to sneeze as her hands were phased through Tre's outfit and rubbing the taller cyborg's back. 'Where did that come from?'

Tre just rolled her eyes as she flew the two of them to the mountain. If Sein was grabbing more than just her back, she would have let the girl go.

Even if Sein's fingers working her back muscles did feel nice.

(-)

Nove looked at Dieci as the two walked through town. "So, any idea what we should ask?"

Dieci shook her head and looked at Nove's feet. "Roller blades?" She didn't train too much with Nove, as she was more long-range bombardment rather than close-range and thus Tre didn't train her much.

Nove shrugged at her. "If Tre-nee trained you more, you'd know that my roller blades help me move on my Airliner more."

"Ah." Dieci nodded at her sister. "You know that I'm more long-range support than close-range combat. I could stand to sit in on some of your training though."

"I guess so. But, I've seen your shots. Weren't you complaining about them being too powerful to the doctor the other day?" Nove looked at Dieci, who grimaced at that.

"Yes. I'm worried that I won't be able to keep my shots contained anymore soon."

Nove nodded and the two turned a corner in the village, only for Dieci to nearly run a small boy over. "Dieci, you okay?"

"I'm fine." She nodded as Nove helped her stand up fully. "Are you okay?" She knelt down to help the boy up and inspected him. "You're not hurt, are you?" Cinque had taken her time to drill politeness into each of her sisters and when knocking someone over when not fighting them without making sure that they were okay was both rude and mean.

"I'm okay." The child smiled as he stood up. "You're pretty, lady!"

Dieci's eyes widened and she felt her face heating up from that statement. "I, uh, thank you, huh?" She blinked as the boy gave her a flower.

"Mama says that you should always give a nice person a flower." He smiled brightly before running off and waving to the two.

Nove fought it, she really did, but she couldn't help the small grin that came to her face. "Looks like you made a friend."

"He called me pretty..." Dieci looked at Nove, her face completely red. "What am I supposed to say?"

Nove sweat-dropped. "Uh... I have no clue, it's not like we're called pretty by random people all the time." It was probably the only time that Nove wished that Cinque had taught them more with how to deal with people.

Then again, Cinque didn't seem to know very much either, but she was trying her best.

"Come on." Nove shook her head as they walked into town. "Let's see if anyone says anything."

"About what?" Dieci asked as she readjusted her cannon.

"I don't know, anything weird. Couldn't hurt, right?" Nove looked back and Dieci and grimaced slightly. She didn't dislike her family, they were interesting, even if she didn't spend much time with Uno, who was busy with Jail a lot, or Quattro, who was more interested in Lutecia, but they were her family and she enjoyed them.

No, what she disliked was how _short_ she was. Sure, she had a nice pair of breasts, something Sein and Wendi commented on whenever they decided to grope her in the baths, and a nice butt, which, again, those two liked to comment on whenever they decided it was time for family fondling. But other than Cinque, Nove had to look up to see anyone in the eyes. She only hoped that at least one of the remaining three sisters were at least her height.

The only solace that Nove took from being short was that Quattro never made comments to her like she did to Tre.

She wasn't sure why Quattro felt the need to make fun of Tre for having large breasts and a big rear end, but Nove was sure Tre didn't appreciate it.

"You okay?" Dieci looked at Nove. "You spaced out for a second there."

"Sorry, just grumbling about how it's not fair that I have to look up to everyone other than Cinque to see their faces."

Dieci giggled softly and hugged Nove from behind. "At least it's you and not Sein or Wendi. I know you won't take advantage of your height like that."

Nove sighed, even as she felt Dieci's breasts push against her head. "Thanks, Dieci."

"Hey! You hear about that new mine that was discovered two days ago?" The two blinked as they over-heard an older man talking to another man as they walked down the street. "I wonder who built it."

"Yeah, I heard about it, heard that there was some big doors blocking the way in."

Dieci let go of Nove and walked over to them. "Excuse me." The men turned to look at her. "What new mine?"

"Heh," the taller of the two, though that was all Dieci could tell, since they looked practically the same, where they brothers? "Well, there was a mine discovered in the mountains just to the South of town. Weird thing is, there's these doors that are blocking the way in."

Dieci nodded to him. "Thank you." She turned to Nove and nodded and the two ran off.

(-)

Quattro raised an eyebrow as she saw Dieci and Nove run, well, Nove was rollerblading, towards her. "Well?"

"Looks like there's a mine to the South here." Nove pointed towards the mountains not too far from the village. "Maybe it's there?"

Quattro nodded and turned towards the mountains before tapping her ear. "Hey, Tre, you there?"

_"I think we found a door."_

"That's nice, it's probably what we're looking for." Quattro turned to Nove and Dieci and nodded, before grabbing Dieci and the three took off into the air, Nove on her Airliner, as she had no real flight abilities of her own.

(-)

Minutes later...

Sein grinned as she popped through the doors, pulling Tre and Quattro with her. Nove and Dieci had been told to wait outside, to keep people from investigating too much. Just in case this was the place they were looking for. "Do you think the doctor will ever let us go on missions after this one's done?" She turned to Tre, who nodded.

"Very likely. He seems driven to do something." What, Tre wasn't sure, but she had overheard Jail talking to three people, and from what she had seen, which was very little, they looked like brains in jars. Something about creating weapons against those Mazoku he warned them about awhile ago.

Tre wasn't sure if he was talking about her and the rest of her sisters, but, deep down, a part of her ached at the thought of being nothing but a weapon.

Even so, she could ignore it. She had a job to do.

Quattro merely snorted as she walked behind Tre and Sein. 'That foolish doctor, to think he can fight against Mazoku when he can't notice the one under his nose.' Her shoulders shook with amusement as she pulled up a holographic screen in front of her fingertips. "Well, it looks like the doctor was right." She smiled as the two turned to her. "This is one of those sites."

"Good, let's hope that whatever it is he's looking for is here." Tre nodded to Quattro.

"Hmm... How much did he have left to get?" Sein asked as they walked down the hallway.

"Spear and the Heart." Tre answered for her. She turned a corner and her eyes widened as the next step she took nearly sent her flying off the edge. "...Seems shorter than most."

"Looks like this is an abandoned missile silo." Quattro muttered, frowning as her hacking of the computer systems revealed that not only were there none of the "megahs" that she wanted, there were also no missiles stored here anymore. "Let's just see if its worth our time."

"Gimme a second and I'll find out." Sein grinned as Tre grabbed her and the two disappeared into a purple flash.

Quattro narrowed her eyes as she looked at the schematics. 'Seriously, a missile silo in here? When there's no missiles around?' Growling, she slammed an open palm on the holo keyboard. "This is SO aggravating!"

"FOUND IT!" She heard Sein's voice pick up and waited for the two to reappear in front of her.

"Found what?" Quattro blinked at what Sein had in her hand. "A stick?"

"Actually, it was a sword down there." Sein blinked and gaped as the end shifted and changed into a pointed blade. "...This thing can change forms?" She yelped as the blade shot off the stick and went straight for Quattro's head. "EEEK!"

Quattro twisted and fell to the ground as the blade soared right through where her body was a moment ago. "What the hell? Trying to kill me?"

Sein shook her head. "Sorry, didn't mean to."

Tre shook her head and frowned at Sein. "Be careful. If you can't keep it from firing prematurely, you probably shouldn't be squeezing it so hard."

_"Tre, Sein, Quattro, I need help! NOW!"_

The three blinked as they heard Nove's voice over the comm-link.

"Nove?" Tre tapped her ear piece. "What's wrong?"

_"It's Dieci! Calm down, dammit!"_

The three blinked as they looked at each other in confusion, before Tre grabbed them, activated her IS and rushed for the doors.

(-)

As they phased through the doors, Quattro could only stare at the scene in front of her. Dieci on her knees crying was something new, but that wasn't what impressed her.

The entire landscape around them was covered in craters, mountains were missing and even the rivers to the distance were gone. "What the hell?"

Nove looked at her. "Right after you three disappeared, this... This army, two of them, showed up and started fighting... And... One of them blew up the village we were in a little bit ago."

"She destroyed everything because of that?" Quattro raised an eyebrow.

"That boy... He... He got killed because of them." Dieci sobbed while Nove rubbed her back and hugged her. "I... I had to... Make them... **pay."** Dieci suddenly pushed Nove away and grabbed her gun, which had been right at her feet and spun around. **"You will all PAY for what you did!"**

Before anyone could react, a powerful energy blast was fired. Quattro was the only one who didn't flinch away from the view, and she had to admit, the large onrushing wave of energy was massively impressive. Seeing it carve the land up as the size expanded, the Mazoku-possessed cyborg had to admit, she was even more impressed.

And partially scared and even a bit excited. 'That power...' Her eyes widened. 'It can't be...' She remembered this power, no wonder it was so familiar to her.

"Dammit, Dieci!" Tre yelled as she punched Dieci in the jaw, causing her to spin and stun her long enough for Tre to punch her berserk sister in the gut, knocking her out. "You'll destroy the planet if you're not careful."

"I think she did." Nove stared at the destruction. Her eyes widened as she saw magma start to bubble up in the distance. "What the hell?"

Quattro tapped her ear piece twice. "Uno, I think it's time for a pick-up."

Sein looked at Dieci with worry as she picked up her sister's gun. She hoped that Dieci would be okay. Chancing a look at Nove, the petite cyborg frowned slightly as Nove had a scared look on her face, before vowing to talk to Nove about what she saw.

It wouldn't be good for Dieci if her sisters were afraid of her.

A moment later, the five of them completely disappeared from the planet.


	145. Peek Four End

Blood That Flows

Peek

Four End

I own nothing really. Nope.

* * *

"What happened?" Uno asked as she looked at Tre holding an unconscious Dieci over her shoulder.

"...I need to see the Doctor." Tre said as she carried Dieci to the medical bay.

Uno looked at Quattro, who was already walking away. "Where are you going?"

"I have other experiments to work on today Plus I'm a bit tired, so I'm going to turn in early." Quattro waved her off and Uno sighed before looking at Sein and Nove, the latter was shaking slightly while Sein put down Dieci's cannon and some sort of short sword.

"Is that..?" Uno started to say before Sein nodded and walked over to her, handing the weapon over. "I thought this was supposed to be a spear?"

"It can be any melee weapon you want it to be apparently." Sein shrugged and went over to Nove, who was walking out slowly.

Uno blinked before hanging her head and sighing. "This is what I get for not being more attentive, I guess." She wondered just what happened out there.

(-)

"Nove!" Sein ran up to her sister and grabbed the girl by her shoulder. She sighed as Nove turned and hugged her, trembling. Hugging the girl gently, she rubbed Nove's back. "Shhh... It's okay."

"She was..." Nove trembled and tightened her hug. "A monster... Dieci is... Dieci is..."

"Dieci is Dieci who got mad." Sein finished for Nove. "She's no monster. Your sister is hurting right now and probably is going to be scared when she thinks about what she did." Sein pulled away from Nove and looked at her redheaded sister seriously. "Do you know how bad it will be for her if her sisters all flinch and stay away from her?"

Nove's face became flushed, there was still fear in her eyes, but also regret.

Sein nodded to her. "Listen, Nove... Let me tell you something. What happened to Dieci... It also happened to Cinque-nee."

"Huh?" Nove stared at her older sister. "Cinque-nee... She was... But, she's..."

"I know." Sein nodded at Nove. "Before you were activated, Cinque got hurt, saw Tre and Due get hurt and then she went crazy just like Dieci did. She even used the same kind of destructive energies that Dieci used."

"But, it's terrifying and..."

"Why do you think Cinque doesn't like going on missions anymore?" Sein interrupted, causing Nove to stare at her. "She's scared of herself, and Dieci's going to be scared too. If you're afraid of her, then it won't help her recover."

Nove looked down and sighed. "...Will she go back to normal?"

"Give her some time." Sein patted Nove on the shoulders. "Dieci is Dieci and no one else. Something weird happened to her, and that's all that happened, okay?"

Nove nodded and hugged Sein. "Thanks sis."

Sein smiled as she hugged Nove back. "Hey, no problem." Sein then got a mischievous grin on her face. "And if you start treating Dieci differently, I'll sick Due on you."

Nove sweat-dropped. Honestly, she wasn't sure if having Due after her was worse than Sein and Wendi's grope fests in the bath.

(-)

"Doctor!" Tre bellowed as she walked into his lab.

"Ah, Tre, how can I..?" He was interrupted as she grabbed his jacket and lifted him up, her face a mask of pure anger. "...What happened?"

"What did you do to Dieci? She's acting like Cinque did a few years ago."

"You remember that?" Jail raised an eyebrow.

"Pretty hard not to, I also saw the video footage of what happened to Cinque when she was back here. Now, talk, what did you do to Cinque and Dieci?"

Jail sighed at that. "If you would put me down, I'll tell you." After she let him down, Jail adjusted his jacket. "You remember the incident involving the Ground Forces HQ, correct?"

"The Death Bringer incident, what of it?"

Jail shook his head. "Do you remember that Due used to act as a nurse to some of the hospitals of Mid-Childa?"

Tre frowned in confusion, while she knew of that, why was that so important?

"If you recall, Death Bringer posted an image of a certain woman across every broadcast channel when he made his announcement. And that woman happened to have a daughter with similar powers to hers."

Tre's eyes widened as realization dawned on her. "...You... You had Due get the DNA of that woman and her daughter?" Jail nodded slowly. "But... Do you have ANY fucking idea what that DNA DID to Dieci!"

Jail blinked as Tre growled. "What happened?" As Tre told him, his face slowly became worried, before concerned and finally a mix between disappointed and resigned. "I see..." He rubbed his forehead. "I made a mistake."

"I'll say you did!" Tre yelled at him and looked up at the three remaining sisters who hadn't been activated yet.

"I was so... Freaked out by the appearance of that man..." Jail looked at the remaining three sisters as well. "I didn't think of anything but how to make it so that all of you could fight against him... And survive if he managed to destroy this world, like he destroyed Al Hazard."

"But, he's dead." Tre looked at Jail, who shook his head.

"Even if he was defeated, there's always someone else, waiting in the shadows when it comes to Mazoku." He turned and left the three. "I'll have to activate them soon, but... Let's fix Dieci up first."

Tre nodded as she followed him. "You didn't even think about the possible consequences of doing this, did you?"

Jail shook his head. "I wanted to make sure that, in case something happened and this world was destroyed... That you and your sisters could survive anywhere against anything. I just wish I had known that the DNA from those two was so unstable beforehand. I wouldn't have used it."

When they entered the med lab, Jail raised an eyebrow at Uno. "I see you're hard at work."

"Thankfully, her body wasn't hurt like Cinque's was." Uno nodded to him. "Though, I found that her mind is heavily stressed right now."

"Speaking of whom, it might be better to have Cinque work with Dieci in the future." Tre spoke up as she walked up to Dieci and sighed at the look of discomfort on the unconscious cyborg's face. "At the very least, they'll understand each other a little bit better because of this."

Jail nodded as he walked up to the keyboard. "Well, let's work on calming her down completely first. We'll worry about the rest of that stuff later."

The others nodded as they got to work.

(-)

'Master Levi?' She heard Quattro's voice speak up as she stood in her lab. 'What are you going to do now?'

Levi, now in her normal blue-haired, red eye form, just grinned at that. "Quattro, let me tell you," she chuckled while putting her right hand on her face as her whole arm started to glow with black energy and her fingers became clawed, "other than that girl, Lutecia and possibly this other girl," she looked at the screen, before shaking her head, "I have no use for anyone here. No..." She pulled her hand back and grinned at the information on the screen. "I have no use for Jail Scagiletti, he's worthless to me. But these ones, yes," she started to chuckle as she looked at the data, "these ones will be most useful to me once I'm done with Jail and our 'sisters' for good."

'I'm surprised Uno and Jail haven't found this information yet.'

Levi just smirked at that. "It's simple. I just implanted a suggestion into their heads. Nothing much, but they'll never think to look here."

'Uh, what?'

Levi rolled her eyes. "It's a simple spell that goes 'there's nothing here, move along' to its targets. Fairly simple and useful for hiding in plain sight."

'Ah. So, now what?'

"Well, the doctor almost has his toy together." Levi grimaced at the thought of that being completed. "But for now, I'll just concentrated." She frowned as she saw data on the screen. "That's the final prize."

'An abandoned world?' Quattro's voice was confused and Levi just chuckled. 'What?'

"Don't worry about it right now. As soon as I'm strong enough, I'll be able deal with that world... And then... The whole universe will shiver in terror."

Levi threw her head back and laughed as she thought about the horrors she would unleash. "I'll make them all pay for what they did to me."

- Four End


	146. Peek Dwell Start

Blood That Flows

Peek

Dwell Start

I own nothing really. Nope.

Now we look at the Numbers who stayed behind while the others were on the mission.

* * *

Due smiled as she looked at Cinque, Wendi and Lutecia. "Well, as you know, we STILL haven't found a name this device likes." She motioned towards the small device, who sat cross legged in mid-air and pouting. "So, we start round... Uh... What round are we on?"

"Two thousand, six hundred thirty-five." Cinque rattled off automatically, causing everyone to look at her. "I write it down." She pulled out a rather large notebook and dropped it in front of them. "Including all the names we've tried and she rejected."

Wendi pouted as she remembered the last meeting. "And I thought Nuku was a great name!"

"I'm not a cat!" The device snapped at her, causing Wendi to blink at her in confusion.

"Never said you were."

Due sighed. If things didn't get taken care of soon, they'd never get this naming session over with. "Alright, anyway, name times! Suggestions?" She slapped an open palm down on the table. "What letter are we up to, Secretary Cinque?"

"Secretary?" Cinque muttered, wondering what she was talking about before flipping the notebook open. "While Wendi, you and Sein like to grab names that just pop into your head, we've still got a few G, H and A name slots open, after that, we have to move onto the second half."

"I call Quess!" Wendi shot to her feet and pointed at the device, who shook her head. "Damn!"

"There's children here!" Cinque pointed to Lutecia, who just blinked at her.

"Really?" Wendi looked at Lutecia, and then back to Cinque. "She looks older than you."

Due felt like slapping herself in the face. "Wendi, we've told you before, she's eight years old, not sixteen."

Wendi huffed and crossed her arms under her breasts. "Well, this world is weird. I mean, I'm less than two years old, I've got a tail and I look almost as old as Lutecia. And my breasts are a bit bigger too."

Said red-tinted tail unwrapped itself from Wendi's waist and twitched behind her. Wendi pouted and took a deep breath, trying to calm down. "Ugh... It's so hard to..." She twitched and grabbed her tail before slapping it onto her lap. "Bad tail, bad!"

Cinque sighed. "Any other name suggestions?"

"Glossa?" Due shrugged and got a shake from the tiny redhead. "Was worth a shot."

"Change your name to Seth and I'll think about it." The device smirked at Due, who blanched at the thought of such a name for herself. "Now you see how I feel."

"Agito?" Luteica spoke up, causing the device to blink and frown. "You don't like it?"

"Actually..." The device thought about it for awhile. "I don't think that's my original name, but I feel... I feel like it's close to my name. So, yeah, let's go with Agito."

Cinque nodded and wrote the name down before circling it. "There we go! After five thousand, two hundred thirty-five attempts, we now have a name for the device. Agito!"

The newly named Agito crossed her arms and smirked proudly. "Good! Now, you can all remember my name or I'll burn all your sticky buns in the morning."

"No!" Due got all teary-eyed. "And after I worked so hard on making them."

"You mean after you destroyed the kitchen twelve times in a row." Wendi giggled at her, causing Due to narrow her eyes and jump over the table, tackling her sister to the floor. "Ack!"

"Got you now!"

Cinque and Agito both winced as Due straddled Wendi's waist and then started tickling her. Agito winced because she knew how bad Due could get if she was annoyed and Cinque winced because she was often Due's favorite target.

Seeing Wendi thrashing and shrieking was actually very satisfying for the two of them.

"Um..." Lutecia spoke up and got Cinque to look at her. "Master Quattro didn't give me a mission today. Do you have one?"

Cinque mentally wondered what Quattro did to Lutecia. The girl never really showed much emotion, but the girl was looking lost without any direction right now. It almost made Cinque sigh, was Lutecia's only reason for doing anything what Quattro said?

Blinking as best she could, Cinque looked at her sisters as Wendi rolled around howling while Due grinned and tickled her. She had a sudden, horrible realization.

'Would we have been the same as Lutecia... If that Death Bringer person had not made the Doctor respond the way he did?' It wasn't a pleasant thought.

"Actually," Cinque turned back to Lutecia and smiled, "I do have something for you." Seeing Lutecia perk up at that, she mentally grimaced and wondered what Quattro did to her. "I'd like you to go and get Wendi's board and my knives from the weapons locker and then meet us at the practice range."

Lutecia blinked and nodded, at top speed, it would take her almost an hour. "Understood."

Watching her go, Cinque sighed and turned to Due, who had stopped tickling Wendi, who was on the floor, panting and giggling with some tears leaking out of her eyes. "Due, I think Lutecia... I think she needs to be around someone other than Quattro all the time."

"I was thinking the same. What you got in mind?" Due smiled at Cinque, before blinking as Cinque pointed at her. "Wait... Me?" Cinque nodded. "Bu..." Due's eyes became white and blank at the thought. "I don't know anything about taking care of a kid like that! I barely trained Quattro and look how she turned out!"

"Please?" Cinque grabbed Due's hands and gave her older sister the most sorrowful look she could manage, completely with trembling lips. "For your little sister's sake?"

Due grimaced at Cinque. 'Dammit, why is my cute little sister so damn cute?' She thought to herself, before sighing and nodding. "Alright, I'll see about spending time with her."

Cinque smiled and hugged Due around her waist. "Thanks."

"Fine, fine, but you owe me!" Due grumbled, her voice holding no malice as she hugged Cinque back. Cinque was right about one thing.

Lutecia did need to spend time with people other than Quattro all the time.

(-)

A bit later...

Due walked down the hallway with Cinque and frowned softly. "Just what am I supposed to say to her?"

"Just spend time with her. You trained Quattro, she'll be more receptive to that at least." Cinque smiled softly, feeling a tiny bit sorry for forcing this onto her older sister. "I... I feel bad... For what I did to her mother."

Due grimaced and sighed. "Alright, I'll see what I can do."

"What about Lu's mother?" Agito asked as she rode on Due's head. "She's alright, the last time I checked, she was alive."

"When was the last time that Lutecia was there?" Due asked and Agito blinked, before realization came to her face. "Well?"

"...I can't re...member... You don't think Quattro's done something to her, do you?" Agito liked Lutecia. The girl might have been a touch bland in the personality department, but she was really nice and was always giving up her leftover food to the device. She squeezed her hands into tight fists. "You think Lu's okay?"

"That's why I want you two to look after her when you can." Cinque said softly. "I would, but I'm worried about some other things."

"It's okay." Due shrugged at her. "I'll see what I can do for her."

"Thanks." Cinque smiled before blinking as they turned a corner. "Sein? Nove? You're back already?"

"We were gone for almost two hours." Nove muttered, her voice was soft and weak. Quite unlike her normal self. She looked a little shaken, but her face didn't have any indicator what caused her to sound like she just saw Hell and was terrified by it.

"Actually, it was closer to just under a hundred minutes." Sein shook her head. "Nove, I need to talk to Cinque." Nove nodded and turned to walk off, before yelping as Sein slapped her butt. "Now hurry along or I'll grope that cute little butt of yours all night long tonight." Sein smirked as Nove covered her rear end with her hands and ran off as fast as she could.

"Wouldn't you do that normally?" Agito asked, getting a shrug from Sein. "I mean, you only grope _everyone_in the bath."

"I don't grope you or Quattro." Sein said matter-of-factually. "Anyway, Cinque, I need to talk to you."

"What?"

Sein sighed softly. "Remember what happened when Due and Tre got badly hurt awhile ago?" Seeing the brief flinch from Cinque, Sein bit her lower lip softly. "Remember what you felt?"

"Just... An uncontrollable rage and desire to make what hurt them stop hurting them. Why?" Cinque was confused, Sein knew that she didn't like talking about this, why would she bring it up?

"Because I think Dieci's like you." Sein was looking down as she spoke softly. Both Due and Ciqnue's eyes widened as they looked at her.

"You're kidding." Due gripped Sein's shoulders and made her look up. "Please tell me that you're kidding about Dieci having the same nasty power that Cinque does!" She turned to Cinque and grimaced slightly. "No offense."

Cinque was so shocked by what Sein had said that she didn't even hear Due's comment. "...What do you mean?"

Sein sighed heavily. "I don't know, exactly, but the energy you were putting out when we got you back to the lab felt almost the same as the energy that Dieci was firing through her cannon." Though, now that she thought about it, Dieci's cannon had partially melted from the attack. "I think that, whatever the doctor did to your blood, he did the same to Dieci and she's got to recover from the shock of using that power."

"...That would explain why the doctor was always reinforcing my body and then asking me to get Dieci for the same treatments." Cinque's hand trembled softly.

"Yeah, well, I don't think Dieci's going to have the same issues you did, Cinque, but... She needs to know that she's not alone with this."

Cinque nodded to Sein. "Leave her to me."

"Thanks." Sein sighed heavily. "Excuse me."

Due, Agito and Cinque watched as Sein walked down the hallway, staggering slightly.

"Huh, never thought I'd see her exhausted like that." Due muttered softly. "You go check on Dieci, I'll go make sure that Lutecia's okay."

Cinque nodded and the two split up, going to different locations in the base.

(-)

Lutecia blinked as she saw Due walk up to her. "Is something wrong?" She had just picked up a bunch of knives for Cinque, she was certain that Cinque would tell Master Quattro that she did a good job and Master Quattro would give her a good reward for doing it right. After all, doing things right during a mission always was good for her, it felt a little funny and weird, but she was always left wanting more.

Maybe Master Quattro would let her find out what the full service was?

"Cinque needs to check on Dieci, you don't need to get her weapons." Due narrowed her eyes as Lutecia's shoulders sagged a tiny amount, almost unnoticeable.

"I see..." Lutecia almost felt like whimpering. As soon as she told Master Quattro that she failed this mission, something so easy, she was going to be punished, she just knew it.

The punishments were never any fun for her.

"Yeah, Lutecia, how about we go do something together?" Due looked rather uncomfortable as she spoke to the younger girl. She had nothing against Lutecia, but there was just something about actually trying to figure out something constructive to do with the time other than cooking, teasing her sisters or hanging with the doctor and Agito that had Due stumped.

"Like what?"

Due nearly groaned at the innocent question. "Heck if I know... Agito, any suggestions?"

"What about her mother?" Agito asked as she moved around on top of Due's head, causing Lutecia to blink as she looked up. "I think you should go see her."

"My... Mother..?" Lutecia blinked, before her eyes widened. "I... I haven't... Oh no."

Due put an arm around Lutecia's shoulders and started walking with her to see Megane's floating form. "Don't worry. You've been busy. Just don't forget to visit her once in awhile, okay?" Lutecia nodded, but she was visibly upset and Due sighed mentally. Just what could she do to make it up to this girl?

She was certain she'd think of something, but in the meantime, Due needed to make sure to help Lutecia out.

It didn't hurt that Due actually felt a bit responsible for what happened to Megane.


	147. Peek Dwell End

Blood That Flows

Peek

Dwell End

I own nothing really. Nope.

Someone asked how I can write so much.

To be honest... I have no clue.

I think, starting next week, I'm going to pick up my posting pace again.

At the very least, I'll get a mini-arc done a week starting next week. Unless it's a one-part mini-arc, then I'll have two for you guys.

* * *

Tre looked up as Cinque entered the room. "Cinque..." She nodded and looked back at Dieci, as the younger cyborg slept soundly. "If you're worried about Dieci, she's fine. The doctor gave her some stabilizing drugs."

Cinque nodded and walked up to look at Dieci. "Tre, if you're tired, you should go rest." Tre saw Cinque's look and nodded, before stepping away from her. "I think Sein might need someone right now."

Tre twitched, her face got a tinge of red as she narrowed her eyes at Cinque. "Just why did you say that to me?" She yelled before turning and walking off in a huff.

Despite being yelled at, Cinque had a small smile on her face as she watched Tre go. Whatever Tre and Sein had going on between them was their own business, but she was sure that Sein would appreciate having Tre nearby.

One thing that bothered her as she looked around the room. 'Where are Uno and the doctor?' Well, Dieci was stable and the doctor wouldn't leave her unless it was for something very important.

At least, that's what Cinque hoped for.

(-)

"Sein?" The petite, blue-green haired cyborg turned and saw Tre walking towards her. "What are you doing outside of my room?"

"Sorry, I was just thinking." Sein mumbled softly and started to walk away, before the back of her jumpsuit was grabbed and she was dragged into Tre's room before being tossed onto the bed. "Tre?" Sein blinked and looked at Tre as the taller cyborg closed and locked the door behind her.

Sein stared as Tre turned, her face red as she undid her outfit and dropped it to the floor, leaving her in just her panties. The suits doubled as effective bras, none of the Numbers ever needed to worry about finding a good fitting bra.

Quattro often times teased Tre that it was good, since they would probably need salad bowls to cover her large breasts.

Tre slipped her panties off before walking over to the bed and sitting on it. Sein gulped as she watched Tre's naked breasts bounce slightly, before Tre laid back and grabbed Sein into a hug. "I'm paying you back now."

Sein blinked, unsure what Tre meant, before Tre rolled over and pinned her against the bed. "Tre-nee?"

Tre smiled softly. "This is for helping me feel better about myself whenever Quattro makes fun of me."

It didn't take long for Sein's outfit and underwear to be discarded to the floor along with Tre's.

"This time, I'm in charge." Was the last thing Tre said to Sein for the next few hours.

Not that Sein complained one bit.

(-)

"Doctor?" Uno blinked as Jail looked at the last three of her sisters before sighing. "What's wrong?"

He shook his head. "Oh, just reminding myself why I do the things that I do." Jail went up to one of the capsules and pushed a few buttons, opening it up.

"Doctor, are you sure?" Uno watched as the newest of her sisters stepped out of the capsule completely naked. She was huge, almost as tall as Tre, with long pink hair and a body that was actually more busty and curvy, if such a thing was possible, than Tre's body was. The capsules did a great job of hiding the person's body, not revealing anything other than a basic frame and the face.

Idly, Uno wondered why both of her arms were slightly discolored, and her finger tips were long, almost claw-like, now that Uno thought about it. "You are?"

"My name is Sette." The pinkette nodded to her. "You two are..?"

"My name is Jail Scagiletti." Jail smiled as he walked around Sette, nodding as he saw her body. "I am the one who created you. And this is Uno, you eldest sister."

Sette nodded as she looked at them. "Understood."

Jail sighed softly, all of the cyborgs were this way when they were first woken up. But they quickly developed their own personalities. "Sadly, at this moment, your other sisters are likely busy, due to an unfortunate mission, and will likely be unable to meet you properly for at least a day."

Sette barely nodded to him.

"Come on, dear." Uno smiled to her. "Let's get you some panties and a body suit before you get sick. We'll see if any of our sisters are out and about, you'll be able to meet them that way."

Sette nodded as she was led away from the pods.

Jail looked at the last two pods and sighed. "Otto, Deed, I shall awaken you two shortly." He could have awoken all three at the same time, but he wanted the rest of the cyborgs to get used to their new sisters one at a time.

Well, as one at a time as he could manage at least.

(-)

Due, Agito and Lutecia blinked as Uno led a tall, busty and naked pink-haired woman through the base. "Due!" Uno smiled at her. "This is our newest sister, Sette."

Due smiled at Sette. "Hey. My name is Due. I'm the second sister. This little being on my head is Agito, my partner."

"For now." Agito said as she adjusted her position on Due's head. "Until I find a master that can use my style of magic."

"Yes, yes." Due nodded at that. They had talked about it and while Agito could unison with Due, they weren't very capable together. While they were friends, Agito had expressed interest in finding a master that could properly use her flames. "This is Lutecia, a young summoner who is in our care."

Lutecia nodded to Due. "Hello." It was only polite, of course.

"Hello." Sette said to them softly.

"Hey, Uno, we're going to see Lu's mother, if you want to, send Sette to us after she gets some clothes on."

Uno smiled at Due. "Of course." As Due, Agito and Lutecia walked away, Uno nearly stumbled at the question that Sette asked her.

"What is a sister?" Her voice didn't waver or change in pitch, but there was curiosity there that Uno could barely pick out.

"Well, most families, a sister is a female that's related to you through your parents, normally. There's differences from family to family. In ours, well, everyone but Jail, Agito and Lutecia are your sisters."

"Family is important than?"

Uno nodded as they turned a corner and got to the laundry room. "Yes. Now come here and hold your hands above your head, I need to do some measurements."

Sette did so as Uno took out a measuring tape and started wrapping it around her breasts. "Why are you doing that?"

"So that we don't get a top that's too tight for you. You wouldn't be able to fit a top that would fit Cinque or Sein after all." Hell, Sette's breasts were almost as large as Tre's.

'Correction, they're bigger.' Not by much, just a couple of centimeters, but still bigger than Tre's chest was. "Hold on, I need to measure your belly, hips and butt."

"Why?" Sette wondered as Uno wrapped her measuring tape around her hips and rear end.

"So I know what size of underwear you need." Uno raised an eyebrow as she got the measurements. While Tre had a slightly larger waist than Sette did, Sette had a slightly rounder rear end. 'Which makes finding underwear fun.' Uno snarked to herself as she told Sette to put her hands down. "Now, let me just find you some clothes and we'll be good."

"Very well."

Uno sighed softly. "Sette, honey, we're going to need to develop your personality some."

"Would that be helpful to any future missions?" Sette asked, her face was completely calm and Uno sighed before walking over to Sette and cupping her cheek.

"Listen, Sette. Life isn't always about the missions you're on. It's about the people you meet and how you interact with them."

Sette had a confused look on her face. "What I received while in the tube states that I must just focus on my missions and nothing else."

"You do that and Due, Sein and Wendi will take offense to that and find ways to break you out of this." Uno patted Sette's cheek. "So, for now, Sette, you're going to focus on stuff other than your missions. I'll introduce you to your handler later."

"Handler?" Sette asked as Uno went back over to the clothes closet before finding a pair of white panties and a blue suit.

"Yes." Uno walked back to her and helped Sette put the clothes on, as well as showing her how to take them off and what they were for. "Each of our sisters has one of our older sisters teaching them how to fight, how to interact with people and how to use their powers. Tre will be your handler."

"Very well."

Uno just sighed at the tone Sette used. Oh well, she was going to break Sette free of this habit one way or another.

(-)

"Nove?" Wendi asked as the two rested on Nove's bed. Even though the two of them were completely naked, all they were doing was just laying there, resting. However, Nove was trembling every so often. "What's wrong?"

"Shut up and hold me." Nove grumbled and Wendi blinked, before nodding and hugging Nove tightly.

She didn't know what it was that caused Nove to nearly freak out, and frankly, she didn't want to know.

"Sure." Wendi said softly. It wasn't often that she was calm, but seeing Nove so distraught really got to her.

"OWW!" Wendi winced as Nove pinched her breast hard. "What was that for?" She winced, at least Nove didn't leave a bruise there.

"Get your tail away from between my legs." Nove grumbled and Wendi looked down, blushing as she saw her tail rubbing Nove there.

"Sorry." Wendi muttered before grabbing her tail and moving it to wrap around her waist. Some days, she was sure that thing had a mind of its own.

Oddly enough, Nove had a small smile on her face as she closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep while Wendi held her.

Even with the tail doing things like that, she still felt more secure being held like she was.

It was better than being anywhere _near_ that golden blast of energy.

(-)

Levi smirked as she leaned back in her chair. "Ahhh... The emotions." Such delicious fear, exhaustion and other emotions made for such a delicious cocktail. Even that lust she was picking up on from somewhere in the base, though she had a good idea where it was coming from, was delicious.

If Dieci could cause this much trouble like this, she wondered just how it would be later.

'Master Levi, you were right. Emotions are much better than eating physical food.'

"I know, Quattro." Levi grinned, her eyes glowing a bright red. "Soon... Very soon."

Soon everything would fall into place and then she would be able to pick up the shattered pieces when the dust settled.

-Dwell End


	148. Peek Takamachi Start

Blood That Flows

Peek

Takamachi Start

* * *

Blinking as her alarm went off, Fate sat up on her bed and stretched her arms above her head. She shifted slightly in her silk Negligee and blinked as she felt a body move next to hers. Moving the covers, her burgundy eyes softened as she saw Erio sleeping next to her, curled up tightly. Patting his unruly red hair, she sighed softly as she remembered just how upset he was at her when she got back.

***Flash***

_"You left me!" The boy looked at her accusingly, pouting heavily. "You said you wouldn't leave me!"_

_"I'm sorry, Erio." Fate smiled and knelt down to look at him in the eyes. "I can't be here all the time, but I'll never be gone long, I promise."_

_"Promise?" He sniffled and she nodded, causing him to hug her and smile._

_"Okay."_

***End flashback***

"Sleep well?" She asked him softly as he woke up and looked at her.

"Mmhmm.." He nodded and sat up, yawning. "Thank you."

Fate ruffled his messy hair and giggled at him. "Come on, I need to get up and ready."

"Why?" He asked, blinking at her.

"Well, Lina-mama put a call into the school, and I won't need to go back for a week, but I thought we could go and visit Nanoha today."

Erio frowned softly. "Is she okay?"

Fate sighed softly. "I don't know. She's alive, but in a deep sleep."

Erio pouted as he heard that. Arashi had said that his big sister Nanoha was really cool and had lots of cool magic power. He had actually been wanting to see it too.

"Come on." Fate smiled at Erio. "Let's get cleaned up and then we'll go see Nanoha so Lina-mama doesn't have to worry about her."

Erio nodded to her. "Can we bring Arashi with?"

Fate nodded. "Sure. After a little bit, we'll go to the carnival, okay?" Erio blinked in confusion and Fate just winked at him. "Trust me, you'll like it."

"Okay!" He grinned at her.

(-)

**"Hey, boss, you really should get your eyes checked."**

Yuuno blinked as he was getting dressed after taking a quick morning bath. "I have no idea what you mean."

**"Boss, I've been measuring your eyesight, and it's slowly getting worse. I can't help you use Holy or Healing magic on your eyes. Dunno about the hot blonde doctor though."**

"Shamal?" Yuuno said flatly and his device seemed to perk up.

**"Yeah, her! See if you can't get her to wear nothing but a jacket, huh? She's the only one of the ladies around you I don't have pictures of yet."**

Yuuno twitched. "Are you _trying_ to have them beat me up?"

**"What? I thought you'd appreciate having some fine pictures of some of those women. You need more images of Reinforce and Signum as well, by the way."**

Yuuno twitched more at that. "Who the hell programmed you?"

**"I'm not sure, by the way, you got a call incoming."**

Yuuno blinked, unsure what he meant by that when a face he hadn't seen in awhile popped onto a view screen that Thoth Driver created. "Uncle! What's up?"

"Good to see you, nephew." His uncle smiled at him. "I know you're living on Non-Administered Planet 97 these days. How are things?"

Yuuno scratched at the scar on his cheek, before shrugging. "Could be worse. I'm alive and mostly okay. Some of my friends haven't been so lucky."

"I see, interesting scars there, but, would you be adverse to coming onto a dig with myself and several of your cousins?" Yuuno blinked and looked at his uncle, who smiled at him. "Don't worry, it's nothing like the last dig you went on, and it would be nice to see you again."

"Sure." Yuuno nodded at his uncle. It would be nice to catch up with the rest of his family. He blinked as his uncle turned and listened to someone he could barely make out, before looking back at Yuuno with a slight grimace. "What's wrong?"

"Turns out that there's some rather... Hostile Dragon activity nearby. I'll understand if you don't want to come anymore. We're probably going to be pulling out soon and..."

"Dragons?" Yuuno blinked a few times. Sure, they were dangerous, gods, he still remembered Dyn and his followers and how crazed they could be. But some were good, like Filia and Val, even if the latter was overly rambunctious at times. "I might be able to help with that."

"You can?" His uncle blinked and Yuuno nodded slightly. "How?"

"Um, let's just say that all the Dragons I've met don't usually attack without a good reason. And I know someone who might be able to help keep them calm." At least, he hoped she would go for it.

It would be hard enough to convince her to go normally.

His uncle nodded to Yuuno. "Alright, I'll leave it to you."

(-)

"You want me to do WHAT?" Arisa yelled into her phone as she heard Yuuno's request.

_"Come with me to a planet, meet with some of my cousins and other family members and see why a bunch of Dragons are acting up."_

"That's what I thought you said." Arisa dead-panned. "But, you know, Dragons... They kind of... I dunno, EAT PEOPLE!"

_"You know Val and Filia and they haven't tried to eat you."_

"Probably because Filia's too busy around Chrono to try and eat me." Arisa narrowed her eyes, but knew that he was right with this one.

_"Listen, you've got a soul fragment of the Dragon God of this universe. Dragons are really sensitive to things like that."_

Arisa blinked at that. "How do you know that?"

_"Filia told me that Dragons can tell a person's nature, most of the time, just by being near them. Considering that you've got the soul fragment of a Dragon God and I've got the blessing of another Dragon God, I'm pretty sure that we'll be okay."_

"...Dammit, if you weren't right, I'd punch your cute, scarred face. I'll go with, but just this once."

_"Thanks, Arisa, I, hey, what was that about my face?"_

"Nothing!" Arisa snapped her phone closed before sighing softly and going to her closet to look for some practical clothing.

"Is everything alright, Miss Bannings?" She turned to see her butler there, looking at her worriedly.

"I'm fine." She nodded to him. "Just going to go off to an alien world, see a bunch of Dragons and hope they don't eat me."

"Ah." The butler nodded. "Well, if you want my suggestion, you should take a weapon to slay Dragons with you."

Arisa turned to look at him. "...You believe me?"

"Miss Bannings, I have seen many things in my life. Your friends can all use magic, their mother is a powerful sorceress from another dimension, your gym teacher is a powerful demon and you have the soul of a god trapped inside of your body. What's so odd about this?"

Arisa smiled at him. "Thank you."

"Now, if you want my suggestion, I'd say we buy a SCUD missile and use it to defend yourself."

Arisa sweat-dropped at that. "...Just what have you done in your life?"

"You wouldn't want to know, Miss Bannings."

"I'll... Just take your word for it. So, will you help me get some clothing for outdoor travel?"

"Of course." He nodded at her, happy that she was willing to help.

(-)

As he turned off the communications on his device, Yuuno turned around and nearly ran into Fate and Erio. "Whoops, sorry."

She waved him off, she and Erio were wrapped in robes and carrying towels as they headed for the bath. "It's okay. So, what are you doing up so early?"

"Early?" Yuuno blinked and looked at the wall. "Fate, it's after seven." Looking back he wondered why Erio was giving him such a dirty look. "Anyway, I was talking to Arisa and my feet must have carried me out of my room to here." Unlike Fate or Nanoha, he never did get a cell phone. He was planning on it awhile ago, but Thoth could double as a cell phone if he needed to make a call.

Fate nodded and blushed softly as she looked at his body, which only had a pair of pants on. "Are you going to get that scar on your face healed?"

Yuuno touched his cheek and ran his hands over the small grove marks on his face. Truth be told, he could barely feel it. "It's not that noticeable, is it?"

Fate shook her head. "Only if you get close. Though... Between the scars and your tattoos, you kind of look like some sort of bad dude."

"He is a bad dude." Erio said as he looked at Yuuno with slightly narrowed eyes while hugging Fate's legs.

Yuuno sweat-dropped at the look Erio was giving him while Fate just looked between the two in confusion. "I don't know what I did, but, I'm going to be taking off."

"Huh?" Fate blinked in confusion. "We were going to see Nanoha today. Don't you want to come with?"

Yuuno nodded at that. "Yeah, but my clan called, they want to see me again and asked for some help on a dig. Then something came up and I'm taking Arisa with me."

"Arisa?" Fate blinked in confusion. "Why her?"

"Don't worry about it, Fate, I..."

**"Boss, shouldn't you get to getting ready? My scanners are picking up a ship nearing orbit."**

Yuuno blinked, his eyes wide. "Gah! Sorry, Fate, I'll tell you when we get back! Bye!" He ran off, leaving a very confused Fate behind.

"...Why Arisa and not me?" Fate was not only confused, but a little upset that he didn't even bother asking her to go on a mission.

Feeling Erio squeeze her legs, she sighed. She would have had to have turned him down, but she would have at least liked to have been asked. "Come on, Erio, let's take a bath then visit Nanoha, okay?"

Erio nodded and blinked as there was a thunderous pitter-patter of feet. He turned just in time to have Arashi slam into him, causing both boys to fall down. "Hey!"

"You're going to see Nee-chan! I wanna see Nee-chan!" The boy kicked his legs up and down, causing Fate to smile at him.

"You'll get to come with too, Arashi. After we see Nanoha, we're going to go to the carnival, okay?"

"Yay!" The young boy jumped to his feet and ran around in a circle, clapping his hands together. "Go on rides! I wanna ride the zoom cars!"

Fate chuckled and nodded. "We'll see, won't we?"

"Yeah!" Arashi ran up to her and grinned. "Come on, Erio! Let's get clean for nee-chan!"

Fate fought back the urge to laugh as Arashi grabbed the older boy and practically dragged him to the bathroom. "What a family."

Not that she'd trade it for anything.

Even when Arf, in her child form, came into the kitchen and hopped up on the counter to get at the bowls for something to eat and nearly fell off, causing Fate to rush over and make sure that she was okay, Fate could honestly say that she couldn't be happier.

Even if things that happened around her made her confused.

(-)

"Hey." She looked over at her husband and smiled at the tender look he was giving her. "How are you feeling?"

"Exhausted, sore, tired, upset that I can't do _anything_ more for Nanoha than I already have and worried that she won't pull through." Rolling over, she grabbed him into a tight hug. "I know it's not like me, but, I'm scared."

"Lina," Shiro sighed and hugged her back, "no one would blame you for being scared right now. Your daughter's hurt, badly hurt, laying in a hospital bed, nothing that you, Shamal or Yuuno did could fix her body any faster."

"I wish I could bleed off the Chaos magic more. But it's so soaked into her..." Lina sat up and shook her head. "Remember that stain we had in that rug?" Shiro blinked and slowly shook his head. "That one rug I really liked, but Kyouya spilled grape juice into it. Anyway, no matter how hard we tried, the stain wouldn't come out." Shiro nodded slowly, though he really wasn't sure what she was talking about. "The Chaos energy has basically stained itself onto her soul." Lina shook her head and ran a hand through her hair. "Right now, it's the only thing keeping her alive, and at the same time, it's stopping the rest of us from doing anything to her. If I do get rid of it before her body fully recovers..."

"She'd die." Shiro said softly and Lina nodded. "What if she was hit with Chaos magic from someone else?"

Lina shrugged. "It's Chaos, the power of the Lord of Nightmares. Someone who thought four universes into reality and can unmake reality with a thought. Destruction, creation, life, death, light and dark, it's all her. You can't predict it, you can only react to what it does." It was times like this that she wished she could just _ask_ the Lady what her intentions were.

The only thing Lina could hope for was that Nanoha could pull through this injury in one piece.


	149. Peek Takamachi End

Blood That Flows

Peek

Takamachi End

Told you that I'd be posting a mini-arc a week from here on out.

* * *

Miyuki, dressed in a short-sleeved dark shirt and pants, looked at the disgruntled look on Arf's face as she walked into the kitchen. "Fall down again?"

"Almost." Arf, in her usual hot pants and tank top, sighed. "Hey, Miyuki-nee... Do you think I'm useful?"

"Huh?" Miyuki blinked as she sat down next to Arf. "Why bring this up?"

"I feel like... I'm not being useful to Fate anymore. I haven't even gone on any missions with her lately. And that last big one, mom put her foot down and..." Arf stopped as she found Miyuki pulling her into a hug and sitting her on the older girl's lap. "Miyuki-nee?"

"Well, I, for one, am glad that you didn't go." The green-eyed girl smiled at Arf. "Shabranigdo was no joke and that Gaav guy beat everyone stupid so easily. If you went, I'd be worried my cute little sister would get hurt."

Arf blushed slightly and yelped as Miyuki's fingers started dancing over her belly and arms, causing her to squeal and squirm on Miyuki's lap, kicking her legs up and down as she laughed. "HAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHA!"

"What?" Miyuki grinned as she tickled the small wolf-girl. "You don't have time to be depressed around here." She stopped tickling Arf, letting the girl catch her breath. "Even if you can't fight, you're still useful. Kyou-chan told me how you were a big help with Arashi and Erio while we were out."

Arf smiled at her. "Thanks. I just think that I'm being forgotten slowly."

Miyuki shook her head, her braided ponytail swaying from the motion. "Nah. Fate's just busy and life gets busy. If you feel that way, sleep on her bed when she's here."

Arf nodded, she might just have to do that.

The two blinked as a knocking was heard at the door. Shrugging, Miyuki went to the door and blinked as she saw Suzuka, who was wearing casual clothing, standing there. "Suzuka-chan, what's up?"

"Uh, well..." She smiled as they allowed her to come in. "You both know that I have super strength, right?"

Arf grimaced as she recalled some of those 'training' matches. "Yeah, why?"

"Well, it used to be that I could only use it once in awhile or around Riksfalto when she was bugging me." The purple haired girl started to explain to the two of them.

"Speaking of whom, I haven't seen her in awhile." Miyuki muttered to herself. "Wait a minute, used to be? What?"

Suzuka blushed heavily. "Um... Well, when I was in the bath this morning, and stood up, I put my hand on the edge of the bath tub and... I broke the bathtub."

The two stared at her stupidly.

"I'm getting too strong, and, um..." Suzuka bowed her head and trembled. "Can you please train me to control it?"

Miyuki looked at Arf, who looked back at her. The older girl shrugged at Suzuka. "Sure." It couldn't be too bad. "Oh, just one thing." Suzuka looked up at her and blinked. "If you're going to be like Red Sonja, please remember that a chain mail bikini might look good, but it chafes around your crotch and breasts and doesn't offer protection."

Arf and Suzuka stared at Miyuki, who shrugged. "Mom always gave me that lecture and said that she found that out the hard way when she dressed up as Princess Leia for Halloween one year."

"I don't want to know, do I?" Suzuka asked, getting a shake from Miyuki's head. "So, when can we start?"

Miyuki shrugged. "Whenever you want. I'll talk to dad, he'll know how to help as well."

"Thanks." Suzuka smiled at her.

(-)

Awhile later...

Arashi pouted as he ran into his sister's hospital room. "Nee-chan's not better yet!" He ran over to the bed and shook it lightly. "Hey, nee-chan! Get up! Come on! You need to see this! It's awesome! It's wow and..."

"Arashi." Fate said softly as she walked in with Erio. "You need to calm down. There are others in the hospital who need rest."

Arashi pouted. "Aww! But I wanna show Nee-chan..."

Fate sighed, she knew Arashi wanted Nanoha to be better, so did she, but she couldn't force it. "Sorry, Arashi, it looks like she's not getting better."

"I'll say." A new voice spoke up and Fate's eyes widened and she spun around, Bardiche in his axe form at the ready.

"Riksfalto." Fate narrowed her eyes at the green haired, one-eyed Mazoku. "What are you doing here?"

Riksfalto pulled off her sunglasses, revealing her scarred over eye as she grinned at Fate. "What? Can't I visit an injured warrior?" Fate blinked at her as Riksfalto looked at Nanoha, then at Arashi, who was still shaking the bed, then at Erio. She merely raised an eyebrow at him. "So, how'd she end up so injured?" If there was a fight that ended up with this girl so injured, Riksfalto wanted to know.

Plus she wondered if the person responsible was still alive. It would be a lot of fun to fight against someone who could injure this girl so heavily.

"We were fighting against Shabranigdo." Fate said softly and Riksfalto turned and stared at her. "...What?"

"You're still alive? Damn. Must have been a hell of a fight." Riksfalto pouted then. "Damn, and I missed it! What the heck? Why didn't Dolphin-sama tell me anything?" She sighed when Fate shrugged. "So, Lord Ruby-Eyes did this to her?" Riksfalto frowned as she looked Nanoha over. "Doesn't seem like his style. Then..."

"Someone named Gaav," Fate stiffened as Riksfalto pinned her with a look, "um..."

"That traitor's dead. Hellmaster Phibrizzo himself killed Lord Gaav. That can't be..." Riksfalto's body was starting to crackle with energy and was making Fate very nervous.

Oddly enough, Erio wasn't the least bit bothered by the energy he was feeling.

"Shabranigdo brought Gaav back to life and he injured Nanoha." Fate supplied to her. "After a hard struggle, without Lina-mama or Nanoha, we managed to injure Gaav and fought against Shabranigdo. If Gaav didn't betray Shabranigdo, we wouldn't be here right now."

"So, he got his revenge, huh?" Riksfalto sighed and shook her head. "Well, fine." She looked at Nanoha one last time, before shrugging. "At least she'll survive. She'll need more time to recover though." She looked down at Erio, before reaching down and ruffling the kid's messy hair. "If you want to destroy everything, kid, I really suggest you try to do it when people are tired of living."

"What?" Fate was confused as she looked at Erio and at Riksfalto. "Do you know who Erio is?"

"Erio?" Riksfalto looked at the boy in confusion.

Erio looked back, silently. He was looking at her partially afraid, but mostly curious. "Yes?"

"Huh, guess so." Riksfalto shook her head and narrowed her good eye. "Oh." Said eye widened and she stepped back. "Ah, well... I think I'm going to be leaving now."

"Huh?" Fate blinked at the Mazoku General.

"Let's just say that I don't want to piss off mother." A strained smile came to the Mazoku's face as she disappeared. "Let Nanoha know that I can't wait to fight her when she gets better."

Fate was left blinking at the spot where Riksfalto was in confusion.

Arashi, on the other hand, missed the whole thing, as he was too busy shaking the bed and calling for his nee-chan to wake up.

- Takamachi End


	150. Peek Scrya Start

Blood That Flows

Peek

Scrya Start

Sorry about not updating yesterday. I had just gotten back from a long trip, and I was tired.

* * *

Scrya Start

Arisa grimaced as she and Yuuno materialized on the ground of whatever planet this was. "Ugh... You weren't kidding when you said it was hot." The short-haired girl was wearing yellow shorts and a thin, light colored shirt.

Yuuno, in cargo shorts and a short-sleeved shirt, nodded. "Even if it wasn't this hot, I would have still suggested shorts. I've never been on a dig where it didn't get hot."

**"It doesn't hurt that her shorts are so tight, huh boss?"**

Yuuno's eyes widened as he and Arisa blushed. The latter put her hands on her butt and spun around, glaring at Yuuno. "You! Stop staring at my butt!"

"Hey! I wasn't!" Yuuno took a step back as she glared at him. "Come on, Arisa, I really wasn't."

"Hmph! I bet you were! You probably hacked the security cameras and saw me changing, didn't you?" Arisa walked up to Yuuno and poked him in the chest, causing the taller boy to sweat-drop at that.

"Arisa, I wouldn't look at your butt without your permission, or if we were crouched and you were right in front of me."

**"Boss wouldn't need to see your butt anyway, Fate likes to show hers off all the time."**

Even though they were blushing, both Yuuno and Arisa had to nod at that. They didn't think anything negative about Fate, but her revealing outfits did tend to show off her chest or ass a lot.

Yuuno wondered how much of that was Precia's influence, since the only outfit he ever remembered seeing her in, except when she was on her death bed, was that insanely revealing dress.

He did all that he could to forget the conversation that he overheard Fate and that Naga woman having about fashion. It wasn't too bad, until Miyuki overheard and joined in as well. The thought of the two of them dressing up like she did was rather... Uncomfortable.

"Still, stop staring at my butt so much then!" Arisa grabbed Yuuno and pulled him into a headlock. "It's not like I sneak into your room and stare at you when you sleep!" Arisa growled as Yuuno swung his arms up and down as he tried, though not too hard, to get free. "Now, what are, HEY!" She yelped and let go of Yuuno while grabbing her butt and jumping away from him. "What do you think you're doing?"

Yuuno sighed and shook his head. "Can't you feel that?"

Arisa twitched, did he have to push against her butt to get free? She looked at the direction he was looking and blinked. "What the?" The energy she was feeling was resonating with her body. "What's that?"

"Not sure, let's find out."

"Fine, but just remember, this isn't over!" Arisa rapped Yuuno on the head. "Touching my butt without permission? I shall make you pay for this."

**"You want a picture of boss in the shower?"**

"Dammit, Thoth!" Yuuno growled as he took off into the air.

Arisa sighed and wings erupted from her back as she took off after Yuuno. "Stupid jerk! I never gave you permission to touch me like that!"

About the only good thing that Arisa enjoyed about this flight was that it was fast. Even her friends had trouble keeping up with her when she was going as fast as possible. The problem was, as fast as she was, Yuuno was almost as fast and he had a head start on her. "Get back here!"

(-)

Yuuno landed on a rocky outcropping, Arisa landing right behind him a moment later. Before he could say anything, she tackled him to the ground and sat on his back. "GAH!"

"I'll teach you to leave me behind like that, you jerk!" Arisa bounced on his back while grinding her knuckles against his scalp.

"Oww!" Yuuno yelped in pain. "Okay, I'm sorry. Can you get off?"

"Hmph!" Arisa got off of Yuuno and blinked as an older man, with gray hair, walked up to meet them. "Hello?"

"Yuuno?" The man looked at Yuuno, who was dusting his outfit off. "How are you, nephew? I haven't seen you in so long." He pulled Yuuno into a hug as he chuckled and patted the boy's back.

"Ack! Uncle!" Yuuno perked up as the man let him go. "Arisa, this is my uncle Miata."

Arisa nodded to the man and sweat-dropped lightly. The guy was pretty big. Far bigger than most Japanese that she had seen. Practically the size of a tree and built like one as well. She then looked at Yuuno, then back at Miata. "...What the heck do you eat?"

The man laughed at her and shook his head. "Nothing special, I just like to lift things physically and only use magic for the stuff that's way too big to lift. Helps build up your body." He then slapped Yuuno on the back, causing his younger nephew to stumble forward. "Then again, I'm the oddball of the Scrya Clan." He took a deep breath and looked in the distance. "Sadly, I think we're all going to have to evac soon. The Dragons over there have been pretty irritable and not leaving their place."

Yuuno nodded. "Alright. Come on, Arisa."

"Huh?" Miata blinked. "What are you doing?" He put his hand on Yuuno's shoulder and blinked as Yuuno shrugged it off and looked at him. There was something in those eyes, experiences far beyond what those small scars on his face were showing.

"To confront the Dragons. I"ll be fine." Before Miata could say anything, Yuuno had already left, Arisa right behind him.

Miata blinked, several times as he watched them retreat. "...What happened to you, nephew?"

(-)

It didn't take long for Yuuno and Arisa to end up landing near a small field of flowers. Even though he had seen Dragons before, Yuuno had to admit, the big black one that stood far above the others was by far the most impressive of the group.

**"Gee, boss, I didn't know that there was an Elder Dragon here."**

"Elder?" Yuuno blinked and looked at Thoth. On his wrist a small view screen appeared, revealing a smaller version of the giant creature to him and Arisa.

**"Elder Dragons, known to some as Ancient Dragons. A young adult Elder Dragon is said to be nearly four thousand years old and they can live upwards of nearly eight hundred thousand years. Unlike most Dragons, they walk upright like humans. An Elder Dragon has several blast attacks that can come from its mouth, hands, shoulders and wings. Especially powerful ones have breath that can freeze, burn, paralyze and rot your body within seconds. Physical strength is immeasurable. Intelligence surpasses most creatures that exist."**

"And we're going to find out why they're all gathering?" Arisa, who had only met Val and Filia, had never seen a Dragon as impressive as this. Val was rather small in his Dragon form after all.

_"Humans."_ Yuuno and Arisa blinked as they heard a low growl in their heads. _"If you are humans. Have you come to harm this one?"_

"This one?" Arisa asked softly.

**"Hey, boss, look at his feet."**

Yuuno and Arisa looked and stared as they saw a small human with dirty pink hair trembling softly.

_"Answer me. Why have you come here?"_

"You're terrifying the people of the area." Yuuno spoke, not knowing exactly who he was speaking to. "We were coming to find out why."

The large Dragon stared at them. For several moments there was nothing but silence. The Dragon then lowered itself down and took a close look at the two of them. _"You two feel like this one does. Are you trustworthy?"_

"What's going on?" Arisa gulped as she looked at the Dragon, who's slitted eyes narrowed at her.

_"You feel almost like this one does, just smell different. Take care of this one and we shall go back to the mountains."_

"You won't harm anyone?"

The Dragon looked at Yuuno and gave a brief nod. _"This one is scared, sad, alone and hungry. We were protecting this one from others."_

"Fine!" Arisa yelled at the Dragon, before gulping as his eye focused on her. "We'll watch 'this one' for you and make sure that nothing bad happens."

_"Very well. But shall any harm come to this one, I shall hunt you two down."_

Yuuno and Arisa covered their faces as the Dragons, all at the same time, flapped their wings and took off into the air.

"What... Just happened?" Arisa asked as Yuuno walked over to the spot where the human was.

"Well, I think..." Yuuno stared as he picked the child up. "We were just talked into adopting... Um... I can't tell if this kid's a boy or a girl."

Arisa sighed and walked over to the child. The little kid was very dirty, the hair was matted and tears were coming out of the child's face. The only reason Yuuno couldn't tell was because of a ratty sheet that was wrapped around the body. "Close your eyes for a moment." When Yuuno did so, she pulled the sheet up and nodded before putting it down. "Okay, you can look. She's a girl."

"...So, we just adopted a girl and..." Yuuno blinked as he saw her arms wrapped tightly around something. "...And a baby Dragon."

Arisa gave Yuuno a small grin. "So... Papa, shall we get going?" When Yuuno nodded, she started chuckling. "Man, all our friends are going to wonder where she came from."

Yuuno smirked at her and Arisa gulped, wondering what was going through his mind. "Well, we can just say that she's the results of an illicit love affair the two of us had awhile back."

"YUUNO!" Arisa blushed heavily as the two took off into the air.

* * *

I made Thoth into a Pokedex, wasn't intentional.


	151. Peek Scrya Two

Blood That Flows

Peek

Scrya 2

* * *

"Ngh..." She blinked as something assaulted her sense of smell. Opening her eyes all the way, she gasped as she saw several plates of food, a glass and a bowl full of water. Looking around, she didn't see anyone. "Fried... Fried, look! Food!" She shook the small white Dragon in her hands, trying to wake him up and hoping he was okay.

"Ku?" The small Dragon blinked as his mistress shook him awake. Blinking, he stared at the food as his mistress carried him over to the food.

"Come on, Fried." His mistress whispered to him. "We'll eat fast and then run before they..." She seemed to slump, before her stomach growled loudly. Frowning slightly, she grabbed a plate full of various meats and greens, she started to tear into the food. Fried jumped onto the plate with lots of meat and started to tear into it.

The girl made a contented noise and her eyes seemed to tear up, even as she ate the vegetables. She didn't even _like_the taste of vegetables, but she was so hungry that she was going to eat anything.

Fried growled as he tore into the food. Meat chunks hung from his jaw as tore the food free and then swallowed it. After shivering in delight, he dropped his head into the bowl of water and started sucking it down.

The girl shuddered as she finished off the first plate. Licking it clean, she eyed the plate of bread. Not seeing anyone stopping her, she grabbed the loaf of bread and broke it in half, putting some near Fried and quickly devouring the rest.

"PAH!" The girl smiled as she finished off the food before grabbing the glass of water and taking a long gulp. "So good!" She flopped back and rubbed her belly, which was sticking out slightly.

Fried jumped away from his devoured food before laying next to his mistress, purring contently.

"Wow, and I thought I ate a lot." A sudden male voice had the two sitting up instantly. The girl looked at where the voice was coming from with a scared expression on her face and the Dragon was hissing in that general direction. "Hey, it's okay." He held up his hands. "I'm not going to hurt you, I promise."

A small breeze came into the room, causing his short ponytail to dance in the wind while he smiled at her. "My name is Yuuno Scrya. Scrya is my clan name, so you can call me Yuuno. What's your name?" He sighed as she didn't say anything and lowered his hands. "I promise, I won't hurt you. I helped make that food..."

"Oh!" The girl started to tremble and Yuuno frowned lightly, causing her eyes to water up. "I'm sorry! I didn't know it was for someone else." Tears started flowing down her face. "I was," she hiccuped, "so hungry that I," the girl was starting to have trouble talking normally, "I ate it without, without thinking!" She threw her head back and started crying loudly.

Yuuno sweat-dropped as she started crying. "Wow, what happened?" He asked himself softly as he walked up to the bed. Ignoring the Dragon's hissing, he sat down next to the distraught girl and pulled her into a hug. He nearly smiled as the sobbing almost instantly stopped and the girl quieted down. He frowned in confusion as he felt her whole body tense up. "So, can you tell me your name? I won't harm you, I promise."

"C...Caro..."

"Do you have a last name?"

Caro sniffled and buried her face against his chest. "I don't know. My clan kicked me out because I found Fried as an egg."

Yuuno looked at the small Dragon, who was looking down and letting out sad noises. "So, Fried is your name?"

"Ku..." The Dragon whimpered softly.

"Now, why would they do something like that?" Yuuno whispered softly. The girl started to sniffle horribly and Yuuno grimaced. "How about you tell me your last name before you got kicked out?"

"Lu Ruche."

"Caro Lu Ruche, huh?" Yuuno frowned softly. He didn't know any Lu Ruche's before. _"Hey, Arisa..."_

_"ACK! Yuuno, stop getting into my head! What do you want?"_

Yuuno smiled softly at that tone of voice, at least some things were normal. _"Arisa, could you ask any of my family if they know any clans called Lu Ruche on this planet?"_

_"Sure, that's her name then?"_

_"Yeah, Caro Lu Ruche, and apparently she was abandoned by them."_

Arisa had gone silent, but Yuuno was almost certain that she was upset. Looking down at Caro, he softened his voice a little bit. "So, can you tell me why you're in a rag and asleep in the middle of nowhere?" He gently put his hand on her head.

"Oww!" Caro cried out and started squirming and trying to push away from him.

"What the?" Yuuno blinked at that. "Caro, calm down, Caro!" He grabbed her and made the young girl look at him. "I'm sorry, I didn't know your head was hurting." Again, he ignored the way Fried was growling at him. "I know some healing magic, let me help you, okay?"

Caro looked at him and nodded. "Owwie!" She cried out as he touched her head again.

"What the?" Yuuno's eyes widened as he parted her hair. 'How the hell is still alive?' He thought to himself as he saw the crack on her skull. "Caro, I want you to lay on your belly on the bed so I can heal you, okay?"

Caro nodded and did that. "My head hurts..."

Yuuno nodded as the small girl laid down. "I don't doubt it." Lightly clapping his hands together, they started to glow brightly. "This won't hurt a bit. Resurrection." If Yuuno was honest with himself, he knew that this spell might have been a bit of a waste and overkill, but he wanted to heal her as soon as he could.

_"Hey, Yuuno?"_Arisa's voice got into his head.

_"Yeah?"_

_"Turns out that your uncle and some of your cousins know a bit about this, they wanna talk to you in person."_

_"Thanks, Arisa. I'll be there as soon as I'm done healing her."_

_"Healing? What's wrong?"_

_"Seems that she had a small crack on her skull. I'm surprised she's alive."_Yuuno smiled as he finished his spell and gently touched Caro's head. "How is it?"

"Doesn't... Hurt..." Caro sat up and smiled at him. "Thank you."

"No problem. So... How did you get so hurt?"

Caro frowned softly. "That mean lady!"

"Mean lady?" Yuuno blinked at her. "What mean lady?"

"I don't know. She was tall and had something over one eye and had this thing in her hands." Caro balled one hand into a fist and put her other hand over it before snapping it upwards. "It was metal and sharp and..."

"It's okay." Yuuno waved down her explanation. "Sounds like she had a sword of some sort. What else do you remember?"

"There were..." Caro started pointing at random. "Four others! One smiling woman with a book and a s..sw...swhord..."

"Sword." Yuuno nodded. "What about the other three?"

"One was all frowny and didn't talk. One just looked at me and said 'you handle this' to the mean lady and the last one looked like this." Caro tried her best to make herself grin with all her teeth barred. "And he wore a fuzzy coat."

"Uh huh, what happened?" Yuuno was mentally frowning. It wasn't much, in fact, he had no idea who these people were.

"The fuzzy coat said 'kill her' and the one who had the book said 'we're not animals, we just killed a little while ago,' and then the mean lady hit Fried with the part of her swhord that was in her hand before hitting me on the head with it."

Yuuno let out a small sigh. Well, even with all of that, he still didn't know much, but he did have to admit, the girl had a knack for remembering stuff. "I see. So, why are you in that rag then?"

Caro looked at herself and pouted. "I stopped to take a bath in a lake with Fried and a strong wind picked up and all my clothes flew away."

Yuuno sweat-dropped at that. _'Well, at least it wasn't some sick freak.'_"Well, Caro, you just rest, I'll have Arisa and some of my cousins help you find some clothes, okay?" Caro blinked, but nodded. "I need to see my uncle about something. So, I need to leave for a little bit. I promise that I'll be back."

"Okay." Caro nodded slowly as Yuuno got up and left.

"Ku?" Fried walked over to her and she pulled him into a hug.

"I like him." Caro smiled softly. That smile left her face slowly. She just knew he was going to leave her. Everyone but Fried did, eventually.


	152. Peek Scrya Three

Blood That Flows

Peek

Scrya 3

* * *

Yuuno looked at his uncle and a couple of his female cousins as he walked into one of the tents that they had put up for everyone.

"You're asking about the Lu Ruche clan, huh?" Miata shook his head slowly. "I would be careful with them. They're a nomad tribe of summoners."

Yuuno blinked a few times. "Summoners?"

"Yep!" Yuuno looked at his redheaded female cousin. "Most of them are pretty strong. There are a few Dragon summoners among them, but for the most part, they tend to have other summons available."

Yuuno blinked at that. "Nearly forgot that you're almost as good as I am with information, Reiko."

"Almost as good?" She narrowed her eyes at him. "I'll have you know that I've been working at the Infinity Library with a few more of your cousins. Gods, that place is a mess."

Yuuno blinked and thought about it. "Oh yeah, Chrono mentioned something about wanting to see how good I was with searching that place." Not that he wanted to be stuck in a library. It was more fun to be on adventures with Nanoha, Fate and the others.

Idly, he wondered how much of that was because of the influence of Lina and her family on him.

"Anyway, we're getting off topic." Miata sweat-dropped at Reiko suddenly jumped at Yuuno and slammed into his barrier. Oddly enough, he barely felt anything from that. "The Lu Ruche clan was spotted not too far from where you found that girl. So, if you want, we can..." He stared as Yuuno turned around. "Hey! What are you doing?"

"Going to go talk to them." Yuuno answered without looking back. "I need some information from them."

"You're going to go up to a tribe of summoners and demand information about that girl?" Reiko asked, staring at his body. "Cousin, that's suicide! I don't care how much stronger you've gotten, you can't beat an entire tribe of summoners."

Yuuno looked at her and grinned softly. For some reason, his eyes didn't hold a lot of humor and the scars on his face, now that she paid attention to them, seemed to almost flash. "I'm glad that you care, but I'll be fine. I don't intend to start a fight anyway."

He wasn't Nanoha or Vita. They would have likely have started a fight.

"How can you be so calm?" Reiko asked him, worry in her voice.

Yuuno chuckled softly as Reiko walked outside with him. He gave the girl a tight hug and smiled when he let go. "Because, even if they tried to kill me, I'll be able to handle myself. Besides, they aren't my enemies."

"What happened, Yuuno?" Reiko stared at him and he shook his head. "Come on! You used to be the little timid boy who'd hide behind me when the rest of our cousins picked on you! What happened to my cute little cousin?"

Yuuno chuckled and sweat-dropped. "Well... When you have to fight for your life against various enemies and demons so powerful that they can kill you with a thought, you tend to not worry too much about the smaller things in life."

"...What?" Reiko asked weakly, her voice trembling slightly and Yuuno sighed, giving her another hug.

"Since I was nine, I've been close to death many times. Not just me, but many of the people I've stayed with in the past five years, we've all been in fights that none of us should have won. I've been in seven confrontations that nearly got me killed." He pulled back and sighed at how pale she had become. "I've had friends, strong friends who faced these dangers with me and helped me when I needed it. I've helped them when they needed me. So, that girl right now, she needs someone, so I just want some answers so I can help her, just like you helped me, just like my friends have helped me."

Reiko frowned as he started to take off. "I'm coming with you!" When Yuuno blinked in confusion, she shook her head. "Don't care if you've gotten stronger, cousin, you're still that cute little kid that hid behind me so I could throw potatoes at our cousins who picked on you."

Yuuno shook his head. Well, that was an amusing thought at least. "Sure."

"Hold it." The two blinked as Arisa walked up to them. "Just what's going on?"

"Before you say anything, I was going to come get you." Yuuno held up a hand to try and keep her from reacting. "How about Caro, is she okay?"

"She's asleep." Arisa chuckled softly. "I walked in and she was out cold. I asked some of your family to keep an eye on her so she doesn't run off on us."

"So, we're going to go check on the tribe that she comes from and find out some information." Yuuno supplied and Arisa nodded, flaming wings sprouting from her back and Yuuno looked at her in confusion.

"...What?"

"I've been wondering, can you use any element besides fire? I mean, I'm stuck using fire since I got my Holy magic from the Fire Dragon King. But, you didn't, so..."

Arisa scratched her head and blinked. "Huh, never thought about it. I'll have to try it when we get back."

"Blue fire?" Reiko blinked. "...How come I don't feel too, YEEOW!" She jumped back as Arisa turned her shoulder, causing the wings to get close to her. "Okay, I guess it's pretty hot."

Arisa grinned at her. "I actually have a hard time feeling heat, didn't you say something about that, too, Yuuno?"

He chuckled and nodded. "Yeah, I can't feel heat or cold very well anymore. I was ONLY dropped in lava when I met Vrabazard."

"...What?" Reiko stared at Yuuno, who blinked at her. "LAVA?"

"Yeah. Huh, I guess I should tell you some stuff." Yuuno grabbed Reiko and took off into the air. "Try and keep up, cousin. Come on, Arisa."

"Right behind you." Arisa smirked as she took off into the air after them. It quickly became apparent that Reiko, despite being fairly talented and capable of flight, wasn't nearly as fast as she or Yuuno were. Heck, Hayate was probably faster in the air than Reiko was.

Oh well, it wasn't like Reiko had a freakish advantage like all her friends did after all.

As they flew through the air, Reiko stared at him. _"So... You met a god? A real god?"_ Yuuno nodded. _"And he dipped you in lava?"_

_"Dropped me, but yeah."_ Yuuno shot back to her telepathically. _"Almost died there. Tapped into his Holy magic right there and he gave me his blessing to use his power whenever and wherever I was."_

_"Not to mention you got a wicked tattoo out of it."_ Arisa shot back, grinning as the wind blew through her hair. Her flaming wings flapped as she spun around to face the two cousins. _"Of course, Yuuno still gets his butt kicked by me all the time when we spar."_

_"When Nanoha isn't blasting you after I tie you up."_ Yuuno shot back and smirked as her face went red.

_"You keep wrapping those binds around my chest and groin! How else am I supposed to react?"_

_"Gee... Cousin, why didn't you tell me that you had a girlfriend?"_ Reiko smirked as Yuuno spun around and shook his head while Arisa's faced turned a brilliant shade of crimson.

_"I'm NOT his girlfriend!"_

_"Really?"_ Reiko blinked as she floated in mid-air. _"Because from where I'm flying..."_

_"Well, I'm not!"_ Arisa crossed her arms and turned away from Reiko. _"Besides, he's closer to Nanoha, Fate, Miyuki and Vita than me."_

_"FOUR girlfriends?"_ Reiko stared at Yuuno, who was blushing hard. _"Woah! Don't tell me that I've got some second cousins on the way."_

**"Nah, boss hasn't done anything more than sleep in their beds."**

Yuuno slapped his forehead. _"Dammit. No, it's not..."_

_"Wow! My baby cousin's a stud! Whoo hoo!"_ Reiko pumped her fist into the air. _"So..."_

_"Nothing's happened."_ Yuuno gave her a flat look. _"They're my friends and I care for them and I want to help them. But nothing's happened between us. Come on, let's find that clan."_

The two girls just looked at each other as Yuuno took off into the distance. Shrugging, they followed after him and hoped that they found the tribe before too long.

(-)

An hour later...

"A beautiful day." A young man muttered as he walked around the village. It wasn't large, and other than learning how to summon and how to be better at it, there wasn't much to do.

It was peaceful and he liked it that way.

Looking up, he blinked as a young teenaged male and two teenaged females walked into the village. "Can I help you?" He had never seen any of them, though, he didn't find that too surprising, since nomads didn't often stick to one place long enough to make too many contacts.

"Can I speak to the elder of your tribe?" The male asked him and he blinked.

"There a problem?"

"I'm in search of information about someone." The male said, causing him to blink again.

Whenever someone asked for information on a specific person, it never ended up well. Still, he had no real reason to not let them speak to the elder.

After all, they might just be looking for a friend of theirs.

(-)

Yuuno looked at the elder. The man was thin, had gray hair that was starting to fall out. He was wearing a simple green tunic around his body while he sat cross-legged on the ground, a thin pipe in his right hand. His skin had many wrinkles on it, though Yuuno was almost certain that was more because of a harsh life and less about his age. "Thank you for seeing us."

The elder nodded. "Please, we are... Slightly wary about outsiders, as you can probably guess. So, I'll ask you to get straight to the point."

"I recently found a young girl named Caro and," Yuuno stopped as he saw the man tense up, "I take it her being alone was no coincidence."

"No, it was not." The man shook his head "Her power was so great that we had to remove her from the village and the clan."

"WHAT?" Arisa yelled as she stared at him. "What kind of nonsense is that!"

The elder fixed her with a hard stare. "It is so we can survive. If she was to die, I would be saddened, yes, but I must think about the good of the tribe as a whole. Someone of her power and ability would only bring doom upon us."

Arisa growled and would have moved had binds not snapped around her at that moment. "Dammit, Yuuno!"

"I didn't come here to judge, Arisa. Clans and tribes have to think about things that families don't." Yuuno never stopped looking at the elder. "Even so, that's rather harsh. Even my clan makes sure that any members we kick out are taken care of before leaving them."

"She was to go to the nearest town and meet up with a Bureau contact that we had set up ahead of time for her." The elder explained. "I take it she did not make it?"

"That poor girl was in rags, out cold with a cracked skull and Dragons were watching over her. Of course she didn't make it!" Arisa snapped at him and he sighed.

"I see... It was a good thing that we had her leave when we did."

Arisa's pupils shrank at that and her face went red in anger. "You... How dare..."

"Arisa!" Yuuno snapped at her. "Calm down." His voice was measured, controlled. "So removing someone saved your clan?"

The elder closed his eyes. "Harsh as it may seem, it was not a decision made lightly. When she was able to summon Voltaire, I had no choice but to have her leave. Summons of his caliber have been nothing but trouble for our people."

"Let's go." Yuuno stood up and helped Arisa up after dispelling her binds. "So, if Caro was to never return, you would not be saddened?"

The elder shook his head. "No, I would not."

Arisa was trembling as she glared at him. "How can you be so... So callous?"

He raised an eyebrow at her. "Having her stay here would be more cruel for both my people and that girl." He nodded at her stupefied look. "Take care of her. Destiny is rarely kind to people who catch her attention."

After the three teens left, the elder sighed to himself. "I truly believe that she would have doomed us all, because children like her are destined for more than just a nomadic lifestyle." He whispered to himself as he closed his eyes.

(-)

As they left the nomads, Arisa was trembling in anger. "He... He thinks that just because she might have a destiny and has great power that he should just cast her away?"

Reiko shrugged at that. "Wouldn't be the first time someone was afraid of someone with a lot of power."

"Still, I... ARRRGH!" Arisa yelled before lashing out with a gigantic fireball, which soared into the sky before erupting and becoming a second sun.

"Come on, let's go." Yuuno sighed softly as he took off into the air.

"How can you be so calm?" Arisa asked as she and Reiko joined him.

_"Because getting mad and starting a fight wouldn't help Caro, would it?"_

The other two had nothing to say to that.

(-)

Caro sighed as she stepped outside in the clothes that the Scrya clan had been nice enough to give to her. It was a simple green shirt and shorts combination and it was really nice, but... "He left..." She sighed, wondering why she had hoped for that guy to be any different. "Come on, Fried, let's go."

"Kuu..." Her Dragon purred softly as he floated next to her shoulder.

"Going somewhere?"

Caro's eyes widened and she spun around to see Yuuno and two others walking up to her. "You..."

"Hey, sorry that took so long, but it was hard to find what I was looking for. I needed Arisa and Reiko to help me out." Yuuno smiled at her and the next thing he knew, she had jumped at him and started bawling while burying her face against him. "...Caro?"

"You didn't leave me..." Caro sobbed against him as he knelt down to give her a hug. "You didn't leave me."

Yuuno smiled and rubbed her back. "No, I didn't. Caro, I want to ask you something." The young girl stiffened, fearing the worst. "I'm going to be heading back to a planet called "Earth" soon, since I don't think Arisa can stay away from school like I can, do you want to come with us?"

Caro pulled away, staring at him in shock while tears still leaked down her face. "You... Me... Huh?"

"What he's saying..." Arisa spoke up as she took a step forward, "is that, would you like to have a new place to call home, where people will be with you more often?"

"YES!" Caro hugged Yuuno again, crying. "Yes! Please!"

Watching the scene, Reiko just smiled. Maybe she didn't have to worry about her cousin as much as she thought she did.


	153. Peek Scrya End

Blood That Flows

Peek

Scrya End

* * *

"I'm sorry that you're leaving so soon." Miata shook his head as he looked at Yuuno, Arisa and Caro. "But, in this case, it's understandable."

"How's the rest of the family?" Yuuno asked his uncle, getting a laugh from him.

"Well, a lot of them miss you." He grinned at the young teenager. "You should come and visit us more often." He looked at Caro and narrowed his eyes at her. "And **you**, young lady." Caro stiffened and whimpered, before he grinned and pulled her into a hug. "You be a good little girl for my nephew, okay?" Caro nodded for him and he laughed while setting her down.

"Ku... Ku..." Fried chirped from his position on Arisa's shoulder. The small Dragon only really felt this comfortable on Caro's shoulder, he wasn't sure why Arisa's shoulder was so similar to him.

"Well, we'll take off then." Yuuno waved at them. "I'd stay longer, but, I think you can understand if I don't." Miata nodded at him as Caro ran over and hugged Yuuno's legs. "Take care, nephew." A flash of light later, and the three humans and one Dragon were gone. "How come you didn't go with, Reiko?"

The redhead shrugged. "What? I know I can visit Yuuno anytime I want, and he's okay. And he's got people looking after him, so, what do I care?"

Miata chuckled softly. "I think you're still worried that those girls around him will just end up using him." Reiko pouted, but said nothing. "If you wanted to follow him..."

"Nah." Reiko shook her head, chuckling. "I came here for a dig, not make sure that my cousin has girlfriends that take care of him." She snorted at his look. "If I go after him, it'll be after this, so, let's get back to work."

Miata chuckled and nodded. "Good point."

(-)

A couple of hours later...

Lina blinked as she heard the door shut and heard Yuuno's voice. "Welcome home, Yuuno!" She called out. "I'm in the kitchen."

"Anyone else here?" Lina looked and smiled as she saw Arisa with Yuuno.

"Well, Fate took Arf, Erio and Arashi to the park and Suzuka's seeing my husband and Miyuki about training." Lina chuckled softly. "Gone for most of the day and you'd think that you were coming back after weeks away." She blinked as she saw something different. "And who's this little dear?" Lina smiled as she walked over to Caro, who whimpered and hid behind Yuuno's legs.

"Her name's Caro." Yuuno smiled and put a hand behind him to guide her out from behind him. "Introduce yourself."

"Hi..." Caro blushed and bowed to Lina. "I'm Caro Lu Rushe and this is my Dragon, Friedrich. You can call him Fried." She motioned to the small Dragon that was floating just above her shoulder.

"Well, Caro Lu Rushe." Lina smiled as the girl looked up. "My name is Lina Takamachi. Would you like to have dinner here?"

Caro's eyes sparkled and she impulsively hugged Lina. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

Lina smiled as she hugged the girl back. "You're welcome, I'll have to put more food on and we should hurry before..."

"We're home!" Fate's voice rang out. "Yuuno!" She cried out happily as she caught him. "I didn't expect to see you back."

Yuuno turned to see Fate, Erio, Arashi and Arf, the latter in her puppy form, walking into the house. "Well, things happened and I ended up bringing home someone too."

Erio blinked and walked close to the group and poked his head in. He didn't know who the pink haired girl was and, being curious, said the first thing that came to his mind. "Who's the shrimp?"

Caro let go of the hug and stared at Erio, her eyes blank and white as she started swinging her arms up and down. "Wha, wha, what?"

Lina was lucky she leaned back to avoid the swinging arms. "Erio?"

"Um..." Erio looked at Caro again and nodded. "Who is she?"

"You called me a shrimp!" Caro suddenly bolted forward and tackled Erio to the ground. "I am not seafood!"

"Ah..." Yuuno and Fate said at the same time as they saw the two start growling and pulling at each others faces.

Lina started laughing as she looked at the two roll around and knocking Arashi down, who joined in with a yell. "Reminds me of Miyuki and Kyouya when they were little."

"So, this is normal?" Fate pointed to the trio of kids and Lina nodded.

"Yeah. Besides," Lina smiled as she looked at the kids, "they aren't crying, I think they're just fine." She turned around and walked off, muttering something about getting a camera.

"So..." Fate looked at Arisa and Yuuno. "...What happened?"

"Would you believe an incredibly wild affair that lasted for years on a planet with accelerated time and only a day passed for the rest of you?" Yuuno asked, his face neutral.

"Whaaaa?"

"Yuuno!"

**"I thought you weren't going to talk about that, boss."**

Yuuno started laughing at the looks he was getting from Fate and Arisa. "What? It was too good to pass up."

Fate pouted at him and turned away, crossing her arms. "That wasn't a very nice joke."

Arisa nodded and glared at him. "What's the point of saying that anyway?"

"Um..." Yuuno sweat-dropped at their looks while the kids stopped wrestling on the floor and ran out of the area, Caro chasing Erio and Arashi while they ran from her. The pink haired girl was swinging her arms up and down while telling them to stop running so she could get them. "Would it help if I said I was sorry?"

"No." They said at the same time.

Yuuno just sighed.

- Scrya End


	154. Peek Fatherhood

Blood That Flows

Peek

Fatherhood

Just a one chapter mini-arc this time.

* * *

On the Red World...

Staring at a mountain in the distance, and not thinking on much, he leaned back and smiled. His eyes were closed as usual, but there wasn't anything that he missed. "Carona, Lena..." He smirked as he felt the two appear behind him, both letting out waves of being upset that he had caught them. "Nice try."

"Daddy!" Lena stomped her foot and jumped on his head. "Why didn't you at least pretend to be caught?"

Xellos raised an eyebrow as his daughter clung to his head. "You know the answer to that."

"A secret." Both of his daughters said at the same time. "Why do you like to keep secrets so much?" Lena asked him as she squeezed his head more.

"If I told you, that would take away the fun."

"Come on, daddy!" Carona jumped in front of Xellos and gave him the cutest look she could muster. "Please?"

Xellos chuckled. It didn't take him long to realize that those two kids did all they could to get him to cave into their demands. In a way, it was really cute. "Unlike your mother, I'm not as easy to sway with cuteness, girls."

Carona pouted. "No fair! Mommy doesn't react when we're like this either and said you would."

Xellos raised an eyebrow. Rangort didn't budge when they were cute? He really did think that she would have caved into them a few times.

Then again, it _was_Rangort they were talking about. The last time he saw her after that battle against Shabranigdo, she had a most... Unusually relaxed look on her face.

That may have been because she was naked under a waterfall and washing off. Not that she needed it, since she could just make herself clean with a thought, but he found it rather amusing and quaint.

At least until she decided that she didn't like him ogling her ass and tits anymore and hit him on the head with a floating mountain.

Xellos rubbed his forehead. It wasn't like he kept himself hidden from her. Why'd she have to belt him with that mountain anyway?

"Where to next, daddy?" Lena asked as she jumped off of his head and stood next to her twin.

Xellos had a tight smile on his face. "Well, I have a few contacts under Dolphin that weren't fighting for Lord Ruby-Eye, I think we need to pay them a visit."

"Yay! Contacts!" Lena grinned and her fingers twitched. "If they lie, can I blow them up?"

"No fair!" Carona pouted. "I wanted to see if I could squeeze them until they popped!"

Xellos just smirked. He had to admit, for half Mazoku, half Shinzoku, these girls were rather vicious, at least some of the time.

He still felt nauseous when he remembered the two of them clearing a plague from that one town a day ago. It was enough to make him almost violently ill. Especially when he remembered how things were on those two continents on Lina's new home world.

As he stood up and they started walking off to the distance, none of them felt the need to teleport through the Astral plane at that moment, Xellos just shook his head. Even if he got sick from too many positive emotions and Rangort got weak around too many negative emotions, their children probably wouldn't suffer any.

After all, they could just feed off of any emotion that a person was feeling and feel just fine.

Xellos made a mental note to _never_ let Amelia be around these two for too long. Half gods or not, he was almost certain that even _she_ could make a Shinzoku feel ill from being around her for too long.

(-)

Elsewhere...

"Mr. Gourry." The blonde swordsman turned to see an old friend walk up to him.

"Hey, Amelia, what's up?" He waved and stood up while holding his son.

The younger princess of Seiryuun smiled at him as she nodded to one of the off-worlders that were helping rebuild the city. It was amazing how fast they were working. It had only been a few days since that battle, but amazingly, the city was mostly rebuilt, other than a few buildings that had minor damages to them. "What are you and Miss Sylphiel planning on doing?"

Gourry shrugged at that. "Don't know, actually. We were planning on staying here and helping out, but..."

"Yes, well..." Amelia sighed softly. "Poor daddy, he nearly had a fit when he saw the damage from the battle."

"BOOM!" Gourry's son chirped in, giggling. "Big crab go boom!"

Gourry chuckled softly. "Hey, Amelia, I was wondering, if your dad was the Prince, and you and your sisters are Princesses, who was running the whole kingdom?"

"I thought we explained this to you." Amelia sighed as Gourry got a confused look on his face. "Until recently, it was my grandfather who was King, but he was very ill for very long, so my father took charge. Sadly, my grandfather passed away not too long ago." Even if she didn't know her grandfather that well, it was still sad to see her family pass away.

Even the family members who made deals with Mazoku and betrayed the kingdom. Seeing them die was painful for her.

"Oh... So Phil is now the King?"

"Yep!" Amelia smiled brightly. She was about to say something more when someone tapped her on the shoulder. She turned her head slightly and blinked as someone whispered to her. "Oh, well, I'm sorry, Mr. Gourry, but my father's calling for an assembly about some ambassadors that have shown up from the outer world."

Gourry nodded as Amelia turned and left. "Huh, so, now what?"

"WHOOSH!" His son kicked his legs up and down and Gourry nodded.

"Alright, we'll do that." He chuckled as he put his son down on the ground, laughing as his son ran from him. "You better hurry, or I'll get you." He yelled as he plodded on after his son.

The little boy squealed as he tried to outrun his father.

In the distance, Sylphiel smiled as she watched Gourry play with his son. She didn't know if what she had dreamed was real or not. Even if premonitions weren't uncommon among Shrine Maidens, and Sylphiel didn't think she qualified for that anymore, since she had a child, she had never had those kind of dreams herself.

Though, if her dream was a vision of the future, she wasn't afraid of it.

(-)

Meanwhile...

Xellos merely raised an eyebrow as Rangort appeared in front of them. He was a touch surprised that she bothered to show up, he had thought that she was angry at him. Then again, she was angry at a lot of things.

"Mommy!" The twins squealed and glomped Rangort.

The dusky-skinned Shinzoku smiled at them and knelt down to give them a hug. "Hey, Carona, Lena, how are you two?"

"Good! We wiped out a plague that was slowly killing a village off." Carona smiled at her mother brightly.

Rangort chuckled as she hugged her children. "That's good. Now, why don't you two go visit uncle Valwin for awhile? I need to have a talk with your father."

"Okay, mommy!" Both chirped and disappeared.

Rangort smirked at Xellos as she stood up fully. "You know, Xellos... Spying on me under a waterfall wasn't very nice."

Xellos gave her a thin smile. "It's not like I was hiding myself. I'm pretty sure that you saw me at least five times."

Rangort stood up and twitched. "Now I understand what Ragradia's complaints about her boyfriend in the past were all about. You're an idiot."

Xellos twitched. He was used to Lina calling him an idiot, not a Shinzoku. "Excuse me?"

"I was naked, in the waterfall long enough for the day to go from mid-morning to mid-afternoon, and all you did was sit there watching me?" The large-breasted Shinzoku spoke, her voice tight. The next thing Xellos knew, he was on his back with her kneeling above him, her eyes narrowed. "Did I need to give you an engraved invitation?"

Xellos was about to say something when she growled at him. "Yes?"

"I personally blame you and that chocolate Dolphin fed us." Rangort seethed before willing her clothing away. "But for now, you're going to... Help me."

Xellos just smiled. Well, he wasn't going to turn down her invitation this time at least. "Though, it would be... Prudent to not lose control of ourselves again."

"Agreed." Rangort nodded as Xellos grabbed her large breasts. Even if the act was similar to what humans did, the two of them could just enjoy the sensations and nothing else.


	155. Peek Harlaown Start

Blood That Flows

Peek

Harlaown Start

Told you that if I had a shorter mini-arc that I'd post another mini-arc in the same week.

* * *

"I'd say I was impressed with mother, if I didn't know her so well..." Chrono trailed off and looked into the sky as he sighed. It had only been about five weeks since he had gotten back from that mission against Shabranigdo. Five weeks since Amy and Filia had told him that he had gotten them _both_ pregnant. How the heck was he supposed to react to that? He was a teenager, granted, one with a lot of self control, but Filia and Amy were both good looking, and really, it was all Filia's fault, saying that she was open to a three-way relationship.

And of course, Amy went along with it, saying that she would rather share him with Filia than lose him for good. While such a statement did wonders for his ego, he really didn't think he could have gotten Filia pregnant. She wasn't even his species, how the heck did he get her pregnant?

Even so, he couldn't just leave them to take care of the children on their own. He didn't doubt that they couldn't. Hell, he was almost certain that they'd be better parents than he could be. No, he wasn't going to be one of those bums who just got a woman pregnant and then left her alone. He knew how hard it was for a single parent to raise a child alone.

"I'm still surprised that she had most of this stuff lined up months ago, Chrono." Chrono looked at the person sitting next to him and started to snicker. "What?"

"Your hair is almost back to normal, ferret boy." Chrono smirked at him. "And _why_ didn't your device stop them from dying your hair again?"

Yuuno twitched and ran a hand through his hair. He thought that Arisa and Fate's little... Revenge was too much. Putting enough hair dye on his scalp to make his formerly blonde hair green, with orange and dark spots was just not funny. Especially at school. He still got snickers from everyone, even though Fate and Arisa had both admitted to dying his hair.

How they made it last, he wasn't sure.

**"They took their clothes off and let me take pictures."**

Yuuno and Chrono both blinked. "Really?" They asked at the same time.

**"No."**

Chrono and Yuuno both nearly fell over at that. "Thooooth..." Yuuno grumbled at his device. "Just what did they do to make you not tell?"

**"I'm sorry, boss, but..."**

"If you don't tell me, I'm going to take you to Mary and have her wipe your personality." Yuuno interrupted, his eye twitching erratically.

**"They dyed your hair while not wearing a shirt or bra, boss. Arisa's tits are bigger than I thought they were."**

Chrono snickered at that thought. "And I don't suppose you recorded it, huh?"

**"You kidding?"**

Yuuno and Chrono both stared as images of a topless Fate and Arisa popped up in front of them, grabbing Yuuno's hair and working in various dyes into his hair. "Enough!" Yuuno snapped, pushing a button to get the images to turn off. The last thing he needed was his hormones to work overtime again.

He wasn't sure just _where_ he was getting dreams of a naked Riksfalto from, even if her body was incredibly hot, lately, and it was bothering him. A lot.

**"Boss, if you want, I can show you what they did to get me to keep quiet."**

"Huh?" Yuuno blinked and his nose started bleeding, as did Chrono's, as an image of Fate and Arisa hugging and actually making out was displayed. That was hot enough in and of itself, but seeing their naked chests pressing up against each other and Arisa leaning into it, and...

"Is she frenching Fate?" Chrono asked, his eyes glazed over.

"I didn't think Fate was into girls like that..." Yuuno muttered as the two broke apart, panting and winking at Thoth.

_"Hey, Yuuno, you should know that Fate's one hell of a kisser." Arisa smirked at him. "Next time, don't use me and Caro to play a joke on Fate. It's not very nice."_

_Fate nodded in the image as it shut off._

"Do you think that they're lesbians?" Chrono asked, wiping at his nose. Damn, that was pretty intense. It reminded him of the times he caught Amy and Filia messing around when he wasn't around.

**"Nah, they told me that they were just doing it to mess with boss."**

"I... Uh..." Yuuno twitched. "Excuse me." A moment later, he disappeared in a flash as he teleported away.

Chrono didn't blame him. Of course, Chrono could deal with his problems in another way. A second later and he followed his friend's example and disappeared from the park all together.

"Chrono!" Amy smiled as she and Filia saw him appear in the living room. "I thought you were..." Anything more she was going to say was cut off as Chrono grabbed her and kissed her. Before she could react, he broke the kiss, leaving her to sink to her knees as Chrono grabbed Filia and kissed her on the lips.

Unseen to the adults, Val walked in, saw the situation, and turned around, saying he was going to go over and play with Arashi.

The young Dragon always said that his parents kissing was just yucky.

"Uh... what?" Filia blinked as Chrono walked out of the room.

"You two going to sit there all day?" Chrono smirked at them.

Filia and Amy looked at each other, grinned and ran after him. It wasn't every day that Chrono was like this. They weren't going to miss out on this.

(-)

As she walked up to the condo, a bag in her arms, Lindy blinked as she saw Val walking outside. "Val, where are your parents?"

"They're kissing, grandma! And I think they were going to go make lots of loud noise." Lindy sighed at Val's explanation. "Can I go play with Arashi then?"

Lindy smiled and nodded. "Sure, just let me put this stuff away, okay." Val nodded and smiled as she went into the condo. The young Dragon sat down on the cement and created a small ball of energy and amused himself by trying to juggle it.

Trying, because he kept dropping it, adding yet another small hole in the cement.

(-)

Lindy walked into the house and sighed as she heard some soft moaning and whimpering coming from down the hall. 'Don't those three know how to close the door?' Shaking her head, she ignored the sudden shriek from Amy as she put away the groceries and other things she had in her arms. 'Those three...' She shook her head as she left the apartment, making sure to close and lock the door behind her. Really, if she didn't start making plans months ago when she had first accidentally walked in on the three one day when they were recovering from an intense session, she just knew that the wedding plans wouldn't be going as smoothly as they were.

Besides, pregnant or not, she liked Filia and Amy both. At least they kept Chrono from becoming a skirt chaser or downloading porn from the internet.

Then again, considering what she heard about Yuuno's device and how it liked stuff like that...

Lindy just hoped that Yuuno wasn't doing something stupid to deal with his hormones.

(-)

"ACHOO!" Yuuno rubbed his nose.

**"I told you jumping into the Arctic Ocean wasn't a good idea, boss."**

Yuuno wiped the icy water off of his body and sighed. "You know that it takes a lot of heat or cold for me to feel it. What else was I supposed to do?" At least his hormones finally quieted down.

**"You could always..."**

"Thoth, if I was to do that with them, I'd end up in the same situation that Chrono's in." Yuuno rubbed his forehead. "I don't want to talk about it."

**"Alright, boss. Still, I think that Miyuki wouldn't mind."**

Yuuno twitched. While he probably wouldn't mind it himself, all he had to do was think about what happened with Chrono before he shook his head. "No. I'm not ready to be a father, Thoth."

His device had nothing to say about that.


	156. Peek Harlaown Two

Blood That Flows

Peek

Harlaown 2

* * *

A little later...

"Val!" Arashi grinned as he ran up to the young Dragon. "What are you doing here?"

"Mom, Amy-mama and dad were busy, so I wanted to play." Val smiled as he looked at the Takamachi house. "Who's all here?"

"My big brother's watching me today!" Arashi held his arms to the side and ran around to the back. "Whoosh! Come on! Caro, Fried and Erio are in the back yard."

Val's eyes lit up at that. "Sweet!" He wanted to see if he could get Fried to transform into a human. He would succeed someday. After all, it wasn't too hard for him to become a small Dragon, even if his mother didn't like him transforming too much.

After all, it wasn't nice to scare normal people by turning into a Dragon in front of them.

Lindy smiled as Kyouya stepped outside. "Hope you don't mind me leaving him here."

Kyouya shook his head. "No. Mom's at the shop if you wanted to talk to her."

"Thanks." Lindy nodded to him. "I'll pick Val up later today, if that's alright?"

Kyouya chuckled at her. "Nah, that's fine." As he watched her leave, he sighed softly and wondered how his parents were going to take the news of him moving.

(-)

Later...

Lina looked at the door as it opened. "Hey, Lindy." She smiled at the other woman. "What brings you here?"

Lindy smiled and looked around. "Looks pretty dead." She got a laugh from Lina. "Something funny?"

"You missed the end of the rush by four minutes." Lina shook her head. "Something wrong at home?"

Lindy shook her head. "No, I was hoping to get some tea though. I don't think that my home is a place to be for the next..." She trailed off and looked at the time on her watch. "Forty minutes or so."

Lina raised an eyebrow and smirked softly. "While I'm glad that things are going well for your son and future daughter-in-laws, how's the wedding plans coming along?"

Lindy smiled brightly. "Almost done. We should be ready before the month is out."

"So, another two months before we actually get to have the wedding then?" Lina teased her. When Lindy gave her a sour look, Lina held her hands up. "Hey, it took me almost a year to get my wedding with Shiro done properly." Of course, with those missions for demon extermination that kept popping up, it did delay the wedding several times. Hell, the two often joked about the fact that if they didn't stop demon hunting, they would end up getting married in the hospital.

"Yes, well, this is an advantage to having a lot of connections on Mid-Childa and friends who will go that extra mile to help out."

"Magic to make the dress fit properly doesn't hurt either, huh?" Lina winked and Lindy nodded. "Anyway, I was wondering something. Filia, what does she do over at your place?"

"You mean besides studying up on the history of this world and Mid-Childa's own history?" Lindy nearly laughed as Lina blinked a few times. "Don't be so surprised. She wants to be able to help, but getting a job, either here or in the Bureau, does require at least some basic education."

Lina gave Lindy a flat stare. "Considering that I got at least ten different "offers" about Nanoha, Fate _and_ Yuuno to join the Bureau just last year alone, I'd say that you don't require _that_ much education."

Lindy had the decency to look embarrassed about that. "Yes, well, we are short on mages at times. Strong mages like those three, Hayate and her family, not to mention, yourself, are rare." Hell, Lindy wished that she had found Lina sooner. A SS class sorceress that had such control over her power was a rare find indeed. The fact that she had trained two children to go from AAA to at least S class in five years, and a A class defensive mage into a mage that was at least AA+ with powerful offensive abilities was nothing short of miraculous.

"Listen, Lindy, despite what you might think, unless it's a threat to the world, I'm pretty much retired now." Lina shook her head at Lindy's look. "Look, I'm willing to pass on some information, teach a new spell now and again, but I really just want to run my shop with my husband."

"Then why do you keep jumping in whenever a new mission pops up?" Lindy smiled lightly as Lina twitched at that.

"Alright, yeah, I do. Despite everything else, I do like a good adventure, but I don't want my life to be nothing but travel and adventure." She shook her head. "I got most of that out of my system years ago. But..." Lina sighed heavily. "Even though I want to just sit back and relax, I want to protect my family. I don't know. Maybe if I didn't end up marrying Shiro. Maybe if I ended up on Mid-Childa instead of Earth. Maybe if I never cast the Giga Slave against Hellmaster. Maybe I'd still be traveling, fighting, adventuring and searching for treasure, rather than just wanting to settle down fully."

Lindy shook her head. "Lina, I don't think that there's anything wrong with that. I've known plenty of retired Generals and Colonels who wished that they were still active and solving problems, even if all they want to do is settle down and live the rest of their lives peacefully. You're just cursed with the ability to fight well and you're a mother who has children out there fighting as well." Lindy sighed and turned around to lean back against the counter. "I worry about my son, and the grandchildren that are on their way, every time he goes out onto a mission. I may be strong, but I know that I wouldn't survive half the things he does." She looked at Lina and sighed. "You, you're burdened with the fact that you know you can survive the things that your children do."

"I've been trying to avoid fighting more." Lina shook her head. "I feel like a character from some sort of novel who grew up and had children. And even though the story's supposed to be about my children, I keep getting involved in their adventures."

Lindy chuckled at the comparison. "There's a reason most parents in adventure stories are either dead, heavily injured or missing from their children's lives at the start of the story."

Lina laughed at that. "I've been dead before, it wasn't fun." The two women shared a few more chuckles before sobering up. "So, why take so long to get the wedding plans together? I would have sworn that Chrono wasn't the type for a fancy wedding."

"He's not. I want the reception to be memorable, however." Lindy smiled at Lina. "That's the most fun, after all."

Lina sighed softly, much to Lindy's surprise. "Shiro and I didn't have much of a reception. We got married, found someone who could watch Kyouya and Miyuki for us while we were in Europe, and went off on our honeymoon."

Lindy shrugged at that. "Well, the best we can do is make it so that our children had it better than we did and hope that their children have it even better than they do."

"Don't write your will just yet." Lina smirked at the other woman. "We're not that old yet."

Lindy laughed at that. "Nope, but it never hurts to make plans. Plus, grandchildren are just so cute."

Lina smirked at her. "Unless Kyouya has some kids on the way, I don't want to have grandchildren just yet." She sighed softly and looked at the calendar. "Has it been five weeks already?"

"She'll wake up, you'll see." Lindy nodded to Lina. "I heard Hayate was able to finally cast a light spell without fainting the other day."

"That's what happens when you force a burnout." Lina shook her head. "Still, she'll be back to normal soon enough."

Lindy wished that she could offer Lina any comfort about Nanoha. It was hard when the girl's condition hadn't changed in the slightest in five weeks.

All they could do was wait and hope that she got better.


	157. Peek Harlaown End

Blood That Flows

Peek

Harlaown End

* * *

Elsewhere...

Amy sighed as she used Filia's chest as a make-shift pillow. She'd use Chrono's chest, but Filia was both between her and Chrono, and her breasts were softer than Chrono's chest was. "That was..." She squirmed slightly. "Filia, your tail's teasing me again." She squirmed as she felt Filia's appendage in various places that it probably shouldn't have been in.

Filia was blushing softly as Chrono rubbed her belly from his spot beside her. "Can't help it..."

Chrono kissed Filia's bare shoulder. "You know, something's bothering me, Filia..." When she turned to look at him, he gave her a small smirk. "Weren't you the one that belted me with your mace because I looked up your skirt?"

Filia would have shifted, but her arms were wrapped around Amy's body. "There's a difference between looking up a woman's skirt when you don't know her and being in an adult relationship with two people you really care about." She lectured him. "I trust you now, I didn't trust, nor know you then."

"Really?" Chrono sat up as Filia smiled at him. Amy was smiling as well, but the way she was squirming and moaning didn't leave much room for her to react to other things.

Filia nodded and shifted Amy so she was laying on her back and turned to Chrono. "You offered me a place to stay without asking anything of me." The two of them ignored a small shriek from Amy and various wet sounds that were happening because of what Filia's tail was doing to the brunette. "You're an excellent father to Val and a great person." The blonde Dragoness leaned over and smiled at him. "I wouldn't have agreed to being together with you and Amy if I didn't trust you at least."

The two of them shared a kiss while molding their bodies together. It lasted until Amy let out a shriek and her hand smacked Filia in the shoulder. Breaking the kiss, the two turned to look at Amy as she shuddered and spasmed lightly. "Not... Fair..." She panted and reached for Filia's tail and pulled it out from between her legs. "I swear, it's not fair that you can use your tail like that."

Chrono chuckled softly. "Come on, Amy, it's not that bad..." He suddenly paled as she got a rather mischievous look on her face. "Uh..."

"Filia," Amy squeezed Filia's wet and sticky tail while narrowing her eyes, "why don't you show Chrono what you put me through."

Chrono's eyes widened at the looks they were giving him. "Now, now... Just what are you... Hey!" He yelped as Filia sat on top of him, grinning as her tail moved down, disappearing under their bodies. "Just what are yooOOOU?" He yelped as he felt something poking him in a place that he didn't think was normal. "...You wouldn't."

"Not so bad, huh?" Amy smirked as she positioned Filia's tail into the right position. "Let's see how you like it!" The girl then pushed Filia's tail forward, grinning as it slid into Chrono's slightly unwilling backdoor.

Filia had a thrill of delight as Chrono let out a yelp and a loud whimper as she and Amy introduced him to a new world of kinky pleasures.

Amy was just glad that he would understand that it wasn't as easy as he thought it was. Though, seeing him squirm like that, it was rather erotic, not to mention the sexy sight of Filia's ass as she rode him was a major turn-on as well.

Shrugging, Amy could care less how perverse she thought she was getting, right now, she just wanted some loving.

A short little while later when Filia got off of Chrono, Amy's eyebrow rose in delight. "Still hard?"

Filia grinned and picked up Amy. "I think he likes it more than he's letting on."

Seeing their grins, Chrono just whimpered and looked at his crotch. "Traitor." He muttered, wondering just how sore his ass was going to be from Filia's tail in the future.

His mental complaints stopped a few moments later when he realized that he was able to leave them very, _very_satisfied. If allowing them to do something this kinky to him made them incredibly satisfied, then he wasn't going to complain...

Too much.

(-)

Meanwhile...

Caro let out a giggle as she and Fried rode on Val's back as the transformed Dragon ran around the back yard at the Takamachi household. Sure, Val told her that he wasn't allowed to fly in the city, but he running around in his natural form was pretty liberating.

Watching them, Erio pouted. It wasn't fair! Val never offered _him_a ride.

"Erio-niichan!" Arashi called out, causing the young boy to turn and see the even younger boy try and drag out a bucket of some sort from the kitchen. "Lookie!"

Blinking, Erio walked up to the door and looked inside the bucket. "Balloons?"

Arashi nodded, ignoring the sounds of running water in the background. "Uh huh! Kyouya-nii tied them up for me!"

Erio grinned and pulled a couple out. "Hey! Val, Caro!" The Dragon and the summoner both blinked and turned to look at Erio, just in time to get splattered with water from both Erio and Arashi.

The two blinked a few times before Val narrowed his eyes. "They got water balloons! Get 'em!"

"KU!" Fried flew at the two and got hit with several water balloons in the face.

The two boys were laughing and giggling as they threw water balloons at the other three in the yard before they let out a yelp of shock as ice cold water doused them from behind. Spinning around, they saw Kyouya grinning at them while holding two large water balloons in his hands.

"Better run, kids! I've got bigger balloons!"

Erio looked at Arashi, then at Caro and Val, the latter having changed back into his green-haired child form, as the two of them walked up to the two boys, before they all nodded in agreement, grabbed the water balloons and started throwing them at Kyouya as fast as they could.

Even though he was getting pelted by multiple water balloons, it didn't stop him from dousing the four of them with the balloons he was holding, causing them to all shriek and laugh.

Kyouya was just thankful that he closed the door behind him. His mother would kill all of them if the house was soaked because of a water balloon fight.

Besides, being able to torment the kids while having fun was just too great of an opportunity to pass up. After all, the garden hose was nearby.

- Harlaown End


	158. Peek Dreams Start

Blood That Flows

Peek

Dreams Start

Spot the shout-outs, people!

* * *

"Ugh... Am I dreaming again?" She asked as she looked around and sighed at the landscape. "I swear, if I have one more randomly weird dream, I'm going to cast a Starlight Breaker on myself." At least she wasn't at her brother's wedding and being hospitalized because of overusing her magic when she was supposed to be resting.

"Why would you say you're dreaming?" A familiar voice came from behind her.

"Mom?" Spinning around, Nanoha blinked as she saw someone standing behind her. "Oh, sorry, you sound like my mother." The girl didn't look like Lina, since Nanoha was taller than the small girl, the girl's hair was a bright blonde color, though her eyes were interesting. "But, your eyes are like hers. Except her left eye is gold, your right eye is yellow." The blonde girl was wearing simple gray shorts and a gray shirt. "...And you don't dress fashionably."

"I wouldn't know." The girl shrugged at Nanoha. "Why do you think that you're dreaming?"

Nanoha rubbed her head and felt like sitting down, but realized that since she didn't even know if there was a floor, decided against it. "Because I've had nothing but these weird dreams lately. Every time I think I got it figured out, I suddenly wake up and something different is happening! Ugh. The last dream was the worst."

"Oh?" The girl blinked at her. "Why?"

Nanoha crossed her arms over her small chest and pouted. "Let's just say that I don't trust creatures that only smile and can promise to grant any wish that you want." She shook her head as the small girl blinked in confusion. "Let's just say that bunny-fairy thing won't bother my dreams anymore."

"I see. At least you are not alone in your dreams this time."

Nanoha nodded. "Yeah, no kidding. Usually there's weird things around me, or I'm seeing my life in a different way somehow."

"Oh?" The girl looked at her, blinking. "What do you mean?"

Nanoha blushed softly. "I had a dream that my dad was dead, mom wasn't my mom, Lindy was a fairy, Raising Heart was a silly looking staff and I ended up marrying Chrono-kun when I got older."

"I see." The girl nodded. "Why do you think it was a dream? What if it was a vision of another world?"

Nanoha blinked and scratched her head. "I don't know. Why would you say that?"

Before the girl could answer, another voice spoke up. "Wagh! There's two of you now! Am I waking up?" Nanoha and the girl turned to see a young girl in a fancy, light purple silk dress, red hair that had long strands near her ears and the back of her head and green eyes that looked around in a panic. "I can't be waking up! Waaaagh!" She ran up to the blonde girl and shook her. "You said that I wasn't waking up!"

"Calm down, you're still asleep." The girl shook her head at the new girl. "You should introduce yourself to each other."

"Oh!" Nanoha rubbed the back of her head. "My name's Nanoha Takamachi. What's yours?"

The girl in the short, fancy dress grabbed the edges and crouched slightly with her knees. "My name is Ixpellia, ruler of Galea during the Warring Ages of Belka."

"You're a ruler?" Nanoha blinked. "But, Belka doesn't exist."

Ixpellia nodded to her. "Yeah, I'm a ruler. The last time I was awake, I heard that Belka was destroyed. For that, I'm grateful. But... I just want to sleep." A sad smile came to her face. "I know that I'm dreaming, because I'm talking to the two of you and nothing bad is happening. Whenever I'm awake, bad things happen and many people die because of me."

"Oh." Nanoha mumbled softly. What could she say to that?

"But, that doesn't explain how you're here." Ixpellia pointed at Nanoha and suddenly it got dark with lightning crashing around the young-looking girl. "You shouldn't be able to get into my head like this!"

"Perhaps the answer is why she's able to dream like this." The blonde girl spoke up.

Nanoha blinked and scratched the top of her head. "Well, the last thing that happened that I remember is..." Her eyes widened and she touched the middle of her chest. "A sword... Right here... When I was using my Chaos power."

"What's Chaos?" Ixpellia asked, curious about the word.

Nanoha frowned lightly, wishing that she had paid a little more attention to what her mother had told her about it. "It... I think mom said it was the power of the Lord of Nightmares."

"And who's the Lord of Nightmares?" The blonde girl asked her.

"...Mom said that the Lady created everything and yet can destroy it."

"The Lady?" Ixpellia blinked. "The Lord of Nightmares is the Lady?"

"I guess." Nanoha shrugged. "Mom said that she could do anything she wanted and that Chaos was hers..."

"So, if you were using Chaos and got hurt, what would happen?" The blonde girl was curious and Nanoha sighed.

"I don't know. Maybe flood me with so much Chaos that I could dream up different universes or apparently cross my dreams with someone else. I don't know!" Nanoha threw her hands up in the air and sighed. "I'm just... So frustrated right now!"

"Were the dreams bad?" Ixpellia asked as she walked up to Nanoha.

The redhead shook her head. "No! They weren't! I liked some of them!" Tears started to leak out of her eyes as she looked at the other girl. "But every time that something good happened, I'd wake up and realize it was another dream!"

Ixpellia gave Nanoha a hug. "I wish I could wake up. But, every time I do, there's more fighting, more war. My power is only useful for creating death. So, I can't. I just want to wake up and be with people and live normally."

Nanoha looked at the girl and hugged her back. "I'm sorry, I'm being selfish."

Ixy shook her head as she hugged the distraught girl. "No, it's okay. Mine is a special burden to bear. You need to wake up fully."

Nanoha smiled as she pulled away from the ancient ruler. "Well, at least it's not like that time I was walking on a yellow brick road. I swear, if see any flying monkeys, I'm going to exterminate the whole lot of them."

Ixpellia giggled softly. "You should go. I think you have people waiting for you. Me? I'm stuck here, everyone I ever loved has been dead forever."

Nanoha frowned and gave Ixpellia another hug. "Just wait. One day, we'll find you, Ixpellia, and we'll make it so you can wake up without worrying about causing death and war."

Ixpellia hugged the girl tightly. "Even if it doesn't happen, it's good to know that people like you exist out there."

Nanoha broke the hug and smiled at Ixpellia. "We'll meet again... Ixy."

The girl blinked in surprise. "...Ixy?"

Nanoha stuck her tongue out at the other girl. "Your name is long. Ixy is easier to say."

Ixpellia's eyes misted up before hugging Nanoha again. "Thank you." Letting go, she stepped back. "So, go, wake up for real this time."

"I can help with that." The blonde girl spoke up. Nanoha and Ixpellia turned to look at her. A moment later, she pulled out a shovel and smacked Nanoha in the face with it, sending her tumbling to the ground, out cold.

"What was THAT for?" Ixpellia yelped as she looked at the blonde.

Said blonde pointed at Nanoha's body as it faded away. "I think she's waking up now."

"Hope she doesn't have a headache from that." Ixpellia mumbled, hoping to see Nanoha in the future sometime.

After all, it would be nice to wake up and see that not all her friends were dead like the last few times she was awake.


	159. Peek Dreams End

Blood That Flows

Peek

Dreams End

* * *

Something was touching her hand. Not too unusual, but she wasn't used to having it cupped without her knowing who was doing it. There was also this immense feeling of weakness that her body had.

"Hey, Nanoha," she could hear Yuuno's voice, was she still dreaming? "I wanted to introduce you to Caro, but you're still out cold and..." Caro? Who was that?

She could hear him sigh. "Arashi misses you too. He keeps shaking the bed and hopes that you'll wake up. I think your mom's taking it the hardest, Nanoha." Yuuno stopped there and gave her hand a squeeze. "She doesn't show it, but I think she misses you more than the rest of us do." Why couldn't she open her eyes? Her body felt so weak, her eyes so heavy and her chest hurt. What was wrong with her?

Yuuno sighed again. "Well, Nanoha... We'll see you soon." No, she couldn't let him leave.

'Move... Body, MOVE!' She screamed at herself as his hands started to move away from hers. Concentrating everything she could to her hand, she hoped, wished, prayed and begged mentally for her fingers to do something, anything.

"Huh?" Yuuno's voice came through confused. "...Did you just..." He squeezed her hand again. "Nanoha, if you moved your fingers, please, do it again.

It was easier this time, but her fingers just barely moved. "Nnnngh..." There was a gasp as her eyes slowly opened up. The blinding white light nearly made her pass out in pain. As her vision started to clear, she saw his worried face. "...Hi..." She whispered, smiling softly. "I'm awake."

"Nanoha!" Yuuno's eyes had tears in them as he suddenly lunged forward and hugged her. "You're awake."

"Yeah..." Her throat was a bit raw. "Thirsty."

Yuuno pulled back, nodding as he got up. "Sure! Just don't pass out on me!"

Nanoha smiled as he ran to get some water. Taking a deep breath, she felt a lot better. She was back, and as soon as she got better, she was going to have to make up for lost time.

(-)

A little later...

"Nanoha!" Nanoha and Yuuno turned as Fate, Arisa and a little pink-haired girl and some sort of small, white-scaled creature on the pink-haired girl's head looked into the room. "You're awake!" The two girls were shocked as Nanoha weakly raised her hand and wiggled her fingers at them.

"Hey..." Nanoha smiled at them softly. "At least I know this isn't a dream this time." The two of them looked at Nanoha in confusion. "If this was one of those weird dreams, Fate-chan would have jumped to my bed and kissed me already."

Fate blushed at that. "I would not! I would at least wait until you could sit up on your own!" Her face turned bright red at those words. "I said that out loud?"

The others in the room nodded, though the pink haired girl looked on in confusion while the small creature chirped lightly.

"Don't worry about it, Nanoha." Yuuno spoke up, grinning softly. His hair had finally gone back to normal that morning, so he didn't have to explain the different colors in his hair. "If Fate's going to kiss anyone, it'll be Arisa."

"Really?" Nanoha blinked and Yuuno nodded.

"Yuuno!" The two yelled at him and he just smiled at them.

"What? I'm not the one who had you two kiss each other without your shirts on."

Nanoha looked at Fate and Arisa and blinked a few times. "So... Fate-chan and Arisa-chan are girlfriends then?"

"NO!" They yelled at the same time, their faces red.

"Yuuno's just being mean to us!" Arisa pouted as Yuuno chuckled at them.

**"But you two did kiss each other. I still have the video."**

"I'll want to see that." Nanoha mumbled softly. "Where's everyone else?"

"Erio doesn't like hospitals." Fate told her. "Arf and Miyuki are watching him and Arashi. Mom and dad will be here soon. I think Hayate and Reinforce will be here later. Signum, Shamal, Zafira, Rein Zwei and Vita are off planet for some reason."

"Oh." Nanoha nodded slowly. "So, about that kiss..." She blinked as Arisa and Fate face-faulted. "Nyahahahahahahaha..."

"Nanoha!" The two yelled at her, their faces red. "That's not funny." When Yuuno chuckled at them, they just groaned and gave up.

The pink haired girl walked up to the bed and tugged on Nanoha's arm. "Hello."

Nanoha smiled at her. "Hello. What's your name?" The girl was really cute, if a touch on the small side.

"I am Caro Lu Ruche and this is my Dragon, Fried."

"Ku!" The white Dragon flapped his wings as Caro pointed to him.

Nanoha smiled at the small girl. "My name is Nanoha Takamachi, and I'm pleased to meet you." She sighed and leaned her head back. Part of her wondered how Caro was able to take a Dragon around in Japan so easily before mentally shrugging it off. People might think it was some sort of weird pet.

"What's wrong?" Yuuno looked at her in confusion.

"Oh, just wondering if I'm still dreaming and hoping that I'm not. If I am, I can just see a crazy cat-rabbit spaceship thing is going to race across the sky, firing lasers at everything, mom's going to turn out to be some sort of mad scientist and reveal that I'm an alien or something."

Everyone in the room just sweat-dropped. "Nanoha?" Nanoha looked at Arisa, who was twitching. "What are you smoking and why haven't you shared it yet?"

Nanoha smiled at the blonde girl. "Thanks, Arisa-chan. I needed that."

(-)

Hours later...

Nanoha cracked an eye open as her door opened. "Mom, Dad, Miyuki-nee." She mentally winced at how her voice sounded like sandpaper.

"Nanoha!" Miyuki ran up to the bed and grabbed the girl's hand. "You're awake!"

Nanoha winced. "Didn't Yuuno, Fate or Caro tell you?" The small group had left hours ago, mostly because the nurse had kicked all of them out.

"Nee-chan!" A small bundle of energy rushed into the room and pushed against the bed. "Nee-chan! You wake?"

Nanoha smiled and rubbed his head. "I'm awake, Arashi." She blinked as he squeezed her hand. "You okay?"

"Nee-chan! Nee-chan!"

Shiro walked over to his youngest son and lifted him up so he could sit on the bed. The young boy instantly latched onto his older sister and hugged her tightly. Shiro shook his head as Nanoha looked on surprised. "He really missed you."

Nanoha smiled and hugged him back. "I'm okay. Your big sister wouldn't be stopped so easily."

"I hope not!" Lina looked at Nanoha, her eyes slightly narrowed. "Because if you were, I'd never be able to deal with the thought of my children being that weak." When Nanoha winced, she rubbed her forehead. "Really, Nanoha..." The older redhead walked up to the bed, knelt down and hugged her daughter tightly. "Don't you ever fight against an army of Mazoku by yourself ever again!"

"I killed all of them..." Nanoha whimpered as her mother and brother tightened their hug on her. "Dad, help!"

Shiro shrugged at her. "I think you need to learn how to watch your back more, Nanoha." There was something in the way that he said it, plus the small grin on his face that had Nanoha paling. "And I know a few ways to help you recover quickly."

Nanoha sweat-dropped as Lina pulled away and nodded. "Um... I hope I don't have to go through what Kyouya-nii and Miyuki-nee did..."

"Don't worry, I plan on teaching Fate some of our sword style. Suzuka's learning some of our sword style." The purple-haired girl had said that she actually was regretting her choice awhile ago.

Nanoha gulped heavily. "Please tell me that you're not going to make me cut my hair short, show no emotions, dye Fate-chan's hair blue while she starts referencing stuff like Youtube and Nico Nico video and dye Hayate-chan's hair white and have her declare herself the ruler of the universe?"

Lina and Shiro blinked several times at her. "What?"

"Sorry, I had some weird dreams." Nanoha chuckled softly. "One of them had Fate-chan, Hayate-chan and myself with weird hair colors and hair styles causing problems, though Fate-chan seemed to talk about random stuff all the time."

"I bet..." Lina drawled as she looked at her daughter. "Still, you should have been more careful." When Nanoha looked like she was about to speak up, she held a hand up. "I know, you couldn't have seen it coming." Lina lowered her hand and sighed softly. "I never thought that it was possible for Shabranigdo to do what he did." She pinched the bridge of her nose. "Still, I was worried, Nanoha. We all were."

Nanoha smiled softly. "Well, I'm alive at least." She winced as she felt Arashi hug her tighter. "I'm okay, really I am. And, when I recover, we'll play lots of games together and..." She trailed off as she looked at her parents and caught a glint in their eyes. "Um..."

"Nanoha, honey..." Lina smiled at her daughter. "Do you remember when your father was hurt?" Nanoha nodded slowly. "Remember what he went through when he was recovering?" Nanoha paled and Lina's smile slowly turned sinister. "As soon as Chrono's wedding is over, you're going to have some... Fun."

"Wedding?" Nanoha blinked in confusion. "Who's he marrying?"

Arashi popped his head up and smiled at Nanoha. "Amy-san and Filia-san!"

"Ara?" Nanoha looked at her brother in confusion. "...Take a nap for a little while and then everything goes crazy on you."

Lina chuckled softly. "Oh, you don't know the half of it." Idly she wondered if Reinforce would let Hayate join Nanoha for her training.

'My family's going to kill me with physical therapy!' Nanoha wailed to herself. The worst part of all of this was that none of her friends would do anything about it. Considering that most of them went through some sort of harsh training themselves, they would feel bad but not do anything about it. '...I need to remember to blow them all up after I recover properly.'

"Well, I'll go and get your doctor." Shiro said as he walked to the door. "Hopefully you won't be here for too long."

Nanoha just groaned in dismay. "How long until the wedding?"

"Pretty soon." Lina smiled at Nanoha. "So, you better enjoy it."

Nanoha groaned and flopped her head back. "...I think I liked the dreams more."

- Dreams End


	160. Peek Dance Start

Blood That Flows

Peek

Dance Start

So, after thinking about it, and doing the wedding that I did in Day in the Life, I decided to just skip the wedding and go straight to the reception.

That's always the most fun part anyway.

* * *

Lindy smiled as she watched her son get off the floor with Filia. The wedding had gone off without a hitch, for that she was thankful. Then again, the Saint Church did provide a lot of room for various functions, including weddings and wedding receptions. And the added security was a nice bonus. Looking across the room, she shook her head as she saw Vita pull Hayate in her wheelchair out onto the floor. Interestingly enough, Signum was doing the same with Nanoha, who was currently wheelchair bound, while Arisa and Yuuno were actually dancing together.

Considering how much the two of them were teasing each other over the past two months, Lindy thought it was nice that they weren't at each other's throats at the moment. Then again, they may have called a truce because of the wedding itself. Pulling out a camera, she snapped a few pictures of everyone dancing together before nearly laughing as she saw Caro and Erio trying to mimic the adults with their dancing and failing horribly.

"Excuse me."

Lindy blinked and turned her head to see a young man with slightly scruffy dark hair, in a tuxedo, bowing to her. "Yes?" She asked, confused by his appearance.

"I couldn't help but notice that such a lovely young woman such as yourself is alone right now." The way he smiled at her as he bowed had her gulping and her face turn slightly red.

"Well, uh..." Lindy had to admit, she hadn't had any guy hit on her like this since she was in the academy. Then again, she did date several guys back then too. "I'm not that young, that is my son there."

The man straightened up, he was a little taller than she was, before shrugging. "Having a son does not mean that you are old." Oddly enough, his eyes were the brightest shade of purple that she had ever seen. "After all, isn't it true that you're only as old as you feel?"

"Well, that may be true, but..." She blinked as he held his hand out. "Yes?"

"Would you care to dance, mi'lady?"

Lindy nodded and took his hand as he led her out to the dance floor. "I admit, I haven't danced in ages." He smiled at her and pulled her close to him as they started to move in time with the music.

"Dancing is easy. Once you learn, your body never really forgets." He chuckled as he slowly took her through the motions until her movements gained confidence and she was able to move on her own through the dance. "I must say, that it's quite an honor to dance with you, Lady Lindy." He whispered as they spun towards the edge of the dance floor.

She blinked as she had her hands draped on his shoulders. "How did you know my name? I never told you."

He smiled at her as he spun around a couple of times. "It's not too hard to find out who you are ahead of time. Being that you're an admiral and all that."

"Very well, then might I know who's dancing with me?" Lindy twirled as he grabbed her hand and spun her around gently. "It's rude not to know your partner." She said as she was spun back against him.

"My name?" He chuckled softly. "You can call me Luce."

"Lucy?" Lindy raised an eyebrow and he shook his head as he spun her around again.

"Not Lucy, Luce. You pronounce it Lu-Say." Luce shook his head and chuckled softly as the music wound down. As people left the floor, he and Lindy made their way to an open window. "Though, if you know Lina Takamachi, you might know me by a different name."

Lindy blinked, several times. "A different name?" Her face flushed as he leaned in close. "What are you..?"

"She knows me by the name of Igor, an Imp that gave her the clue to create the Nemesis Breaker spell." Lindy's eyes were wide as he whispered into her ear. "You, however, may call me... Mazoku Lord Lucefer."

(-)

Looking around, Nanoha fought off the urge to shiver for some odd reason, but smiled when Fate took her out to the dance floor.

Even though she was stuck in a wheelchair, dancing was still fun.

And it was enough to make her forget about that odd feeling a moment ago.

(-)

Lindy had seen and done many things in her life. Her time in the academy with Leti had been one of the more wild times in her life. She wasn't one to have many regrets about what she did or did not do. Though, getting pregnant with Chrono almost counted, had Clyde not taken responsibility when she was younger.

The thought of facing someone who could end her with a thought before she could do anything made her almost wish that she had at least given Chrono a younger brother or sister sometime before Clyde had been killed. Maybe she could have adopted Fate instead of Lina. Maybe she should have had more fun on that one day back in the academy.

Lucefer shook his head. "Just call me Luce, okay? Anyway, I assume by the intense fear I'm feeling that you've dealt with a few of my kind, hmm?"

"You... Could say that." Lindy really hoped that he didn't want to get revenge on her for the death of Garoth. She may not have been there, but using her to get back at the others would be a fairly effective way to send a warning to the rest of the Bureau.

"I see." He said softly, his voice revealing no emotions. "Tell me, who among the Mazoku have you had to deal with?"

Lindy gulped and looked back into the hall, blinking at the haze she was seeing. "What..?"

"There's just the two of us. If anyone looks out here, they'll just see two adults talking, or maybe you want them to think that we're doing something else?" Lindy's eyes widened as she heard his voice softly whisper right into her ear. Turning, she gulped slightly at how close he was. "Now then... Who have you had to deal with?"

"D...Death Bringer..." Lindy trembled softly as the Mazoku nodded and stepped back.

"Ah, Garoth, that jackass."

Lindy stared at him stupidly. "Uh...Excuse me?" Of all the reactions she expected, that was not one of them.

"I've never been a fan of the way most Mazoku chose to live their lives." Luce shrugged at her and smirked softly. "After all, today is one of the days that are supposed to be joyous. Unless you want it not be one." He shrugged again. "So, Garoth, huh? Must have been a lot of fun for him." He shook his head in disgust.

"I would rather not know." Lindy admitted to the Mazoku lord, wondering if she should just make a break for it and expose this guy to everyone. Taking a glance into the hallway, she grimaced as she saw someone in a wheelchair roll by. The haze did make it a touch difficult to tell who it was, but she could guess it was either Hayate or Nanoha. Her whole body stiffened as she felt his hands on her shoulders. "Um..."

"Let me tell you, Miss Lindy... You really should calm down." His voice was soft and tender. "I'm not going to hurt you."

She shivered again, that voice was pretty suave and smooth. "You'll have to forgive me, other than Garoth, the only Mazoku that I've dealt with have been Dark Star, Dynast, Huraker and my son recently had to deal with Shabranigdo. I don't have a good opinion of most Mazoku."

Luce squeezed her shoulders slightly. "I find that impressive, that you and your son have dealt with two of the four Ma-Oh. I take it that the other two must have been Lords under them. I've never gone to any of the other staffs myself. As for good opinions. There aren't any for us Mazoku. After all..." Lindy gulped as she felt his body touching hers. "We're supposed to be pure evil, right?" He chuckled and let go of her, stepping back. "But, if you must know, I'm not as bad as some Mazoku are."

"That's like saying," she turned to look at him, "that getting killed instantly isn't as bad as being beaten to death slowly."

"I suppose so." He nodded at Lindy. "I, however, might do some evil things, well, from your perspective at least. After all, I did create a disease that wiped out most of Europe a few hundred years ago, told Stalin that Communism was lame and convinced Justin Beiber that he could sing."

"So, what do you want? You wouldn't reveal yourself to me unless you wanted something." Lindy resisted the urge to hug herself and shiver. "I need to ask you not to harm my family."

"Heh, of course." Luce smirked at her. "As for what I want, I've noticed several old battle sites have been ravaged on various worlds." Lindy blinked and Luce sighed softly. "What I mean is, someone, probably a young Mazoku, has found some old sites where concentrated black magic crystals were hidden long ago. And by ravaged, I mean, they've been drained. If it is a Mazoku, they're likely increasing their power. Just a word of warning."

"Is that all you wanted to say?" Lindy hoped so, she was barely able to keep herself from doing something stupid.

"Hmm... Well, there's one more thing."

"What?" Lindy asked, gulping as he walked up to her. Her eyes widened as he cupped her chin. "Mmmph?" When his lips met hers, all feeling went out of her body as she trembled lightly.

When Luce pulled back, he smiled at the stunned look on her face. "With that, I shall take my leave."

A moment later he was gone and Lindy twitched, unsure as to what to think.

What kind of creature was this Mazoku?


	161. Peek Dance End

Blood That Flows

Peek

Dance End

* * *

Chancing a look out at the balcony, Schach blinked as she saw Lindy and some mysterious man standing out there and, "what the hell?" She asked no one in particular as she saw them kissing each other. Blinking, she walked towards them, only to stop as someone passed between her and them. It was only a moment, but when she could see the balcony clearly, Lindy was alone and looking confused. Quickly making her way over to the Admiral, the pink-haired nun touched the green-haired woman on the shoulder, causing Lindy to practically jump in shock. "Are you okay?"

"Just... In shock." Lindy admitted. "I need to speak to Carim." Schach blinked, but nodded and led Lindy to Carim.

(-)

"Well, I'm surprised to see you here, Lina."

Lina, a glass in her hand, turned and smiled as she saw her old friend. "Zelgadis!" She couldn't help but nod as she saw him in a white shirt and black pants. "Looking good."

"As are you." The human-looking Chimera nodded at her simple blue dress. "How have you been?"

She gave him a soft smile and looked from him to Nanoha, who was currently being helped by Fate and Yuuno around the dance floor. "Better now that Nanoha's recovered."

Zelgadis nodded as he looked at Nanoha. "She's still injured, huh?"

"Only for a few more days. She and Hayate are well enough that they can be healed completely now." Lina let out a giggle as she saw Hayate riding on Zafira's back, the latter of whom was in his wolf form. "How about you? I heard that you were working as a trainer here."

"Well, not here, but yeah," Zelgadis nodded to her. "Been offering my services so that the Bureau can learn some Shamanism and White magic."

Lina chuckled softly. "Sounds to me like you're trying to learn more magic."

"Even if it was for the wrong reasons, Rezo was right about one thing, it never hurts to learn as much magic as possible."

Lina shrugged at that. "I'd agree, but I've settled down." She gave him a dirty look when he snorted at her. "I might have kept my skills fairly sharp, Zel, but I never really bothered learning too many new spells since I ended up on this world."

"That's actually unlike you." Zelgadis raised an eyebrow at her. "The Lina I remember would try to learn every spell that existed."

"Give me a break, I developed three brand new spells from scratch, two of which only I can really use, the third one a variation of the Dragon Slave and made some modifications to spells I already knew."

The two looked at each other for a moment before laughing softly. "You really have changed, Lina. No matter how often we meet and how much we talk, I'm still shocked by the changes time has taken on you."

"Gotta grow up sometime, right?" Lina chuckled at him. "When you've got two kids that you adopted and a third that you gave birth to that depend on you, well..." She shrugged and smiled as she looked at Nanoha again. "Even if I stopped adventuring, I'm not going to complain. I think I came out ahead."

"I'd say." Zelgadis looked at Nanoha and then back to Lina before shaking his head. "So, why did you settle down?"

Lina looked at Shiro, who was off dancing with Fate, before sighing softly. "I got tired, Zel. I was tired of various things, I fell in love with a man, had two children look up to me and found little evidence of magic, and nothing that could send me back." She looked back to him and smiled softly. "In the end, I'm glad that I stayed. After all, how many parents can say that their daughter changed the destinies of more than one person?"

"About as many that can say that they changed the future of at least two timelines." Zelgadis chuckled softly. "Hey, Lina, I met Zest the other day again and he mentioned something about a friend of his that was injured and no healing spells could work on her." Lina blinked in confusion. "He asked me if you could take a look at his friend while you're here."

Lina shrugged at that. "Well, we aren't leaving for Earth until tomorrow at least, so I can go see her, if you know where she is."

Zelgadis blinked and groaned. "Ugh... Knew I forgot something."

Lina just laughed at him. "I'll just get someone to give him a call for me." Drinking the last of the liquid in her glass, she put the glass down and grabbed Zelgadis' arm. "Come on, Zel."

The human Chimera chuckled as Lina dragged him out to the floor to start dancing. He wasn't going to complain.

After all, she was one of the people he respected the most.

(-)

Carim frowned as Lindy told her what she knew. "So, we have another Mazoku Lord?" She grimaced softly. "And some Mazoku sites getting drained?"

Lindy nodded as she, Carim and Schach were sitting in Carim's office. She looked at the corner where Luna Inverse was standing against the wall. "What's your thoughts?"

"The Mazoku, this Lord and that upstart are planning something." Luna shook her head. "But I can't see what it would be."

Carim frowned softly. "A darkness hidden by light to shine on the cracks."

"Excuse me?" Luna blinked at Carim.

Schach looked at Luna and took a deep breath before slowly exhaling. "Knight Carim has the ability to foresee the future. However, it is limited when it happens and how much she can see."

"Clairvoyance." Luna blinked in surprise. "Even where I'm from, it's a rare skill, but useful. Generally a Shinzoku gives prophecies on the future."

Lindy nodded. "Well, if this 'darkness' is what I was warned about, we've got another Mazoku running around."

Everyone in the room grimaced at that thought.

"I will... Get help dealing with this." Lindy said softly. "I might know someone who'd be willing to make sure that this never becomes a problem again."

"If things work out, you'll have our support." Carim nodded to Lindy.

The Admiral smiled at her. That was always reassuring.

The only thing was that she hoped she could garner support from some of the people she needed to ask.

Otherwise, the Bureau would likely be destroyed by another Mazoku attack.


	162. Peek Healing Start

Blood That Flows

Peek

Healing Start

* * *

Lina rubbed her eyes as she, Nanoha, Yuuno, Fate, Hayate and Reinforce were at a fairly open, and empty, due to it being so early in the morning, park. "So, this is..." She trailed off as a song started to ring. "Alright, who has my phone number?" She asked as she reached into her pocket and pulled out a cell phone. "Hello? Oh, hello, Zest. How'd you get this number? Uh huh, okay... Yeah, we're at the park. What park? It's close to my home, as far as I know, it never had a name, it's near the train station, about two blocks north and five blocks west. Yeah, you can have your friend come down here. We'll be here most of the day. Okay, see you two then." She nodded and hung up the phone. "Well, that was interesting." She blinked at the looks she was getting. "What?"

"When did you have a cell?" Hayate asked, scratching her head and Lina actually face-faulted.

"Well, that's the first time I got that question asked. As for the phone, I've had it for awhile. Just never really had a use for it." Lina shook her head as she stood up. "Alright, first things first, Nanoha, your body should be purged of the lingering effects, so, Yuuno, heal her, as for you, Hayate..." Walking over to the brunette, Lina put her hand on Hayate's forehead. "Hmm... Looks like... Oh, that's all?"

Hayate blinked and gasped as Lina's left eye started to glow, even through her glamor, and a pulling sensation overcame her body. She blinked in shock as Lina held a ball of energy that was pulsating softly. "What the?"

Lina shrugged. "Just a reminder not to use Chaos magic when you're heavily injured. Anyway, as soon as Yuuno's done with Nanoha, he can heal you as well."

"I can do that." Reinforce told her. "Fate did have the basis for Resurrection when I got her magic."

Lina nodded and bit her lower lip to keep from saying anything. After all, Reinforce really was sorry for what happened in the past and there really was no point in getting upset about it. No one got seriously hurt and that was all that really mattered in the end.

"Hey, mom..." Fate asked as she looked at Lina. "What was that song that I heard?"

Lina blinked and thought about it. "Oh, my ring tone?" Fate nodded and Lina chuckled. "Wow, it's been awhile but the song is Get Along, why?"

"Sounded neat, that's all." Fate looked at Nanoha and Hayate, who were glowing slightly due to the healing spells being used on them. "How come you didn't have them healed before?"

"So their bodies could recover more naturally." Was Lina's response. "Even though we could heal them fully, it's better for them to let their bodies do some work." She winked at her adopted daughter. "After all, we don't want their bodies becoming lazy and not working to get better if they get scrapes, bruises, small cuts or a cold, right?"

"You mean you could have had us capable of walking at any time?" Hayate asked as she stood up and stumbled forward. She would have fallen had Reinforce not grabbed her and stopped her fall.

"No, not at any time." Lina smiled while softly shaking her head. "I don't like messing with Chaos unless I have to, and you were both injured, burned out and using Chaos magic back in that battle, Hayate."

"How do you know?" Hayate blinked in confusion, Lina hadn't been there, how did she know?

"I told her." Reinforce spoke softly. "I wanted to know why neither I nor Shamal could heal you while we were at home."

"Speaking of Shamal-san, where are your knights, Hayate?" Nanoha asked as she took a tentative step out of her wheel chair. "Wow... It...OWW!" Nanoha yelped as her legs gave out and she collapsed to the ground.

"Nanoha!" Yuuno grabbed her before she fell completely. "I'm sorry, I should have been paying more attention."

"Nyahaha..." Nanoha whimpered softly. Her legs felt so weak it wasn't funny. "I wasn't able to use my legs for how long again?"

"About two months." Yuuno answered her. "It took about three weeks before the wedding."

"Still surprised that we were able to get a ride back to Earth so fast." Lina shook her head. "Anyway, the point of today is... Being able to walk on your own." She laughed at the looks she was given. "Actually, that's for Nanoha and Hayate. Fate, you're to work on your sword forms until Shiro or Miyuki joins us." Fate nodded and she looked at Yuuno. "As for you, you can do whatever you want to Yuuno." Lina shrugged, but mentally smiled when Yuuno said he'd help Nanoha out until her legs stopped hurting so much and she could at least walk slowly.

Lina shook her head and looked at Fate as she held a wooden training sword and went through some motions. "Here, Fate..." Lina grabbed a second one from a nearby bench. "Let me spar with you."

"Are you sure?" Fate asked as she looked at Lina, who was taking a stance in front of her.

Lina chuckled softly. "Oh, I'm not too bad with a sword. Don't forget, I came from a world where sword-fighting was just as important as magic."

Fate nodded and squeezed her sword as she stepped to the side and slowly started to circle her mother.

(-)

"Remind me again, Reinforce..." Hayate groaned as her legs threatened to give out on her. "Why am I doing this?"

Reinforce sighed heavily. "Because I promised you that if you went through this training, I would model those nearly transparent lingerie for you at any time when we were at home." Hayate's eyes gleamed in delight and Reinforce sighed again. "And I would let you have at my chest more than I do now."

Hayate grinned as she stood up straighter. Even as her legs threatened to give out on her, she pointed up at the sky. "Then, mark my words, Reinforce Yagami, I, Hayate Yagami, will complete this training and do all sorts of things with you!"

It would have been totally dramatic, even for such a perverted saying, had Hayate's legs not given out on her at that moment and made her crash to the ground.

Reinforce just sweat-dropped heavily. "Why does the father of my child have to be so openly perverted?"

(-)

A couple of hours later...

Nanoha panted, her legs hurt, her face was covered in sweat, her shirt, pants and underwear were all soaked, though Hayate and Fate weren't any better off, considering how warm it was outside. "It's not fair, mom! How come you're not sweating?" She knew Yuuno wasn't feeling the heat at all. Sometime after he got his Holy magic she had tested his heat tolerance by blasting a Divine Flame Buster at him through his shields, which, of course, held easily.

When he didn't even break a sweat from the heat, her jaw nearly hit the ground. Well, what was left of the ground after most of what had been between them had melted away.

Lina just chuckled softly. "Why don't you kids cool down a bit? I've got some company coming this way."

As Yuuno and Fate helped Nanoha walk away while Reinforce carried Hayate, Nanoha pouted. "She totally dodged my question."

Lina shook her head as she saw two people walking up to her, well, one walking, the other one being pushed in a wheelchair. "Zest called me, you two must be the Nakajimas?"

The older-looking, gray haired man nodded. "Yes. My name is Genya and this is Quint."

Said woman shook her head, her purple hair flowing in the soft breeze. "I told him that I could make it around the city and Admiral Lindy said she'd help me if I needed it, but no, he's such a worry-wart and took a couple days off from work just to make sure that I got here safely." She smirked and held her hand out as Lina took it and shook it. "I must be getting desperate, but Zest said you might be the best bet to get my body finally healed."

Lina shrugged at that. "Not much of a healer, but let me see what's wrong with you." She put her hand on Quint's head and frowned softly "What the..?" She tilted her head and looked at the two. "When did you two come into contact with Chaos magic."

"Chaos magic?" The two of them asked at the same time.

Lina sighed softly. "Guess you wouldn't know. Listen, do you recall fighting anyone or anything that had this golden glow around their bodies, crackling black lightning and their voice was heavily distorted?"

Quint frowned and thought for a few moments before snapping her fingers. "Yeah! There was this really short girl, long hair, blood all over her face who was throwing knives. But, it almost looked like she wasn't even there. It was like someone or something was using her."

Lina bit her lip. 'How the heck does anyone in this universe have Chaos magic besides myself, Nanoha and Hayate?' "Well, that would explain a few things then." Lina shook her head as her eye started to glow again.

Quint gasped, her body starting to glow softly as energy was pulled out of her.

"What's going on?" Genya looked on, alarmed. He was mentally grateful that both Ginga and Subaru were both at school and that a friend of theirs had offered to watch the girls while he and Quint were on Earth.

"Just stay quiet." Lina muttered as the energy started to pool near her hands. Slowly pulling her hand back, Genya stared at the large ball of golden energy seemed to come out of his wife. "Yeesh... This much should have killed you years ago." Lina shook her head and concentrated.

Much to the shock of both Quint and Genya, the energy started to collapse in on itself until it disappeared from in front of them.

"Wow..." Lina shook her head. "Feeling a little woozy. Anyway, that was what was keeping you from even standing up." She shook her head and put her hand to her forehead. "Huh... Uh... Night."

Quint and Genya both blinked in shock as Lina's eyes rolled up into the back of her head and she slumped to the ground, out cold.


	163. Peek Healing End

Blood That Flows

Peek

Healing End

* * *

"Where?" She blinked as everything around her was swirling black and gold.

"You're awake." Lina turned to see a beautiful woman with long golden hair and her bangs over her eyes. "I hope that it wasn't too abrupt."

"Lady." Lina's tone was respectful as she looked at the manifestation of the Lord of Nightmares. One thing Lina found odd was other than the bangs to hide her eyes, the Lady had a body and figure very similar to Lina's.

Lina found it odd, and at the same time, very comforting.

L-Sama smiled as she floated over to Lina and ruffled the sorceresses' hair. "I'm glad to see you again. Even if it isn't for long."

Lina blinked as L-Sama disappeared from in front of her. "Tell me, Lady, why didn't your power kill that woman?"

"Life, death, creation, destruction, both exist as two sides to the same coin."

Lina bit her lower lip. "Then tell me, I never used a Chaos attack on her, and Nanoha and Hayate's use of the power doesn't lend to someone getting filled with your power. How was she submerged with it?"

"If I told you, that would ruin any fun." L-Sama's voice was full of amusement. "You, my child, are the only one who is directly touched by myself, there are others, however, with this power."

"I know that. I know that Nanoha is, maybe Arashi is, and Hayate, for some reason is..."

"Not all who are touched by my power gain access to it." Lina felt L-Sama press against her from behind and gently rub her cheek. "Those four knights, for example, touched by my power, allowing them to become what they wanted most. That woman, she too, is touched by my power, but she, like them, has no access to it."

"Why is that?" Lina asked as L-Sama hugged her from behind.

"There are other things Chaos can do besides being used to fight, little one."

That was the last thing Lina heard as everything went black on her.

(-)

Groaning as her eyes cracked open, Lina blinked at the worried looks around her. "...So, how long was I out?"

"Less than five minutes." Reinforce said as she looked at Lina. "You still did scare us."

Lina sat up and rubbed her forehead. "Well, when the Lady wants to talk, you can't say no." She chuckled softly and shook her head. "I'm fine. Really. The Lady wanted to see me, we had a quick chat about some stuff..." Lina trailed off and looked at Quint. "Well, at least now I know why you aren't dead, apparently that power was doing something to your body. Now, if it's good or bad, I can't tell you that." She shrugged at Quint.

"Mom..." Nanoha spoke up and frowned. "How can you be so calm about this?"

Lina smiled and tapped Nanoha on the forehead. "Because it could have been a lot worse. Besides, I'm bonded to the Lady forever, whenever she wants to talk, I have to listen." She patted Nanoha on the head and turned to look at Yuuno. "Can you heal her body?"

"Already did." Yuuno rubbed the back of his neck. "When she said what happened, I figured it was the same thing that happened to Nanoha and Hayate and healed her."

Lina nodded and looked at Quint. "I'd say, get a doctor to give you a once over completely when you get home, but for now..." She stood up and looked at the kids, grinning. "Nanoha, Hayate, get back to walking, Fate, why don't you and Yuuno spar for awhile? I can help Nanoha in case she falls again."

"Thank you." Quint nodded to Lina, who shrugged it off.

"Don't worry about it, just take care of yourselves." Lina smiled at her as she walked over to Nanoha, who was taking several wobbling steps forward at a time. "Keep going, Nanoha." At least the muscle and nerve deterioration wasn't as bad as Lina had thought it would be. Then it hit her, neither Nanoha nor Hayate had been out for too long and all they really needed to do was get their balance back and some muscle mass in their legs built up again and they'd be back to normal.

How long that would take was another story all together.

(-)

Days later on Mid-Childa...

The doctor looked at the paper work, then back at Quint, his expression puzzled. "Mrs. Nakajima, well, the good news is, your legs seem to be responding and that weird energy is no longer hampering any healing magic. Now, I have a question, and this seems weird, but, you have two daughters, correct?" Quint blinked, but nodded at the question. "And our medical records don't show you having kids before. Have you tried to have kids in the past?"

Quint blinked, but nodded slowly. "Yeah. Genya and I... We've tried many times in the past, but..." She shook her head. "I could never conceive." She sighed softly. "I always felt bad about that. Why?"

The doctor nodded and smiled at her. "Well, I don't think that's going to be too much of a problem anymore." Quint just stared at the doctor. "Seems that this ordeal left you a little gift."

Quint blinked several times. "Gift... Little..." Her eyes went white and blank as she slowly moved her hands to her stomach. "Doctor, do you..." The doctor nodded and she got a little dizzy. "I... Uh... need to call my husband."

(-)

"Are you sure?" Regius asked, his eyes narrowed as he, Zest, Auris and Genya sat in his new office.

Genya nodded. "She called it "Chaos" energy. Apparently that's what was keeping Quint from being healed by anything."

"I've seen what Chaos can do to those Mazoku things." Zest spoke up, his eyes narrowed as memories against Shabranigdo and all those Mazoku came flooding back to him. "I can only imagine how lucky Quint and I got when we were attacked by this power."

"There's more." Regius spoke up, catching their attention. "Remember the sudden planetary shift of Non-Administered World #54?"

"It was all over the news." Genya nodded. "I take it that it wasn't some sort of planetary shift that caused that gigantic crack on that planet?"

Regius nodded and looked at Auris.

"Sometime before it was announced to the media and after we got the go ahead to go to the planet and help move people off world before the planet became unstable, there was a gigantic spike of power from that world." She flipped over some pages on the report that hadn't been officially released. "Turns out that the massive spike of energy was very similar to the energy that was inhabiting your wife's body."

Regius frowned. "I am going to meet with officers of the other branches of the Bureau. I think it's time to deal with stuff like this more effectively." The other three blinked at him. "I don't know what will come of it, but the way we're doing things right now is too ineffective. I don't want Mid-Childa to suffer an attack of that magnitude ever."

The other three nodded, they knew what he meant. Non-Administered World #54 was suffering badly since that attack and it was estimated that in less than a year, two at most, the planet would be completely uninhabitable by anyone.

There was a knock on the door and Auris went to the door to see who was bothering them. When she got the message, she nodded and turned back to the three. "Genya, it seems your wife is on the vid phone and she wishes to speak with you."

Nodding, Genya got up and left the room. Walking to the vid screen, he smiled at his wife's face. ""What's the verdict?"

"Well, other than needing to go through some therapy to get my legs back to normal, everything checked out okay... Well..." Quint was blushing, smiling and her eyes shining. "I'm going to be a mother!"

Genya stared at the screen. "But, you were..."

Quint nodded, tears falling down her face as she smiled. "The doctor doesn't know how, but apparently... Well, congrats, you're a daddy now!"

Genya felt like he was going to faint. "...Well, at least Subaru won't be the youngest in the family anymore."

Still, he felt like fainting at the sheer implication of it. "It could be worse..." He chuckled softly. "You could be having twins." Quint and Genya shared a laugh at that.

Watching them, Auris smiled and went to tell Regius and Zest the good news. At least something good came from this whole debacle from years ago.


	164. Peek Twins Start

Blood That Flows

Peek

Twins Start

* * *

Watching as some of her sisters came out of the bath, Quattro shook her head. Smiling, she waved at them. "Wendi, Sette, Nove." The three were wrapped in towels and looked at her. "I was wondering if you saw Otto and Deed today."

"The twins finished their baths before we got in." Sette nodded to Quattro. "Now, if you will excuse us, I would like to get dressed before Sein decides to compare my breasts to Tre's." Sette looked around before continuing. "Again."

Wendi giggled, her tail twitching behind her. "That's funny, Sette. I thought you didn't have a sense of humor."

"I am unaware of any sense of humor that I may possess, Wendi." Sette said as she walked off, her long, wet, pink hair settling just over her large round butt as she walked away.

Wendi tilted her head as she watched Sette walk away. She pouted as Nove slapped the back of her head. "Hey! I can look."

Nove twitched and rubbed her head. "You barely felt that." Wendi just rubbed the back of her head and giggled softly. "Sometimes I wonder if it's worth it having Sein train you."

Wendi shrugged, her chest jiggling before she walked off and wrapped her tail around her waist.

Nove rubbed her forehead. Some days she felt that Wendi just did that to get a rise out of her.

Quattro shrugged and turned to walk away. She had other things to do, and watching Wendi mess with Nove wasn't one of the things she wanted to do today. When Quattro turned a corner, she nearly ran over Lutecia. "Ah, Lutecia." She smiled at the girl, who looked at her, blinking slowly. "You've done a really good job on your missions lately, no screw ups." Not to mention that the girl's training was coming along well. For a human, she was plenty strong, her summons were as well. "I think it's time I give you some magic to learn." She chuckled. "Beyond what you already know, of course."

"You know magic?" Lutecia blinked as Quattro pulled out a thin book from her cape.

"Just some stuff that was in those temples. I can't use it, but I figure you can." Quattro rubbed Lutecia on the top of the head before cupping her cheek softly and rubbed it. "Do well and I'll show you more rewards."

Lutecia nodded, her eyes shining in determination. "Of course, Master Quattro."

(-)

Looking at Lutecia and Quattro, Agito frowned to herself. "Why do I not like this?"

"Because Quattro bothers you like she bothers us." Agito turned to see the two newest members of the Numbers. "Otto and myself do not like to be near her for any length of time." A girl with a fairly modest, compared to most of her sisters, chest and long brown hair, spoke up.

"Deed is correct." Otto spoke up. Unlike the other cyborgs, no one other than Jail, Uno and Deed, no one was certain what Otto's gender was. This was not helped by the fact that Otto's face was fairly boyish and combined with Otto's short, spiky hair and soft voice that could pass as an effeminate male and the fact that other than Deed, no one had ever taken a bath with Otto, it led to some very confused cyborgs.

Jail never told, he found it funny to have them guess at Otto's gender. Though he did find Otto's golden-brown tail to be of interest.

"I have talked to Sein, Sette and neither of them seem to want to be near her if they can help it." Deed scratched her cheek with her gloved hand. The only reason they were in gloves all the time was because Jail said that while it was okay to have the gloves off at home, some people would likely be intimidated by her clawed fingers.

Agito grumbled softly. "Where's Meister?"

"Due is..." Otto trailed off as a scream came from down the hall. "Cinque." Otto gasped and ran towards the scream. Deed and Agito quickly followed. Even though Otto and Deed didn't know Cinque very long, they both liked her and looked up to her.

Turning the corner where Cinque's screams were the loudest, they were greeted by the sight of Cinque grabbing at her right eye and rolling around on the floor while Sein was trying to get her to calm down. "Sein!" Agito floated forward and gasped as Cinque seemed to be trying to tear her face off. "What?"

"Otto, Deed, grab her arms and keep her from clawing at herself." Sein commanded the twins as she held Cinque's body down. "We need to keep her from hurting herself. Hurry!"

The two nodded and grabbed Cinque's arms as she thrashed her head and kicked her legs while screaming as if something was tearing her apart from the inside out.

Sein turned to look over her shoulder as Quattro and Lutecia stood there, looking down. Lutecia had a confused look while Quattro had a look in her eyes that Sein didn't recognize. "Quattro, get her to stop kicking me." Sein grimaced as her back was kicked again. "Dammit, Cinque, calm down!"

"If you're not going to do anything, Quattro, just move aside." A new voice spoke up and Sein was grateful as Uno stepped in and grabbed Cinque's legs. "What's going on? Last time I checked, which was yesterday, Cinque wasn't giving birth, so what's with the screaming?"

"I don't know!" Sein grunted as she tried to keep Cinque from thrashing too much. The girl's screams were heart-rending and painful. Especially when she cried out about how much it was hurting. "We were talking and then she grabbed her face and started screaming like this."

Tears were falling out of Cinque's left eye as she shook her head back and forth. "Stopppp... Huuurts soo muuuuch... Pllleaaaaaseeee..."

Sein looked up as Quattro walked up to Cinque's head. "Quattro, what are you..?" She trailed off as Quattro pulled Cinque's eye patch off. "Quattro!"

Quattro looked down and raised an eyebrow as Cinque looked straight up at her in shock. "...When did you grow your eye back?"

"WHAT?" Uno looked around Sein as Sein, Otto and Deed were looking at Cinque's face in shock.

For the first time in years, Cinque blinked with both of her eyes as she gasped for air. "Pain... Going... Away..." Her face was covered in sweat as she leaned back, trembling slightly. "Hurt... So much..."

Otto, Sein and Deed looked at Cinque's face in shock. The fact that she had her right eye back was weird enough, but the truly shocking part was the color of her eye...

Instead of amber, it was a bright gold color, and the area of her eye that was normally white was pitch black.

(-)

Later...

"Interesting." Jail murmured as he and Uno did several tests on Cinque's newly regenerated eye. "It seems to be working normally."

Cinque sat up on the examination table and rubbed her eyes. "I don't understand, doctor. My eye shouldn't have grown back in. Unless you gave me a regeneration program?" Jail shook his head. "...Then how?"

Jail shrugged, he wasn't sure how. "Well, it's a good thing that you have vision in both eyes again."

"I think it's a little terrifying." Cinque admitted as she looked at a mirror that Uno gave her. She still had that faint scar over her right eye.

Jail nodded at that. "Cinque, I've been working on a new kind of eye patch for you." Blinking, the smallest Cyborg looked at him in confusion as Jail grabbed an eye patch. "It looks like your old one, except for the V on it."

Cinque's eyes misted up as Jail gave it to her. Hugging it, she smiled at him. "Thank you..."

Jail chuckled softly. "You should put it on." Cinque blinked and did just that. "Now, tap the V on the outside."

When Cinque did that, she gasped and looked around. "What in the world?"

"Like it?" Jail chuckled softly. "It still needs some work, but I was working on making you an eye patch so that you could see out of your bad eye."

"Don't listen to him." Uno grinned at Jail softly. "He was pretending to be a pirate for a week."

"Yarr!" Jail closed his right eye and held his right hand up in a fist, except for the index finger. "Don't be makin' fun of mah hobbies, ya sea farin' wench, or I'll make you walk the plank!"

The three of them started laughing at that. "Still," Jail shook his head as he looked at Cinque, "come back every few days, I'll see about installing other stuff into it."

"Other... Stuff?" Cinque blinked and found it weird that her newly reformed eye wasn't bothered by the eye patch.

"Just some visual aids..." Jail grinned at her. "I do have to admit, getting that television programming was useful."

"You had me use my skills to get you information about eye patches and one-eye goggles and equipment." Uno rolled her eyes. "And then finding out about the 'Heart'..."

Jail grimaced at that. Finding out that the Heart had been damaged like it had. "Still, you did get the information from it."

Uno raised an eyebrow at him. "You think I couldn't draw out information from a damaged Intelligent Device? Please, it was easy to get the data that you wanted, though..." She looked at the purple gem that was was being built. "Are you certain a copy is what you want?"

Jail chuckled softly. "As long as you got the core data that it had for what I wanted, it's fine." Looking at the various other devices that his cyborgs had found for him, he grinned. "As soon as it's complete, that's one less problem to have to worry about."

"Doctor..." Cinque spoke up as she stood off the table. "What is that supposed to be? If it is supposed to fight against Mazoku, I wonder, did it do a good job before?"

Jail chuckled softly. "Against the Mazoku that destroyed Al Hazard, no..." His eyes went distant as he thought about the past of the person he was cloned from. "Against his army, however, it worked wonderfully."

Cinque nodded. "So, how strong was this... Garoth?"

"A Mazoku like that?" Jail shuddered visibly. "I don't know if even the legendary Book of Darkness could have stopped him. Such power... From what I can remember, it was almost as if he was re-writing the laws of reality on a whim."

Cinque shuddered. Beings that powerful.. How could they exist?


	165. Peek Twins Two

Blood That Flows

Peek

Twins 2

* * *

Nove had her hands behind her head as she walked with Deed down the hallway. "Hey, Deed..." The slightly taller cyborg looked at the redhead. "How come you, Otto and Sette don't really like Quattro?" Granted, Quattro was annoying at times, but so was Wendi and Otto, Deed and Sette didn't mind her at all.

"Something about her... Is offensive."

"I hope you don't mean her smell." Nove remarked, causing Deed to look at her funny. "Wendi and Sette both have good senses of smell, why do you think it's nearly impossible to hide from them when we're training in those jungle areas? Quattro's always the last one to be found out, and I know for a fact that you and Otto share some common traits with Wendi and Sette."

Deed nodded slowly. "Yes, it's easy for us to figure out who is who by smelling them, but... That is not it." She shook her head. "I do not know. Even if I cannot smell anything wrong with her, the air itself feels... _Wrong _around her, almost like it's not natural."

"I wouldn't know." Nove muttered as she continued to walk down the hallway. "I'm not like most of our siblings," she would have said sisters, but Nove really wasn't sure what Otto was, much to her annoyance. She and Wendi vowed that they'd grab Otto when the cyborg was still in the baths and pull Deed's twin out of the water to find out if Otto was a girl or a boy for sure.

Nove tried to not let it show, but compared to all of her siblings, except for Uno and possibly Quattro, she really felt insignificant. And the worst part was, neither of them were meant for direct combat like she was. Even Sein and Tre were more amazing in combat than she was, at least in her opinion.

At least Tre offered to train with her whenever she felt the need to, which was quite often.

Tre didn't begrudge Nove for it, considering that Otto had displayed some unusual powers in training and Deed had developed something that was rather unusual.

One thing that Tre did like to see was Nove's developing strategies for defeating her siblings in combat.

"Has the doctor put the upgrades into your gun knuckle like you requested?" Deed asked and Nove actually smiled at that.

"The doctor said that he'd have it back to me in a couple of days." Nove moved her hands in front of her and rubbed them together. "Can't wait. Maybe next time I won't have a bruised leg when kicking Sette." That girl was monstrously strong enough, but apparently whatever tweaks Jail had done to her had left her a Juggernaut in every sense of the word.

Nove suddenly sweat-dropped at the thought of Sette going saying something along the lines of "you can't stop the Sette-naut." and then shuddered. That was the last thing that she wanted to hear, Sette cracking jokes.

(-)

Otto frowned at the results of that last attack. "...I do not think that this is enough."

Tre raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure?" That last Ray Storm Otto fired damn near broke the roof, and it was designed to take at least a S+ magic attack before any AMF was applied.

Otto nodded and concentrated. The androgynous cyborg's eyes closed as lightning seemed to crackle around the cyborg's body. Tre took a step back as lightning seemed to pool upwards from the feet, spinning around the boyish cyborg and kicking up winds that Tre didn't know was even there.

Suddenly, Otto's eyes snapped open and let out a soft whisper. "Nova Storm."

Creating a barrier and shielding her eyes, Tre gasped at the sheer amount of heat that was radiating off of her sibling's body. "Otto..." She chanced a look and gasped as the attack died off.

Otto was laying on her back, out cold.

The only reason Tre could tell Otto was a girl was rather simple.

That attack burned off all of Otto's clothing, leaving the boyish looking cyborg completely naked.

"...We're going to have to work on that attack." Tre remarked and took a step forward before blinking as there was a ruffling noise. Looking down, her face lit up as her clothing disintegrated a moment later. "...Otto, I swear, if you're related to Sein at all, I'll..." She shook her head and fell to her knees. "...What kind of attack is that, anyway?" She felt woozy and weak. The last thing she did before passing out was send a message to Uno and hoped that her older sister showed up to get her to the medical lab.

(-)

Wendi looked at Sette with a raised eyebrow. "Why do you wear that head plate all the time?"

Sette blinked at the question. "...My hair falls over my eyes, I wear this to keep my hair up."

"...You could just get it cut." Wendi suggested and blanched at the look she was given.

"I rather like my hair, I do not like the thought of someone trying to chop it off." Sette's tone didn't change at all, but there was a look in her eyes that almost had Wendi wetting her pants and running to Nove for comfort.

"Sorry, sorry!" Wendi held her hands up. "I was just saying that you could get the hair in front of your eyes cut off so that you wouldn't have to wear that head plate all the time."

"I like the head plate." Sette stated as she continued to walk down the hallway.

Wendi blinked and followed after her. "Wait, that's it? You like that thing?" Sette nodded. "It looks weird though. We could try something else with it though." Sette looked at her in confusion, and Wendi's eyes lit up as she suddenly got an idea. "Come on! Let's go to the clothing locker! I've got an idea for you!"

Sette blinked as Wendi dragged her down the hallway.

(-)

Uno shook her head as she looked at the tables where Otto and Tre were both laid out. At least Sein wasn't around at the moment, otherwise she was certain that both Tre and Otto would have been felt up something fierce. 'Then again, Otto might be saved.' She thought to herself before snorting. 'Nah, Sein would just go for Otto's butt.'

"How are they?" Uno looked up as Jail walked into the room.

"Other than finding out what it's like to be in a toaster oven, they should be okay." Uno shook her head before calling up a vid screen of the training area. "...What the heck was Otto trying to do?"

"Create a Nova explosion." Otto muttered and sat up, before looking down at her naked body and sighing softly. "How many know now?"

"Just Tre." Uno smiled at her youngest sister. "I picked the two of you up before anyone saw you." Walking over to Otto, she put the back of her hand on Otto's forehead before nodding. "You've cooled off at least. What were you trying to do?"

"My Ray Storm is too linear, and the variant that I recently discovered does not have much range to it. I was trying to create a version that was a combination of both attacks." Otto looked down and sighed softly. "I did not take into account the sheer amount of heat that the attack would generate." She then looked at Tre and frowned. "Is Tre-nee okay?"

"I'm fine, I was just keeping my eyes closed because Uno likes to keep the lights on too bright."

"A headache never hurt anyone." Uno rolled her eyes. "And, Tre, if you wanted to strip your cute little sisters naked, you could have tried _asking_ Otto instead of having her nearly blow you up."

Tre twitched and sat up more fully. "I think you have me confused for Sein, or maybe Quattro."

"I didn't think Sein liked Quattro enough to do that with her." Uno smirked lightly before throwing Otto and Tre a spare pair of their body suits.

Tre twitched slightly as she got off of the table. She wasn't surprised to find that Uno had already found them both underwear and, in Tre's case, a bra, to go with the suits. Putting on the clothes, Tre looked at Uno as she zipped up the suit. "You know what I mean. Her and Lutecia..."

Uno shrugged at the suggestion. "Whatever Quattro does is Quattro's business. Even if that business is doing stuff to Lutecia. You know that the legal age on Mid-Childa is very young. And even if it wasn't, Lutecia's more Belkan than Mid anyway, you know how that goes."

"Why does that bother you, Tre-nee?" Otto asked as she finished putting on her own suit. "While I do not like Quattro, I do not understand why Quattro doing to Lutecia what you and Sein do to each other is wrong."

Tre shrugged at that. "It just bothers me, Lutecia's like, what? Five? Six? That's too young, even for this world."

Jail coughed, catching their attention. "You shouldn't worry, Tre." He smiled at her. "I don't have cameras in your rooms, to give you privacy, but if it would make you feel better, I can have Lutecia spend more time with Due."

Tre nodded, that did make her feel better.

(-)

"There!" Wendi nodded and grinned as she finished messing with Sette's band. Looking at Sette, the smaller redhead sweat-dropped at the way Sette's hair was covering her eyes and down to her nose. "...You really do need a haircurk!" Wendi gasped as Sette's hand snapped out and squeezed Wendi's neck and lifted her up.

"No one will chop off my hair."

"Listen..." Wendi gasped out softly. "You don't need all... All of it cut off." Wendi groaned softly. "Un-nee..." She kicked her legs and tried to get free. "Un-nee's good at trimming hair without cutting it all off."

"Really?" Sette asked and let go of Wendi, who fell to the ground, gasping and rubbing her neck.

Wendi nodded as she handed the band back to Sette. "Yeah. Trust me, it'll look good, just a bit of your hair so that you can see better."

Sette slid the band up onto her forehead, which pushed her hair up, before she pushed it back against her head. "...I think I may take you up on that offer."

Wendi nodded and smiled as she saw the way Sette's pink hair, the few strands that hung down, peeked over the top of the band. The green, blue and white with the few strands of pink made the band look really interesting.

Wendi grinned and put an arm around Sette's shoulders, or tried to, since Sette was so tall, so she settled for wrapping her tail around Sette's waist. "I think a trim would do good for you. Besides, you'd look stupid with short hair."

Sette blinked a few times before a small smile crept up onto her face. "Indeed."


	166. Peek Twins End

Blood That Flows

Peek

Twins End

* * *

"So, this is where you are, Dieci." Said cyborg turned to see Sein walking up to her.

"Hello." Dieci turned back to look at the large metal humanoid. "...Is it wrong to state that I am actually afraid of these things?"

"Not really." Sein muttered as she looked at the ten foot tall metal creature. "What are these things called?" As she looked at the "face" of the one Dieci was looking at, Sein was reminded of a shark for some odd reason.

"Quattro told me that she calls them the Megah." Dieci looked at the large cannon that was on the top of the right forearm. "She said that they came from those weird sites that the Doctor wanted us to look into."

"Oh yeah." Sein nodded. She didn't think much of it at the time, but she was the one who collected these things for Quattro. "You ever see one of these things fight?" Dieci shook her head. "I saw Quattro testing one of these things before." Sein shook her head. "I wouldn't want to take one of those cannon shots to the face."

"It can't be worse than my cannon, can it?"

Sein shook her head. "But there's only one of you. There's, the last time I checked, almost two hundred of these things, maybe more." Sein looked around and blinked at the small laptop that had its screen black, but a small blinking light caught her attention. Walking over to it, she pushed the space bar and watched as it lit up.

"What are you doing?" Dieci asked as she looked at Sein as her older sister typed on the keyboard a few times.

"Just seeing what..." Sein trailed off as she stared at the data on the screen. "This is..."

"Modifications to the Gadget Drones." The two stiffened and turned around to see Quattro standing there, her eyes narrowed. "So, Sein... Dieci, just what are you two up to?"

"I was just admiring the big guys and Sein was pushing buttons."

Quattro looked at Dieci and then at Sein, before nodding. "I guess so." She walked forward and looked at the machines. "So, tell me, would you two like to know what powers these things?"

The two sisters looked at each other, before turning back to Quattro and nodding.

The glasses wearing cyborg smirked and pulled out a small device before pushing a button on it. When the Megah that was closest to her suddenly started to move with its eyes lit up, the two cyborgs took a step back. Quattro rolled her eyes as the Megah knelt down and the chest started to slide open before revealing a hidden compartment. "I had to modify the body armor so that it's not so easy to tear into."

Sein and Dieci were both staring at what they saw, a tiny humanoid creature. "That is..."

"Yes, a naked Unison Device." Quattro looked at the device as it squirmed slowly. "I don't know why the tubes are shoved so far into them into their asses and into their crotches like that." She shrugged before closing the hatches and the armor slid back into place.

"...Why don't you free them?" Sein asked and looked at the various gadget drones that were laying around. "You could use those things as power sources, couldn't you?"

"Not nearly as good." Quattro brushed the question off. "If you could somehow develop a power source as strong and as potent as a Unison Device, I might be willing to..." Quattro walked up to her sisters and grinned as she leaned in. "Change out the Unison Devices. Now, get out of here." Quattro chuckled as she slapped both Dieci and Sein on the ass hard, forcing them to jump as they scrambled out of the room.

Quattro rolled her eyes as she looked at the Megah as it stood back up and powered down. 'They won't find enough power sources that can replace even a single Unison Device.'

'Who won't, Quattro?'

The cyborg barely blinked as she heard the voice in her head. 'Master Levi, you're awake now?'

'Yes, now, who were you talking about?'

'Oh, Sein and Dieci were snooping around the machines.'

Quattro's eyes flashed red for a moment as Levi took over. "What were they doing anyway?"

'Just curious, Master, that's all.'

Levi's eyes narrowed, but nodded slowly. "How has Lutecia been the last few days?"

'You'll enjoy what I've done to her. She'll be ready for you.'

Levi just grinned, her teeth flashing. That would prove to be... Interesting.

(-)

"How should we do it?" Sein asked Dieci as they both walked down the hallway. "I mean, two hundred, or more..."

"Two hundred what?" The two blinked as Due turned the corner. "Over heard your conversation, so, what are you two talking about?"

"You know those really big metal men that Quattro has?" Sein jerked a thumb behind her. When Due nodded, she continued to speak. "Well, they're all powered by Unison Devices like Agito, so Quattro said that if we could make a bunch of power sources that were as good as a Unison Device, we could replace the Unison Devices in those machines and..."

"No." Due shook her head, much to the shock of her sisters. "You won't do that."

"But you should see them! They have tubes in their mouths, ears, noses, and two down below, I think those two are going up between their..." Dieci stopped as Due held up her hand.

"Stop, I get the idea, all their holes are being used by tubes to suck out power." Due said frankly, her eyes narrowed at them. "But even so, are you sure that you want to suffer the consequences of freeing them?"

"Huh?" Both Dieci and Sein asked as the same time, causing Due to sigh.

"Those devices have lost everything, right now, they don't understand what's going on. They don't know about the passage of time, they don't even remember what happened to them in the past, they don't even have a personality. You know what that means?" The two shook their heads slowly. "The first person they touch, they will bond to." She blinked and tapped her chin. "Well, not entirely, but as soon as they become aware, they'll bond. Having lost everything, they need to bond to create a new personality."

"How..."

"Agito told me." Due answered Sein as she turned around and started to walk away. "So, unless you can find over two hundred volunteers, just leave it be."

"But..."

"I don't like it either." Due said before turning to look at them. "But I'm sure that you two don't want to have to deal with the thought of squirrels going peep and mice that don't make for good conversation." Sein and Dieci just stared stupidly at their older sister.

Due just grinned and walked away. She may not have liked the thought of what was going on, it was for the best.

For now.

* * *

Starting next week, I'm going to go back to updating Monday through Friday and getting all these Mini-arcs up as quickly as possible.

Then I'm going to take some time off while I plot and plan out StrikerS.


	167. Peek Advice Start

Blood That Flows

Peek

Advice Start

* * *

"Alright, now read the next line." The doctor said calmly as he looked at his patient.

"E... O... J... H... A... Y..."

"Good, good, now, the next line?"

"Uh..."

The doctor nodded, smiling as he pulled the device away from his patient's face. "I think I got it, Scrya-san." Writing down some information, he motioned for Yuuno to stand up. "Well, I think we can safely say that you do need some glasses."

Yuuno sighed and nodded. "I'll miss not having something on my face."

The doctor laughed at him as he led the boy out to the waiting room. "It happens to the best of us. It's nothing serious. You just have some trouble seeing finer details right now. Just wear the glasses when in class or reading books and you'll be fine."

Yuuno nodded again. "Alright."

It didn't take long, mostly pleasantries spoken between Yuuno and the receptionist, for him to be on his way out of the building. He just hoped that the glasses he was going to be getting in a few days weren't bad looking.

As he walked down the street, he yawned and shook his head. 'Stupid dreams.' Really, what kind of dreams were those anyway?' Well, he had _some_ idea, considering how often he had to change his clothes in the morning.

Though the one this morning had been rather... Intense and lively. Frowning lightly, he tapped the watch on his wrist. "Hey, Thoth..."

**"What's wrong boss?"**

"Stupid question, but have you been sending me images to my head while I'm asleep?"

**"Nah. Though, if you want me to, I've got a nice line-up of the girls that I can..."**

Yuuno shook his head. "Not right now."

**"Something wrong, boss?"**

Yuuno sighed as he stopped at a park and sat down on a bench. "Ugh, dreams lately... I'm just wondering if you've been sending me images lately."

**"Something good?"**

Yuuno's face flushed and he nodded slowly. "Let's just say that if the girls could see into my head, they'd probably kill me." At least that's how it went in the manga and anime that he had seen.

**"Would it help if I gave you a picture of Fate and Vita in thong bikinis, boss?"**

Yuuno face-faulted and groaned. Why was his device such a pervert?

(-)

Later...

Lina raised an eyebrow at Fate. "So, what's the problem?" She gave her daughter a warm glass of cocoa and Fate just looked at it, sighing softly.

"I... I do not know. It feels like... Sometimes, I look at other people in the school and I see lots of boys and girls hanging out and probably hooking up together and, I feel like I'm a little... Left out."

Before Lina could answer, there was a thump and the older woman sighed. "Arashi, Erio, Caro, if there's anything broken, you three are going to have to pay for it!" Lina smirked slightly as she heard them scramble for the door to go outside. "Anyway, Fate," She turned to look at her adopted daughter, "who cares?" Fate blinked several times in confusion. "Yes, I know, Japanese culture puts emphasis on getting married before you're twenty-five and finding a boyfriend, or a girlfriend, if you swing that way, before you get out of high school."

Fate blushed heavily, remembering what she and Arisa did not too long ago to tease Yuuno.

Lina chuckled softly. "But, you're only fourteen, Fate. Don't push yourself, or you'll just end up being hurt in the long run." Fate nodded slowly. "You're young, don't go to the first person you know and say that you love them. Try dating a few people, see what they're like." She shrugged at Fate. "Whatever happens, happens, right?"

Fate nodded and her face turned red slowly. "Ah, what if they..."

"Fate, if you make me a grandmother before you're at least out of junior high..." Lina trailed off and looked outside as Erio ran past with Fried flying after him. "...If you have a baby before you're out of junior high, I won't be very happy about it." Looking at Fate, Lina fought the urge to smirk as Fate's face was a brilliant shade of scarlet and her hair was sticking out in all directions. "Now then, if you do date, I just want you to have fun, that's all."

"But..." Fate took a deep breath and looked outside, giggling softly as Fried headbutted Erio in his butt. She fought the urge to tell Fried that he was doing it wrong. "But what if... There's more than one person that I..." Her face turned redder and redder with each moment. "That I like?"

Lina raised an eyebrow before shaking her head. "That's something you'll have to figure out on your own, Fate. Just make sure that they aren't dating someone themselves."

Fate could only nod as she stood up. "I need to think." She walked out of the room slowly and Lina sighed softly.

"Kids these days."

(-)

The next day...

Fate sighed as she got up and mentally prepared herself for another day of gym class. At least it wasn't every day like it had been in elementary school. How the heck Riksfalto resisted the urge to attack her, Hayate, Nanoha, Yuuno, Vita, Arisa or Suzuka every chance she could, the blonde wasn't sure.

"Hey, Fate-chan." Fate looked up and smiled at Suzuka. "What do you expect from gym today?"

Fate shrugged at the question. "I'm not sure. I'm just glad that gym is our last class of the day."

Suzuka nodded, the way Riksfalto worked them all to the ground would make any classes they had after gym to be a rather painful affair. At least they could shower after they were done with class and take their time getting cleaned up.

The two really felt bad for the kids who had gym with Riksfalto before lunch.

(-)

Riksfalto smirked as she looked out behind her sunglasses. "Too bad that it's getting too cold for us to play outside." Chuckling, she held up an orange ball. "You all know how to play basketball, I assume?" They all nodded. "Good. Choose your teams and play." Riksfalto wondered just how she could have some fun with the kids in the game this time.

She was taken out of her musings when she heard one of the boys say something about 'shirts vs skins' and how the girls should have to take their tops off.

"Really?" Riksfalto spoke up, looking at most of the grinning boys and the blushing, angry girls. "If you were to do that, then..." A slow smirk came to her face. "Well, you boys just want to see the girls in their bras, so, if that's the case then..." The Mazoku General pointed at the boys. "Should you lose this game, all the boys will be forced to stay after school and do ten thousand laps, ten thousand pushups and ten thousand sit-ups."

The enthusiasm died off as quickly as it started. "WHAT?"

"But, that's not fair!" One of the boys called out and Riksfalto looked at him, before pulling her sunglasses off, causing most of her students to gasp.

"Not fair, huh? I've served in war, boys, see this scar?" She pointed to her missing eyeball. "Got that from being careless around my enemies. You think that I'll be fair?" The green haired Mazoku started laughing at them. "Fair is for pansies! You want fair, go sleep in your bed for the rest of your life!" Putting her sunglasses back on, she snorted. "If you think your short-sightedness because of your hormones means anything, then you will end up being trampled on by those who don't let their emotions cloud their judgment."

Riksfalto snarled at the kids. "Run twenty laps, now!"

The kids groaned but did so. Their disappointment, shame and anger was a rather nice treat for her.

And really, losing sight of what was important just because of lust was stupid.

(-)

Riksfalto shook her head at the groans that most of the children were having at having to work a little bit harder than they were used to. 'Please, you kids wouldn't know what hard work was if it bit you in the...' Her train of thought trailed off as she saw Yuuno looking at her. "Yes?"

"Why push them so hard?" Yuuno wasn't angry, just curious. "Wouldn't it be easier for you if humans weren't weak?"

Riksfalto smirked at Yuuno. "Why would I want humans to be weak?" Her smirk turned into a grin as she looked at him. "I like people who are strong. It's always more... Fun to have to deal with them." She pointed at Yuuno. "You're a shining example as to why I like strong people, Yuuno."

Yuuno's eyes widened and his face turned red as the next words were spoken directly into his head. 'If you want me to help you deal with that intense lust you're keeping under control, Yuuno, just ask.'

Riksfalto laughed as Yuuno ran off, his face completely red. Oh well, his reactions were humorous, even if she hadn't been lying. Oh well, she could always visit him in his dreams if she really wanted to.

Fate sighed as she finished washing up after gym. "Ugh... I swear she makes all of us work hard just to see if we'll complain."

Suzuka was rolling her right shoulder and grimacing. "Hey, Fate-chan, can you..." She trailed off as Fate grabbed her shoulder and pulled back on it quickly. "Ahhh..." Suzuka smiled as she felt and heard her shoulder pop. "Much better."

Fate rolled her eyes and turned off the shower water. "That's kind of gross, you know." Fate's eyes widened as she felt a pair of hands suddenly attach themselves to her chest. "H..Hayate?"

The shorter girl giggled as she squeezed Fate's breasts. "Hmm... Getting bigger, Fate-chan. But I think Nanoha-chan's growing a bit faster than you right now." Hayate pouted as Fate slapped her hands. "Oh, come on, Fate-chan, what's a little skinship between friends?"

Fate's face was red as she covered her chest. "H...Hayate..." Said girl was smiling innocently while flexing her fingers. "Don't you usually grope Vita's chest?"

Hayate pouted and crossed her arms over her breasts. "Vita-chan's out of town with the rest of the family, doing some missions for the Bureau." She looked at Fate with one eye closed. "The only reason I'm not going there is because both Lindy and your mother think it's a bad idea for both Vita-chan and myself to be out of school for too long and Reinforce agrees with them."

Even though she probably should have been annoyed with the fact that both Lindy and Lina took it upon themselves to speak on her behalf on what could or could not be done by the Bureau, Hayate was actually quite moved. It was nice having more than just her personal doctor worry about her all the time. And the occasional giant get-togethers that happened was nice as well.

Fate nodded at that. "Yeah, mom doesn't like it when the Bureau asks Nanoha or myself to do missions." Both Hayate and Suzuka blinked at that. "Mom doesn't want us to be influenced too much one way or the other." Fate closed her eyes and put a finger up in the air. "I don't care if you two want to join the Bureau later in life, but I'd rather you have fun and enjoy being kids for a little bit longer at least."

Suzuka started to giggle as she heard how alarmingly accurate Fate's impersonation of her mother was. "That's pretty good."

Fate smiled and turned to her. "Really? I've been practicing my voices lately. I thought I was too low pitched to get mom's voice, EEE!" Fate's wet hair stood on end when Hayate got behind her and grabbed her breasts again. "H...Hayate... Come on now..." Fate whimpered as Hayate's fingers kneaded her chest.

"Hmm..." Hayate grinned and looked at Suzuka. "I'll need to do some comparing, but I think that Fate-chan's fallen into third place."

Fate just groaned and slapped her forehead in dismay.

The only thing she could be thankful for was that Hayate didn't have Thoth Driver as a device.

Fate's eyes went blank and her face went blue at the thought of Thoth and Hayate teaming up. "And not a soul was spared..."

Hayate and Suzuka both blinked as the former let go of Fate's chest and stepped back. "You broke Fate-chan, Hayate-chan."


	168. Peek Advice End

Blood That Flows

Peek

Advice End

* * *

A little later...

Yuuno smiled at Falin as she closed the door behind him. "Thank you for letting me in."

The maid shook her head and smiled at him. "Any friend of Suzuka's is welcome here. Unless you're in the middle of a prank war with her other friends."

Yuuno sweat-dropped heavily at the look he was getting from Falin. "You aren't going to let me forget what happened to Mr. Snuggles, are you?"

"I don't think Mr. Snuggles has forgiven you or Arisa yet." Falin giggled at him. "You said you were here to see Master Kyouya?"

Yuuno nodded. Kyouya had, a few weeks ago, practically moved in with Shinobu, mostly so that his mom could use his old room for Erio.

There was a pitter-patter and Yuuno turned, just in time to catch a pink bundle of energy that jumped at him as hard as it could. "OOMPH! Hey, Caro." The pink-haired girl looked up and smiled at him. "Have a good day?"

Caro nodded at him. "Uh huh! Val's a lot of fun, and Arashi and Fried were playing with kitties all day, I had to stop Fried from eating Mr. Snuggles after Erio dropped food all over him."

"Wasn't my fault!" Erio ran around the corner with Fried on his head and Val sliding into the room behind him. "You're the one who tripped me!" He pointed at Caro, who stuck her tongue out at him.

Val looked at the smallest kid as he came into the room. "Hey, Arashi, where did you get all that stuff anyway?"

"Secret!" Arashi giggled as Val narrowed his eyes. The youngest kid turned around and ran away as the young Ancient Dragon chased after him. "Nya! Nya!"

Yuuno sweat-dropped and looked at Falin. "I'm sorry if they're causing you problems..."

"Oh no." Falin shook her head, smiling. "My sister and I love watching the kids. Plus, since Miss Caro lives with Miss Arisa, it makes sense that, as Miss Arisa is friends with Master Suzuka, we should watch the children. Besides, they're a lot of fun." She giggled softly. "Though, it's interesting to have to watch a small Dragon."

"Ku!" Fried chirped up and flew over, landing on Falin's head.

"Yuuno." The blonde turned to look as Kyouya came down the stairs. "What's wrong? I was studying for some tests when Noel said you wanted to talk to me?"

Nodding, Yuuno let Caro go and the young girl ran off, followed by Falin and Erio. Fried went with as well, but that was mostly because the young Dragon was comfortable on Falin's head.

Sitting on the couch, Yuuno sighed heavily. "Kyouya, I need some advice," his face was slowly turning red, "it's, um... Well, you know all the girls and, ah..." He blinked as Kyouya put a hand on his shoulders.

"Let me guess..." Kyouya chuckled softly. "You've been looking at the girls around you differently lately, huh?" Yuuno nodded and Kyouya sighed softly. "Alright, listen up, I'll tell you this once..." He poked Yuuno in the chest. "You go out with my sisters and break their hearts and I'll kill you." Yuuno stared at him, his body stiff.

Suddenly Kyouya smiled at him. "Well, now that I've gotten the cliche protective older brother line out of my system, what is it that you need help with?"

"I don't... I don't know which girl I like more."

Kyouya blinked a few times, slowly mulling over the words, before chuckling softly.

"It's not funny." Yuuno gave Kyouya a dirty look, causing Kyouya to shake his head, still chuckling.

"It's not that, it's the fact you think you have to choose right away that amuses me." When Yuuno asked what he meant, Kyouya sighed softly. "You think that Shinobu was the first girl I liked? Or even the first girl that I chose?" Yuuno blinked and slowly nodded. "You'd be wrong." Kyouya leaned back on the couch and sighed softly. "There was a point in my life where I could have ended up with Miyuki."

"She's your sister, isn't she?"

"Cousin." Kyouya corrected Yuuno. "Even so, she's pretty, she's a good fighter, fairly smart and there's nothing really wrong with her." He gave Yuuno a wry grin. "Not just Miyuki either, Fiasse, a friend, singer and idol was another girl that I took a liking too. And there was Akira, Ren Fei Fo, Nami, Filith and there was a time I was interested in Noel as well."

Yuuno just stared at Kyouya in shock. "Well, ah..."

"The point is, Yuuno, you don't know who you're going to end up with at all." The older man looked at the blonde seriously. "If you have strong feelings for them, try going on dates with them first, see how it works out. Who knows? Maybe you'll end up falling in love with someone who will surprise you."

All Yuuno could do was nod at that.

(-)

Meanwhile...

Amy chuckled softly as she and Filia listened to their guest's story. When said guest looked at them flatly, they both started giggling heavily. "Har har, it's not funny, you two."

Amy put her hand over her mouth to try and stop her giggling. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, Miyuki, it's just, well, it's hard for me not to find it funny."

Rubbing her forehead, Miyuki just groaned softly. "I think it's kind of serious."

Filia took a deep breath and smiled softly. "I'm sorry, I think my pregnancy is affecting me. But, Miyuki, I don't understand the problem."

Miyuki sighed and leaned forward onto the counter. "You have to understand, it's not the fact that he's younger than me that bothers me too much."

Filia sighed softly and leaned back against the kitchen counter. "Unless I get lucky, Miyuki, nearly every mate and partner I will find will likely be centuries younger than myself." Both Amy and Miyuki looked at the blonde Dragoness as she looked upwards. "...It's not like it's completely unheard of, Dragons falling for members of the other species, but it's rare. Humans live for such a short amount of time, a little over a century if they're lucky. I'm over a millenia old, and yet I'm the youngest Golden Dragon of my former tribe."

When Filia sighed, Miyuki winced and looked at the counter. "I... I'm sorry. Never thought about that."

Filia sighed heavily. "It's not something that we like to think about, but there's a reason that there's not too many mixed breeds on our world. The non-human partner lives far too long."

"Isn't there some..." Miyuki started to say before Filia sighed softly.

"There are... Methods to help, but most of them are forbidden to know and can't be done by normal means." Filia tapped her chin. "If I was back on my birth world, I might have looked up some books on information about situations like this in the past."

"Filia..." Amy started but her co-wife shook her head.

"Excuse me."

Miyuki blinked several times as Filia walked off. "...She's mad, huh?"

Amy nodded and looked at Miyuki. "If your problem isn't that he's younger, then what is it?"

Miyuki sighed and looked down. Now her mood felt worse because Filia was upset. Normally someone being upset wouldn't make her feel this bad, but the fact that she was already feeling somewhat down amplified the feelings of making Filia feel bad to something horrible. Most people never understood that and would likely just automatically think that the person was being moody.

"Miyuki?"

The swords woman looked at Amy and bit her lip lightly. "The fact that my sisters both like him, and he's got other girls his age that like him, that's what bothers me."

Amy wasn't sure what to say about that.

Miyuki chuckled and took her glasses off before dropping her head on the counter a few times. "Heh... It's always my luck. The guys I find myself attracted to end up having at least a half dozen different suitors after them at any one moment."

Amy sighed softly and patted Miyuki on the shoulder. "It could be worse..." Miyuki gave her a despondent look. "You could end up becoming attracted to some sort of trans-dimensional entity who's only using you to get close to your family and kill them."

Miyuki blinked a few times, before a smile slowly crept across her face. "With my luck, I'd probably end up getting kidnapped and used as bait to try and get one of my sisters killed in an overly complicated plan that's not well thought out."

The two shared a laugh at that for a moment. Amy smiled at Miyuki and patted her shoulder again. "I'm going to make sure that Filia's okay, but if you want my advice, let him know how you feel, okay?" Amy turned and started to walk away before turning to look back at Miyuki. "I nearly lost Chrono to Filia if she hadn't been willing to share and I hadn't told him how I felt. At the very least, let him know that you really do care about him."

Miyuki sighed heavily. Even if it was that simple, which it probably wasn't, it still was hard to do.

Watching Amy leave, Miyuki quietly got up and left the building.

(-)

"You okay?" Amy asked as she sat down on the bed next to Filia. She then yelped as Filia rolled over, grabbed her arm and pulled her down onto the bed. "Filia?"

"I'm scared." Filia trembled slightly as she clung to Amy. "Up until now, I... I didn't think of..." She was silenced as Amy gave her a sudden kiss. The blonde's face went totally red, her eyes wide, before she started to relax into the kiss.

"Feeling better." Amy smiled and Filia nodded, which caused Amy to hug her. "And, Filia..." She rubbed the blonde's back. "I don't know about Chrono, we can talk to him when he gets back next week, but, if something does happen to myself..." She kissed Filia on the forehead. "I wouldn't want you to be sad forever."

"But..." Filia looked at Amy, who smiled at her sadly. "But you and Chrono..."

"We likely wouldn't be there after two centuries. Even with the Bureau's level of technology, there are limits how long a human can live. But," Amy grinned at Filia as she grabbed her co-wife's shirt and started to pull it up, "we have time, and right now..." She grinned as she felt Filia's tail slip under the waist-band of her pants and start pulling them down. "Let's focus on something else."

Filia nodded, her face slightly red. Oh well, Chrono wasn't around and Amy was, and right now, she needed some relief of this stress.

(-)

Later...

Yuuno blinked as there was a knocking on his door. Looking up from his books, he called for the person to enter the room. "Miyuki?"

The older girl smiled at him softly. "Hey, Yuuno, I was wondering, you wanna go and check out the new mall?"

Yuuno blinked, before nodding. "Sure."

Miyuki smiled as he got up and walked with her to the door. It was small, but it was a start.

Who knew where it would lead?

* * *

Those girls Kyouya mentioned? They're canon characters from the original video game that he, Miyuki and the rest were from.


	169. Peek History

Blood That Flows

Peek

History

To all the reviewers, yes, that was a reference to White Devil of the Moon.

Another short mini-arc.

* * *

She grimaced as an explosion rocked the whole building. "Doctor, are you sure that this will work?"

The man looked at her, grimacing slightly. "Honestly... Not a clue. But we don't have a choice here." There was an explosion from the consoles as the building was rocked by a powerful blast of magic from outside. "GAH!" The man screamed, holding his bloodied face and left eye. "I thought we stopped making consoles that exploded all the time!" Groaning and pulling his bloodied hand away from his face, he growled. "Whatever!" The doctor looked at the woman again. "Do you have it?"

She picked herself off of the floor and pulled out a thick black book on it. "The Tome of the Night Sky, and this..." She pulled a black crystal out of her pocket. "Will taint the magic within to always be Black Magic."

He looked at her as she put the book and the black crystal into a clear dome. "Are you sure about this?"

She gave him a wane smile. "Does it matter anymore? After what happened to me a few years ago, nothing matters anymore." She watched through detached red eyes as the book opened up and the crystal seemed to react, splintering into fragments that were slowly absorbed by the book. "I gave up my humanity to become a fusion device so that I can fight against the creatures that threaten us now."

The man looked at her with sad amber eyes, but said nothing as the book absorbed the energy completely. "I warn you, we don't know what this concentrated Black magic will do to the book."

Opening the door to the dome and taking the book out, she smirked at him. "Does it matter? The book is now a part of myself, forever and for always." Turning and walking to the door outside, she looked at him. "I shall defeat these Mazoku and with the help of everyone involved, we shall save this place. The human sanctuary, Al Hazard. Perhaps I shall see you again, father."

He watched silently as she left. "Good luck... Daughter."

He made her into what she was now, though, he wondered if he had gone too far. Grasping his chest, he fell to the floor as he felt his heart stop working. "Guess... I won't see... how it turns out." In his mind, he could hear that Mazoku, that monster, Garoth, laughing sinisterly.

(-)

Her eyes snapped open and she slowly sat up, panting softly. "That was..." Was it her past? Was it some fragment that the book had from years ago? "Al... Hazard..." She licked her lips and shuddered. Why couldn't she remember more?

Getting up and out of bed, she really didn't want to get back to sleep. Not after a dream like that.

(-)

Elsewhere...

"What was that?" He asked as he looked at the broken electronic equipment. The technology was ancient, almost unworkable, but it had a small amount of power left, and that video... "This is..." He floated upwards and looked at the destruction. "Must have been the remains of that room." But, why would they wish to taint something with Black magic?

More important, to him at least, was how they were able to get the Black magic into crystal form. Energy didn't become a crystal, especially not Black magic, not freely. "Unless..." He breathed and ran the video through his mind one more time. "...It was a trap..." It was the only thing that made sense to him.

"This universe is interesting." His eyes widened and he turned to see a man with short white hair, long dark pants and a long coat that was open, revealing a rather muscled chest. "Never thought I'd see a Shinzoku from another staff though." The man raised an eyebrow at him. "Then again, I never thought I'd see a Shinzoku look pink either." He chuckled softly. "You can call me Abby."

"Abby?" He blinked and looked the being over. "My name is Sirius. What happened here?" He really couldn't tell if the being was a Mazoku or a Shinzoku, but Sirius was leaning towards the latter with this person.

Abby looked at the ruins and shook his head. "A monumental disaster... One that nearly wiped out all humans in this staff. The Mazoku Lord Garoth led an assault on a human sanctuary called "Al Hazard, to destroy them before they could develop more weapons that could destroy him and his kind. He wasn't stupid though, he made the humans inside become desperate to stop him and laid a trap..."

"They fell for it..." Sirius trailed off as Abby nodded to him. "What was the trap?"

"To have the Tome of the Night Sky become unstable, and turn on its allies." Abby shook his head. "Such a waste of potential. Very few beings survived and most of the technology was wiped out by Garoth."

"Most?" Sirius looked at Abby, who nodded.

"Some devices managed to make it to the present day, but there are very few."

"I wonder what they were..." Sirius trailed off as he shook his head. It was unlikely that he would ever know.

(-)

On Earth...

Lindy smiled as she looked at Nanoha. "Hey, how are you?"

The teenager smiled back at her. "Pretty good. Just doing some early morning practice." The girl was dressed in shorts and a t-shirt. "Sparring isn't as much fun without Raising Heart to help me." The girl pouted before shaking her head. "So, what brings you out so early, Miss Lindy?"

**"Master."**

Nanoha gasped as a familiar pink gem flew up from Lindy's hands and over to her. "Raising Heart!" She grabbed her device and hugged it. "I missed you!"

**"As did I, master."**

"Sorry it took so long." Lindy smiled at Nanoha. "Mary didn't want it breaking again, or as she told me," Lindy grabbed a piece of paper from her pocket and cleared her throat, "she said, and I quote, 'I need to strengthen the shell on this thing and increase the durability of the modes because I don't want this thing getting slashed, stabbed, shattered, and broken so damn easily all the time because that girl has no idea how much stress she puts on her device and all her enemies are so unbelievably powerful that anything less would likely cause her device to shatter into a million pieces in less than ten years, but her device will never tell her that because it's just as stupid as she is and I want to work on other things besides fixing it all the time'."

Nanoha stared, sweat-dropping heavily. Chancing a look at Raising Heart, she face-faulted when she saw her device was, somehow, also sweat-dropping. "Nyahahahahahaha... I'll make sure not to stress Raising Heart so much. Raising Heart?"

**"No worries, my master. Clear to go."**

Nanoha smiled and patted her device. "Good girl."

She couldn't wait to show the others that she had Raising Heart back now!

(-)

Stepping over the debris as he followed the being called Abby, Sirius wondered just what the other being knew. "This disaster, why were the people living here?"

Abby turned to look at him, before turning and shaking his head. "It was an ironic safe house for humans. Living in what they knew as Al Hazard."

Sirius raised an eyebrow. "Ironic?"

Abby chuckled and continued to walk on. "Never mind that. It's not important anymore." Walking over to a pile of debris, he kicked it over, revealing nothing but circuits and dust. "Amazing that the technology, as damaged as it is, survived so long."

"That Tome of the Night Sky," Sirius stopped a few feet back as Abby stood straight and looked at him, "what was it meant for?"

Abby chuckled softly. "It was meant to absorb spells." He frowned in confusion and stroked his chin. "I think so anyway. It's been a long time since I saw it, but it was originally used to help older magic users who were dying. They would pour their magical knowledge into the book so that their spells would not disappear with them."

"Really?" Sirius nodded slowly at the logic of that. That would be helpful, since uncommon magic was often-times lost when a person died. "So, what changed?"

Abby smirked sadly. "The people of Al Hazard needed someone who could always use the book, as the thing didn't always allow its user to access the spells within." He snapped his fingers and an image of the book appeared. "So, they crafted a bond with the book by creating a Unison Device."

"Unison?" Sirius raised an eyebrow. "Sounds like what would have happened had all our ships merged together a few centuries ago."

"Maybe." Abby chuckled softly. "This device was created rather differently than most of the ones that followed."

"How so?" Sirius did find this stuff interesting. At least it kept him distracted from several worlds that were in the middle of conflict one way or another.

Abby shrugged. "I'm not sure." When he heard Sirius slam into the ground, he shook his head. "I'm not omniscient. All I know is that the device itself was different." He smirked slightly. "To be honest, she felt almost like a human that had been turned into some sort of Mazoku or Shinzoku. Other than that, I don't know."

"Interesting." Sirius looked at the wreckage before turning back to see Abby gone. "...Huh." Shrugging, the Shinzoku continued onwards. The universe was huge and there was always something new to see after all.

(-)

She smirked as she looked at the data. "So, they did survive." She muttered to herself, before chuckling. Even if they weren't the same ones from the past, the fact that their power had survived for thousands of years made for some _interesting_ possibilities.

Still, this would require a lot of thought.

After all, they were created to destroy her and all of her kind. She just wondered if they knew what their original purpose was.

Oh well, even if they did, she could figure something out.

It was what her master taught her after all.


	170. Peek Onwards Start

Blood That Flows

Peek

Onwards Start

* * *

Sighing as he sat down in his office, he wondered if this was a good idea, the flak that the other branches were giving him, not only them, but the way that the leaders seemed to have forgotten what happened a few years ago really grated on his nerves. It was annoying that the other military leaders thought that the new technology and weapons was enough to deal with the threats that the Mazoku and that Chaos power represented.

"Still..."

"General." He blinked and looked at his secretary.

"Auris." He nodded to her. "What is it?"

"I'm curious, why did you tell them that it was a similar being that destroyed that planet instead of the truth?"

Regius smirked at her. "Think, Auris, if I told them that it was Chaos, the power that saved us from that Mazoku from years ago, what would they want?"

"To control... Oh." She trailed off, nodding. Even if the Bureau as a whole was strong enough to capture those who had the power, the resulting deaths would be far too much.

"Exactly." Regius crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes as he called up a vid screen that had several reports on it. One part caught his interest, before a slow smile crossed his face. "I think I know how to convince them to do this experiment."

"How?" Auris blinked in confusion as Regius looked at her.

"Even I admit, I would love to use this as a chance to further my political agenda. What if I managed to get it staffed by people who weren't interested in playing politics?"

"Would that work?" Auris blinked in confusion.

He shrugged at that. "I'm not sure, but I think if I could get the support of certain people, I think they'll agree to it. Plus..." He turned back and pushed a button and Auris blinked at the image that appeared on the screen. "She's fifteen now, right?"

Auris nodded and looked at the girl's profile in question. "Using her..."

"Not just her." He pushed a few more buttons and Auris's eyes widened at the profiles that appeared on screen. "I wonder if they'll go for it."

Regius wasn't sure himself, but he was hopeful that they would. Pushing a few buttons, all but the original profile picture appeared on the screen. "...She's going to take the test for captain, correct?"

"Yes. As you know, she's not had much drive to join the Bureau completely, but she wanted to become a captain so that she can choose what missions she and her family takes on."

On the screen was an image of Hayate Yagami looking straight ahead.

(-)

On Earth...

"Mom?" Nanoha asked as she looked at Fate and Yuuno. The three of them had been called down to the table that morning. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing." Lina said quietly as she took a drink from her cup of coffee. "You three are fifteen now." They all nodded at her. "And, I'm wondering what your plans for the future are." She nodded as the three looked at each other before looking back at her. "You have several choices here. One, you can go to high school like Miyuki and Kyouya did and continue your education, two, you can drop out after graduating and work or three..."

"Join the Bureau..." Fate said softly, causing Lina to nod.

"Yes. If you want to know, I've been asked over the last few years by the Bureau when you'd end up joining the Bureau officially." Lina smirked as all three blushed. "I was able to say that as Nanoha and Fate's mother, I wanted them to have an education here on Earth. As for Yuuno, I told them that it would be better if he could develop his magic on his own without pressure from politics."

"But since we're graduating soon..." Yuuno trailed off and sighed. "I probably won't have much choice, since I'm a member of the Scrya clan, and the Bureau works with my clan often enough..."

Lina shrugged at him. "I can't tell you, but I want you three to really think about this. You all know that Hayate's moving after graduation, right?" The three of them nodded. "Between myself and Lindy, we were able to keep her family from doing too much, as she still needed to live here on Earth for awhile, but even so..."

"She said that she wanted to be a captain at least, maybe even more." Nanoha spoke up. "She said that if she was in a position of command, she could at least choose what missions she and her family take..."

Lina nodded to her. "Yeah, that's what she told me. Anyway, you three, you need to think hard. If you join the Bureau, you'll need to leave Earth and move to Mid Childa. And, on top of that... If you go, there's going to be a few people following you."

"Erio..." Fate began and looked at Yuuno.

"And Caro." He nodded to Fate.

"Miyuki-nee might follow us. She had a lot of fun last time she was there."

Lina stood up and walked over to the sink. "Whatever your choice, I want you three to think hard about what you want to do in the future. When you make a choice, I don't want you to have any regrets or anything holding you back." She pointed upwards and grinned. "Whatever you choose to do, aim for the top, fly high, never back down and never surrender, never look back and never regret what choices you've made in life."

After all, thinking of what might have been instead of what was, was nothing more than a waste of time and energy.

(-)

Later...

"It's a lot to think about, isn't it Fate?"

"Yeah." Fate nodded as she and Suzuka sat on a pair of swings at one of the parks. Fate smiled sadly as she watched Arf and Erio play on the slides. "I'm not sure what I want right now. When I look at Erio and think about how he was treated before I found him..."

Suzuka nodded and looked at the boy herself. "Arisa-chan and myself are more than likely going to inherit our family's fortunes and businesses."

Looking at her friend, Fate blinked a few times. "It almost sounds like you don't want that to happen."

Suzuka smiled softly. "It's not that I don't mind the thought of living in luxury, but after finding out about magic and my own heritage..." She looked up at the sky. "How many other girls have no magic but can beat a Mazoku as strong as Riksfalto up?"

"I'd like to see someone punch a Mazoku and make it stick, personally." Fate muttered softly. "Still..." She sighed softly and looked down.

"Fate-chan..." Suzuka looked at Fate. "Unlike me, you have history on Mid-Childa, right?" Fate nodded slightly. "Besides, what will you do if Nanoha-chan, Yuuno-kun and Hayate-chan all move to Mid-Childa and you stay here?"

"Not have to listen to Thoth make so many comments about my breasts." Fate said with a straight face, one that lasted only a couple of seconds before she and Suzuka started laughing at it.

Even so, Suzuka did make a good point. What _would_ she do if that was the case?

Not far from them, Erio looked at Arf, who was in her child form. "So..."

"I think Fate's going to go to Mid-Childa." The small familiar nodded. "She saved you, she wouldn't want others to suffer like you did." One thing that Arf found unusual was that the two new kids had some seriously sharp senses. Val told her that he knew where everyone was simply because everyone had a unique smell to them. While Arf noticed it as well, she found her sense of smell was weakened in human form, Val didn't seem to suffer any no matter what form he was in.

Neither Erio nor Caro were bothered by the noise in the way that Lina's family had been, but they still were able to hear things that normal people shouldn't have been able to hear.

(-)

"So, what are you going to do, Nanoha?"

The redhead looked at her friend, before smiling softly. "I'm going to join the Bureau, Vita-chan."

"Really?" The taller, more busty redhead blinked in surprise. "That didn't take long."

"Well, for one..." Nanoha poked Vita in her right breast. "I want to eat whatever it is that they fed you to make your breasts grow almost as big as Reinforce-san's."

"Hey!" Vita's face went red and she grabbed Nanoha's wrist, pulling it away from her chest. "Who gave you the right to do that?"

Nanoha pouted and teared up. "It's not fair! Hayate-chan gets to play with your boobies all the time and when I touch them just once you get all mad at me? At least you have boobies that can be played with!"

Vita sighed and let go of Nanoha's wrist. Before Nanoha could figure anything out, Vita was behind her and grabbing the shorter redhead's chest. "Why are you complaining for? Your boobs are growing too." Vita let go and stepped back, her face slightly red. "And don't complain about it again, you're not flat-chested."

"Vita-chan," Nanoha smiled and hugged the taller girl. "Thanks." Letting go, she was thankful that the two of them were by a lake and that most people weren't around at the time.

Vita's face was red and she grumbled before sighing softly. "Trust me, Nanoha, you don't want them _this_ big." At least she thought they were big, though, it led to some interesting comments from Signum.

Nanoha scratched her head in confusion. "But, Reinforce is bigger than you are, and I think your breasts only just as big as Lindy-san's."

"Why are you looking at Lindy and Reinforce's breasts anyway?" Vita asked, sweat-dropping when Nanoha blushed heavily and commented that she had been jealous of how small her chest was compared to her friends when they were at that outdoor hot springs a few months ago. "Yeah, well, it does kind of suck. They were really sensitive when they were growing." Vita twitched, remembering that time she had a nightmare and accidentally hit her own breasts while trying to grab for Graf Eisen.

The fact that even Shamal couldn't stop herself from snickering when Vita told them why she had a bruise on her chest really made the Hammer Knight grumble in annoyance.

"But the other reason I want to join..." Nanoha smiled at Vita. "Is so that I can help the people who helped me out."

"Nanoha?" Vita blinked as Nanoha picked up a rock and threw it into the water.

"Raising Heart was given to me by Yuuno-kun, she was upgraded and fixed by the Bureau a few times, plus my aunt is part of the Saint Church, right?" Vita nodded slowly. "Maybe when I get old I'll want to do what my mom did," Nanoha blinked and thought about just _how_ her mother ended up on Earth, "well, without the using a forbidden spell and getting shot across time and space part. But for now, I want to learn more and help others who need it."

Vita blinked a lot, but smiled at the thought of working with Nanoha at times. At least it wouldn't be too bad.

It wasn't like the Bureau would have her work as Nanoha's subordinate because they had compatible personalities after all.


	171. Peek Onwards Two

Blood That Flows

Peek

Onwards 2

* * *

Meanwhile...

"What's wrong with you?" Arisa looked at Yuuno as the two sat in her back yard, well, Arisa was sitting, Yuuno was laying on his back while looking up at the sky.

"Nothing's wrong." Yuuno said softly.

**"Boss wants to go see his clan again, but he doesn't want to see all of you go away forever."**

For once, Yuuno wasn't annoyed by Thoth's comments, especially since the device, for how perverted it seemed to be, was incredibly good at figuring people out.

Though he made sure never to leave Thoth alone with Raising Heart ever again. The utter madness of Nanoha's device flying around his underwear drawer and trying to open it still gave him fits. Especially since Nanoha found the whole thing amusing.

Arisa pulled her knees up to her chest and looked out at the yard as Caro and Fried played with several of the younger dogs. "So, you'll be leaving after graduation then?" Yuuno nodded and Arisa sighed softly as she watched him adjust his glasses slightly. "Caro won't want you to leave."

"She likes you too... I think she'd be happier here than in the Bureau space." Arisa looked at Yuuno, who sighed heavily. "The fact that she's on Earth right now and technically under Lina and Lindy's care is the only thing that's keeping the Bureau from practically hounding her to join them."

"I thought the Bureau was nicer than that."

Yuuno sat up, his hair, which had grown long enough to go half way down his back, wavered slightly as a breeze picked up, and sighed heavily. "They normally are pretty nice, but even so, they want new and powerful mages to join them. Lina kept the Bureau from talking to us too much, but Lindy dropped hints that joining the Bureau would be a good thing."

Though, Yuuno was pretty sure that getting your own personal small spacecraft was probably outside of the budget of the Bureau normally, it was still a nice offer. Though, when Nanoha started quoting those movies and how Yuuno had to 'use the force' among other things, both Fate and Yuuno decided to turn down the offer. Especially since Nanoha looked ready to try and use one to navigate her way through an asteroid field. That look that she had in her eye was really unsettling.

"And Caro can somehow control Dragons..." Arisa looked on as Caro was literally dog-piled by the puppies. At least the giggles the girl was giving off made it clear that she wasn't in any pain or danger at least.

"She's a Dragon Summoner..." Yuuno smiled as he watched her. "Think about it... Someone who's skilled enough can summon creatures that are just as big as that big Dragon that talked to us when we first met her. And if the creature listens to its summoner..."

"That's... A hell of a trump card." Arisa muttered as she thought about the small girl playing with the puppies summoning something that was larger than most skyscrapers and shuddered. "Remember that day a couple of months ago, when she came to the school?"

Yuuno blinked and smiled at that. "Yeah..."

***Flash...***

Yuuno blinked as he came out of the school and found Caro standing at the edge of the school yard. "Caro?" He asked as he walked up to the young girl. "What are you... OOMPH!" He groaned as Caro ran up to him and jumped at him, knocking her head into his stomach. "...Well, at least you're not Fried..." He muttered softly. That Dragon might not have been big, but it had a head that was super hard and he had been knocked flat on his ass more than once by that thing ramming its head into his body.

Looking up at him, Yuuno could have _sworn _he was seeing dog ears pop out of her head and a dog tail pop out of her back, from under her skirt, before waggling at him. "Missed you!" She hugged him again, smiling.

Smiling, Yuuno knelt down and picked Caro up, putting her on his shoulders. "Missed you too." Caro let out a cry of happiness as she rode on him. "So, where's Fried?"

"Playing with Val." Caro suddenly hugged his head again. "Mmm... Missed you THIS much!" She spread her arms to the side as far as she could get them and Yuuno started laughing softly. "Mooouuuu... What?"

"Nothing, Caro, nothing at all."

***End Flashback...***

"I think she'll follow you, even if you go to Mid-Child, Yuuno. Plus, if Fate and Erio go there, she'll really want to go." When Yuuno looked at her in confusion, Arisa rolled her eyes. "You didn't notice? When they aren't fighting over who plays what game, they're always doing stuff together." Arisa smirked at Yuuno. "Just don't let your device teach Erio about women."

**"It's not my fault that none of you let me show off the pictures that I have. Boss, if you would just look, I can let you see what any girl has that you might be interested in."**

Yuuno twitched heavily. "Thoth, not now..."

**"Okay, boss, but it would be easier to just look at the pictures and deal with it that way than dreaming about Riksfalto trapping you in an orgy again."**

Arisa's face was red as she glared at Yuuno, who managed to somehow go both pale and completely red at the same time. "YU-UU-NO..." She twitched and created a flaming blue sword in one hand and a hammer of water and ice in the other. "How dare you have a dream like that!"

"I can't help it!" Yuuno yelped and snapped his hand upwards, knocking the ice hammer out of Arisa's hand. "It's not like I can control my dreams."

Arisa pouted and dispelled her flame sword. "Was just trying to scare you a bit." She shook her head. "...Unless you went looking at us when we were showering."

Yuuno shook his head. "Listen, Arisa, despite Thoth, I'm not that bad."

**"Boss doesn't need to be, the girls take their shirts off for him."**

"Dammit, Thoth!" Yuuno was blushing hard, though he had to admit, it might have been true, considering that he _still_sometimes caught most of the girls at the Takamachi household either topless or naked at times.

Arisa created another hammer out of ice. "Mind if I smack him a couple of times?"

Yuuno sighed and waved her off. "If you do, I'm afraid he'll break, and then he'll need to get fixed, and come back even worse than before."

Arisa twitched, her face blue at the thought. "On second thought..." She banished the hammer and shivered. She couldn't imagine Thoth being worse than it was now.

**"Boss, why are you complaining? Didn't you have fun with Miyuki on that Ferris Wheel?"**

"What?" Arisa asked flatly and Yuuno swung his arms back and forth, shaking his head.

"No! We just were on a date, the power went out and.. Uh..." Yuuno blushed heavily. "We kissed a few times, okay?"

Arisa was blushing, but she gave him a half lidded stare. "That's all you did?" Seeing Yuuno's blush intensify, she shook her head and looked away. "Never mind, I don't wanna know."

Yuuno sighed softly. He was actually glad that she didn't pry. He really wasn't sure how to explain that the make-out session ended up with Miyuki's shirt off and his hands on her breasts without coming across like a complete pervert.

He still cursed the fact that the ride started up again before he could do more than just grab her breasts and kiss her.

(-)

An hour later...

Suzuka blinked as she saw Falin greet her at the door with a somber expression. "Falin? What is it?"

"It's your cat, Mr. Snuggles..." Falin's shoulders were slumped and her face downcast. When Suzuka asked what happened, she took a deep breath and looked her master right in the eye. "Mr. Snuggles exploded."

"WHAT?" Suzuka grabbed Falin by her shoulders. "Please tell me that you're just joking!"

Falin slowly shook her head. "The poor cat was out in the garden when something of ice and water slammed into him from the sky so violently that a small crater was formed. I couldn't even find the body."

Suzuka slumped to her knees and tears welled up in her eyes. "Mr. Snuggles... What did..."

Her words cut off as something landed on her head with a "meow". Blinking, Suzuka reached up and pulled the cat off of her head. "MR. SNUGGLES!"

Falin just stared as Suzuka hugged the cat for dear life. "But how? Everything... I..." She shook her head and decided that for her sanity, she didn't want to know.

Besides, it was nice that the cat survived.

* * *

And now, an omake written up by my friend, LightGuard.

START OMAKE!

One day, while laying on the couch, Mr. Snuggles was suddenly picked up and placed in a soft, comfortable place. He looked up through the newly formed mountain pass to the perky redhead who started to nuzzle him gently.

"Aww, you're so cute Mr. Snuggles. And no one can make fun of me or say anything about me being tough and cuddling you!" Vita mumbled in triumph.

Naturally, things would just go wrong today for our Miss Vita.

"Mizzter Zzznuggles izzz zzooo happy!" Waspinator mumbled from inside Vita's Marshmallow Hell.

"Di...did you say something Mr. Snuggles?" Vita asked as she looked at the cat.

"Uhm...Mrowr?" said Waspinator

"AYYYYEEEE! POSSESSED KITTY!" she screamed as she flung Mr. Snuggles away.

"WHY UNIVERZE HATE WAZPINATOR!" hollered Waspinator as he flew through an open window and landed in the alley.

Later, back at the Yagami-Reinforce Home for the Insane...

"You smell...weird. Like a cat and a really big bug..." Zafira growled warily, taking care to keep a foot between him and Mr. Snuggles at all times...

"Wazpinator not zmell! YOU ZMELL BAD, BAD DOGGY!"

"I AM NOT A DOG!" Zafira roarred

"WALKZ LIKE A RUBBER DUCKY, TALKZ LIKE A RUBBER DUCKY!"

Cue Benny Hill chase music as Zafira chases Waspinator/Mr. Snuggles through town.

"Ahh...thiz good timez. Make Wazpinator happy." Mr. Snuggles sighed to himself as he bowled over Erio and Caro in his mad dash to escape the jaws that bite and the teeth that pierce.

"FRIED! BLAST RAY!" Caro yelled.

"Huh?" Asked Waspinator

"ROAAAAAAAAR!"

"WAAAHAHAHAHAAAA!" *BOOOOOM!*

Naturally, the appearance of a giant lizard in the city streets caused the entire chase to fall apart as the magical blast from said giant lizard launched the cat into the air.

"WAZPINATOR HURT IN WHOOOLE BODY!"

*GLEAM!*

Suddenly, at the Takamichi home.

'Wow, this has definitely been a quiet day." Lina mused to herself as she watched the sun go down. "Maybe now that I've said something about it, I'll get some action! WAHAHAHAHAAA!"

Without fail, ten pounds of smoking feline drops out of the sky directly onto Lina's head.

As the two fall unconscious, a mote of pulsing light floats out of Mr. Snuggles into the air.

"Note to Wazpinator: If Wazpinator encounter Spiderbot or Birdbot, talk about primativez. No one believe Wazpinator otherwize..."

And with a flash, Waspinator flew off into the sky...

"And that'z what really happened," The diminutive waspbot muttered sourly from his perch on a mug of Maccadam's Finest.

"Ehhhh, it coulda been woise," Rattrap muttered, "At least you didn't get stuck inside that darn cat..."

"Have you looked at Wazpinator lately?"

"...Good point."

FIN.


	172. Peek Onwards End

Blood That Flows

Peek

Onwards End

* * *

Days later...

Lina shook her head as she watched Nanoha and Fate run out the door. "I have to admit, I'm worried about their choice."

Arf, Erio and Arashi looked up at her. "Why?" Arashi asked his mother in confusion.

Lina smirked softly. "It's a parent thing." She winked and walked over to her son, picking him up. "One day, you and your sister will both understand."

Arashi just blinked, before nodding. "Okay, mama!" He wasn't going to argue with his mother on something like that. He had more important things to do.

Like playing tag with Erio, Fried, Val and Caro in the afternoon!

(-)

Shamal smiled softly as she saw Vita and Hayate run out the door. "Time sure has flown, hasn't it?"

"Yeah." Signum nodded and chuckled as she watched the two of them run off happily. "Doesn't feel like we've been here for only six years."

"Feels less than a year to me." Shamal shook her head, amused by the situations she found her facing at times. "Still, a lot's happened, hasn't it?"

Signum nodded and watched as Vita and Hayate stopped at the corner to wave to someone before turning and running towards the school. "I wonder what the future brings for all of us." Seeing Reinforce, Zwei and Zafira, the latter in his wolf form, walk towards the door, she felt that whatever happened, they'd be okay, as long as they were together.

(-)

"So, Suzuka, any idea what you're going to do?" Arisa turned to look at her friend as they walked towards the school.

"No idea, actually." Suzuka smiled at her friend helplessly. "I'm just glad after graduation that we'll be done with Riksfalto."

"_Who's_going to be done with me?" The two stiffened as Riksfalto seemingly materialized behind them and wrapped her arms around their necks. "You two are so much fun I might just follow you all over this staff." The green-haired Mazoku grinned at the way they paled at the comment. "You two better not think about graduating without at least saying goodbye..." The Mazoku's grin sent shivers down their spines. "Or I might get... Upset."

"You do realize that we can beat you up, right?" Arisa looked at Riksfalto, who grinned at her.

"Trust me, kiddo, I know, but I don't mind it." She squeezed Arisa's shoulder tightly. "If you're really good, I'll make sure that a certain someone had some _interesting_dreams about you."

"Crazy bitch!" Arisa spun and created a hammer out of wind and smashing it into Riksfalto's face, or at least tried to as the Mazoku disappeared at the last second. "GAH! She drives me _CRAZY!_"

"You aren't the only one." Suzuka muttered. "Come on, we better hurry and meet up with them!"

Arisa's mood instantly improved. "Yeah!" Arisa spun around and the two of them took off towards where the rest of their friends were meeting up.

(-)

"Hey, Yuuno-san..."

Yuuno looked down and smiled at the girl. "Yeah, Caro?" He blinked as the small girl hugged him tightly. "Hey, come on, I'm not going to be gone for that long."

"I know..." The girl pouted as he patted her on the head. "I'll still miss you."

Yuuno was blushing at all the looks he was getting from the girls who were looking at him and Caro. "Hey, if you're like this, then Erio, Val and Arashi will make fun of you again." Caro let go and looked at him, determination burning in her eyes. "So, tell you what, you make sure to keep those three in line and when I get back, you, me and Fried can go play in the park, okay?"

"Can Arisa-san come with?" When Yuuno nodded, Caro let out a cry of happiness and jumped up, hugging him tightly. "Okay!"

Yuuno smiled and patted her back softly. "Okay, Caro, let's go meet with Falin so she can watch after you today."

"Okay!" Caro smiled and squeezed onto his arm tightly as they walked away.

(-)

Later...

"Hey." Yuuno waved to Fate, Nanoha, Vita and Hayate as he stepped onto the rooftop.

Vita grinned as she saw him. "Late as usual, just like a man."

"I dunno, Vita-chan," Nanoha giggled as Yuuno looked at her indignantly, "I heard that Yuuno-kun was walking Caro-chan somewhere."

"Well, anyway..." Fate smiled at them. "We're going to give you support, Hayate."

"Thanks, Fate-chan." Hayate smiled back at her. "So, how about it? Is everyone ready?" The other four nodded as they all held onto their devices. "Well then, thank you, I really hope I pass that promotion test."

"I'm sure you will." Nanoha grinned at her. "And when you're done..."

"All you can eat!" The five of them cheered at the same time.

"So, let's go, everyone!" Vita gripped Graf Eisen tightly. "Onwards!"

"Towards the future!" Hayate grinned as she held onto the Tome of the Night Sky.

"Let's never look back with regrets." Nanoha smiled as Raising Heart flew around her.

"But never forget the lessons we've learned." Fate smiled while palming Bardiche.

"Nor the people that helped us get here." Yunno nodded as they held their devices to the sky.

"SET UP!"

* * *

That was the A's epilogue, if you were curious.

But, we're not going to go STRAIGHT to StrikerS, not yet.

Got a bit more to cover first.


	173. Peek Cycle Start

Blood That Flows

Peek

Cycle Start

This starts to go into StrikerS, but these mini-arcs are still before the StrikerS season proper.

* * *

"Wow!" Nanoha smiled as she looked at the building they were in front of. "This is big!" She yelped as someone smacked her head. "Oww..." Turning, she pouted at the look Vita was giving her. "Vita-chan..." She whined to her friend.

"Stop gawking, you're acting like you've never seen a place this big." Vita crossed her arms under her breasts and huffed at her teary-eyed friend. Vita didn't understand why she had to be friends with such people. One liked groping her all the time, one ended up either blowing stuff up or getting emotional for some odd reason, and one ended up seeing her with almost no clothes on fairly often. Vita would almost say that Fate was normal, except that when she and Signum sparred... Well, it was only slightly less disturbing than seeing Signum spar against Nanoha. At least Fate didn't start grinning when she was bleeding like Signum and Nanoha did.

Yuuno, Hayate, Fate and Nanoha all blinked when Vita suddenly groaned and started slapping her forehead. "Vita-chan?" Hayate asked, reaching forward nervously. She just hoped that Vita wasn't going to suddenly snap, turn green, grow a meter in height and gain muscles that would make a bodybuilder jealous and...

"...I have GOT to stop reading those American manga." Hayate sighed heavily. "Vita-chan, are you okay?"

"I'm fine, just realizing something." Vita muttered softly. "I swear," Vita's eye twitched as she heard someone whistle at her, "sometimes I wonder if it would have been better if I didn't grow up."

"NO!" Hayate suddenly jumped forward and grabbed Vita's shoulders. "Don't think that way!" It was actually hard for Hayate to grab at Vita's shoulders, since she had to reach up, which wasn't hard normally, but Vita's large, squeezable, perfect breasts were right in front of her. The temptation to just grab them was so great, but she had to resist, otherwise Vita might think that she was right in her thinking. "Just because people look, that means nothing! We're humans! We like looking at nice things, so you should take it as a compliment!"

Watching them, Fate was just glad that her breasts weren't quite as big as Vita's, though it didn't stop Hayate from groping them all the time. The one time she tried to get back at Hayate didn't work out quite as she had planned. Hayate seemed to enjoy it a little _too_much and the look she got from Reinforce had been cold enough to freeze the water. Fate could still remember how uncomfortable it was to have the water around her legs suddenly freeze and hold her into place. At least Signum had been nice enough to use her fire magic to melt it a moment later. Though, Fate was pretty sure that the pinkette's hand lingered on her butt for longer than it needed to.

If it had been anyone else, Fate would have been certain that they were groping her butt. But Signum wouldn't take the time to squeeze and fondle her butt, the blonde was sure of it.

"Alright, alright." Vita sweat-dropped heavily and sighed as Hayate stepped back. "People were starting to stare."

**"They were probably hoping to look up Hayate's skirt... Or at least see you two make out."**

Yuuno slapped his forehead and groaned. Why couldn't Thoth _not_ make comments like that?

Nanoha just giggled softly and grinned at Hayate and Yuuno. "Hey, I wouldn't have minded seeing them kiss." She winked as her friends stared at her. The redhead turned around and ran off, turning her head to laugh at them. "Nyahahahahahaha."

"Nanoha!" Vita took off after the running redhead. "Were you serious?" When Nanoha kept running, Vita growled and ran faster.

Yuuno sighed heavily. "I just hope those two remember that we're not supposed to use magic outside of designated training areas without permission."

Fate looked at Yuuno curiously. "I'm a little rusty on my rules, but why?" Even on Earth, no one seemed to care that they were using magic, so long as it didn't do anything adverse. Well, that and the fact that they usually had a barrier up to phase themselves out of normal reality.

"Simple really." Hayate walked forward with her eyes closed and her right index finger pointed up, as if she were lecturing someone. "While it is true that magic is freely accepted here on Mid-Childa, the fact that it is abusable means that we, as mages and knights, must make sure that we do not use magic in populated areas that are not previously cleared for training without permission."

"You kind of sound like that Admiral Leti person." Yuuno dead panned, causing Hayate to spin around and giggle before winking at him and Fate.

"Good, after hearing her drill this into my head the fifteenth time, I got tired of hearing it." Hayate hung her head and sighed. "I mean, really, I **know **everything that you're going to say about this subject already, can we just talk about something else? I'm sorry that something happened by accident and things got out of control, either punish me or just tell me that you want me to get better at it."

Both Yuuno and Fate had heavy sweat-drops as they listened to Hayate rant.

"Maybe if you didn't bend the rules so much, she wouldn't talk to you about it as often." A new voice spoke up and the three stiffened and turned around to see a woman in a brown military suit, thin glasses around her eyes, short, light-brown hair with bangs that tried, unsuccessfully, to hide the left side of her face. "Hayate Yagami?" The petite woman asked, looking at the teenager.

"Yes, who are you?"

The woman had a thin smile on her face as she looked at the way that Hayate and her two friends were tensing up. "While it is true that you and your... Family have been engaged in criminal activities in the past," even though she had no magic of her own, she could almost feel it building up between the two blondes, though when Hayate moved her arm, they seemed to relax, which was a good sign.

"What about my past, miss..."

"Auris Gaiz." The woman nodded to Hayate. "Your past is unimportant right now. General Regius Gaiz wishes to speak with you at your earliest convience."

"Are you related to him?" Fate looked at the woman, her voice deeply curious.

"He is my father." Auris nodded to Fate. "Even so, unlike many mages, I have earned my position, as has my father." She looked at Hayate again. "He has a proposition for you, one you might find useful."

Hayate took a deep breath and nodded. "You can tell him that I will meet with him after my promotional test."

Auris nodded and turned to walk away from them.

Yuuno twitched as he watched her go before turning to Hayate. "You okay?" He frowned when she waved him off. "Hayate..."

"I'm fine." The shorter, brown haired girl grabbed at her right arm and looked away. "Not everyone in the Bureau likes the fact that I'm not locked up for the rest of my life, due to what my family has done in the past. And on top of that, I'm a mage who managed to rise through the ranks fairly fast. I mean, I know some people who are far older than I am who are just a Major, while I'm trying to get promoted to a Colonel." Turning to look at them, Hayate smiled sadly. "There's a lot of resentment between the various branches, mostly because the Navy and the Airforce keeps taking the best magic users and leaves the Ground Forces with almost nothing. It's been getting better in the past few years, with the Ground Forces getting new technology first and a new headquarters, but old wounds take a long time to mend themselves."

"And even with the new technology, powerful and talented mages make better use out of it, huh?" Yuuno sighed when Hayate nodded. "So, now what?"

**"Check to see if Vita and Nanoha are doing stuff together, boss?"**

Hayate giggled softly. "Well, couldn't hurt, come on." She smiled as the blondes nodded and walked after her.

Still, she couldn't help but wonder why Regius Gaiz wanted to see her. From what little she had heard about him, she wasn't the kind of person that he would want to see, since he seemed to hate anyone who had been a criminal before joining the Bureau.

(-)

It was getting late as the sun started to sink over the horizon. "To be honest, I expected you here a lot sooner." He said as he looked out of his office window to the skyline, not even bothering to turn around as the other person walked into the room. He turned around to see Hayate Yagami standing on the other side of his desk, her body was bathed in the orange-red light of the setting sun. "I suppose I should congratulate you, Colonel Yagami for your promotion."

Hayate blinked several times and winced as he moved and the light hit her in the eyes directly. "For some reason, I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that you know, General Gaiz." She sighed when the window darkened and the light dimmed, allowing her to see more clearly. "Though, why don't you have the lights on?"

"Takes away the view of the sunset." He chuckled as the lights on the inside of the room turned on. "Now, sit..." He nodded to her as he sat down himself. "Tell me something, Yagami, what is the reason that you joined the Bureau?"

"I wasn't given much of a choice, considering the past my family has with the Bureau, and what they did behind my back. Even so, I still wanted to help people, especially after the incident that happened on Lina-san's home world."

"Yes... That incident..." Regius looked at her, his eyes narrowed as he fixed her with a piercing glare, one that she managed to return to him with ease. The two held their looks for several moments, before Regius broke it off and grinned at her. "You're good, most kids, even those that have risen up through the ranks would flinch."

"I've stared death in the face more times in my life since I was nine than most people lose weight with fad diets, no offense, General, but compared to facing down a Mazoku Lord, you aren't too intimidating." Maybe she was pushing her luck, Hayate wasn't sure, but she wasn't going to back down.

Regius suddenly chuckled softly. "Interesting, you're not afraid that I could ruin your career?"

"If you wanted to do that, you could have stopped me from getting any rank higher than a captain. Please, can we stop beating around the bush, I want to go and meet with my friends and I want to know what you want from me." Hayate was mentally thanking Lina for her stories on how she handled diplomacy. Granted, Hayate thought that making idiots explode wouldn't work with the Bureau, no matter how much the option might have appealed to her.

Regius smirked at her. If it wasn't for her criminal history, he might have said that he liked the girl. "Before I continue, I wonder, did you know that after the incident that put you into a wheelchair again..."

"My family and myself earned a full pardon for taking on a X ranked threat." Hayate nodded to him. "The whole mission should have been rated a triple X mission, in my opinion." Though, if Hayate thought about it long enough, people might think that was a mission for porn or something equally silly. "Not only going against several X ranked threats and getting nearly killed in the process, but we managed to come out of it alive and recovered from the experience. However, despite that, there are threats at that level even in this universe, and I do not wish to sit idly by while threats such as those exist."

"Then, tell me, Yagami, do you know about the problems that the Bureau faces, even from the inside?"

"Besides the fact that the Ground Forces, the Navy and the Airforce generally stay out of each others affairs?"

Regius nodded, pleased that she had listened to people, at least the ranting people had done. "Yes, that's the problem. If there's a Ground Forces problem, the Air Force and the Navy, even if their people are closer to the problem than the Ground Forces are, will not help out. So, I make a proposal to you, Colonel Hayate Yagami," Regius took a moment to collect his thoughts before continuing, "I have been in talks with leaders of the Ground Forces, Navy, Air Force and even the leaders of the Saint Church... To create a group that can move independently of all branches of the military while still being loyal to the Time-Space Administration Bureau."

She blinked at him in confusion. "What does that have to do with me?"

"Simply put..." Regius gave her a knowing look. "It will not work without strong mages and knights to be the prototype and lay the ground work, if you will, for the future. And, so, Colonel Yagami... I want you and your family, as well as your friends, if possible, to be a part of this."

Hayate stared at the older man, shocked at the offer. "You..."

"Take your time to think about it, I still need to get the Air Force behind the idea, but... If you do agree, I'm fairly certain that the Bureau will support you and your friends, the "heroes of Mid-Childa" after all."

Hayate nodded and left the room shortly after that, her mind still in shock.

"It's your move." Regius said to no one in particular.

He wasn't sure who he was talking about at that moment.

* * *

And now, for some Omakes by Old Iron

Massage

It had started relatively innocently enough.

Some of the group had been taking it easy at Hayate's home after a long day at school. Fate, Nanoha, and Hayate were outside, having fun with their magic, Signum was watching them, and no one was really sure where Arf had vanished to. Reinforce was in the kitchen, attempting to make some drinks for everyone. Vita had plopped herself down on the spacious couch and let out an irritated sigh. "Damned body."

That drew the attention of Yuuno, who had been sitting opposite the couch that the developing Knight now lounged upon. He looked up from his book with a slightly concerned look. "Growing pains?" the blonde questioned hesitantly. If he was right, then Vita was in one of her less amused moods at the moment.

"Yes, growing pains," she growled out before hefting her considerable breasts, eliciting a blush from the blonde male. "They won't stop growing, they're killing my shoulders, and I'm pretty sure that at this rate, I'll need a part time job to keep buying new bras," Vita ranted hotly.

That had been a little bit more information than he'd expected, not that a certain part of his mind complained. "Er... Is there anything I can do to help?" asked Yuuno, not certain what exactly he could do to alleviate her frustration or pain. Sure, he knew healing spells. But damage repairing and life granting spells seemed a bit much for a few aches.

Vita paused, starting flatly at Yuuno for a bit as she processed what he had just said. While he could probably cast some manner of holy magic that would grant her reprieve, the Iron Hammer Knight decided that there were easier and more amusing ways to get some relief for her shoulders. "There is," she said with somewhat imperious tone that she'd heard from Signum. "You can give me a shoulder rub."

Yuuno blinked. "Pardon?"

"Go for it boss!" proclaimed Thoth, who had remained silent thus far.

"Quiet!" admonished the blonde.

"You heard me, ferret boy. Now get over here." Vita's voice brooked no argument and an amused, wicked grin was on her lips. A faint tint of red colored her cheeks that Yuuno passed off as the heat. That the air conditioning was on, was ignored by both of them.

He obeyed her command and stood, his fingers twitching slightly. As Vita sat up from her place on the couch, Yuuno took a position behind her. He swallowed audibly before placing his nervous hands on the redhead's shoulders and attempting to massage the aching muscles beneath her fair skin.

Yuuno's attempted ministrations didn't quite work out all that well. He was too nervous and it didn't take long for Vita to snap at him. "What the hell is that? Come on, you're a man aren't you? Don't half-ass it!"

'Don't half-ass it, huh?' thought the blonde as Vita's words hit his pride. He hated doing anything with less than his full ability. Banishing his hesitation, Yuuno began working his fingers into her flesh and kneading the taut musculature.

'Just takes a little push, huh.' mused Vita as she let out a moan. Months of stress and the numerous aches were being worked away under her friend's amateur massage. "Oooooh... That's good, right there..." She felt herself starting to melt as Yuuno's magic fingers did their duty.

Reinforce just watched the scene with a raised eyebrow as Vita's moans become more and more pronounced.

Over time, it became their little routine. Whenever Vita had a foul day, a mission went bad, or even at her request, Yuuno was there to work away the tension.

A week after the airport fire and both were staring at the ceiling of Vita's room on Earth.

"How did we get here, again?" asked Yuuno.

"I have no idea..." admitted Vita, vaguely recalling calling him over for one of their routine sessions a few hours? days? ago. She wasn't quite sure what day it was anymore.

"Again?"

"You just don't stop do you?"

"You're the one who nearly broke my pelvis," admonished the blonde, rejoicing in his knowledge of healing spells.

"What? You're durable. Besides, I didn't think it would be this good," pouted the busty redhead.

They turned to stare at each other for a moment before attempting to speak at the same time, "Um-."

There was an odd silence that Vita broke with a grin. "Shut up and kiss me."

Yuuno gladly obliged.

In the family room, a triumphant looking Reinforce was thumbing through a thick stack of bills while others in the room looked at their thinning wallets in dismay. Having already won the bet on who got to Yuuno first, at this rate, she'd win the duration pool too. Somewhere deep inside her, the desire to belt out one of Naga's laughs grew.

* * *

Vita's Part Time Job

"Yagami, you'll be working up on section fourteen. There's a shit-ton of riveting to do and you're the best at it," barked the foreman, mentally begrudging the fact that he'd be losing such a skilled worker when the heavy construction was done. Damn temps.

"Got it, boss," replied Vita with a nod. She'd been working part time at the construction site for perhaps three weeks now. It was good money and they let her smash things. Her unexplained talent for riveting had more to do with her skill in smashing things with Graf Eisen than any kind of hidden talent.

It was a little dull at times, especially compared to school and Bureau work, but money was money and she needed some new clothing. She was outgrowing most of her undergarments at an absurd pace and that didn't sit well with finances.

The only thing she had disliked about the job so far was the perverse gazes that a few of the less reputable workers shot her way when she had first started. As she hopped on the lift, Vita recalled her third day of work. One moron had decided to hit on her, not realizing that she was not only fully capable of reducing him to a smear on the sidewalk, but also only fourteen.

Okay, legally fourteen. He didn't need to know that. Plus it gave her an excuse to have the ferret work her shoulders again.

She suppressed a sinister grin as she remembered telling the guy off and then breaking his arm with one hand. Not the most... legal way of making a point, but it had worked and the more respectable workers had stood up for her. Since then, only the more foolish had attempted to ogle her, something they immediately ceased when she glared at them.

Granted, she'd gotten a proper reprimanding from Lina for breaking the guy's arm, but it had been hard to take seriously. You really shouldn't try to scold someone while suppressing a laugh, it kinda removed the impact.

Upon reaching her work area, Vita saw the person she was set to relieve. He was an older man who had gone complete grey in his short facial hair and what little remained on his head. "Mornin', Yamato. Shift's up."

"Oh, good morning, Ms. Yagami," he replied while setting down the large rivet gun. "How are you?"

"Eh, same as always. You still holding together old man?" she asked while pulling on the heavy gloves she used.

Yamato gave a gravelly chuckle. "My wife still has to glue me back together when I get home, but I can't complain. Your boy keeping you in one piece?"

Vita laughed, "You'd better believe it."

A joyous smile appeared on the aged man's face as he recalled something. "Oh, my son is going to be a father soon."

Vita gave him a thumbs up and a smile, "Congratulations, old man."

He gave a broad grin and returned the thumbs up. "I'll be seeing you tomorrow then, Ms. Yagami. Take care of yourself."

The redhead nodded as she pulled on her earmuffs and goggles with one hand, waving goodbye to Yamato with the other. The loud sound of the rivet gun soon echoed through the area.

* * *

Mobile Mage Nanoha

It all started when she was little. The ability to make use of magic still slept within her, waiting to be awoken. Still, there was another kind of magic that danced in Nanoha Takamachi's eyes. The kind showed to her by Lina Takamachi, her mother.

'How dare you do that to by beloved Baron Ashura, Kouji Kabuto!' roared Dr. Hell from the television screen.

The little girl's bright eyes danced as the mighty metal giant fought against the mad doctor's fiendish creations. Still, there was something missing in these shows. Nanoha couldn't quite place it, but something felt off to her. Maybe it was because the characters were so over the top or because she couldn't figure out how they worked.

When walking home from school with her mother, little Nanoha asked a question. "Mom, can we watch a different show tonight?"

Lina turned her head towards her daughter with a smile. "Sure. Getting tired of watching Mazinger trash those baddies?"

The short brunette shook her head. "Nuh-uh. I just wanna try something new."

Later that evening, Nanoha was looking through her mother's extensive mecha collection. Eventually, she laid eyes on something that would change her life forever. "Gun... dam..."

Years later, Nanoha would obtain the nickname 'White Devil', and she wore it with pride. When asked why, she would reply that she was inspired by something else that bore that title.


	174. Peek Cycle Two

Blood That Flows

Peek

Cycle Two

* * *

"Hey!" Nanoha smiled as she saw Hayate walk up to their table. "Here's to your new promotion and our new status."

Hayate blinked as she sat down at the table. In front of her friends were almost a dozen empty plates each. "New status?" She asked, hoping to get this done quickly, she was pretty hungry too!

Fate was blushing softly. "We were recently accepted as privates to the Bureau."

"Other than learning military protocol, we've been given the go-ahead to join the active service as soon as possible." Yuuno nodded at Hayate's surprised look. "Considering that Nanoha, Fate and myself had training a few years ago and with the records of our daily sparring matches, it was determined that basic training would be useless for us."

Vita grinned as she looked at the three of them. "Which means, for now, I'm in charge of all three of you on missions."

"You're going to enjoy that, aren't you?" Nanoha said flatly as Vita nodded, her hair flopping around while her grin threatened to split her face.

"Oooh yeah!" Vita was chuckling as she thought about the things she could make Nanoha, Fate and especially Yuuno do for all the stuff they did to her in the sparring matches.

Hayate sweat-dropped and grabbed a plate. "I'll be right back, I need food."

"Same here." The other four at the table said at the same time and stood up to go get more to eat.

Watching them, the manager of the buffet shook his head and sighed. "I swear, if we have big eaters come here again, we may just go out of business."

The servers looked like they were about to say something, but decided against it. The last time this had happened, it was just too weird to try and explain to people and they decided to just try and pretend it didn't happen.

Though, the way these kids were eating, they might have a new record.

Hours later...

"So, Hayate..." Yuuno said as he and the other four finally walked away from the buffet building. "What was that meeting about?"

Hayate covered her mouth as she let out a small belch, blushing lightly at that. "Hmm? Oh!" She clapped her hands together and chuckled softly. "It seems that the General, well, he wants to make a new unit and he wants us to join."

"Why?" Vita frowned at that. "I thought he didn't like us."

"He wants to be able to deal with threats that pop up, and he wants a group that can move freely and independently of the other branches of the military." Smiling at her friends, Hayate took a deep breath. "I'm thinking of accepting the offer. If I do..."

"We'll join you, Hayate-chan." Nanoha nodded to her. "We'll help you as much as we can."

Hayate rubbed the back of her head and chuckled nervously. "Good, because I have no real idea what I'm doing."

Vita stifled a yawn. "Dunno about you guys, but I'd like to hit the hotel and crash for the night."

"Well..." Hayate stretched her arms above her head and blinked as she felt her back pop. "I think it's a good idea." She was thankful it was a weekend.

"Just hope something crazy doesn't happen." Yuuno muttered as he scratched the top of his head. "Like a giant airport fire."

**"Boss, if you say something like that, it'll come true."**

"Nah!" Hayate grinned as she and the others walked towards the hotel. "If something like that happens I'll... I'll..." She blinked, trying to think of something.

**"Give boss your panties and go the whole day without any on?"**

"THOTH!" Yuuno's face was red as he looked at his device.

Hayate blinked, her face flushed, but nodded after a few moments of thinking it over. "Very well, if something like a fire breaks out, I'll give Yuuno my panties and not wear any for the rest of the day."

Fate and Vita both sighed and palmed their foreheads. This kind of stuff may have been normal for them, but it was both amusing and annoying at the same time.

"Raising Heart..." Nanoha intoned, her hair covering her eyes.

**"Yes, my master?"**

"Make sure to record what Hayate's bet is, we don't want her weaseling out on her bet." Nanoha looked up, a mischievous smirk on her face that had Hayate blanching slightly. Still, Hayate was certain that a fire wouldn't break out.

After all, what were the odds of something like that happening?

(-)

Hours later...

Staring at the large fire that had sprung up not too long ago, Vita, Nanoha and Fate all had flat expressions on their faces as they turned their heads and stared at Hayate and Yuuno, who were looking on in shock. "Yuuno-kun..." Nanoha muttered softly. "Since this is yours and Hayate-chan's fault, we're all ganging up on you the next time we spar. I'll even get Signum-san and Zafira-san to join us."

"How is it MY fault," trembled out Yuuno. He knew things were going to get hectic. He was relieved by only one fact. Reinforce wasn't involved. She easily got jealous when it came to Hayate.

**"It's your fault, boss, you said that a fire might happen, and what did I tell you?"**

"Not now, Thoth." Yuuno sighed, though, he had to admit, he was probably asking for it this time. "Anyway, we should probably just cast a bunch of ice magic and..."

"I wouldn't." A voice interrupted him and the five of them turned to see an older man in a military outfit looking at the fire. "If you manage to cast ice magic that can put the fire out, or even create enough water to do so, you'll put hundreds, maybe even a couple of thousand people in danger of being killed by your efforts to save them."

"Major Nakajima." Hayate nodded to the older man. "What's the situation?"

Genya sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "My family and myself were getting back from a vacation when the fire broke out. My wife ran inside to help get people out, I turned to make a phone call to get the 108th Ground Forces Division out here," he let out a heavy sigh and looked at the fire blearily, "and my daughters disappeared."

"You don't think..?" Hayate started and winced when he nodded.

"I've searched as best I can, but without magical abilities, there's no way I can get close to that fire without serious risk to myself." He shook his head, his eyes clouded in worry. "I just hope that they're all okay." He really didn't relish the thought of having to take care of the twins Quint had a little while ago by himself.

"Alright, we'll do what we can." Hayate nodded and looked at the others, her face serious. "You heard him, get in there, find any survivors you can, but keep yourselves safe." They nodded and took to the air before flying straight at the fire. "Be careful and make sure to let us know what's going on!"

"Right!" The others nodded as they disappeared into various directions.

(-)

Graf Eisen was imbued with a light blue color as ice and cold magic flowed around it. Vita grinned as she swung it down and a blast of cold air and water erupted from the head of the device and washed over the flames, cooling and extinguishing them instantly, leaving only embers behind. There really was no need for it to be in Gigant form, as the base form was strong enough to smash walls down and it made it pretty easy to swing around. "Anyone here? Bang on something if you can hear me!"

Sighing as she didn't hear anyone respond, Vita continued on. Turning the corner and letting out another wash of cold air, she blinked as she saw some children in a barrier. "You okay?" They nodded at her. "Good, hold on, I'll get you out of here." Vita mentally cursed when they said that the girl who put the barrier around them had run further in. _"Nanoha, where are you at?"_

_"Just mopping up on the East side, found Quint-san and a few elderly people. Why?"_

_"Can you get over to where I am? Looks like some kid wanted to play hero and ran in further. I got a bunch of kids to get out of here before the walls collapse."_

_"Give me a minute, put up a beacon for me."_

_"You got twenty seconds."_Vita cut off the communication before grabbing the kids and picking them up. "Now, hold on, kids, I'll get you out of here." Returning Graf Eisen to its pendant form, she picked up all three of the children and held them in front of her before turning and flying out where she came from.

As she flew out, she made a note that holding three kids was hard, especially when they were squirming and pressing their heads against her breasts.


	175. Peek Cycle End

Blood That Flows

Peek

Cycle End

* * *

Yuuno frowned softly as he walked through the flames. "Being fire proof really isn't as interesting as I thought it would be." He was really thinking of taking a trip in the future to go see Vrabazard and see if there was a way to make it so that he could feel most heat and cold normally again. About the only good things he could see was that he didn't have to dress really warm in winter and he didn't need to change much for summer either. But taking a hot bath was almost out of the question, unless he wanted it literally boiling.

**"Hey, boss, there's someone here."**

Blinking, Yuuno held up his hand at the fire and smirked as it instantly cooled and muted itself. As much as he didn't like not being able to feel hot water outside of it boiling, he had to admit, being able to suck the heat out of the air and fire was awesome. He tilted his head as he saw a young girl with short purple hair pinned under some debris. "Hey!" As he ran over to the girl, several chains snapped into being and wrapped around the debris, pulling it off of the girl. "You okay?"

"Ngh..." The girl pushed herself to her knees and looked at him. Yuuno's eyes widened as he saw the blood running over her forehead. "Was trying to help mommy..."

Yuuno felt like rubbing his forehead as he cast a quick recovery spell on the girl. "You shouldn't be in here. Are you part of the Bureau?"

"Ngh..." The girl shook her head slowly. "I'm going to join soon though!" Her eyes sparkled in joy. "Then I can be like Gin-nee, mommy and daddy!"

Yuuno nodded at that. Well, at least it made some sense, if the rest of her family was a Bureau member, she probably would want to be one as well. Oddly enough, even with her dirty clothes, bloodied head and how dirty her skin and hair were, he had the feeling that he had seen her before somehow. "What's your name anyway?"

"Subaru Nakajima!" The girl blinked several times as he pulled his hands away from her head. "Wow! You can heal?"

"Yeah, but it's not my primary ability." Picking the girl up and cradling her in his arms, he smiled at her. "Just hold on, okay?" Subaru nodded and clung to his shirt as Yuuno rotated his arm and brought Thoth, who was in his active form and looked almost like a sentai transformation item on his wrist. "Thoth, what's the quickest way out of here?"

**"Straight up, but if you don't want to have to crash through the ceiling and maybe bring the whole place down around you, I got a map for you."**

Yuuno nodded as a holographic 3-D miniature map appeared just above his wrist with a red line that showed him the quickest way out. "Alright, hang on tight, Subaru."

She nodded and squeezed tightly. Oddly enough, to her, the heat of the fires around them felt surprisingly cool.

Yuuno blinked and looked down at the girl. He wasn't sure if it was his imagination or not, but it felt like she was snuggling up to him.

(-)

Nanoha sighed as she rounded another corner. "Hello?"

"Ack!" A young girl yelled out ahead of her and spun around to look at her, her long purple hair flowing around her. "You!"

Nanoha blinked as the girl pointed at her. "...Yes?"

"You beat up mommy before!" The girl had a determined look in her eyes.

Nanoha rubbed her forehead. "You can try to beat me up for that later, and I don't know what your problem is, and I don't really care, but let's get out of here for now."

The girl frowned, before nodding. "Okay. I couldn't go any further, and I was trying to find my sister before she did something stupid."

Nanoha just shook her head and grabbed the girl. "Come on, if you stay here any longer, you'll likely get hurt." It was like dealing with her younger brother... Or Val when he wanted to do something that he shouldn't be doing. "What's your name?" Nanoha asked as she picked the girl up and took off the way she came in. _"Nanoha here, I think I found the girl."_

"My name's Ginga Nakajima." The girl said as she and Nanoha flew down the hallway and out of the building.

Nanoha sweat-dropped heavily. "Oh..."

**"She seems mad, my master."**

"I think she is." Nanoha dead-panned as she left the burning building behind.

(-)

A bit later...

"So..." Fate looked at Genya. "You're certain?" He nodded and she turned to Hayate and Nanoha, both of whom were preparing spells. "It's clear, let it rip!"

"Divine..." Nanoha started to speak as a pink circle spun under her feet while a blue ball of energy formed at the tip of Raising Heart.

"Cross Freeze..." Hayate held her staff up, a triangle formed in front of her as three balls of blue-white energy formed and pulsed softly while lightning like whips crackled around the balls.

"Sea..."

"BUSTER!" Both girls screamed at the same time.

Everyone watching sweat-dropped heavily as torrents of water erupted from the spells and washed over the airport. The sheer amount of water was almost comical in its amount as it rushed out and consumed everything in its path.

"Are you sure that spell is a modified Sea Blast?" Fate asked Yuuno, who nodded slowly.

"Yeah, but for some reason, I think I was wrong." Yuuno muttered as the water from the spell subsided. When the building became visible again, Yuuno face-faulted. "Note to self, don't let Nanoha ever water the garden, she'd wash it out to the sea."

Next to him on the ground, Fate could only agree silently.

(-)

Later...

"Ugh..." Nanoha groaned as she lay on her back in the hotel room. "So tired..." She was in an over-sized shirt, her panties, which no one could see unless they were looking, and nothing else. "I could sleep for a week."

"You and me both." Fate muttered as she slumped on a chair in nothing but a robe. She blearily looked at the door as Hayate walked in from the bathroom, her face was slightly damp from washing it off. "Hayate?"

"Soot is gross." She rubbed her forehead and sat down on the bed. "Where's Vita-chan?"

Nanoha pointed to the other part of the large hotel room. "She crashed on her bed and fell asleep." Her voice was drowsy and she yawned. "I want to do the same."

**"Master, what about the bet?"**

Nanoha blinked and perked up. "Oh yeah!" She grinned at Hayate, who was gulping. _"Yuuno-kun, could you come to our door?"_

_"Huh? Sure."_

Nanoha grinned at Hayate. "Nope!" She stopped Hayate who was reaching under her shirt. "You're going to wait until Yuuno-kun gets here!"

A moment later, there was a knock on the door and Nanoha walked over and opened it up, revealing Yuuno in just shorts. "Yeah?"

Nanoha grinned, stepped back and pushed Hayate forward. "Your bet!"

Yuuno's face went completely red as he remembered that 'bet'. "Well, ah..." His eyes widened as Hayate reached down.

Hayate's exhausted, mortified mind had had enough, switching over to auto-pilot so that she could just get this over with and not have to think about it.

She hiked her shirt up, revealing that she was wearing black panties before hooking her thumbs under the waistband of her panties and pulling down. She had to lean forward to do this, and her shirt followed down after her hands, and so her upper body and just-long-enough top preserved her modesty even as she pulled the undergarment down and straightened back up.

Even so... **"Whoo! What a show, huh, boss?"**

Yuuno could only nod slowly as Hayate raised her left leg behind her, plucked her panties off the ankle, and shoved them into his hands. Still on auto-pilot, she turned to go back to the bed... but ended up tripping over the clothes that were right in front of the door, leaving her to land on her hands and knees.

**"Boss, I was wrong, _this_ is the best show ever."**

Mortification suddenly overpowered exhaustion entirely, returning full conscious thought. "EEEK!" Hayate grabbed her shirt and pulled it down, trying to hide her privates, fairly unsuccessfully as Yuuno did get a good look at them, if his red face was any indication, while scrambling away from the door. Snapping a hand out, she cast a quick spell that sent Yuuno flying across the hallway and into the wall, where he slid down slowly.

"Hayate-chan!" Nanoha yelped and scrambled to get to the door, closing it as she apologized to Yuuno before running over to tend to the embarrassed girl. Oddly enough, as Yuuno looked up, he could have sworn that a flash of irritation crossed Fate's features as the door closed completely.

Seeing Hayate's bare ass and other goods on display in his mind after the door closed, Yuuno could only slowly stumble back to his room.

That wasn't a sight that was going to leave his mind any time soon.

Especially when Thoth revealed that he had taken pictures.

For once, Yuuno wasn't complaining about it.

* * *

Bwahahahahaha! I bet you weren't expecting them to go through with it!

And Subaru was saved by Yuuno, not Nanoha this time.

Still not going to StrikerS _just_ yet.


	176. Peek Playdate Start

Blood That Flows

Peek

Playdate Start

* * *

Weeks later on Earth, an event of utmost importance was happening at the Takamachi household...

"Why do I gotta come with?"

Lina rolled her eyes at what Erio said as she finished getting Arashi dressed to go on an upcoming trip. "Because I don't think that it's fair to have to ask Fate to come home too early from one of her missions because you wouldn't go with us on a trip."

"Why can't Miyuki watch me?" It wasn't that the redheaded boy didn't want to go, he thought it would be interesting, but the thought of not being around Fate when she got home was bothering him badly.

Lina smiled at the boy and stood up fully and walked over to him. Putting a hand on his head, she ruffled his hair, getting an upset look from the young boy. "Because, as much as I'm sure Miyuki could easily take care of you for a few days, it wouldn't be fair for her, she's got her own life after all."

"But, what about Uncle Shiro?" Lina shook her head. "Why not?" He whined and Lina sighed, kneeling down to look Erio in the eyes.

"Because, someone needs to watch the store, and since Fate and Nanoha are both out of town, there really isn't anyone who can." Sure, they could have Miyuki watch the store if they needed to, but Fiasse had stopped by in a nearby town and Miyuki wanted to go see her friend. Lina tilted her head as a thought occurred to her. "Do you want to stay here because you don't want to go, or is it because you miss Fate?" When Erio looked away angrily, Lina just smiled and kissed Erio on the forehead. "Don't worry, she'll be here when you get back, okay?"

The boy blushed but nodded. Smiling, Lina stood up and turned to look at Caro, Fried and Yuuno, who had joined them. "So, you're really coming with, huh?"

"Yeah, I need to see Vrabazard anyway, so I'll take off right after we get there."

"You aren't staying with us?" Caro spoke up and looked up at him, her eyes moistening and her lips trembling softly. Yuuno sweat-dropped and found everything he was going to say suddenly disappear as his mouth dried up and every pore of his body was urging him to hug the little girl and tell her that it would be okay. "But... I wanted to..."

Lina bit her lower lip to keep from laughing at Yuuno. "He'll be back with us, Caro, he just needs to go see someone, and I don't think I'd be well liked by Vrabazard."

"Why not?" Caro asked, curious about the nice lady who looked after her, Fried and Erio, even if Erio was a dummy head at times.

For some reason, Erio felt the need to give Caro a noogie again, though he had to make sure that Fried wasn't looking. That stupid Dragon liked to try and set his butt on fire whenever he was having fun with Caro. It wasn't like he was _trying _to hurt her. It was just fun. Val could slam into a tree and laugh about it, why would Caro cry over getting her scalp rubbed?

One really couldn't blame Erio, most of the people he was around all the time were monsters in terms of what kind of damage they could take. The fact that he and Caro were a lot less durable than the older kids and Val never crossed his mind.

A sudden knock on the door had Arashi running to the door before anyone could stop him. "in!" The boy yelled at the door, and watched it open up. "Isa!" He ran forward and hugged Arisa's legs. "HI!"

Arisa laughed and put her bags down and knelt down to hug the boy. "Hey, kiddo." She looked up as Lina walked over to them. "Thanks for bringing us with."

Lina looked past Arisa and nodded at Suzuka. "Arisa's making you go with, isn't she?" Lina smirked as Suzuka blushed softly.

"Not really, I was curious about this world myself, plus, the thought of going in a spaceship makes me kind of giddy."

Lina chuckled at the enthusiasm. "Look, I'll ask again, are you sure you want to go? My home world's a lot tougher than this place is."

Arisa nodded as she stood up, holding Arashi. "Yeah, I could use more help with my Holy magic, and I figure that the god that gave Yuuno his power would be a good place to start."

"You're not leaving without me!" A small wolfgirl said as she jumped on Arisa's back and grinned. "I might not look it, but I'm pretty good in a fight."

"We wouldn't forget you, Arf." Lina rolled her eyes and chuckled. "I do need someone who can keep the kids out of trouble while we're there."

"I'm on babysitting duty?" Arf pouted when Lina nodded. "Alright, but this is the last time, mama!"

Lina nodded and started moving everyone to the back yard. While most of the neighbors didn't care too much about what was going on, seeing everyone disappear in the afternoon might have been a bit much for them. Even though Erio took the longest to get to the back yard, eventually they were all there, which only lasted a moment, before they disappeared onto a Bureau ship.

(-)

On board the Bureau ship...

"Zelgadis!" Lina smiled as she saw her old friend come to greet her and the children. "How are you?"

Zelgadis nodded to Arf and smiled at Lina. "I'm doing fine actually. Other than having to teach people how to draw upon various spirits for elemental magic, it's been pretty good so far. I'm just glad that most people on Mid-Childa don't have your aptitude for Black magic."

Lina narrowed her eyes and smirked at him. "What do you mean by that?" When Zelgadis chuckled, she just rolled her eyes and scoffed at him. "Yeah, yeah, laugh it up."

"Well, you _did_ tend to go a bit overboard when you used your magic." Zelgadis smirked at her. "Anyway, I know Yuuno requested this trip, and since I was feeling the need to visit home again, I took some time off, what about you?"

"I wanna get in touch with Gourry and Sylphiel, not to mention my parents, Arashi needs to meet his grandparents and I can't just leave Erio and Caro at home alone."

"Ku!"

"Or Fried and Arf." Lina smirked and found it interesting when Fried landed on her shoulder, wanting a chin scratch.

As Lina scratched the baby Dragon's chin, Zelgadis shook his head in amusement. "Never thought I'd ever see the infamous Dragon Spooker being able to pet a Dragon freely." He chuckled when Lina shot him a dour look and stuck her tongue out at him.

"Ku ku!" Fried chirped up and spat a fireball at Zelgadis. The small Dragon blinked in shock as Zelgadis held up a hand and the fire dissipated against his hand. "Ku?"

"Now now..." Lina lightly bopped Fried on the head. "Zelgadis is a little rough, but he's still a friend, you don't try to light friends on fire."

"Ku..." The Dragon slumped before sliding off and flying back to Caro, who hugged Fried to her.

"Come on, Fried, he's not mean..." Caro wasn't sure, but if he was one of Lina's friends, then he couldn't be bad. At least Caro didn't think so.

Zelgadis shook his head. "Well, I'm heading back to talk to some people I know and..."

"You mean Amelia?" Lina smirked as he blushed hard. "Hey, don't worry, I'm not judging you."

"Well, that and I want to let her and King Phil know about what the Bureau is like." Zelgadis looked at Yuuno and smirked at the boy. "I have to admit, the thought of children being able to join an active military isn't something that I really enjoy."

Lina nodded at that. "Why do you think I kept Nanoha, Fate and Yuuno on Earth and out of the Bureau for so long?"

Yuuno stared at Lina, his eyes wide. "But..."

Lina gave him a sharp look, cutting off his words. "Despite how the Bureau portrays itself, Yuuno, the fact that they're willing to use children in an active military bothers me. Even on my world, adventurers need to either be really skilled with magic or swords to bother going anywhere on their own. I didn't even set out to explore the world until I graduated the magic academy."

Yuuno scratched his head in confusion. "But, considering your world, I thought that people in your world could join the royal armies when they were young."

"Yeah, if you were born into a noble family or trained under a noble." Lina rolled her eyes. "Most don't start until they're at least fourteen though."

"But, if it's a medieval style world..." Arisa spoke up, getting a raised eyebrow from Lina. "European medieval, sorry, anyway, if it's a world that's like that, I thought that it wasn't uncommon or unheard of for people younger than myself to join the army or even end up married."

"Only if you're among the nobility." Zelgadis cut in. "Most people never bother to find someone until they're at least in their twenties, outside of arranged marriages or unexpected children."

"Most people just want a peaceful lifestyle actually." Lina continued speaking. "Very few people actively become adventurers. Most that do are either mercenaries, bandits or sorcerers who experiment in stuff too dangerous to be around any sort of civilization."

"Don't be fooled kids," Zelgadis smirked at Lina, "she might not have been a mercenary like I was at times, but Lina was as greedy as any bandit, and had a tendency to blow entire villages up."

Lina shot him a dirty look as the younger kids stared at Lina in awe.

_"We'll be crossing the dimensional boundaries soon, expect turbulence."_

"You blew villages up?" Erio's eyes were sparkling as he looked at the woman in awe. "That's so cool!"

Caro looked at Lina and trembled. "You wouldn't... Blow me up, would you?" She sniffled and hugged Fried to her chest tightly.

Lina rubbed her forehead and sighed. "Caro, I might have blown up villages, bandits, Dragons, the occasional Demon and my friends when I was younger, I never tried to harm kids that didn't ask for it, so, no, I wouldn't have blown you up." Sighing when Caro ran behind Yuuno and hugged his leg tightly, sandwiching Fried between the two of them, she turned to Zelgadis and gave him a flat look. "Look what you did! One of the kids are afraid of me now."

Erio tugged on Lina's pant leg and grinned up at her. "Can you show me how to blow stuff up?"

Zelgadis laughed just as the ride started to shake while the Bureau ship phased out of the Blue Staff and towards the Red Staff.

(-)

Later...

"You sure?" Lina looked at Zelgadis, who nodded to her.

"Yeah, Gourry and Sylphiel settled down in Sellentia. Makes sense for Sylphiel, considering she *is* a shrine priestess and there's five shrines there."

One of the crew smiled at Lina. "Just give us a call when you want to go, we'll be able to pick you up anywhere in the world in a matter of moments."

Lina grinned at him. "Good, while you're out, get me an extra large pizza while you're at it." When Zelgadis grimaced and the crew member started looking nervous, Lina laughed at him. "I'm joking! Anyway, just drop us off about half a kilometer from the town, okay?"

Zelgadis watched as Lina and the kids disappeared in a flash of light. "Well, onto Seiryuun."

"Yes sir!"


	177. Peek Playdate Two

Blood That Flows

Peek

Playdate 2

I decided to do updates on the weekends as well. Also, this trip to the Slayers world will be 3 mini-arcs.

* * *

On the planet's surface...

Looking around, Suzuka took a deep breath of the air. "Wow... It's so clean!" She then grimaced and waved her hand in front of her nose. "Ugh... Not behind those bushes it's not."

Lina nodded and smiled as Arf decided to help Caro, Erio and Arashi get more motivated to walk by playing tag with them. "Caro," the girl looked at her in confusion, "keep Fried close to you, okay? People get nervous if a Dragon's walking around freely." The little girl nodded and yelled at Erio as he tagged her.

"Nya nya! Not my fault!" The boy stuck his tongue out at her.

"Ooooh!" Caro ran after Erio, swinging her arms up and down. "Just wait till I get you!"

Lina chuckled and started walking after them. "What about you two?"

"Gunna see Vrabazard." Yuuno spoke up as Arisa walked up next to him. "Tell Gourry hi for me, if he remembers me at all." Lina laughed and nodded as the two disappeared in a ball of flame. "Well then, Suzuka..." The rich girl nodded and the two jogged after the kids, making sure to keep an eye out for things that might cause a problem.

Said problem happened twenty seconds later as the group was surrounded by a large gang of unkempt, unruly men surrounded the group. "Listen up! Just give us all your money and you won't get hurt!" The man who spoke looked at Fried and grinned. "Well, maybe the Dragon will, a new pet is always nice."

"KU!" Fried growled as he landed on Caro's head, hissing at the bandit leader.

"You know, boss... Something about this feels familiar to me." One of the bandits, this one was tall, had graying hair and one eye, spoke up and looked at the group. "I swear, that woman looks familiar."

"Bah!" The boss shook his head, but gave Lina a closer look. "I have to admit, she's very good looking, but still, we just want your money."

"But, really, boss, I swear she looks like Lina Inverse."

"Don't say that name, you fool!" The bandit boss hissed as he turned away from the group.

Lina just blinked, confused. "Excuse me?"

"That Lina Inverse... She was the most vile sorceress ever!" The boss shuddered horribly. "She was a short, flat-chested, Dragon killing, evil tempered brat who killed innocent bandit gangs for fun! And then, when we thought she was dead, she came back from the dead with a bunch of little hell-spawn that nearly killed me and my partner six years ago!"

Lina's eye was twitching slightly. 'Shee, grow your breasts to a modest size and everyone thinks that you're someone different.' It might have also been the fact that she was wearing different clothing and didn't have any visible weapons on her. "Yeah, yeah, look..." Lina's eyes widened and she pointed behind the bandit. "Is that a bag of gold coins?"

"WHERE?" The bandits all looked to where Lina was pointing, before turning back to her. "You lying..." The boss started, before blinking at the orange barrier around their prey. "What the?"

"You really should have better memories of who Lina Inverse was... And what she looks like now." Lina grinned as she held her hands above her head and focused her magic. "And don't forget, Mr. bandit, women don't like it when you call them flat-chested."

All of the bandits paled and started to tremble as a red sphere formed in her hands. "You... You, you... You... YOU'RE LINA INVERSE?"

"That's ME!" Lina grinned as she began to chant.

_"Darkness beyond twilight_  
_Crimson beyond blood that flows_  
_Buried in the stream of time_  
_Is where your power grows_  
_I pledge myself to conquer_  
_All the foes that stand_  
_Against the mighty gift bestowed_  
_In my unworthy hand_  
_Let the fools who stand before me_  
_Be destroyed by_  
_The power you and I possess!"_

Lina grinned as she watched the bandits running as fast and as far as they could. "Why the running, boys? You'll only die tired!"

_"DRAGON SLAVE!"_

Arf dropped her barrier the instant that Lina was done chanting and everyone watched as a red beam of energy lanced out at a terrific speed before slamming into the retreating bandits and engulfing them with a massive red explosion.

"That was fun." Lina chuckled softly and blinked as Erio suddenly glomped her left leg.

"Grandma! Teach me that!"

"G...GRANDMA?" Lina's eyes widened before tears started to flow out of them. "I'm getting old..." She lamented while lightly patting Erio on the head. "Maybe... But you need to learn other stuff too, okay?"

Erio nodded vigorously. He couldn't wait to know something like that!

Caro pouted and suddenly glomped onto Lina's right leg. "Grandma! I wanna call you that too!" Plus she wanted to learn magic like that too. Then she could help Fried and both of them could set Erio's butt on fire. Val thought it was funny when Erio ran around trying to get away from Fried's fire breath.

"You can..." Lina patted Caro on the head while mentally crying about how old she was getting. "You want to learn to do that?" Caro nodded rapidly and Lina sighed. "Kids... Alright, I'll teach you some stuff."

"YAY!" The two of them yelled and hugged Lina's legs tighter.

Suzuka sweat-dropped as she watched the destruction of the bandits from Lina's spell. "...Isn't that overkill?"

Lina laughed and rubbed the back of her head. "Maybe a little, but then again, they are bandits, no one cares if you go a bit overboard on them." She blinked as Arashi was looking at her, slightly upset. "What's wrong?"

"Wanna do that!" He waved his arms up and down before pointing at where the bandits ran off while making all sorts of sound effects. "Wanna make them all go boom!"

Lina felt the urge to palm her forehead, sigh and groan about children, she instead gently peeled Erio and Caro from her legs and knelt down to smile at Arashi. "You want to make things go boom, huh?" The boy nodded and smiled at her. "I won't be able to."

"WHAT?" Arashi yelled, his eyes tearing up and he clung to his mother hard. "Why not? I wanna make things go boom too!"

"Because you need to learn other things first." Lina said while rubbing his back and smiling as he seemed to calm down. Pulling him away from her, she looked into his eyes. "You can't make the big booms until you learn how to make smaller booms, okay?" When Arashi looked at her in confusion, she held up her hand and a clear sphere of pure light appeared above her palm. "This is a light spell, okay?" Arashi nodded and she turned to look at Erio and Caro, both of whom were staring at the ball of light with great interest. "When I was learning magic, this was one of the first spells I learned, before I learned any spells that could explode and cause big booms." Lina flicked her wrist and the ball of light disappeared. Smiling softly, a crackle of sparks appeared in her palm before fire started to swirl, mix and condense into her palm, flickering and hovering above her palm. "This is a fireball. I needed to master this spell before I was considered a sorcerer when I went to school." The three children nodded as they looked at it. "And it's not that big of a boom compared to what I used on those bad men." Lina squeezed the fireball out of existence and looked at Arashi as she moved him so she could look at Caro and Erio with a serious expression on her face. "Even if it is cool and a big boom, you can't learn it if you don't do everything I tell you when learning magic, understand?"

Both Erio and Caro nodded, but Arashi looked uncertain and Lina sighed softly. "Arashi, even your sister didn't learn how to do these big spells until she knew how to do the smaller ones." She then ruffled his hair. "But, if you do what you're told and listen to me, then I'll teach it to you for sure."

The kids nodded and Lina stood up, holding Arashi's hand. "Come on, let's go inside the city."

"Mom..." Arf spoke up and pointed at the enterance to the city. "I think that people saw you doing that stuff."

As several people started to walk out of the city to see what the commotion was, Lina just sighed heavily. Couldn't she enjoy some family friendly explosions without drawing unwanted attention? It wasn't like she blasted the city with a Dragon Slave, she could understand that at least.

Oh well, she could explain what happened out there pretty easily.

(-)

"I'm beginning to understand why Gourry and Sylphiel chose to settle down here." Lina grumbled and rubbed her forehead. "That mush-for-brains swordsman would feel at home with a bunch of crazy people."

Lina would be the first to admit that they weren't really crazy, but considering that it took her almost an hour to explain everything without the city officials wanting to arrest her, it was understandable that she'd see them as crazy.

Just as Lina was about to discuss a plan of action, she heard Fried chirp loudly. Turning, she blinked as a boy with dark blonde hair crashed into Arf, sending them both to the ground on their butts. "You two okay?"

"I'm fine, mom." Arf rubbed her head and looked at the boy. "You should watch where you're going, you might have gotten hurt."

The boy stood up and grinned while putting his hands on his hips. "Something like that wouldn't hurt me!" The boy had a simple blue shirt on over yellow pants and boots covering his feet. His dark blue eyes were sparkling with good humor as he smirked at them. "After all, my dad wouldn't get hurt by falling down!"

Lina raised an eyebrow. "Your dad?"

The boy grinned and nodded. "My dad's the strongest swordsman ever! And I'm gunna be just like him! My name's Leo Gabriev!"

Before Lina could say anything, a familiar female voice spoke up and Lina looked up as an old friend of hers came through the crowd. "Leo! You shouldn't... Run... Off..." The woman's eyes widened as she saw who was with her son. "Miss Lina..."

"Hey, Sylphiel." Lina smiled at the shrine priestess. "Long time no see."


	178. Peek Playdate End

Blood That Flows

Peek

Playdate End

Sorry about not updating yesterday, was out visiting family.

So, I'll post two chapters today.

* * *

A little later...

Lina looked around the small kitchen as she and Sylphiel drank some tea. "Nice house."

Sylphiel smiled lightly. "You don't need to try and hide it, Miss Lina. I know that it's pretty small. If we had settled down in Seiryuun, I could have had a much larger house." She held up a hand when Lina looked like she was about to say something. "Don't worry about it. I'm comfortable like this. Gourry and I wouldn't feel as comfortable in a large house, I think."

Lina smirked as she saw a faint tinge of pink on Sylphiel's cheeks. "He's been treating you good, huh?" The other woman nodded and Lina chuckled softly. "That's good, I thought he'd treat you well. So, what was with the all the security outside?"

"Well..." Sylphiel started to speak up before a loud voice was heard from outside.

"GOURRY GABRIEV! THIS TIME I SHALL DEFEAT YOU!"

Lina blinked, that voice sounded _extremely_ familiar to her. 'Now where did I...'

"AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! JUST GIVE IT UP, GABRIEV! TODAY IS THE DAY THAT MY DEAR ZANGULUS DEFEATS YOU IN GLORIOUS BATTLE!"

Lina sweat-dropped and looked at Sylphiel, who was sighing heavily. "This happens often?"

"Every week at about this time." She chuckled softly. "It's actually quite the entertainment spectacle. When they heard the explosions, the people were worried that the good stuff had started without them."

"Isn't Zoana a long distance from here?" Lina raised an eyebrow at Sylphiel, who sighed and nodded.

"Yes, yes it is. However, considering that the country was destroyed several years ago," Sylphiel gave Lina a look at that, "Zoana has basically fallen apart from what it used to be. It's more of a merchant center these days than a major kingdom. Though, I think it worked out for the best, considering the trade going on between this area and the outer world."

Lina blinked at that. "Trade?"

"Oh yes." Sylphiel smiled at her friend. "It's been quite interesting, new trade routes are being opened up daily around the world, Zoana's become quite the bustling boom city in the past few years."

"I thought you said it had fallen apart." Lina said as she and Sylphiel got up to go and watch the fight outside.

"As a kingdom, it did, but as a merchant, banking and business center, it's thrived. They made a new agreement with Seiryuun, and it seems that they'll actually follow it this time."

"Good." Lina nodded, grinning as she stepped outside and nodded to Suzuka and Arf as they kept Erio, Caro, Fried and Arashi from leaving the yard. "I'd hate to have to blow their city up again." Sylphiel gave her a surprised look. "Hey, I'll have you know that I've calmed down a lot since I was a kid."

Sylphiel chuckled at that and looked out as Gourry, dressed in a light blue tunic, brown pants and boots, walked out onto the street, rubbing the back of his head. "Really? Again?" He looked around in confusion. "Has it been a week already?"

"Yes!" Most everyone yelled at the same time.

"Huh, guess so then." Gourry unsheathed the Blast Blade and smirked at Zangulus, who was grinning from under his large hat, and pointed the blade at him. "So, let's get this on."

"Good." Zangulus pulled out his sword from under his cloak and grinned at Gourry. "Behold! The Howling Sword Mark Twelve!"

"Mark... Twelve?" Lina looked at Sylphiel, who was giggling softly.

"You should have seen the Mark Five. It exploded in his hands before Gourry did anything." Both women started to snicker at that.

"Go dad!" Leo yelled out while standing on the street. "Show poofy hair that he's no match for you!"

"Ahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!" The green-haired Martina suddenly laughed at the boy. "You think that your father can beat my Zangulus?"

"He did the last ten times, lady." Leo stuck his tongue out at Martina, who narrowed her eyes and glowered at him.

"Zangulus, get him!"

"I see that she hasn't changed her taste in outfits." Lina muttered as she saw Martina in her old bikini and cape outfit. She tilted her head and narrowed her eyes. "I hate to say this, but it looks like she doesn't really fit into it anymore."

"Well, after she had her triplets not too ago, she had to work hard to get her figure back." Sylphiel giggled as Lina face-faulted. "Come to think of it, they were born shortly after the battle against Shabranigdo."

Lina stood up and dusted herself off. "Why did you tell me that?" When Sylphiel shrugged, Lina sighed. "Never mind, I don't think I want to know."

"Come, Gourry!" Zangulus gripped his sword with both hands and a powerful wind started to swirl around the blade. "This time, I will shatter your blade!"

"Don't count on it." Gourry said as he ran forward.

Zangulus smirked and swung his sword in a wide arc, causing the wind that was spinning around the blade to wash forward and engulf Gourry, forcing him to cross his arms over his face to block the wind and debris from getting into his eyes. The blonde swordsman grunted as he was forced back several feet until he crashed into a tree, one that looked extremely beaten up and ready to fall apart. "You see, Gourry Gabriev, I learned from my previous battles against you. Direct magic attacks don't work, but if I make the attack large enough, you can't touch me and you can't beat it with that puny sword of yours."

"You done yet?" Gourry lowered his arms and grinned at Zangulus. "Thanks for telling me that, but, did you forget?" He held up the Blast Blade, which had green energy swirling around it. "This sword can absorb magic and use it later."

"...Oh yeah, I forgot." Zangulus muttered and sweat-dropped as Gourry swung his sword down, a wave of wind cutting through the ground and right at him. "Ha! Like that will work!" Swinging his sword at the energy wave, Zangulus smirked as the winds of the two attacks were canceled out. "See? I might have forgotten, but the man who... Hey, where'd you go?"

"Above you!" His wife yelled and Zangulus looked up, gaping as Gourry landed right in front of him.

"Got you." Gourry jammed his elbow into Zangulus's chest, causing the opposing swordsman to grunt and get sent crashing into the ground, his sword clattered to the ground a few feet away from him.

Zangulus groaned as he got up from his back and looked up to see Gourry pointing his sword down at him. "...Damn." He cursed softly. "I could have sworn I was going to get you this time." He grinned as Gourry put his sword away and helped him to his feet. "I guess running a country and looking after my little girls took the edge away from my skills."

Gourry chuckled and slapped Zangulus on the back. "Don't worry about it, when they're old enough, just train yourself up again. It's always fun."

"See?" Leo stuck his tongue out at Martina, who fumed silently. "Yay, dad's the best!"

Erio grinned as he watched the fight come to an end. "Cool!"

"Ku!"

Erio jumped as Fried rammed his head into the boy's rear. "You... Stupid dragon!" Erio ran after Fried, who started to fly away.

"Hey! Leave Fried alone!" Caro swung her arms up and down and chased after Erio, causing Arf, who found the fight interesting, to turn and run after the three of them and keep an eye on them.

Arashi looked from where Suzuka was holding him back to his mother. "Hey, mama, can dad do that?"

Lina chuckled and nodded. "Oh, I'm sure he still can." She smiled as Gourry and Leo walked up to them. "Hey, Gourry."

"Lina!" His eyes lit up in delight. "It's been a long time."

Lina nodded and looked at Leo. "Seems that you have someone who wants to be like you, huh?"

Gourry rubbed the back of his neck and smiled as Sylphiel walked up to him. The two quickly exchanged a kiss and she mentioned that she had to go to the shrine. Nodding, he turned and watched her walk off. After he couldn't see her anymore, he turned back to see Lina looking at him in amusement. "So, Lina, what brings you here?" He blinked in confusion at her. "I thought you were stuck in another world or something."

Lina rolled her eyes at him. "Gourry, I'm not as stuck as I used to be. I wonder, why'd you name your son Leo?"

"Can't you tell?" Gourry looked at her funny. "We named him after you."

If one were to ask Lina how she felt about someone naming their child after her, she wouldn't have any real answer. In her life, her name had gone from a curse when she was younger, which was what happened when countries, villages and even people were considered nothing more than collateral damage when fighting against Dragons, Mazoku and some high-level sorcerers; to one that represented hope and determination.

That last bit threw Lina for quite the loop after Zelgadis told her about it the first time. Even if it was to emphasize how she had fallen against Hellmaster Phibrizzo, but had defeated him, only to rise from the grave not too long afterwords to fight against the abomination that was Dark Star and Vorfeed's fusion, defeat them, save the world and then rise to the stars and leave the world again.

While Lina had no end of confidence, hearing stories like that really did embarrass her. All she wanted to know was what kind of idiot came up with stories like that anyway?

(-)

"ACHOO!"

"You okay, daddy?" Amelia asked as she walked into the throne room where her father, King Phil, was looking over some official paperwork.

"I'm fine, Amelia!" The large man stood up and laughed loudly. "It'll take more than a sneeze to knock me out! What brings you here? I thought you were going to be traveling the country-side, meeting new people and making new contacts?"

The busty young woman blushed and nodded. "Well, I was, but you'll never guess who showed up!"

King Phil looked curious, before smiling broadly as a familiar young man walked into the hall. "Mr. Zelgadis! It's been so long, my friend!"

The Chimera, though he looked human due to the shifting spell that he learned from Arf so long ago, grimaced as King Phil somehow managed to launch himself from the throne to right in front of him, slapping him on the back hard enough to send him crashing to the floor. "Ugh..." If there was one thing he didn't miss from this world, it was Phil's... Over-exuberance when he was excited.

Phil chuckled as Zelgadis struggled to get back onto his feet. "So, how are things in that other world, Mr. Zelgadis?"

"Well, I can't say I agree with everything that they do." Zelgadis stood up fully and shook his head to stop the ringing of his ears. "But, over-all, they aren't a bad lot." A small grin came to his face as he looked at Phil and Amelia. "About what you'd expect from a large governmental body, most of the people who work there are pretty sincere about things, but I suspect, though I have no proof, that the leaders of the organization are probably corrupted in various places."

King Phil and Amelia both nodded, it was quite common in most governments. "What makes you say that, Mr. Zelgadis?" Even if it was common, Amelia wasn't sure what Zelgadis meant.

Zelgadis ran a hand through his hair, moving it out of the way of his eyes. One thing he found annoying, his hair had grown rather long since he could turn human again. "I've heard too many complaints about too much red tape and how different branches of the military could help out, but don't. That either signifies incompetent leaders or corrupt ones, or both."

"It could be, but unless you know for sure..." King Phil shook his head and Zelgadis nodded.

"Oh, I know, I don't plan on commenting about it to anyone until I know more. Besides, it could just be a few clerks that are doing the wrong thing for whatever reasons." Shrugging, Zelgadis glowered at his hair as it covered his eyes again. Why the heck was his hair growing so much these days? "Anyway, there are other things as well..."

(-)

"So, what made you name him after me anyway?" Lina asked as she and Gourry were sitting in his kitchen, sipping on some tea while the children played in the yard.

The fact that there were several thumps, crashes and even a small explosion outside didn't worry either of them, especially when they heard Fried chirping with Arf and Suzuka running around and yelling at the kids. Lina wasn't too worried about something happening to the children. Suzuka and Arf were more than enough to deal with all but the strongest of Mazoku, Elves or Dragons that might try something.

There was always something random, like a sorcerer knowing the Dragon Slave or some sort of anti-magic tank, or some sort of Demon Beast that could show up and wreck havoc, but if that happened, Lina was certain that she and Gourry could deal with it.

Gourry shrugged at her. "I was going to call him Lina..." He was interrupted by a paper fan swatting him right between the eyes.

"I'm glad you didn't." Lina muttered as she put the fan away.

Gourry rubbed his forehead. "Sylphiel did the same thing." He muttered, remembering her words about how he should 'be serious' about naming their child. "Sylphiel named him Leon, but the nurse wrote it down as Leo, so, it stuck."

Lina sweat-dropped heavily as she looked at Gourry. "...Since when has your memory been that good?" Gourry leaned back in his chair and thought about it for a few seconds.

"Huh, I don't know. I guess when it comes to stuff that's important, I can remember it."

"Do you even remember who Gaav is?" Lina dead-panned and got a confused look from Gourry.

"Who's that?" The answer was so sincere from the blonde swordsman that Lina found herself face-faulting to the ground painfully. "Are you okay, Lina?"

"Stupid jellyfish brains..." Lina grumbled. "He only tried to kill you a few times." Gourry scratched his head in confusion and Lina just sighed heavily. "I guess someone trying to kill you doesn't register as important, huh?"

"Not at all." Gourry smiled broadly and Lina just ended up shaking her head in amusement.

"You know, Gourry... Even if you are nothing but a stupid jellyfish brain..." The redhead smiled lightly at him. "I'm glad that you're happy."

Gourry just smiled happily. "Thanks, Lina. How's things back home anyway?"

"Pretty good, actually." Lina took a sip of her tea again. "Nanoha, Fate and Yuuno don't always listen, but they're still good kids, I wouldn't change them for anything." She chanced a look outside and shook her head as she saw Fried fly after a bird, trying to fry it. "The younger kids are a handful at times though."

There was a thump and some screaming from outside. Getting up, Lina walked outside and raised an eyebrow as she saw Erio grabbing his nose with blood covering his hands. "What happened?"

Caro, who was next to Erio, looked away, her face was completely red. "I didn't, I mean, I'm sorry."

"OWWW! OWWW!" Erio was rolling on the ground and kicking his feet up and down.

Lina walked over to her grandson and gently moved his hands away from his nose before casting a recovery spell. "Just relax, okay?" Erio whimpered, tears falling out of his eyes as Lina's healing magic worked on his face. "Caro, what happened?"

The girl was looking down and for some reason, Lina imagined the girl having dog's ears and a dog's tail, all drooping and making her look absolutely piteous. "...Arf?" She looked at Arf, who seemed to be trying to hold back some laughter. "What happened?"

"Erio was teasing Caro again and Caro got mad and..." Arf fought back some snickers that were bubbling to the surface. "Then Caro slammed her head against Erio's face and..."

"I get it." Lina rolled her eyes as she focused on healing Erio. "Well, Erio, didn't I tell you to watch out?" The boy sniffled and nodded, at least his nose wasn't hurting so much anymore. "What do you say to Caro?"

"Sowwie fha bhein a mhenie."

Caro dug her right toe into the ground, before looking up, her lips were quivering, a weird sound was coming out of her mouth, before she fell down onto her butt and started giggling heavily. "You sound funny!" She pointed at him, laughing.

Erio would have pouted, but even he had to admit, he did sound funny.

As she finished working her magic on his face, Lina chuckled and took Erio into the house to wash his face. Maybe this would get him to treat Caro better. And if not, she could teach Caro how to do better headbutts that wouldn't break people's noses every time she connected with them.


	179. Peek Forging Start

Blood That Flows

Peek

Forging Start

* * *

Arisa shook her head as she fought off a wave of dizziness as the flames around them dissipated. "That happen often?" Oddly enough, Yuuno didn't look the least bit bothered by the teleportation like she was. It was... Quite annoying.

"What?" Yuuno blinked and looked at Arisa, before it dawned on him. "Oh, teleportation. That usually passes after a few times... Though, I think it was worse, since we teleported to Vrabazard's lair."

Arisa blinked and looked down, her eyes wide as she saw that she and Yuuno were floating only inches from the top of a volcano. "How come I can't feel this?" Being that close to the lava should have burned her skin instantly.

"It's not real lava for one," Yuuno said as he looked at it.

**"You sure, boss? The temperature coming from it is equal to volcanoes on Earth, and that does have the consistency of magma."**

Arisa blinked and looked at Thoth. "How do you know that?"

The wristwatch replied to her. **"I scanned the internet. Also, your shorts are melting."**

Arisa's eyes widened and she looked down, sure enough, her shorts were starting to melt, revealing her skin and panties underneath. "WHAAAA?"

"Here!" Yuuno pulled a jacket out from somewhere and wrapped it around Arisa's waist. "You need to use your Holy magic to protect your clothes." He sweat-dropped as Arisa glared at him. "...What?"

"What kind of god do you worship?"

"He doesn't worship me!"

Yuuno and Arisa both turned, the latter paling when a giant head and neck rose from the magma, the red liquid dripping off of its head as he looked at the two of them.

"As for the other reason you couldn't feel the lava, Arisa, is because it's Vrabazard, the Fire Dragon King, who lives here."

Before Arisa could say anything, the crimson colored Dragon disappeared into a ball of light, before shrinking and reforming into a tall, redheaded man with red eyes that seemed to be slitted, similar to a reptile's eyes. One thing Arisa found herself staring at though, was the fact that he was wearing a cloak, some sort of bushy loincloth over his waist, boots and nothing else. "...Yuuno..."

"Yeah?" Yuuno blinked as Arisa's face was flushing hard.

"He's a stud." Arisa answered, causing Yuuno to nearly face-fault out of mid-air.

Vrabazard blinked and slowly grinned. "You like it?" Arisa nodded slowly. "Ha ha ha! And Zelas said that liking that Conan the Barbarian book from the blue staff was a waste of time!"

"Conan the Barbarian?" Yuuno and Arisa asked at the same time, causing Vrabazard to shrug.

"Anyway, I was wondering something." Yuuno looked at the Shinzoku. "Ever since I got your power, I haven't been able to feel heat or cold, at all. It's good if I'm in a fire, but I'd like to enjoy a hot bath without the water being boiling."

Vrabazard blinked a few times. "What? You don't constrict your power to your marking?" Yuuno stared at him. "Hold on." Before Yuuno could ask what was going on, he found himself spun around, his shirt floating in mid air and his marking glowing red all over his body. "...Oh, I see now." Vrabazard nodded as he looked the marking over.

Arisa found herself forced to look away from Yuuno and Vrabazard. Even if he didn't look like it, Yuuno did have a nice body. Not overly muscled, but very fit and healthy looking.

Why did part of her want to suddenly see if he could feel cold whipped cream on his body as she...

Arisa's face went redder than the lava she was hovering over as she tried to shake those dirty thoughts out of her head. 'Why the heck was Fate there with me anyway?" She mentally railed, wondering if Yuuno's device had perverted her in some weird way.

"What?" Yuuno blinked as his shirt suddenly found itself on his body again.

"I guess I pushed you too far when you unlocked that power." Vrabazard chuckled. "Okay, listen, if you want to reign this in, you need to concentrate on it." Yuuno blinked and turned to face him. "That should do it."

"That's it? Seems a bit... Simple."

Vrabazard shrugged at Yuuno. "It's simple to me. I suppose it would be like... I don't know, breathing. Just imagine holding your breath for your magic and letting it out slowly."

Yuuno looked at the Shinzoku in confusion, but sat cross-legged in mid-air and closed his eyes, trying to figure out how to do what Vrabazard said.

Arisa blinked and saw Yuuno slowly slide down. "Hey!" Quickly reaching out, she grabbed him and grunted as her wings materialized behind her and flapped upwards to push them up. "Dammit, when did you get so heavy!"

"Huh?" Yuuno blinked, before shaking his head and moving a hand up to wipe at his forehead, before stopping and grinning. "It worked!"

"Good for you, now do you think you can turn it back on so I don't have to hold you like this?" Arisa probably wouldn't have minded so much if he wasn't just above lava. Maybe she'd drop him into an ice cold river.

"Sorry." Yuuno chuckled and Arisa sighed as she felt him levitate upwards. "Forgot that only Holy magic works in this place."

Vrabazard chuckled and looked at Arisa, before raising an eyebrow. "That feels similar to master Cephied's power, but..."

"Lord Vrabazard," Yuuno moved so he could gesture to Arisa, "meet Arisa Bannings, container of one of the pieces of the Azure Dragon's soul." Vrabazard stared at Arisa in shock. "The Azure Dragon fought against Chaotic Blue."

"...I must say," Vrabazard looked at Arisa, before nodding, "it's an honor to meet you, container of Lord Dorpheed."

"Dorpheed?" Arisa blinked as she heard the name. "That's the Azure Dragon's name?"

Vrabazard blinked, but nodded. "Indeed, though from what I can tell, you probably don't like the name."

Arisa grimaced softly. "It's not exactly... Well, cool." Vrabazard just blinked at the term and Arisa sighed heavily. "It means that it's not something that I'd like as a name." Vrabazard just nodded and decided to ignore it, humans were weird. "One thing's been bugging me... How come Yuuno's clothes didn't start to burn off but mine did?"

Vrabazard gave Arisa a flat look. "I may be a Shinzoku, but I do enjoy the sight of a naked woman more than a naked man." He blinked when Arisa seemed to fall over in mid-air and nearly hit the lava. "You sure you want to take a dip?"

"GAH!" Arisa floated upwards and grabbed her head. "I think that Thoth's personality isn't just his programming! UGH!" Glaring at the Shinzoku, she pointed a finger at him. "You know what? You could at least play fair!" Vrabazard blinked at her. "If you're going to burn my shorts off just to get a look at my underwear, then why not..." Arisa trailed off as she tried to think of the first thing that came to her mind, "why don't you burn his clothes off?"

"WHAT?" Yuuno yelped at Arisa, who was blushing hard.

Before Arisa could say anything, Vrabazard shrugged and snapped his fingers. "Fine." The way that Yuuno and Arisa both started blushing as the blonde male ended up naked in mid-air was rather amusing, more-so since Yuuno seemed to lose all mental functions and was unable to move or react right away.

It took her several moments of outright gaping at Yuuno's fully naked body before her mind finally started working properly again. "GAH!" Arisa slapped her hands over her eyes. "Sorry! Put some clothes back on him!" She thought he was good looking with just his shirt off, but seeing what he had down below was really, "GAH!" She was going to have trouble getting _that_ image out of her head for awhile. And did it have to be so... "GAH!" Arisa felt like banging her head against a wall. She was _not_ mentally trying to figure out just how big Yuuno was from what she saw.

When Yuuno's clothes rematerialized over his body, he turned to glare at Vrabazard. "Did you _have_ to do that?"

**"Dunno, boss, I think the girls might like a picture of you naked."**

"WHO'S SIDE ARE YOU ON?" Yuuno usually wasn't this bad off, but considering what just happened, his mind was a bit out of whack. It probably didn't help matters any when Thoth said those things.

Vrabazard chuckled heavily and looked at the two. "As amusing as this is, are you two done here? I'd rather not have anyone at my lair right now."

Arisa took a deep breath and tried to get her blushing face to calm down, before slowly turning to the Shinzoku. "Actually, I was wondering, how come I can only do so little with my power?"

Vrabazard blinked and floated over to her and narrowed his eyes as he looked at her more closely. "What do you mean, so little? Holy magic should be natural to you. You might need to learn how to hold back, but you should be able to do anything you want with it." He pointed at Yuuno. "Unlike him, you were born with this power, you should be able to use it anyway you want."

"I wish." Arisa sighed and floated backwards and crossed her arms under her breasts. "But, it's hard. Every time I try to use more than just some weapons out of elemental energy, it's like I..." She blinked as she felt a hand on her head. "What are you..?"

"Hmm..." Vrabazard's eyes were glowing as he looked at Arisa more closely. "There was a seal on you... Seems to be connected not only to your Holy power, but to your memories." Arisa blinked, before her eyes went wide as memories started to flood her mind. "...How tragic."

"I... I..." Arisa's eyes rolled up into her head as she passed out from the memory overload.

"What happened?" Yuuno floated over to Arisa and took her from the Shinzoku.

"Memories..." Vrabazard told him. "Of a terrible tragedy that happened before she ever met you or that girl, Nanoha. Her power first awakened... To save her life, but it left her scarred and tormented from it."

Yuuno just blinked in confusion at the Shinzoku. "Um..."

"She'll have to tell you. As for you," Vrabazard snapped his fingers and Yuuno felt himself disappearing from the lair, "leave this place for now, my knight. Come back some other time."


	180. Peek Forging End

Blood That Flows

Peek

Forging End

* * *

Yuuno blinked as he looked around. "Where are we?" He would have moved to find out, but Arisa had such a death grip on his body that he wondered if she suddenly became an octopus with the way she was clinging to him. "Arisa?" He sighed as she trembled softly while hugging him. "What are you..." He trailed off as he heard some laughter.

"Well, well, well!" Yuuno groaned as a bunch of dirty, incredibly dirty and burned bandits, walked out from behind the trees. "How touching. If I was feeling in the mood, I might let'cha live... But..." The man twitched as he looked at Yuuno. "...Is anyone else feeling that odd feeling of death?"

"Boss, after being blown up by that spell, I think we're all feeling it." A tall and bald man in incredibly damaged clothing spoke up and looked at the group, though, now that Yuuno took a closer look, it seemed like there was only about four of them, and all of them were moving rather slow and painfully. "Still, I doubt he can do much with her pressing herself to him."

The boss grinned as he looked at Yuuno and Arisa. "After what happened near Sellentia, I'm rather upset, so... Just hand over the girl nice and quiet like and we'll let ya have some fun when we burn off some frustration."

Yuuno wasn't great with illusions. He never tried to be, as illusion magic, real illusion magic, was a fairly rare skill to have. Anyone could make simple projections with their magic and change their bodies, but true illusion wasn't something that everyone had. Despite that, he somehow managed to make his eyes glow a bright red and his hair started to float upwards. "...What. Did. You. Say?"

"Uh... Boss, I think that talking about using that girl to get off was a bad idea."

**"I'll say, hey boss, why don't you show them what a pin ball feels like?"**

"Not a bad idea." Yuuno nodded as Thoth Driver shifted from its wrist-watch standby mode to its active mode, the display screen enlarged to the size of the back of his hand while a data pad with buttons formed, jutting out away from his fingers and down his arm. Despite becoming much larger, Thoth's active form, minus the screen, was about the size of a standard wallet. The screen just looked like an old-style magnifying glass.

"Uh, what?" The bandits suddenly got nervous as a green circle appeared under Yuuno and the ground began shaking. "Run!" The remaining bandits, despite hurting all over, turned to flee.

They got two steps before something wrapped around their ankles. Looking down, the bandits all turned blue in the face as green chains were squeezing tight and causing them to fall to the ground.

"Now then..." Yuuno growled out as the chains pulled, sending the bandits flying into the air before a giant array appeared in front of them. "Let's see how long it takes for you guys to break the speed of sound."

"Huh?" The bandits had no idea what Yuuno was talking about as they found themselves flying into the array and disappearing, only to reappear several feet away, flying through the air, the chains no longer on their ankles as they soared towards a large tree. Yelling in fear, they sighed as the tree seemed to disappear, only to scream as another tree appeared in front of them, even faster this time.

**"Wow, you must be mad boss, never saw a teleportation matrix to bounce people off of the trees at increasing speeds."**

Yuuno grinned darkly as he heard the bandits yelling for him to stop. "Stop?" He chuckled darkly as he stood up, Arisa still in his arms. "You wouldn't stop even if she told you to. Why should I stop? Huh?"

**"Boss, you need to..."**

"What? Calm down? I'm sick and..."

Before he could finish that statement, there was a cracking sound and he found himself on his butt. "...Arisa?"

She was looking at him, frowning. "Don't make me hit you with the air again. You aren't like this, Yuuno, calm down."

"But..." Before Yuuno could say anything more, Arisa, her face red, leaned in and put her lips to his. Yuuno's eyes widened in shock as she did that.

While Arisa was kissing Yuuno, an array appeared on Thoth's screen. Several moments later, the bandits found themselves slamming into a net that appeared out of nowhere.

Arisa pulled her head back, her face completely crimson. "I don't do that very much, Yuuno. But you aren't a killer. Don't act like one to thugs." She pulled herself away from Yuuno and stood up, her face was practically lighting the area up. "...But thanks for standing up for me."

"I'm going to be..." The bandit leader groaned as the holding net swayed in the air. "...I think I don't want to be a bandit anymore."

"And I thought it was bad when we got Dragon Slave'd..." The taller bandit groaned out painfully.

The four bandits watched as Yuuno stood up and followed Arisa out of the clearing silently. "Um..." The leader spoke up, sounding fearful and cringing as Yuuno looked up at him. "Can you let us down?" Yuuno snapped his fingers and the binds disappeared, causing the bandits to fall to the ground painfully.

"Let's go." Arisa said softly as she and Yuuno left the bandits in the forest, crying in pain.

(-)

An hour later...

The sun was starting to sink into the western skies before Arisa growled and spun around, glaring at Yuuno. "GAH! I can't stand this!" She walked up to the sullen teen and grabbed his shoulders. "What the hell was wrong with you back there?"

"They..." Yuuno looked away from Arisa, remembering her lips on his.

"...If you don't tell me right now, Yuuno, I'm going to give you a noogie while my hand is on fire!" Arisa smirked as Yuuno jumped back, alarmed. "Now talk!"

**"After what happened near Sellentia, I'm rather upset, so... Just hand over the girl nice and quiet like and we'll let ya have some fun when we burn off some frustration."**

Arisa blinked as Thoth played back the conversation, before nodding slowly. "...Oh."

"Yeah, I just... The thought of them..." Before Yuuno could continue, he found himself on his back with Arisa hugging him. "...You okay?"

"Should've told me, I would have set them on fire." Arisa muttered as she lay on top of him. "Still..." She looked up, smiling at him softly. "Thank you." She grimaced and put a hand on her head. "Ugh... Headache..." She then narrowed her eyes at Yuuno. "Thanks, jerk, you made me wake up from a nap too soon and made me use my power before I could sort out those memories!" Before Yuuno could say anything, Arisa hugged him tightly. "Thanks for that, they weren't fun memories."

Yuuno just blinked and decided to hug her back without saying anything.

Girls were weird.


	181. Peek Meetings Start

Blood That Flows

Peek

Meetings Start

Since there's only a few days left in the year, I've decided to, surprise, surprise, change my mind about how I release these updates.

Don't worry, it's for the better.

* * *

Erio sat on the ground sullenly. He didn't like the fact that Lina had stated that they were going to be leaving Gourry, Leo and Sylphiel soon. The redhead shook his head as he felt a headache come on. Rubbing his nose, he grinned and looked up. Leo was a lot of fun, and Val, back home, was a lot of fun too. If Erio knew that Caro could be so much fun if she got riled up, he might have done it sooner. Sure, it hurt bad, but she wasn't so whiny when she was like that.

There was a giggling sound and Erio blinked as two girls, both with darker skin than he was used to seeing, one with silver-white hair, the other one had purple hair, both had their eyes closed as they smiled at him. "Wow, Lena," the one with the silver-white hair spoke up and opened her eyes, nearly shocking Erio with how they were yellow, "you were right. Never saw someone like this."

"Carona, you know that we shouldn't be trying to spoil the secret." The one with purple hair opened her eyes, revealing lavender colored eyes to Erio. The two were wearing short-sleeved shirts that matched their hair and pants that were brown with purple stripes on the sides. For some odd reason, it seemed to work for them. "Still..." Lena grinned and jumped right up in Erio's face. "You're interesting."

Erio blinked, before frowning and pushing the girl away from him. "Get in someone else's face!" The next thing he knew, he found himself on his back as Carona narrowed her eyes from where she was kneeling on his chest. "Hey!"

"Hey, Lena, maybe we should do to him what those two guys were doing to that tree?" Carona had a nasty grin on her face and Erio gulped as he felt Lena grab his legs. "Ready?"

"Yep!"

"Hey!" Erio yelped as Carona grabbed his arms and jumped off of him and pulled them above his head. "Let go!" He squirmed, but found that they were a lot stronger than they looked. "What are you doing?" He asked as they lifted him off the ground. "Stop that!"

"Ready?" Lena giggled at Carona as they started to swing Erio back and forth, moving his body more and more and ignoring his pleas to stop.

"Hey!" Caro ran out, frowning at the girls, who turned and kept swinging Erio. "Let him go!" She yelled while running at them, swinging her arms up and down.

Carona smirked at Lena. "You heard pinkie."

"Yep!" Lena grinned and the two let go of Erio, causing him to let out a cry as he flew through the air and slammed into Caro, who was trying to stop in time, causing them to land on the ground in a heap.

The twins started giggling hard until someone new appeared in the yard. The two blinked and looked at the busty, purple-haired young woman dressed in form-fitting pants and a light colored shirt ran into the yard. "What the heck are you two doing?" She looked at Caro, who was groaning in pain and Erio, who looked disoriented as he lay on top of her. Looking at the giggling girls, the teen's pupils suddenly shrank as she was overcome with a sensation. "Mazoku?" She asked, her hands clenching into fists.

"How rude!" Lena pouted and looked at her sister. "We're only half-Mazoku."

"But we're half-Shinzoku." Carona nodded and looked at the newcomer. For some reason, the twins thought they heard some sort of weird announcer saying something about a new challenger. "You can call us MaShinzoku."

"Demon Goddesses..." The human muttered and looked at Erio and Caro. "Why'd you attack them?"

"He pushed my sister!" Carona protested. "It's not nice to push people."

The woman blinked and nodded slowly. "True, but you didn't have to throw him, what if he got hurt?"

"Considering what he is, I doubt that." Lena giggled at the young woman. "Who are you anyway?"

"Suzuka Tsukimura." She nodded and narrowed her eyes at the girls. "I'd ask that you not attack them again."

"I'll have to say..." A new male voice spoke up next to Suzuka and made her stiffen as she felt a hand on her shoulder. "I don't like it when people threaten my daughters."

Suzuka turned to see Xellos looking at her, his eyes open and his lips pursed into a tight smile.

Those eyes, something about those eyes were taunting her, goading her into doing something, anything against him. Every fiber of her being wanted to take him up on that offer, but there was something, something far worse than she could imagine that was hidden in his eyes.

Suzuka felt her body completely lock up as an aura of power surrounded the purple-haired Mazoku. Every part of her wanted to lash out at him, to strike him down, but for some reason she was having trouble breathing, even light itself seemed to be disappearing. 'Why is everything turning into a single point?' Suzuka asked herself as she tried to breathe and get air into her lungs again.

Xellos had a grin that slowly stretched across his face as he watched the girl react to what he was doing. It was so easy to manipulate human biology. A simple twist to their metabolism and sense of time and then...

Xellos found himself tilting his head in confusion as Suzuka shook her head and her eyes, which had glazed over, suddenly regained focus. "Well then, I guess I'll have to..."

Xellos suddenly found a weight on his neck that he hadn't felt in a long time pulling him down and squeezing tight. "Ack!"

"What's the matter, Xellos?" A familiar female voice spoke up. "Trying to hurt the kids I'm watching after? Or your daughters hurting my grandchildren?"

Suzuka, Carona and Lena all sweat-dropped as they watched Lina squeeze Xellos's head while the Priest closed his eyes and pouted while Lina grinned. "Uh..." Suzuka turned to look at Carona and Lena, both of whom had confused looks on their faces.

"Lina..." Xellos almost whined out. "You're making me look stupid in front of my girls." He whispered and almost groaned as she tightened her hold. "Liiina..." He pouted as she rolled her eyes.

"I know you could get out at any time, Xellos." Lina muttered and narrowed her eyes at Xellos's children. "I'll give you two a pass because of your dual natures, but don't try and hurt my grandchildren."

"Sorry, auntie." The twins said at the same time and looked down as they dug their toes into the ground. "We won't do it again."

Lina smiled and let go of Xellos, who immediately stood up and looked at the twins. "Carona, Lena, come on, we need to meet up with your mother soon."

"Coming, daddy!" The two said as the same time as they ran over to him.

"Well, Lina, I do need to get going." Xellos said, his eye twitched slightly as his daughters waved to their "auntie". "We'll talk some other day."

Lina had a tight grin on her face as she nodded at him. "Of course." As Xellos and his daughters disappeared, Lina turned to Suzuka, her eyes narrowed and the purple-haired teenager gulped softly. "You do realize that the only reason that he puts up with that from me is because of a deal that I made with him when I was a teenager."

Suzuka blinked several times. "A... A deal?"

"A business deal." Lina smirked at Suzuka. "I get to beat him up and get nuggets of information from him and he's free to lead us around by the nose, so long as our goals overlap." Suzuka sweat-dropped before gulping as Lina lost all traces of humor in her face. "Suzuka, Xellos is the fifth most powerful active Mazoku on this world. He's far and above Riksfalto."

"I can handle Riksfalto!" Suzuka protested, causing Lina to sigh.

"Only because she likes a good fight. Riksfalto likes a challenge, a fight. She'll handicap herself so she gets more of a challenge out of it." Suzuka blinked before realization slowly creept over her face. "Xellos isn't like Riksfalto. She'll fight as fairly as a Mazoku can possibly fight. She doesn't use a lot of tricks on her enemies to beat them. Xellos, on the other hand, he would dirty, horribly dirty. I know you could probably punch a hole in his body, Suzuka," Lina shook her head, "but you'd end up with holes all over your body if you attacked him."

Suzuka paled at the thought. "That..." Lina nodded and Suzuka took a deep breath. "Even if I can fight against Mazoku, I'm pretty useless against high-ranking Mazoku, huh?"

Lina shrugged and smiled as Erio helped Caro to her feet. "Most everyone is. One-on-one, there's almost no human that can take a high-level Mazoku by themselves. I wouldn't worry about it too much though." When Erio and Caro walked over, she knelt down to make sure that they were both okay. "So, how about it? Shall we go?" She asked as she stood up and took Erio and Caro's hands.

The three of them nodded and followed Lina out of the back yard.


	182. Peek Meetings End

Blood That Flows

Peek

Meetings End

So, yeah, I'll be posting whole mini-arcs up every day.

I have my reasons for it.

* * *

Elsewhere...

"So, where are we?" Arisa asked as she and Yuuno walked out of a forest.

"Not..." Yuuno trailed off and blinked as he saw a sign. "Zephillia?" He blinked and looked in the direction of where the arrow was pointing. "...That was convient."

Arisa smirked at him. "Don't look a gift horse in the mouth." She laughed when Yuuno rolled his eyes. "And stop staring at my ass."

"Hard not to." Yuuno muttered softly. "You keep running ahead of me." Arisa had taken his jacket off of her waist sometime ago and was wearing it over her shoulders to cool off slightly. It wasn't much, but it did help her move easier, since they weren't flying.

Of course, that let him get a nice view of Arisa's nearly exposed butt-cheek. He sure wasn't complaining, but it was getting slightly annoying having to deal with certain other problems that kept popping up.

"How come you don't know your way around this place?" Arisa asked as she turned to look at him while walking backwards.

"I explained already, I've only been to this world once, there's a higher magical index on this world compared to Earth and other than you, Lina's the only one I really know in terms of what their magic feels like." Yuuno took his glasses off and rubbed his eyes before putting them back on. "And the last time I was on this world, Lina did most of the leading until we got to the outer world." He blushed heavily. "I was more concerned about Nanoha having nightmares than remembering what rock is where on the side of the road."

"...Oh." Arisa nodded slowly. "So... What's Zephilla?"

"Lina's hometown." Yuuno grinned at Arisa, who blinked at him. "Hey, I remember that much at least."

"Well, then lead the way, good sir."

**"You sure you want everyone to look at your butt? You get mad when boss looks at it."**

Arisa twitched and quickly wrapped the coat around her waist again. "Yuuno, when this is done, I'm going to..."

**"Give boss something nice?"**

"Thoth!" Yuuno groaned and blinked as Arisa looked away, blushing. "...Arisa?"

"Nothing! Nothing! Let's just get going!" Arisa grumbled and started walking towards Zephillia. She did _not_ want to suddenly start thinking about the "nice things" she could have given Yuuno. And why did her mind suddenly envision both of them naked surrounded by red and blue flames and on a bed while a volcano erupted in the background?

Yuuno nearly face-faulted as a very similar image entered his mind. 'Where did _that_ come from?' He mentally yelled and tried to get the thought of doing that with Arisa out of his head. Not that he didn't like the image, it was nice, but walking around completely aroused was incredibly difficult.

"Yuuno-san! Arisa-san!" A familiar female voice yelled, startling the two teens out of their mental daydreams as Caro ran up to them, waving at them. "How'd you get here?"

"...If this was a story, I'd say a convenient plot device." Arisa muttered, but smiled at Caro. "How'd you get here?"

"Grandma called the ship and asked them to pick us up." Caro beamed and blinked as Arisa turned to glare at Yuuno. "What's wrong?"

"Why didn't you think of that?"

**"Boss was too busy with his mind _behind_ other priorities."**

Yuuno just groaned and slapped his face as Arisa's face turned bright red. "One of these days, Thoth, I'm going to do something about you."

Caro just blinked and ran over to Yuuno, before jumping onto his leg and hugging him. "Missed you!"

Suddenly all the problems that Yuuno had a moment ago disappeared as he knelt down and hugged Caro back. "Missed you too, kiddo."

Watching that, Arisa just smiled and sighed. Why was it that Caro could make her anger just disappear so easily?

Not too far away, Lina smiled as she saw Yuuno, Arisa and Caro together. Things would work out, even if Arisa was upset about something. Those two teens were good kids.

She was still smiling as the door opened and her mother stood on the other side of it. "Hello, mom."

"LINA!" Her mother smiled and walked out to give her youngest daughter a hug. "How are you?"

"I'm fine." Lina smiled as she hugged her mother back. "I think you'll want to meet your great grandchildren." She laughed as her mother blinked in shock. "Allow me to introduce you to Erio Mondial," she gestured to the redheaded boy next to her, "and," she pointed at the pink-haired girl that was hugging Yuuno, "Caro Lu Ruche."

Her mother smiled and looked at Erio, and then over to Caro. "Well then... I bet this is a long story, but... Welcome to the family, my great-grandchildren."


	183. Peek Search Start

Blood That Flows

Peek

Search Start

* * *

Vita twitched as she opened a door to another non-nondescript gray building. "Sometimes I think being in the Bureau is nothing more than an over glorified 'gopher' and all we do is play fetch whenever something is wrong."

Seeing her taller and bustier redheaded friend complain, Nanoha giggled softly. The two of them were wearing black pants, though Vita was wearing a black tank top underneath a red, long-sleeved jacket with a large belt over her midsection while Nanoha was wearing a purple short-sleeved shirt under a white jacket. Their jackets were unbuttoned and hung loosely against their bodies. "Come on, Vita-chan, it's not too bad. We're just looking for any signs of people smuggling contraband." At least, that's what they were told in the meeting prior to the mission.

Vita nodded at that and wondered what a bunch of smugglers needed with that much technology.

"Ne, Vita-chan."

Vita blinked, Nanoha's voice was sounding a bit mischievous, which made her nervous, but she decided to shrug that off and hope for the best. "Yes?"

"How are things between you and Hayate-chan?" Nanoha giggled as Vita spun and her face turned completely red.

"Wh...wha...what are you asking that for?" Vita yelled and staggered, her large breasts bobbing slightly from the motion.

"I'm worried about Hayate-chan and Vita-chan, you two aren't around each other as much and I'm hoping that nothing's wrong." Nanoha was still slightly jealous of Vita's breasts, though, not as much as she used to be, as hers were finally starting to grow. "And I sometimes wonder how Vita-chan can stand up with boobs as big as hers."

"Trust me, Nanoha," Vita twitched, thankful her breasts hadn't grown any larger lately, "there are days I wonder the same thing." Thankfully Shamal had taught her some simple stretches that relieved a lot of pressure off of her shoulders and back. Bras that fit right were a big help as well.

Nanoha blinked as Vita sighed and looked away. "Vita-chan?"

"You know that Reinforce is really close to Hayate, right?" The redhead asked rhetorically as she and Nanoha walked through the building. Her blue eyes narrowed as she looked around. Just like the other buildings that they had looked at, this one was empty and looked almost spotless, other than the dust all over the place. Vita sighed softly. "I don't think..." She trailed off as an odor hit her nose. It was one that she knew pretty well from her memories. "What the hell?" Vita's nose may not have been anywhere near as good as Zafira's nose was, she could still smell strong odors.

Especially when they were sharply contrasting the air around her.

"What's that stench?" Nanoha was grimacing heavily as she and Vita moved closer to it, both stopping at what looked like some sort of meat locker door.

Vita had a general idea what it was, but she didn't want to say anything. "Nanoha..." She said, her hair was covering her eyes. "Leave. Go outside, because the stench is going to get a lot worse." When Nanoha started to argue, Vita glared at her, effectively shutting her up in an instant. "Leave, now."

The redhead nodded and quickly scrambled back outside.

When she was certain Nanoha was gone, Vita grabbed the door, she tore it off the hinges and tossed it to the side before looking in.

Blood everywhere, human bodies tossed aside, organs, bones, even layers of skin were splattered all over the walls and floor. It was bad enough that Vita had to bite her lower lip to keep from throwing up, but when she got a good look at the bodies, her pupils shrank and she found herself biting her lower lip so hard that she tore the skin open.

The ancient knight turned away, tears leaking down her face as she walked away from the site. She didn't know what happened, she wasn't sure she wanted to know at that moment. All she knew was that she was going to put a report in, find a nice, isolated area...

And destroy it with her bare hands.

When Nanoha suddenly hugged her, Vita found herself slumping and hugging the smaller redhead as tightly as she could.

Vita was no stranger to death, but she didn't see the signs of a battle in there.

All she saw... Was a slaughter.

As she hugged her friend, Nanoha wondered what it was that Vita saw, before deciding it was probably better that she didn't know.

Anything that could make Vita react like that was probably something she didn't want to ever see in her lifetime.

(-)

Later...

As she looked over the reports that Vita had given her, Leti grimaced at the rather... Vivid description Vita had put together in only an hour. Considering how shaken up Vita was over the dead bodies, it was amazing that she was able to write up such a coherent report so quickly. She had requested that the bodies be looked at, documented and disposed of properly. Nanoha's report was far less indicative of anything, other than Vita had pulled rank and forced her to leave.

But who would murder all those people? And what purpose did it serve?

(-)

As the last 'supplier' dropped to the ground, his eyes unseeing and mouth foaming as his body twitched while the last of his life left him, she rolled her eyes and snarled. "Humans, so annoying."

Still, they did serve her purposes as she looked over the various crates that her summoner's creations were carrying off. 'Ancient technology certainly is amazing.' She thought to herself as she looked at one of her robotic minions that stood watch over her. Not that she needed it.

"Master." She turned to see her summoner look at her. "We have everything loaded into the transporter."

"Very well." She smirked and walked up to the girl and put her hands on the girl's shoulders. "You've done quite well today." It was almost amusing when the girl pressed herself forward and her body gave off various 'signals'. "Perhaps I'll reward you when we get back."

"Thank you, Master." The girl smiled before gasping as her master squeezed her chest. "Nnngh..."

"Good... There will be more later, Lutecia." Her eyes glinted as Lutecia nodded and gulped softly.

"Thank you, Master Qua..." She gulped when her master glared at her. "I apologize, Master Levi. Please forgive me."

"I will discipline you later for this, but for now, get on the transport." Lutecia nodded and turned to walk away. She wondered what her master was going to do to her and hoped that it wouldn't be too horrible.

Levi smirked as she watched Lutecia's rear end while walking away. It wasn't even the fact that she could manipulate Lutecia's body so perfectly that made her do this. It was the thought of corrupting such an innocent personality into something that would desire her and only her that made everything she was doing worthwhile.

She was almost certain her late master, Death Bringer Garoth, would approve of such a tactic.

One thing that annoyed her was the fact that Due was spending so much time with Lutecia lately. The girl was almost... Independent in her thoughts. An invisible aura surrounded her as she imagined what she would do to Due for setting her plans back somewhat.

'If everything had gone well, I'd have a willing little sex pet of my own by now.' Levi thought to herself before snorting. Pulling out a small data pad, she looked over the data that she had gathered and frowned heavily. "What kind of technology did they use in Al Hazard?" If only something had survived Garoth's 'purging' years ago.

"Oh well, looks like I won't be able to turn people into extra power sources for the Megah." She smirked, if such a technology did exist to turn humans into Unison Devices, it was almost certainly lost by now.

So what if she had to sacrifice a couple hundred people to find out that answer? It wasn't like they were important anyway.

'If I got my hands on a human that was turned into a Unison Device...' Levi smirked as she and her Megah walked over to the transport, which disappeared in a flash after they were on it.

The thought of being able to experiment on such a device would be quite...

Interesting.

(-)

Elsewhere...

Reinforce Eins suddenly shivered and looked around. 'What was that?' She thought to herself as she and Hayate were looking out at some sort of blast site.

"You okay, Reinforce?" Hayate blinked and the taller Unison Device nodded at her. "Are you sure?"

"Hayate..." Reinforce shook her head and mentally smiled at how kind Hayate really was. It reminded her of some of the better masters that she and the Wolkenritter had in the past. "I would not worry about it. I suddenly got a chill for no reason, it could have been something as simple as a speck of dust running across my neck that caused it."

Hayate didn't look completely convinced, but decided to drop it as she turned and floated down to the center of the blast site, followed by Reinforce. "...what is this?"

Reinforce looked around and shook her head. "I don't know." Idly, she kicked some dirt and blinked as a small black crystal appeared from under the sand. "What is this?" Bending over, she touched it before jumping away, her eyes wide as she felt what that crystal was.

"Reinforce?" Hayate looked at Reinforce with worry before looking at the crystal. "What is..."

"That," the silver-haired device panted and gripped her hand as though it had been either burned or frozen, "felt like the protection program." Reinforce said as she flew up and away from the ground, Hayate joining her a moment later. Reinforce shivered and looked at the blast site. "This... There was some sort of Mazoku power here. I'm sure of it."

Hayate turned back to look at the blast site and wondered just what was at that site. 'What is going on here? I thought there weren't many Mazoku in this universe.'

Whatever it was, Hayate was starting to get extremely worried.


	184. Peek Search End

Blood That Flows

Peek

Search End

Coming to the end of these mini-arcs. Two more to go.

* * *

Later...

"Due," Lutecia nodded to the older cyborg as she walked out of Quattro's lab, "how are you?"

"I'm fine." The blonde looked at Lutecia and noticed that the girl had a bit of a limp in her step. "How about you? Did you get hurt?"

Lutecia shook her head. "No, I was merely helping master Quattro out." It had been almost an hour since she and Quattro had gotten back. Her master had quickly... Shown Lutecia how little she liked her name being messed up. It was simply because of how much her back and rear hurt that she was limping. Master Quattro's reward was rather rough as well and her thighs were still sore from what the cyborg had done to her.

It was enjoyable, though the summoner almost wished that she didn't have to be in such a position to get such rewards and punishments all the time. "I wish to take a bath, I am a bit... Sticky, smelly and sweaty right now."

Due could see the sweat on the girl, and she did have an unusual odor to her. "Fine, I think I'll..."

"No," Lutecia shook her head, "I would rather bathe alone right now." Master Quattro had made sure to drill into her head to bathe alone after a reward session.

"I see." Due nodded as she watched Lutecia walk away. Her eyes narrowed as she saw Lutecia limp slightly. That wasn't a normal limp, it almost looked like she pulled a muscle or something similar.

The blonde cyborg balled her hands into fists and wondered just what Quattro was doing with Lutecia.

(-)

A few minutes later...

As she sank into the water, Lutecia sighed in contentment. She wasn't sure why, but after her master gave her those rewards, a bath always felt more interesting. Though, the way she felt now was probably because of the punishment that her master had given her as well.

When she heard the door open, her red eyes widened in shock and she spun around, only to sigh as she saw who was standing there. "Master Quattro." The glasses-wearing cyborg had a tight grin as she walked into the bath area and put her towel over the towel rack before slipping into the water next to Lutecia. "I am surprised."

"Really?" Quattro raised an eyebrow as Lutecia blushed and looked away. "Now why would you be surprised?"

"Because you usually don't bathe with me." The purple haired girl pulled her knees up to her chest and tried to keep her voice from cracking. 'Master must be very happy with me.' Lutecia wondered just what kind of reward she was going to receive this time.

"I felt like it today." Quattro said as she leaned back against the side of the bathtub. "What are you doing?" She asked when it looked like Lutecia was going to lean over and try to hug her or something.

"I, uh..." Lutecia turned and sat still. "I apologize, Master Quattro." Mentally, Lutecia was wondering what her master would do to her for screwing up. She should have known better than to assume that her master would want to do anything with her when she wasn't on a mission or training her.

As time crept on with neither of them talking, Lutecia started to feel more and more worried that she had angered Quattro.

"I'm not upset." Quattro said after several more moments and raised an eyebrow as Lutecia suddenly turned and hugged her, tears leaking out of her eyes. "If you do not let go right now, I shall have to punish you horribly later."

Lutecia did as she was told, but a small smile remained on her face. "Thank you, Master." She looked away, her face slightly red. "You don't have to hold back on my account, Master. You know that you can do more to me than just look." When Quattro didn't say anything, she started to fidget in place. "If you wish, you can..."

Quattro shook her head. "Not now."

"Oh." Lutecia looked down and wished she could do what Sein did and disappear under the ground. Of course her master wouldn't want to do that stuff right now. They did spend a long while in her lab before Lutecia had left for the bath. Why would she want to touch her now?

"Get cleaned up and then go back to your room and get dressed." Quattro told her suddenly. "You'll need to spend some time with my dear sisters today."

Lutecia nodded as she grabbed some soap and started to wash her front. Her master had stated that it was a good idea to keep her sisters from knowing what was going on too much by spending time with them. The young girl gasped as she felt hands on her back. Turning her head, she blinked as she saw Quattro rubbing her back with soapy hands. "Master?"

"This would be faster, do you not agree?" Lutecia nodded and turned away, groaning as she felt her master's thumbs press into her back, hitting areas that were rather stiff and sore. "Master?" She wasn't given an answer, not that she expected one, and groaned as Quattro pushed her to the edge of the bath, forcing her to lay face-down on the tiles while her legs remained in the water. Lutecia sighed and groaned as she felt her master's fingers push into her back and knead the flesh while working their way down her spine. "Feels so..." The summoner let out a moan as her master's hands touched her butt, squeezing and kneading there. Lutecia didn't know why her flesh was so stiff in some parts but her master was working the stiffness out of her flesh. "Eeek!" She nearly jumped as she felt her master's hands touch her thighs.

"Quiet down." A slap to her ass had her settling down for a few moments. As Quattro's hands worked the knots in her legs out, Lutecia sighed and wondered just why she was starting to feel so warm. "There, done." Quattro pulled Lutecia back into the bath and grabbed her before she fell under the water completely. "...You're a limp noodle, aren't you?"

"Uh huh..." Lutecia nodded, her words slurring softly.

Rolling her eyes, Quattro lifted Lutecia out of the water and put her on the side of the tub. "You'll do me no good if you drown."

Lutecia nodded and looked at Quattro as she soaked in the bath. It took awhile for the tingling in her legs and that odd sensation in her belly to finally stop and allow her to stand up properly. Grabbing her towel, she walked out of the bathroom on still shaky legs. "I'll be in my room."

Quattro didn't say anything, but did watch as Lutecia walked out, her bare ass shaking with each step out.

"...Gods..." Quattro muttered as her form shifted and melted, her hair turning yellow as her breasts, which had gotten larger for some odd reason, shrank a couple of sizes and the glasses disappeared from her face. "Quattro," Due muttered to herself, "what have you done to Lutecia?"

She figured she wouldn't like the answer.


	185. Peek Valkyrie Start

Blood That Flows

Peek

Valkyrie Start

* * *

Sein panted as she slid across the floor, somehow remaining on her feet. "Is that all you got?" She yelled at her assailants, taunting them. Unlike her normal outfit, she was in a pitch-black body suit that had some sort of sash around her waist, a dark colored gem, that was located in the middle of her chest, surrounded by a metal armor band that surrounded her body and hooked over her shoulders to stay up, glowed softly while a round disk on her left arm expanded in size, becoming a shield that Sein held in front of her as green energy slammed into it at high speeds, forcing her back across the ground.

"Really, Sein," the blue-green haired girl looked over her shield to see Tre walk into the light, her eyes narrowed at the shorter, more petite cyborg, "did you really think you could escape this?"

Sein smirked as a short metal stick appeared in her right hand. "Can't blame me for trying, can you?" Her back lit up as six thin, but glowing brightly, wings formed on her back and allowed her to float upwards. "You're not going to get me that easily."

When Tre suddenly smirked, Sein's eyes widened and she looked over her shoulder to see Sette practically standing in mid-air while holding onto two of her boomerangs. Sein knew that she could create two more and control them with a thought.

"You should just give up." Sette intoned, her eyes holding no sympathy for what was to happen next.

"How about..." Sein grinned as she seemed to disappear into a blur before reappearing in front of Sette. "No." The next thing Sein knew, Sette's knee was slamming into her stomach and forcing her back through the air. "Nnngh." That knee did hurt, but not nearly as much as it should have, considering that Sette was physically stronger than anyone. Sein had seen Sette punch holes in the sides of the walls during practice.

Considering that Tre, the next strongest of her sisters, could only dent the wall, it said something about Sette's strength.

"Slaughter Arms." Sein looked up as Sette released her boomerangs at her. As they came close, Sein knocked one away with her shield before slashing at the other one, causing them to fall down.

"Is that..." Sein couldn't finish what she was saying as Tre's fist slammed into her cheek, rocking her head and sending her spiraling to the ground. "Oww..."

"I thought I taught you better." Tre said dispassionately as she watched Sein crash to the ground below.

After a few moments of laying still, Sein groggily sat up and rubbed her cheek. "Ugh... You nearly..." Her eyes widened as she saw Sette's metal boomerangs spinning in place. "And what..?" Sein's eyes widened as the blades seemed to fall into pieces.

"Shattering Slaughter." Sette intoned, with one hand high in the air. For some odd reason, Sein thought that Sette's pink eyes were glowing softly. When Sette dropped her hand down, the now smaller blades started to swarm and move towards and around Sein.

"Too bad you can't get under the ground." Sein grinned as she slipped under the ground through her Deep Diver. But even as she disappeared, her eyes widened as the blade slivers managed to cut deep into the ground after her. Quickly turning she glided through the ground and away from where Sette's attacks were coming from.

Up above, Tre held her hand up to Sette, who stopped her attacks and reformed her blades in their entirety. "Otto will get her and finish this off."

Sette nodded and grabbed the blades as they flew back to her. "I have to admit, Sein does make for an interesting opponent. I thought you would not be able to strike her like you did, though, considering..."

Tre's face went red and she glared at Sette. "What the heck are you talking about?"

"Apparently nothing, as your reaction indicates that you are not involved with Sein like Wendi, Nove and Cinque have told me."

Tre twitched and made a mental note to _speak_ with those three later.

(-)

As she got out of the ground, Sein grinned as she saw that Tre and Sette were no where to be seen. "Good." Now all she had to do was... Sein's thoughts trailed off as her hair floated upwards and the ground started to glow green. Turning, she gulped as a large green beam came rushing at her. Holding up her shield, she grunted as it pushed her down into the ground slightly.

When the energy subsided, Sein groaned and shook her arms to get feeling back into them. A moment later, she spun around and held up a short sword, which blocked a sneak attack from Deed, who was pushing down with one blade. "Sein, you really have no chance against Otto and myself."

Sein giggled softly. "Otto's pretty cute, you know. If you're not careful, someone's going to come and steal her away from all of us."

Deed narrowed her eyes and her second laser blade snapped into reality, only for Sein to zip away from her, floating along the ground backwards. "You won't escape."

"Just watch..." Sein's eyes widened as a dome of green energy surrounded her. "..me?" She let out a small shriek of fear as the dome started to get brighter and brighter. "Too bad I can..." Sein started to drop through the floor, only to jump out, rubbing her ankles. "What?"

"There will be no escape, Sein..." Otto said as she closed her fist. "Storm Overload."

Sein's last thought as the energy descended on her was 'mommy'.

Deed had to shield her eyes as the dome glowed brightly before exploding with massive energy. "Otto, are you okay?" She asked as the light dimmed and the loud explosion quieted down.

"I'm fine." Her twin said, her boyish face covered in sweat as she panted heavily. "That attack was more draining than I thought it was."

"I wouldn't use it unless you have to then." Tre said as she and Sette came upon the area. "How is she?" She nodded to Sein, who was breathing, but not moving from her position.

Deed walked over to Sein and gently kicked Sein in the butt, getting a groan from the other cyborg. "Alive and not injured too badly."

"Speak for yourself." Sein muttered and twitched. "I feel like I was slammed by three dozen Ray Storms at once."

"That's because you were." A new voice spoke up as the city scape disappeared, being replaced by a physical lab. "I have to admit, those holographic training units Quattro managed to get a hold of are really impressive." Jail smirked as he and Uno walked up to the four. "Congratulations on a job well done, all of you. How is the armor, Sein?"

"Other than being pitch black, not bad." Sein took Deed's hand and stood up. "I think I'd probably be dead if not for this."

Jail nodded at her. "Indeed. This armor, the Knight Valkyrie Armor, is what the rulers of Ancient Belka tried to emulate, with various success."

Sein scratched the back of her head. "I dunno about any of that stuff, doctor, but, it felt weird, like I could see what Sette, Deed and even Tre-nee were going to do before they did it."

Jail chuckled softly. "That's the advantage of that sash, the scarf, that you're wearing when it's connected to the heart." He pointed at the gem on her chest, which pulsated slightly.

"...Oh." Sein nodded at him. "Um... Can I go get some food?"

Jail nodded and laughed softly as the others joined Sein in leaving the training room. "Uno, make sure to get the armor from Sein."

She nodded and started walking after the others as they headed for the training room. "After all, we wouldn't want a giant rat to steal the armor and become unstoppable."

Jail just blinked and wondered where that came from.


	186. Peek Valkyrie Two

Blood That Flows

Peek

Valkyrie Two

* * *

Uno looked at Jail as she handled the armor that Sein had been wearing. "Tell me something, doctor, how will this help? I understand that the defensive power cannot be denied, but even Sein got knocked out."

"By her sister, who's power has been enhanced by a Dragon, or have you forgotten?" Jail grinned at Uno as he looked at the armor pieces while holding onto the gem that made up the heart of the armor. "Besides, Sein wasn't using it to its full abilities." Uno raised an eyebrow at that.

"You sound like a bad Saturday morning cartoon villain, doctor." Uno smirked when Jail twitched. "Either that or a typical movie villain."

"Bah! You cannot even appreciate how the incredible this is!" Jail struck a pose and pointed dramatically to the ceiling.

Uno looked at the ceiling, then at Jail and blinked again. "Doctor, is there a spider up there that I do not know about?" Jail closed his eyes and gave her a disgruntled look. "Or perhaps you're on some sort of illicit drugs and are not sharing?"

Jail rolled his eyes when Uno smirked at him. "No sense of style. It's almost hard to believe that you're my clone."

Uno shrugged at him. "Well, at least you won't die a virgin, right?" When Jail sweat-dropped heavily, Uno laughed and clutched her stomach. "Th... The look on your face!"

"...Stop visiting those image boards, they're bad for your sanity."

As Uno continued to giggle and laugh, Jail rolled his eyes and picked up the Armor before leaving her there. He had other things to do right now than deal with Uno's laughter.

(-)

"Is something bothering you, Nove?" The short redhead blinked and turned to see Cinque looking at her with worry on her face.

"It's nothing." Nove said and looked back at the training area. Her eyes widened as she felt a harsh tap on her neck. "Cinque?"

"Don't lie to your big sister." The look on Cinque's face wasn't one of anger, just kindness and Nove found herself slumping down. "What's wrong?"

"I watched that fight and... What am I doing here, Cinque?"

Cinque blinked at the question. Even though she wore an eye-patch over her right eye, she didn't need it after her eye had regenerated awhile ago. However the look of black sclera and gold iris in that eye tended to make people nervous, so, she found it easier to just wear an eye patch at all times, especially since Jail had given her a modified one that had several interesting features, including the ability to allow her to see in inclement weather and in the dark with no problem. "What do you mean, Nove?"

"Of all our sisters that are front-line fighters," which excluded Uno, Due, Quattro and possibly Sein, "I... I don't..." She blinked when Cinque squeezed her shoulder. "Cinque-nee?"

"Do you doubt yourself, Nove?" The silver-haired cyborg smiled at her younger sister. Nove's face turned red and she turned away, ashamed. "You shouldn't doubt yourself. You and Tre have something special that the rest of us do not." Nove turned to look at Cinque in confusion. "You two may be cyborgs, but you're completely human. The doctor changed most of the rest of us to be more than human to fight against inhuman enemies. But there are downsides." Cinque gently reached up and pulled her eye patch off, revealing her chaos-tinted eye. "Wendi, Deed, Otto and Sette all have eyes and ears that aren't normal, and Wendi and Otto have tails on top of that. Dieci and myself have to work to control our emotions constantly." Cinque closed her eyes and hugged herself, shivering at the memory of herself going berserk on those Bureau mages. If only that woman was healed, she would apologize for the rest of her life, if only to make up for Lutecia never getting to know her mother properly.

The next thing Cinque knew, Nove was hugging her tightly. "Nove?"

"Cinque..." Nove squeezed her smaller, yet older, sister tightly with one hand on the back of Cinque's head. "I'm sorry, I was just... Jealous I guess... I just felt so weak when I saw Otto, Deed, Sette and Tre take on Sein." Cinque smiled and hugged Nove back. "But... Even if I can't fight like them, I'll fight to protect all of you. So that none of you have to go crazy and suffer again."

Cinque smiled as she rested her head on Nove's shoulder. "Then become as strong as you need to to protect us."

"I will." Nove's eyes were burning with determination as she vowed to protect her sisters as best she possibly could.

(-)

Hours later...

As she walked towards the training room, Tre blinked at the sounds of activity. Most of her sisters had gone to bed by now, only Cinque, herself, and Uno were still awake. Maybe Quattro was as well, but Tre never bothered to go check in that lab. Nothing about that really interested her.

Walking through the upper doors, she looked down and raised an eyebrow as she saw Nove training against some sort of holographic enemy. Training may have been too strong of a word as she saw Nove shoot at the holographic enemy with her gun knuckle. Raising an eyebrow, she watched as the shots, even though they were accurate, failed to slow down the figure, who seemed to be cloaked in shadow. Frowning, she walked over to the door to the control room and blinked as she saw the program. "...That stupid bitch." She growled and hit the shut down controls.

In the training area, Nove let loose a yell as her foot connected with her opponent, only to yelp as the holographic enemy disappeared and her foot sailed right through it. "What the he..?" The next thing Nove knew was that she was laying on her head and neck, her cheek was hurting from something hitting it at super speeds and her back and butt were hurting from slamming into the far wall. Groaning, Nove opened her eyes and saw the wheels on her roller blades dangling just above her head and someone walking up to her. Before she could recover, she felt her body suit grabbed at just above her waist and she was pulled up to see a very angry Tre glaring at her. "...Tre-nee?" The short redhead winced as Tre turned her over so that she was upright, before decking her in the face again, sending Nove crashing into another wall. "GAH!"

"What the FUCK were you thinking?" Tre asked as she walked up to Nove, her body trembling with anger.

Nove groaned, now both of her cheeks were sore as hell. "...Tre?"

"That was the single HARDEST program that we have! There aren't any safety measures installed yet!" The tall purple-haired cyborg was panting hard and trembling. "That program was meant to be taken on as a TEAM! You, me, Sette, Otto, Deed, Cinque, Dieci, Wendi and Sein!" She walked up to Nove and grabbed the girl by the top of her outfit and lifted her up. "Just what were you thinking?" She yelled and shook Nove before slamming her against the wall. "Do you have ANY idea how bad it would be if you had gotten hurt?"

Nove groaned from the abuse Tre was heaving upon her body. "Tre-nee... I just..."

"What? Wanted to be an idiot?" Tre dropped the shorter girl and took deep breaths to calm herself down. "...Do you know why I'm upset, Nove?" The redhead shook her head slowly and tried to fight off the sensation of tears as they tried to escape her eyes. "Because if you were hurt, that would make Cinque and Wendi feel bad... And even if you are an idiot, you're still my sister."

"Tre...nee?" Nove blinked as Tre suddenly knelt down and hugged her tightly.

"If you ever do something like that again, Nove, I'm going to make you clean up the doctor's laboratory for a month." Nove blanched at the thought. Even if he was fairly clean, the doctor did tend to make a giant mess in the labs at times. "Now do you understand?"

"Um... Kind of..." Nove reached up to rub her ears. "But my ears were ringing from those punches, so..."

Tre sighed softly and rapped Nove on the head lightly. "Because we just installed that program. We haven't had the chance to make sure that there aren't any bugs in it yet. Not to mention that we haven't put safety measures in yet. So, why did you do it?"

"I wanted to practice some new stuff and I saw a program that I didn't see before, so I wanted to try it out." Nove said in a small voice and yelped as Tre pulled her up and rapped her on the scalp hard. "Oww!"

"Idiot. You're just lucky that the doctor made the program dynamic in scale." Nove blinked and Tre rolled her eyes. "It means that since it was just you, it wasn't set to a high setting."

"...Oh." Nove slumped and sighed, before yelping as Tre rapped her on the head again. "HEY! That hurts!"

Tre smirked at her. "It would be the same if anyone took it on right now. It's at its lowest setting one-on-one. As a team it would be at its highest setting and we'd likely be badly hurt or dead if the safety measures aren't in place."

Nove gulped and nodded at that. "I... See.."

"Besides," Tre grinned at Nove, "if you wanted to get more practice in, I can train your hand-to-hand personally."

Blinking, Nove smiled lightly and slid into a defensive stance. "I'd like that, Tre-nee."

Tre grinned harshly. "I'm not going to go easy on you."

"Quick question," Nove raised her hand and Tre nodded to her, "why didn't you physically punish me for doing that?"

"You hang around Cinque, Wendi and Sein a lot, if you were anything like Sein, you'd probably enjoy a good spanking." Tre blinked and her face went completely red, as did Nove's at the thought of that happening. "...Let's not talk about that."

Nove nodded at that. "Well, here I come then!"

"Bring it!" Tre smirked at her younger and much shorter sister.

(-)

'Master Levi...'

"Yes, Quattro?" Levi spoke to herself as she typed some information into her computer. "What is it?"

'I think that our sisters are starting to get suspicious of us. Due's been looking at us rather... Weirdly lately.'

Levi closed her eyes and smirked softly. "That's the emotions from them that you're feeling, and yes, Due is angry at us for some reason."

'What's the plan?' Quattro asked Levi.

Levi tapped her head. "Think about it, Quattro. United, your sisters are quite strong, but if we divide them up a little bit, it will divert attention from us."

'Oh, you mean like a politician who blames one group for another group's problem just to keep attention away from the real problem that he or she supports?'

"Exactly." Levi smirked and her eyes glinted behind the glasses she was wearing in her Quattro form.

She just needed to find the way to make the right pitch to convince Jail to go along with her plan.


	187. Peek Valkyrie Three

Blood That Flows

Peek

Valkyrie Three

* * *

Two days later...

"You want me to do what?" Sein gasped as she looked at Jail. "You've got to be kidding!"

Jail shook his head. "I'm not. It was brought to my attention that since I've basically broken away from the high council, it would not be a good idea to be caught flat-footed, if you get my drift."

"...Why me though?" Sein pointed at Due. "Wouldn't it be easier for her to sneak into the Bureau services than me? She's done it before!"

"I've got other things to do right now." Due said as she looked at Jail, wondering why he wanted Sein to do that instead of her.

"Besides, while I have no doubt about Due's ability to trick people into believing her to be in two places at the same time, I don't want to push my luck with that." Jail smiled softly. "You won't have to be there long." He then grinned at Sein. "Besides, learning counter-strategies to magic and how the Bureau sends out their forces isn't a bad idea, is it?"

"You sure you want Sein to do it?" Nove asked from her position against the wall. "Knowing her, she'll spend all her time fooling around and trying to steal someone's chocolate cake."

"Hey!" Sein pouted at Nove. "That was only one slice and I thought you got yours already."

Nove narrowed her eyes and shook a fist at Sein. "Just because Due-nee can make a delicious chocolate cake doesn't mean you have to steal my slice!"

As Sein teared up, Jail chuckled and looked at Nove. "Actually, there is a reason I'm not sending you to do what she's doing, but those reasons are my own." As much as he did care for his Numbers, he didn't want someone doing a blood test and finding out just _who_ he cloned Nove from. Sure, as soon as things settled down and the High Council would no longer be a problem, he'd let her meet her biological family.

For right now though, he didn't want the distraction in her life. "Anyway, Nove," Jail continued to speak, "I'll need you and Wendi to do various reconnaissance for me." Nove blinked at him stupidly. "I'll need you to blend in with people as best as you can."

"Um, doctor, how are we supposed to do that in these body suits? It worked fine on that one world because we wore cloaks over our outfits, but I don't think that'll work in cities and stuff."

"For one, you can pass Wendi off as a familiar." Uno said as she walked into the room with a bunch of fabric in her hands. "And two... Strip naked, I've got some work to do, making you new outfits."

"N...N...Naked?" Nove's face went bright red and Uno rolled her eyes.

"Nove, for crying out loud, we've _all_ seen you naked before. The doctor can probably tell you your exact breast size, how large your nipples are, about that mark on your..."

"Okay, okay!" Nove's face went red and she reached up to unclasp her outfit. "Still embarrassing."

"I'll leave." Jail smiled at her as he stood up and walked past her, patting her on the head while he walked past. "Due, Sein, let's leave the two of them alone."

"Aww..." Sein pouted and followed Due and Jail out of the room. After the doors closed behind her, Sein looked at Due. "Where's Agito?"

"With Lutecia today." That was another reason why Due wouldn't be able to do what Sein was going to be doing soon. A unison device would draw unneeded attention towards her. "Plus I'm too old to do your mission."

Sein frowned at Due. "You can make yourself look younger."

Rolling her eyes, Due shook her head. "Even if I can, there's also the problem with me acting like a teenager," she narrowed her eyes at Sein, "or would you have me be hyperactive again?"

Sweat-dropping, Sein nodded. "Alright... So, what are the rest of my sisters going to do?"

"I'm going to be helping Lutecia out and look for some stuff." Due commented. "I don't know about the rest of our sisters..."

"There are hundreds, if not thousands of Relics out there." Jail commented, drawing their attention. "They're classified as Lost Logia, but the truth of the matter is, they're powerful magic amplifiers." Jail had an unusual grin on his face. "They were meant to be used to be bonded with humans to magnify their power to unimaginable heights." Due and Sein looked at him in interest. It wasn't too often Jail talked about stuff like this. "The man I was cloned from never got to see the final result, since Unison had just been made near the end of his life. The Relics, as they're called now," a screen popped up, revealing a red gem that slowly spun around, "was an effort to give everyone a power boost similar to that of a Unison device."

Due raised an eyebrow as she looked at it. It looked like a red rectangular cube with a trapezoid on the top and the bottom. "Do all of these Relics look the same?"

Jail nodded. "Yes. However, they're all numbered, the lower the number, the more powerful the effect."

"So, I'm to assume that anything over fifty is pretty weak?" Due raised an eyebrow when Jail laughed and shook his head. "...What?"

Jail grinned, his eyes glinting in the light. "After level fifty, the powers become interesting." He pointed at Sein, who blinked several times. "My research indicates that there's one that, if fused to the body, would let anyone have the power of Sein's Deep Diver."

"I'm not special then?" Sein frowned at the thought of a bunch of people being able to do what she could do easily.

"It's not that simple." Jail shook his head. "The Relics can only be used by those who use Belkan or similar physical styles of magic."

Thinking about the possibilities, Due nodded slowly. "Interesting... You have a plan, don't you?"

"Don't I always?" Jail grinned at Due. "As for Lutecia, finding the right relic should be able to heal the damage to her mother's body."

"You really intend to let her go with her mother if she can be fixed?" Sein blinked when Jail nodded. "Doctor?"

"Such an event was something that should never have happened." Jail said, the glee on his face was replaced by a more somber tone and look. "Whenever Mazoku appear, tragedy soon follows for people, both large and small for everyone they come into contact with."

The two blinked and nodded slowly.

(-)

"Are you done yet?" Nove asked as she stood on top of a chair completely naked. "This is, oww!"

"The more you complain, the longer it takes. And pinching your butt to get you to shut up hurts my fingers, so just quiet down." Uno said as she continued to take notes down while wrapping her measuring tape around Nove's thighs. "Hmm..."

"Come on, Un-nee, you know my body sizes."

Uno rolled her eyes and called up a view screen for Nove to look at. "For a skin-tight, protective body suit, yes, but look, normal people wear things like jeans, shorts, shirts that don't squeeze against their bodies like our body suits do."

"Oh. So, um, do you know what the doctor wants me to do?"

"You and Wendi," Uno said as she wrote down more notes down, "are going to do some investigation on various worlds for us."

"For what?" Nove blinked as Uno sighed heavily.

"Whatever we need, but if you need specifics, Nove, think of it as scouting for new materials for the doctor to use in his experiments." Nove nodded, she could get behind that.

"Oww!" Nove nearly jumped as Uno pinched her butt again. "Would you stop that?"

"Of course." Uno smiled as she packed her stuff up. "I'll have to do some work with Wendi, but, yes, we're done for now."

Nove sighed and got down and grabbed her clothes. "And Nove..." Nove blinked and turned to look at Uno. "Don't forget if someone asks about Wendi's ears, eyes or tail that she's your familiar, and if they wonder why you aren't in the Bureau, just say you're from a non-administered world."

The naked redhead nodded as she hurried up to get dressed and get away from Uno and her pinching fingers.

Who knew a secretary had such strong fingers?


	188. Peek Valkyrie End

Blood That Flows

Peek

Valkyrie End

For those of you who weren't sure, this should answer who Levi really is.

* * *

A week later...

Quattro grinned as she saw Sein walking down the hallway. "Just who I was looking for." She blinked as Jail and Due walked up behind Sein, before shrugging. "I figure that since you're going to be working in the Bureau's training facilities, you'll need a device of your own." She tossed Sein a glove and the shorter cyborg blinked as she looked at it. "I modified one of the doctor's gloves." Quattro smiled at Sein. "It won't be much, but you'll be able to generate waves of pressure to push enemies and attacks away from you."

Sein blinked and put the glove on, feeling oddly... Touched by such a gesture. "That's it?"

"Since you don't use magic, it would be easier than trying to explain that you're a cyborg, wouldn't it?" Quattro chuckled softly.

Putting the glove on, Sein blinked at the look, it was mostly blue, with red lines that extended from the tips of her fingers towards the center of the palm and the back of her hand. "Um..."

"It's actually quite experimental." Quattro beamed at Sein. "It should be tough enough to withstand quite the punishment, but I wouldn't try to block a sword or a glaive with your bare hands like the doctor can."

"The gloves I wear are anti-magic, Quattro." Jail chuckled softly. "Outside of S rank power and above, it can fend off quite nearly anything." Looking at Sein's glove, he raised an eyebrow and grabbed it, running his hands over it. "Amazing, if I wasn't looking for it, I wouldn't be able to feel the chips you're using in this."

Quattro grinned at him. "Oh, trust me, this is just the least of my current goals." She smiled at Sein. "Have fun with that," she reached into her cloak's pocket and pulled out a small stick, "you can adjust how strong the blast waves are with this."

"Why not put the controls into the glove?" Due was curious, but skeptical of Quattro at the moment.

"Because it would have been uncomfortable." Quattro rolled her eyes. "I've been trying different things myself with that glove, and unless you want some sort of bulky glove on your hand that has some sort of game pad on it that totally doesn't work, I'd suggest that you don't complain."

"You've been watching old Earth commercials again, haven't you?" Due sweat-dropped as Quattro rolled her eyes.

"That Nintendo Power Glove was a failure from the get-go. They should have known that their primitive technology wasn't up to that level yet." Quattro twitched and turned around, walking away and muttering about the failings of technology and then recycling the failed technology into new technology when time caught up with the old stuff.

"She takes it hard when people can't use technology correctly." Jail sweat-dropped as he watched Quattro walk away.

As she walked away, Quattro mentally smirked. That glove wasn't just meant to give Sein a chance to fight against mages in training.

The data that it would transmit to her would be quite... Useful. Especially if it contained data on that hybrid style of magic that her dear 'sister' had used on her before.

_"NEMESIS ZAMBAR BREAKER!"_

She could still hear that little bitch's voice in her head, and the pain... Oh gods, the pain.

Clutching at her chest, right where the sword had pierced her years ago, her eyes widened and twitched at the same time as a dark aura, that was invisible to human eyes, sprung up around her, her eyes glowed red as a red mark appeared right in the middle of her aura, super-imposing itself over her chest.

Panting hard, Quattro slowly staggered down the hallway, trying to suck in air that she did not need. 'Damn you, Fate, mother... I swear...' Levi cursed to herself as she put a hand against the wall.

After Quattro turned a corner, Sette frowned as she came out of the room she had been in when she saw Quattro. 'What was that?' She wondered why Quattro was glowing with this dark energy that made her skin crawl.

For some odd reason, she wanted to take her boomerangs and see if she could tear Quattro apart with a colonoscopy.

(-)

Several days later...

Sein sighed as she finished listening to the standard "welcome to the Bureau" speech. The doctor had drilled into her head several times over the importance of blending in, and just told her that if anything came up, just blame it on having a sheltered life.

Still, she just hoped that things back home wouldn't get too crazy.

"Now, your room assignments are posted on the board to the back, go find who your roommates will be." The instructor, Graywords, if she wasn't mistaken, clapped his hands and dismissed them.

Sighing, Sein just hoped that she didn't get someone who was a complete bore. "Wait, roommates?"

"Yeah." She turned to see some girl with reddish hair done up in twin pigtails look at her. "There's a fairly large influx of trainees this year." She looked a bit annoyed by the news. "So, we're bunking up three to a room."

Sein grimaced slightly. "Great." More of a chance for her nature to get exposed. Maybe. "What's your name?"

"Teana Lanster. You?"

Well, at least the girl didn't seem too unfriendly, maybe she was just annoyed by the situation. "Sein." When Teana raised an eyebrow, Sein coughed into her hand. "No last name."

Teana just nodded and the two of them looked at the board curiously. "So... My roommates are..." Her finger went over to where her name was and over to the other two names in her room. "...Sein and..."

"So you two are my roommates." Both Teana and Sein turned to see a young teenager with short purple hair smiling at them. "My name's Subaru Nakajima! Pleasure to meet you!"

Sein grinned and held her hand out. "My name's Sein, and this is Teana Lanster! Pleased to meet you."

Teana felt a headache coming on. 'This is going to be a long training session.' She could just feel it.

Still, as long as they were helpful, she wouldn't complain too much.

She had too much riding on succeeding in the Bureau for her to fail.

'I promise you, brother, I won't fail.' She thought to herself before blinking as she saw Subaru and Sein walking off to get to their new room. "HEY!" Teana yelled as she ran after them. "Wait for me!"


	189. Peek News Start

Blood That Flows

Peek

News Start

* * *

Stretching her arms above her head, Vita groaned slightly as she felt her back pop slightly. "Wow, I was stiffer than I thought."

Behind her, Signum tapped Vita in the middle of her back, causing the redhead to turn to look at her. "I'd see Shamal later, I think your back is slightly out of alignment."

Vita grumbled, but nodded, she did feel a little off between her shoulders lately. "How'd you know?"

"Shamal and I have similar problems at times." Vita blinked at the swords woman. "A downside of being human, I guess, we've got years of using heavy weapons and being able to throw our bodies into everything we do, and now we're human..."

Vita nodded at that and sighed softly. "Signum, I was wondering, I never hear you talk about it, but, the past, what do you remember of it?"

Signum blinked at Vita and closed her eyes. "Lots of memory comes to me, but I think you want something specific, what is it?"

"I never knew you before we were servants to the book, I was just... Kind of curious about who you served as a Knight and what you remembered about the people you were around."

Signum closed her eyes and thought for a moment. "It's been a long time, Vita." Her eyes snapped open as she recalled a very early memory. "...Vita, you said that we never met until..."

"Until we were part of the book, why?" The redhead looked at Signum in confusion.

"...I think I need to sit down." Signum didn't like that memory that flooded into her mind.

Vita blinked and followed Signum into the living room. As she walked in, she took a look around the house, it wouldn't be long until they were going to leave for Mid-Childa and leave this home.

"As for your question, what do I remember about the past..." Signum trailed off as Vita sat down across from her. "I was a knight in service of one of the many kings of the time." Vita blinked as Signum's cheeks were tinged a bit pink. "I recall that I was a bit more to the king than just his personal knight, but, that's not really important right now." She gave Vita a flat look when the busty redhead started to giggle at her. "Alright, fine, from what I can remember, he was amazing, now zip it." Vita nodded, still grinning at Signum.

"Anyway, the man was a king, but an excellent fighter." Signum looked at the table as her mind took her back. "I was a little girl when I first met the king, when he was a knight. I wasn't quite the strong woman I am now."

"You weren't?" Vita blinked and Signum shook her head.

"I was a twig, smaller than you were when you were a child... And a slave."

Vita stared at Signum.

***Flash...***

The small girl with dirty pink hair stared at the man who displayed sword skills she had never imagined were possible as he slaughtered the last of her captors. Her eyes widened as he walked up to her. Whimpering, she put her hands above her face and tried to make him go away, not strike her down like he did to the others.

"...My king ordered me to slaughter them and everyone who was helping them. He did not tell me about their slave operations." The knight sounded remorseful. The next thing she knew, the chains around her ankles were shattered.

The girl looked at him in shock.

"You're free to go, little one." The man, he was a giant compared to the small pink-haired slave girl, smiled and turned to walk away.

The next thing he knew, his legs were being grabbed, turning to look down, she looked up at him. "...what?"

"Teach me." She said softly, causing him to raise an eyebrow.

"You want me to teach you how to use a sword?" She nodded and he smiled, kneeling down and gently picking up the girl. "...First thing we need to do is get some food into you. A twig of a girl like you won't be much of a sword fighter if she's too thin."

The girl nodded at him.

"What's your name?" When the girl was silent, he nodded. "Very well... I'll name you then." She blinked at him. "...Signum." Holding her by her sides in front of him, he nodded and smiled at her. "Yes, one day, you'll be the feared Knight Signum, who will crush those who oppose you."

The newly named Signum smiled softly and nodded. "And you are..?" She noticed for the first time that he had a thick beard on his face, scars on his forehead and long, dark blonde hair.

"Sen." He smiled at her. "But when we're in training, you will call me 'master'."

Signum nodded. "That won't be a problem, master."

Sen chuckled softly as he pulled Signum against his body. "I would normally make you walk, but right now, haste is more important."

Signum nodded as he ran with her in his arms.

***End Flash...***

"For the next ten years, I was his apprentice, until the day that I was knighted." Signum leaned back against the couch. "I had little idea that he was actually the king's son until he became king and made me the general of all his troops."

Vita stared at Signum. "That is... Um... Wow..."

Signum smirked at the redhead. "Not all of us have a good life, Vita." She sighed and leaned back.

"So, why did you make that deal with the book?"

Signum closed her eyes and thought for several minutes. When Vita was about to ask again, she spoke up. "When I said he was amazing, I meant it... Both as a warrior, and as someone that I gave my heart to." Signum looked at Vita, who had a stunned look on her face. "Seeing him cut down in front of me was more than I could take. I sold my soul then and there for revenge." A melancholic look crossed her face. "...If I could remember more, I sometimes wonder what Sen would have said to me about that choice."

Vita had nothing she could say. What Signum told her was... Pretty hard to take in.

"Vita, if you ever end up finding someone that you want to be with for the rest of your life, don't follow the path that I did." Signum watched as Vita nodded and got up to go to her room, before sighing. "You're a sister to me, Vita." Signum muttered to herself. "I don't want you to be hurt like I was."

* * *

Any comparisons you make about Signum to Kenshin are completely coincidental when I wrote this.


	190. Peek News Two

Blood That Flows

Peek

News Two

* * *

Later...

Vita was laying face down, her shirt off and the back of her bra undone as Shamal used her hands to press into her back, working various knots and tension out of the redhead's body. "Nnnngh." Vita groaned as Shamal suddenly put both hands on her shoulder blades and pushed down. "GAH!" Vita's eyes snapped open as she felt her spine pop loudly. "Woah..."

Shamal smiled and patted Vita's back before putting Vita's bra back into place for the redhead. "You need to remember to stretch your back more these days, Vita."

Nodding, Vita sat up and scratched her head before moving her long french braided pony tail over her shoulder to hang down her back. "Hey, Shamal," idly she noted that Zafira had walked in sometime and was sitting in the corner, watching them. Of all the guys she knew, Vita didn't mind Zafira seeing her in clothes or not. He had seen her, Shamal and Signum naked several times in the past, there really wasn't anything new for him to look at. "I was talking to Signum earlier and I was wondering something," Vita put her shirt on and noted that Shamal was looking at her curiously, "do you have any memories from before we were part of the book?"

Shamal shook her head. "Not much, I'm afraid. Bits and pieces from my past float to the surface at times, I know that much."

"I might be able to clear something up." Shamal and Vita both turned to Zafira and blinked as he looked at Shamal. "You were always were an incredible healer, Shamal. You and I were the first two accepted by the book."

"We were?" Shamal asked, confused.

Zafira nodded to her. "You weren't someone who was a fighter. You were just a simple traveler." Shamal stared at him. "...A traveler with incredible magical power." Zafira shook his head. "I was a feral wolf at the time, hurt and alone. You found me and healed my body."

"Zafira, I don't..." Shamal frowned at the story. "What do you mean, I was just a traveler?"

"I don't know your story," Zafira shook his head, "I was a feral wolf, you really should have let me die that day."

"Zafira!" Both Vita and Shamal gasped at him.

"You don't recall, do you?" Shamal shook her head and Zafira nodded at that. "It's for the best." He stood up and started to walk out before a heavy weight slammed into him, causing him to crash into floor. "Vita?" He yelped as the strong redhead hugged him tightly. "What?"

"Tell us." Vita growled at him. Zafira looked at Shamal, who nodded as well.

Zafira sighed softly. "Very well..."

***Flash...***

Zafira panted as he looked at a woman with silver hair, red eyes and a sad expression on her face. "Who are you?"

"The Book of Darkness." The woman answered him. "...Well, not really, but close enough. You, on the other hand, are my Guardian Beast now."

Zafira blinked at that. "...What?" A scent assaulted his nose and he spun around to gasp at the sight of a blonde woman covered in blood and laying face down on the ground.

"You killed her." Zafira's eyes widened as he heard her voice. "All she wanted to do was heal your wounds, and when you were healthy enough, you attacked her and all she wanted was to make sure that you were okay."

He turned to look at the silver haired woman. "Can you help her?"

Crossing her arms under her chest, the woman looked at him with a serious expression. "Doing so will erase her memories forever. She will not even remember you when she comes around, and you are dooming her to an eternity of servitude."

Zafira closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "Then, make sure that I never can forget what happened. I shall suffer for all your knights for the rest of time."

The woman smiled at him and patted him on the head. "One day, you will have to tell her that you killed her."

"When that time comes, I'll accept the punishment."

"Very well, my Guardian Beast of the Shield."

***End Flash...***

Shamal said nothing and Vita was sitting on the floor in shock after hearing that story.

Zafira silently stood up and left the two alone. He wasn't sure what to do now.

Moments after he got outside, he was stopped by someone laying on top of him and hugging him. "Zafira..."

"Hayate." Zafira murmured and closed his eyes as she ran her hands through his fur. "What are..."

"Shhh..." Hayate whispered to him. "I heard what happened, Zafira." She felt him tense up. "I'll talk to Shamal and Vita, too, but you should know that I'm not mad at you."

"You aren't?" Zafira blinked and felt his mistress shake her head against his body.

"No... I'm sad. Because my family is hurting so much."

Zafira wanted to say something, but found he couldn't as Rein Zwei flew in and sat on his head, before laying out on top of his head and turning to hug him.

"Zaffy isn't a mean wolf anymore, Zaffy is my big brother."

For some reason, that made him feel much better.

* * *

There you go, now you know all of the Wolkenritter backstories and how they became the servants of the Book of Darkness.

Interestingly enough, this gives new meaning as to why Zafira blocked Otto's attack from hitting Shamal in canon StrikerS, doesn't it?


	191. Peek News Three

Blood That Flows

Peek

News Three

* * *

Days later...

Erio looked around the park that he, Yuuno, Caro, Fried and Arf were at so early in the morning. "Why are we here?" He asked, yawning slightly, next to him, Caro was rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.

Yuuno had his arms over his head as he stretched. "Because, Erio," he put his arms down and smiled at the two younger children, "not a lot of people are out at this time, and those that are don't pay attention to much."

"That's right." Arf grinned at them. "Besides, we wanted to talk to the two of you alone." Erio and Caro both blinked while Fried settled down on the ground and chirped in confusion. "Pretty soon Hayate is going to make an announcement to all of us. And if it's what we think it is, a lot of us are going to be moving to Mid-Childa to work for the Bureau."

Erio's eyes widened. "But... But..."

Arf smiled at him. "Don't worry, we want you and Caro to come with us to Mid-Childa, but if you're thinking of joining the Bureau to be closer to Fate, you'll probably find to be pretty hard." Erio looked saddened at that news. "Despite that, if you go, you'll make a lot of friends and be able to live pretty happily." Erio blinked at Arf, who, despite being in her child form, reminded him that she was more experienced than he was.

"What about you and Arisa?" Caro looked at Yuuno, worry on her face.

Yuuno walked over to her and knelt down. "I don't know about Arisa, I plan on joining the Bureau anyway. My home isn't Earth, my home is Mid-Childa, I like living here, but it's because I have so many friends," he smiled and ruffled Caro's pink hair, "and cute girls like you," Caro's face turned so red that he wondered if maybe he was overdoing it a little, "that it makes living here fun."

Arf giggled softly and looked at Erio. "Fate, Yuuno, myself, you two, we're not from Earth originally, we're all from Mid-Childa or some world close to it. I love mom, dad and the rest of the family a lot, I do, I just miss Mid-Childa." Granted, Arf didn't have much experience there, since she lived in the country-side with Fate and Linith, but it was still her old home, and part of her really wanted to go back, see her old stomping ground again, find her old pack and see how they were doing.

"You two don't like it here?" Caro asked, getting Yuuno to shake his head negatively. "But..."

"Just because I miss my home and my family doesn't mean that I don't like it here." Yuuno smiled at her. "Lina really missed her home, but she wasn't able to go home for a long time." He blinked as Caro suddenly hugged him. "Caro."

"Don't be sad."

Yuuno smiled and hugged her back, rubbing her back. "I'm fine. Just because I miss my home doesn't mean I'd give up my time here for anything."

"You look like you're saying goodbye forever." A new voice spoke up and Yuuno turned to see Reinforce and Rein Zwei coming up to them. "How are you doing today?"

"Just fine, Reinforce." Yuuno smiled as Caro let go and he was able to stand up. "Thanks for joining us."

She nodded and smiled as Zwei zipped over to Caro and gave the girl a high five before flying over to Erio and doing the same. "It's not a problem."

Arf smiled at the confused looks Erio and Caro had. "Even though mom's been teaching you some of her magic, you two do need to learn some Mid-Childan and Belkan style magic as well."

"I asked Reinforce to join us today since there's no one with more knowledge of Belkan magic out there." Yuuno smiled at her before looking at the two. "One thing you two need to remember about magic is this, no two people have the same ability for magic."

"Huh?" Erio scratched his head. "But I can do lightning magic just like Fate-san can." He held his palm upwards and a ball of electricity formed in it. "See? She's been helping me get control over it."

Yuuno nodded at him. "That's good, but unlike Fate, you use Belkan magic, Fate uses Mid-Childan magic." He looked at Reinforce. "I'm not sure what the difference is, other than the fact that Belkan fighters tend to prefer to fight up close compared to Mid-Childan mages."

"That's not entirely correct, Yuuno-san." Reinforce nodded at him. "Belkan Knights are more comfortable in fighting close and using their bodies to fight, as you've seen with Signum, Vita and Zafira. However, even among them, magic is extremely varied and versitile. Shamal, myself, Zwei and Hayate are not what you would call close range fighters."

"You can fight close range, mommy! I saw you fighting against big sis!"

Reinforce nodded to her daughter. "Yes, I can fight close range. But it's not what I'd say I excell at. I have taught Hayate how to fight against close range as well, but my true abilities are to unison with Hayate, and if I'm not unisoned with her, I prefer to fight at middle to long range against my opponents, as my spells are often times too dangerous to myself and others if they're close."

Erio scratched his head. "So, not everyone who uses Belkan likes to fight close?"

"That's right." Yuuno nodded at him. "Shamal, for example, is a powerful healer and is better at support magic than attacking. Even I'm not that good at attack magic."

"HUH?" Erio and Caro stared at Yuuno.

"Bu, but I saw you and Nanoha-san fighting!" Caro pointed a shaky finger at Yuuno. "You were having a lot of fun and..."

**"What boss means is that if you just use his Mid-Childan magic, he's not a fighter."**

"HUH?" The two yelled and looked at Yuuno in confusion.

"Sillies!" Rein Zwei giggled and floated in front of them. "Yuuno knows different styles of magic. His Mid-Childan magic is mostly barriers, healing and chains for combat. He also knows how to search for people and objects, but he's not a fighter. Lina-san taught him how to fight, but..." The small device looked at Yuuno. "Um, what happened?"

Yuuno chuckled softly. "While I have great talent for white magic and I learned Shamanism from Zelgadis really easily, I am horrible at Black magic."

Arf giggled at that. "I'll say, you could barely cast a Blast Ash, and even that was only enough to make a moth turn into goo."

Yuuno rolled his eyes. "Anyway, until I got Holy magic, and later Thoth Driver." He tapped his device, "I wasn't much of a fighter. For all my fighting, I was still mostly support until Vrabazard gave me his blessing." Yuuno took off his jacket, revealing a white tank top under it. Concentrating, he smiled when Erio and Caro's eyes lit up in shock and awe as the tattoo on his arms started to glow. "Fate and Nanoha, for example, both use Mid-Childan style of magic, but Nanoha is better at middle and long range than Fate is."

Both children nodded, they had seen that.

"You, Caro," Reinforce spoke up and smiled softly, "have skill in summoning, which is really rare, especially being able to summon Dragons like you can is rather special."

Caro blushed and looked away. "Nah uh..."

"And, you, Erio," Arf grinned at the boy, "you can turn your magic into lightning easily! That's really awesome!"

Erio blushed but smiled proudly. He liked hearing something like that, even if it made him embarrassed to hear it.

"Reinforce, Arf and myself are going to help you two learn basic Mid and Belkan magic." Yuuno nodded at the two. "Rein Zwei is here to learn what she can as well."

"Yay! I can help!" Rein Zwei smiled and zipped over to Caro's shoulder. "I won't let anyone down."

"...For some odd reason, I want to see Caro, Erio and Rein do Hare Hare Yukai." Reinforce muttered, drawing odd looks from Yuuno and Arf, both of whom stopped to imagine it.

"...That would be absolutely adorable." Yuuno muttered softly, causing the three children to blink in confusion.

(-)

On the other side of the park...

Signum nodded at her soon-to-be opponent. "Testarossa."

"Signum." Fate had her lips into a tight smile as she held Bardiche in front of her. "Are you ready?" Signum nodded. "Bardiche, set up."

**"Get set."**

Signum raised an eyebrow as she saw Fate's new outfit. Metal boots covered her feet and stockings went from her feet almost all the way to her thighs, a short mini skirt preserved her modesty while a dark, sleeveless shirt covered her top, though it was so tight that Signum could actually see that Fate likely didn't have a bra on under that armor, leaving her arms down to her elbows exposed. Her right hand had a metal glove while her left hand had a fingerless glove on it, both of which extended to her elbows. "Interesting design." Signum nodded as she called up Laevantein and her own knight armor. "It still seems thin though."

"It's a lot tougher than you think it is." Fate nodded to the pinkette.

"Testarossa," Signum tilted her head, causing Fate to blink, "in the future, I would suggest having a jacket on over your shirt, for more protection, and a bra on under your shirt." Fate's eyes widened and her face turned completely red.

"How do you..."

"Your nipples are poking through the fabric." Signum's eyes narrowed as Fate blushed and looked down. "Stop that, if you're going to fight like that, then fight!" Signum rushed forward and Fate brought Bardiche up to block. "There is nothing wrong with using your body to distract your opponents, Testarossa." Signum pushed Fate back with her strength. "While I would not do something like that, you, on the other hand, seem to be someone to do that."

"What do you mean by that?" Fate yelled at Signum as she had Bardiche pop a cartridge.

**"Harken Sabre."**

To Signum's surprise, Fate didn't launch the attack at her like she would normally do, instead she opted to rush in and slash at her body. Using Laevantein, Signum parried the attack, but found Fate's foot suddenly placed into her sternum, forcing her back. "That was new." Signum grunted and looked up to see Fate's attack spinning and rushing at her. "Ah heck."

Fate nodded as she saw the explosion and started to slowly walk towards where she was sure Signum's body was. "What did she mean by that? Using my body to distract my opponents." Fate then looked down and blushed as she saw that her breasts were bouncing with each step. "...Okay, so maybe I _could_use a bra when fighting."

When the dust cloud settled, Fate blinked as all she saw was Signum's coat laying on the ground. "What the?" Her red eyes widened and she spun around and tried to leap back, just missing Signum's counter attack.

Or she thought she did, as Signum's sword cut upwards right through her shirt, exposing her belly and the under sides of her breasts with that attack.

"What I meant, Testarossa," without her jacket, Signum had, to Fate's surprise, a rather tight sleeveless top on that did nothing to hide how curvy and muscular the woman really was, "is that your outfits tend to show a lot of your flesh and hide none of your physical assets, even so, it is a good strategy against most opponents."

Fate's face was red, she couldn't believe Signum would nearly rip her top off like that. "Huh?"

"I, myself, prefer a fair fight, one on one with no outside interference, I do understand the importance of being able to mess with my opponent's head." Signum leaped at Fate and slashed downwards, forcing Fate to swing Bardiche upwards and block the attack. Fate's eyes widened as she felt her shirt roll up, exposing her chest completely and Signum smirked at how flustered Fate was getting. "If you were facing Hayate, she would be groping you instead of sparring right now."

"Signum, you..."

The pinkette leaned in closer. "If you find yourself against an opponent who's more interested in your body than fighting you, use that to your advantage to beat them." Fate blinked at the words, before Signum drove a knee into her stomach, sending her flying backwards.

Signum raised an eyebrow as Fate recovered fairly fast, other than her breasts bobbing from such an attack. "Reactive shields?"

"Had to learn something from Yuuno after all these years." Fate grinned at Signum. "Sonic Form."

**"Sonic Drive."**

Signum had to look away from the sudden flash of energy, but when it was done, she raised an eyebrow at Fate's new look. The skirt and most of the excess armor had been done away with, revealing Fate in a black pair of panties, metal boots, a skin-tight tank top that actually looked like it did a better job supporting her breasts than her normal armor did, and short gloves on her hands. "Interesting look, I did not know that it was fashionable to fight in your underwear."

Fate blushed and frowned at Signum. "They're bikini bottoms!"

"Keep telling yourself that."

Fate frowned at Signum's teases, but she couldn't deny that the bottom of her outfit really did look like she was wearing panties instead of bikini bottoms. "Signum," Fate said softly, Bardiche having shifted to its thinner blade mode in the process.

"Yes?" Signum could feel the palatable frustration surrounding Fate. It hadn't been her intention to tease the blonde, especially not to the degree that she had done it, but seeing Fate react like she was... Signum's thoughts were thrown off as binds snapped around her arms and legs, pinning her arms against her body and legs against each other.

"Let's see how you like it!" Fate yelled and zipped in. Before Signum knew what was happening, her top suddenly exploded, revealing her rather nice shaped breasts to the world.

Raising an eyebrow, Signum broke the binds before lashing out with her sword and clashing against Fate's sword. "We're reduced to stripping each other now?"

"You started it." Fate retorted, getting a roll of Signum's eyes.

"Yes, yes I did, but unlike you, Testarossa..." The next thing Fate knew, Signum threw a punch that landed on her right breast. "Fighting naked does not bother me."

Fate fell to the ground and clutched at her chest. "Owww..."

"I suggest that we stop." Signum said as she walked over to her jacket. "And, Testarossa, my intent was not to merely tease you to get a reaction, but to point out what you can do."

"So you want me to flash my opponents like a slut?" Fate asked and Signum shook her head while putting her coat on.

"Not at all, but against an opponent who is easily distracted, you should use those distractions against them." Signum turned and looked at Fate, who was starting to stand up. "After all, it would not be good to lose so easily, now would it?"

"Signum..." Fate muttered softly. "That was low of you."

"If I had been seeking to do more than teach you a friendly lesson, Testarossa, you would have been powerless to stop me." Fate's eyes widened as she looked at Signum, who had a stony expression on her face. Even though her jacket was open and covering her breasts, it probably wouldn't take much to reveal them to the world. "I have seen many female warriors fall just because of reactions similar to yours, and I do not wish the same for a friend."

Fate blinked at that. "I, wha, huh?"

Signum turned and started to walk away. "If bruising your ego and embarrassing you a little now keeps you from being humiliated and used by enemies later, then it was worth having you be angry at me for now."

Fate could only stare at Signum's backside as she walked away. She really had no comeback for that.

* * *

Harsh words there, Signum.


	192. Peek News End

Blood That Flows

Peek

News End

* * *

Hours later...

Reinforce smiled as she held onto her daughter while Erio hung off of Yuuno's back and the blond teen carried Caro in his arms. "I'm surprised they lasted this long." Arf was busy running around with Fried and laughing as the two played their own version of tag all the way home.

Yuuno chuckled softly. "Children have lots of energy, but when they crash, they crash hard."

Reinforce nodded but looked at Erio as the boy slept. "Yuuno, what he did..."

"I know." Yuuno nodded as he thought back to what Erio did. "That wasn't what you showed them."

"The coloring was off as well." Reinforce was so glad that she had created that dimensional field before-hand. "What was that?"

"I have no clue." Yuuno admitted to the tall silver-haired device. "Tell me, what do you think it was?"

"It felt similar to both the Dragon Slave and the Nemesis Breaker, and the effect was the same, but..." Reinforce trailed off, shaking her head. "I couldn't place where it felt different."

Yuuno was quiet, he didn't know either.

(-)

"Wait, what?" Lina looked at Yuuno and Reinforce as the two sat in the kitchen of her home. The children were curled up on the couch and tucked in while Fried snoozed on the floor. "Say that again."

"After I created a dimensional field, I demonstrated the Nemesis Breaker and explained that it was similar to your Dragon Slave." Reinforce spoke to Lina. "At that point, we had both Erio and Caro try casting Blast Ash." Lina nodded slowly, she understood that part. "Unfortunately, neither of them actually was able to use it, which was a little unusual, but, as you said, not unheard of."

"But then, Erio did something weird." Yuuno picked up for Reinforce and looked at the couch. "All of a sudden, this dark sphere of Black magic formed in his hands. I didn't think too much about it, but then he fired it and the effect was exactly like a Dragon Slave or a Nemesis Breaker."

Lina's pupils shrank and she looked at the couch. "...A dark colored..." Her eyes widened and she went stiff. "The only thing that comes to my mind is Dark Star, but..."

"Didn't we kill him years ago?" Yuuno looked at Lina, who shook her head.

"No, we beat him, split him and Vorfeed apart, but we didn't kill him. The Lady..." Lina's left eye throbbed and she groaned. "Okay, now I remember, I tried to Giga Slave them, but the Lady wouldn't let me."

Reinforce nodded, if the Giga Slave was what Lina said it was, she wasn't surprised by that. "And what you did somehow defeated them?"

Lina nodded at the question. "Yes." The older redhead narrowed her eyes before blinking. "Oh yeah! Now I remember. Sirius said that the Lady told him that she was going to make those two live as humans to learn some humility."

"You don't think that..." Yuuno looked at the couch where the children were sleeping. "That Erio's Dark Star's reincarnation, do you?"

**"Boss, maybe we should show her what Erio did."**

Yuuno nodded and Lina blinked as an image of Erio appeared on the screen, a dark sphere of energy was held in front of him. Oddly enough, Erio looked worried about it.

When he thrust his palms out and the energy raced down to the dimensionally displaced city, Lina nodded as she saw the destruction. "...That was too similar to the Nemesis Breaker and Dragon Slave." Lina sighed softly and leaned back. "You all know to keep your lips shut about this, right?" Reinforce, Yuuno and Arf nodded. "Good."

"Mom..." Arf spoke up, getting a look from Lina. "What does this mean for him? Is he..?"

Getting up, Lina walked over to the small familiar and knelt down. "Regardless of the fact that he's apparently Dark Star reincarnation, it doesn't make him Dark Star. The Lady trapped him as a human to teach him a lesson. Even if he can do that spell, it's not an indication of him becoming Dark Star again."

"But, what about Shabranigdo and Arisa and..." Arf blinked as Lina put a palm on her lips.

"The difference is, Arf, Shabranigdo and the Azure Dragon weren't sealed by the Lady." Lina smiled at the familiar softly before turning to Reinforce and Yuuno. "I doubt she would want Vorfeed and Dark Star to be helpless..."

"So they could, if they see something similar or were in extreme danger, call upon some of their power and survive?" Reinforce took a stab and got a nod from Lina. "What about Caro? Is she Vorfeed's reincarnation?"

Standing up, Lina shrugged. "Don't know. Could be, but that would be a major coincidence." She then looked at the couch before turning back to Yuuno. "Considering our life, I'd say that the chances are pretty high of that actually happening." Yuuno nodded and Lina walked over to the couch and looked at Erio silently.

"Nngh..." Erio suddenly cracked an eye open and looked up to see Lina looking down at him. "Grandma?" He asked sleepily and didn't react when Caro rolled over to rest on his chest.

Lina smiled and knelt down to tuck the children in again. "You're a good boy, Erio," she kissed his forehead, "don't let anyone tell you otherwise."

"Kay." Erio smiled and went back to sleep, hugging Caro.

Smiling, Lina walked back to Yuuno and Reinforce. "It doesn't matter if he was Dark Star or not. He can't become Dark Star as long as the Lady says he can't. Besides," Lina sat down and sighed softly, "what happened in a past life is a past life, you can't change that, but don't let that define you now."

"Why do you say that?" Reinforce asked, curious, but she wished that the rest of her family was hearing this as well. Considering how melancholic it had been around the house lately, she almost wished something crazy would happen.

Almost.

She sweat-dropped as she remembered when Vita accidentally flipped a semi truck over when she was on her period a month ago, Reinforce wasn't sure how much crazy she wanted, she just knew that she wanted something to happen to get people to stop being so moody.

"When I was younger, I was known as the "Enemy of All Who Lived" and a Dragon Spooker." Lina smirked at the confused looks she was getting. "Dragons tended to be afraid of me, since I was known for killing them when they got out of hand."

"I can believe it." Reinforce nodded, thinking about the spells that Lina knew.

"My husband was a high level assassin until he was badly injured, I have one daughter who could give me a run for my money in magical destruction when I was a teenager, my two normal children are among the best sword fighters in all of Japan," and probably the world, but Lina wasn't sure about that, "so, yeah, to me, it doesn't matter what you were in a past life," so long as they didn't try to hurt the people she cared about intentionally, doing so as part of combat in a war or a fight was one thing, hunting them down and using them against her or injuring them when they weren't able to fight back was something else entirely and anyone who did that deserved what punishment she gave them, "that's over now, they aren't the same people they were before."

Reinforce nodded at that. "I see... What are you going to do about Erio now?"

"I'll need to talk to Lindy." Lina nodded at her. "And all files on those two will have to... Disappear."

Reinforce, Arf and Yuuno all nodded. They understood perfectly, even if Erio was a boy to them, others might see him as a Mazoku, and the imagined destruction that would happen was enough to make even Reinforce shiver.

"We'll keep quiet." Reinforce, Yuuno and Arf said at the same time.

(-)

A week later...

_"It's done."_ Lindy said over her telepathic connection to Lina. _"I personally made sure that all files and reports on Erio was destroyed or buried. Caro was easier, there's a note of her being officially adopted into the Scrya clan, I decided that could be left alone."_

_"Wait, what?"_ Lina's confused voice came through the communication. _"What do you mean by that?"_

_"Well, officially, Caro was taken in by a member of the Scrya clan, and, even if he didn't put the paper work forward, it looks like someone by the name of... Reiko, I guess, I only glanced at the paper work myself, but yes, Caro is officially a member of the Scrya clan."_ Lindy was surprised as she heard Lina snickering across the link. _"What is it?"_

_"Well, I wonder what everyone's going to say if they hear that Caro was adopted into Yuuno's family."_

Lindy just blinked as the connection broke. "...Well, that was interesting."

(-)

On Mid-Childa...

"The General will see you now." Hayate nodded to the secretery as she and Reinforce walked into his office. Even if his office was fairly sparse in looks, the fact that he had a giant picture window viewing the planet down below was rather impressive. Standing with his back to them was Regius.

"Hello, Hayate and Reinforce Yagami." The older man turned to look at the two of them. "I take it that you're here to finally tell me your answer?" He gestured for them to sit down in the chairs in front of his desk.

Hayate nodded at him as she and Reinforce sat down opposite of him. "Indeed. I've decided, after talking with family and friends, that I will take you up on that offer you made me."

Regius nodded as he heard that. "Are there questions for me?"

"What are your true intentions with us?" Reinforce looked at him seriously. "I do not doubt that you wish to protect Mid-Childa, but what do you intend for my family?"

"I should have expected that from you," Regius nodded to her. "My intentions are very simple. I need your family, and hopefully your friends, to become a new unit, one independant of the red tape that bogs down most of the Bureau, to respond to general threats that we face every day."

"Because of what happened a few years ago?" Hayate ventured. "The incident with the Navy not helping out just because the problem was something for the Ground Forces, even though they were much closer?"

"Partially, but there's a more specific reason that I want you, your family and your friends." Regius narrowed his eyes. "Since the Death Bringer incident that happened over eight years ago," he nodded as Hayate and Reinforce both narrowed their eyes, they remembered that one intimately, "those that have been known as the 'Heroes of Mid-Childa' have gotten involved with several events involving Mazoku. So far they've all been contained in that other universe, which is good for us, but what happens if another incident like Dark Star or Death Bringer happens?"

"You think it will?" Hayate asked, getting a nod from Regius.

"Yes," the general nodded to her, "there are signs of something dangerous coming, I'll give you more details later, but for now, you should know that the sooner that this gets set up, the sooner we can deal with any upcoming threats." Regius felt the urge to sigh as he spoke the next words. "Sadly, most of the Bureau's High Council and most of the Air Force has been against this. Thankfully, the Air Force is only against it because they want faces and personel before they commit to the idea, but the council on the other hand..." He trailed off and shook his head. "They know how strong your family and friends are, Yagami." Looking at both of them, Regius leaned forward and narrowed his eyes. "They want strict limiters placed on everyone who works for this new Riot Force, at least those at the highest levels."

"Limiters?" Reinforce didn't like the sound of that, it almost sounded like they wanted her to be a slave.

"It's not something I want, not for the level of threat I think is coming." Regius shook his head. "A couple of decades ago, before your time, there was a rivalry amongst the various branches of the Bureau, and within those branches, various divisions that all competed for the strongest, most able mages available. Eventually, it got to the point where the divisions were starting to sabotague each other just to make themselves look good. After a mission that was incredibly disasterous, it was ruled that no one division can have too many powerful mages or knights in it. And any division that has too many would find its strongest members under limiters, in order to keep something like that happening again."

"So, they want to do the same to us?" Hayate asked, getting a nod from Regius.

"I've been hammering out the final details from them. I may be able to get some exceptions, but I do think that your group will have to deal with limiters."

Hayate grimaced, oh, she wasn't going to enjoy this. "Besides you, who is sponsoring this?"

"Colonel Nakajima of Ground Forces division 108, Knight Carim of the Saint Church, Admirals Lindy and Chrono Harlaown, Admiral Lowran, Judge Leone Phils, Marshall Largo Kiel, and Chief of Staff Mizetto Crowbel all support this endevor. And, as I said, the Air Force wants personel and people before they will commit anyone to supporting this idea."

Hayate nodded at him. "Very well, do you have a base in mind for us?"

Regius nodded at her. "A home base has been established on the outer limits of Cranagan, it's a large building, so it should suit your needs. However..."

"I take it that some concessions had to be made in order for us to get together?" Reinforce asked, getting a nod from the general.

"A few had to be made. One is that several people from Ground Forces, the Navy and the Airforce join this Riot Force." Both Hayate and Reinforce nodded, that didn't sound too unreasonable. "Another thing is that this group has to take on people and train them to be able to fight against the same level of threat that you're capable of."

"Training people to be able to take on something that can end the world would not be an easy task." Reinforce pointed out to him, "something like that would need people with exceptional talent. However, it is possible to teach people how to defend themselves against high level threats, but to win, you need a powerful team."

Regius nodded. "I figured as much, but still, it is needed. There is a third thing, that, according to the High Council, that your group will hunt down all Lost Logia that can be found, and make sure that they're kept out of... Unsavory hands."

"That is acceptable." Hayate said and stood up. "When would you have us officially meet?"

"Within a year, I still have to hammer out final details." Regius stood up and stuck his hand out, shaking Hayate's hand when she grabbed his. "Welcome to the new Riot Force, Hayate and Reinforce Yagami."

* * *

Check back tomorrow for the absolute final mini-arc.

It'll be the longest one.


	193. Peek Finale Coda Start

Blood That Flows

Peek Finale

Coda Start

Here we are! Final arc!

* * *

"Cheers!" Several voices shouted at the same time as several glasses were tapped against each other.

"I'm glad you went for it, Hayate-chan." Nanoha smiled at her friend. "So, what's next?"

"Other than the boring meetings that I'll be going through for a few months?" Hayate rolled her eyes at the question. "A few missions here and there, prove that we're trust worthy and what-not. Making connections and all that boring stuff." Hayate took a long drink out of her glass and looked around. "We're at the Saint Church, we're at a party, let's stop worrying about that and have some fun!"

Hayate couldn't help but smile at the cheers her friends gave her.

(-)

"Brings back memories, doesn't it?"

Lindy turned and smiled at the voice. "Leti, how are you?"

The other admiral smirked at her. "I'm quite alright, how about you?"

"I'm fine, yeah, as for memories..." Lindy giggled softly as her cheeks turned slightly red. "As long as no one spikes the punch, I'm sure that what happened to me in the past won't happen again."

Leti raised an eyebrow. "What? And take away the joys of waking up with a hangover and not knowing who you had sex with?"

Both adults sweat-dropped heavily. "Maybe I should check the punch?" Leti admitted and looked at the punch bowl a little nervously. "I just hope that they're taking precautions..."

"Hayate is." Leti looked at Lindy, who giggled softly.

"I gave her a few items that I should have had on me when I was younger."

Leti felt like face-palming at that. "Only you would think of something like that." Though, she had to admit, it wasn't a bad idea, especially if someone spiked the punch. "I better go check on that punch."

Lindy just nodded at that.

(-)

"Hayate..." VIta was blushing as Hayate pulled her away from a small group of teenagers who were flirting with her. The redhead found the flirting to be embarrassing, but nothing too important. "Come on, I'm just talking to them, nothing's going to happen."

"I know, and I trust you, but I don't trust them..." Hayate said, her tone of voice was as serious as possible for her. She might have had to look up to look Vita in the eyes, but somehow, Hayate still managed to come off as slightly intimidating.

"...Yes, dad." Vita muttered, blinking as Hayate face-faulted from that. "...You okay?"

"Mouu... Even Vita-chan?" Hayate rubbed her head as she stood up. "Since Vita-chan is going to be like this..." Before Vita knew what was happening, Hayate was pressing her body against the redhead, causing Vita to blush hard, especially when she felt Hayate's hand slide into her front pants pocket.

"H...Hayate!" Vita's face was matching her hair and Hayate stepped back, giggling softly.

"What..?" Vita blinked as she felt something in her pants pocket. Reaching in, she felt something weird and pulled it out slightly, before blushing hard and shoving it back in. "Hayate!" Vita hissed and grabbed Hayate's hand. "These are c, c, con..."

"Shhh!" Hayate grinned and put a finger on Vita's lips. "It's dangerous to go alone, after all, so take them."

Vita's face was bright red as she groaned softly. "Uh huh... Hayate, just..." She blinked as Hayate put her finger on Vita's lips.

Smiling at the redhead's confusion, Hayate lost all traces of mirth on her face. "Vita-chan, I've talked to Chrono-kun, Lindy-san, Leti-san and Shiro-san and even Kyouya-san told me that you can't predict everything that's going to happen. Sometimes stuff happens and you can't predict it." Hayate then winked at Vita. "Besides, I don't think anything will happen to my cute little knight."

"I'm not so little." Vita protested and blushed when Hayate rubbed the top of her head.

"You'll always be my cute little Vita-chan who I'd hug when I was sitting in bed and could then pet her head, and would sometimes sneak into my bed and hug that little white bunny rabbit I bought for her." Hayate giggled at her as Vita blushed. "Just be careful."

Vita nodded and blushed even harder as she remembered just what it was that Hayate had given her.

(-)

The party had been going strong for more than a few hours when Yuuno found himself being pulled out of the room by a stumbling, swaying Fate. "What the? Fate, are you okay?"

"Yoush... Shoundt talk," Fate hiccuped and looked at Yuuno with narrowed, blood-shot eyes.

"You're drunk?" Yuuno stared at Fate as she put her arms on his chest to lean on him and look at him.

"Am... Hic, not... Okay, maybe a little..."

"...What did you drink?" Yuuno sweat-dropped as Fate started giggling uncontrollably. "Fate?"

"Punch... slarted taste funny..." She stopped giggling and glared at him. "But yoush..." She poked him in the chest. "Yoush not playing fair."

"Uh..." Yuuno blinked, wishing that he knew how to deal with someone who was angry when they were drunk. And who knew Fate would be like this when she was drunk anyway? "Fate, calm down, whatever it is, we can..."

"Yoush have Na, hic, Nano... Hic, ah! White Devil!" Fate was slurring her words and wondering why the world was spinning so much by this point. "And Vita and Melluki... Ooh, dizzy, yoush have girls afer you and not sharing!"

Yuuno blinked at that. "You like girls, Fate?"

"YESH!" Fate buried her face into his chest. "And fur shome shtoopid reason, I like you too!" The drunk blonde pounded her fists on his chest while sobbing. "Ish not fair!"

**"Boss..."**

Yuuno was never more thankful to hear Thoth's voice, as it was enough to snap his mind back into action. He wrapped his arms around her body and held her while rocking. "Fate..."

"Why? Na...Na..."

"Nanoha?" Yuuno ventured, getting a nod from Fate.

"Yesh! She likesh yoush! And Arshia... She's sho pretty!" Fate looked up at him. "An... An yoush... Why do I... You... Me... Naaaanouaaah..." She shook her head and planted her face on his chest. "I want... I don't know!" Fate fell down to her knees as she continued to sob. "Shnot fair!"

"Fate..." Yuuno knelt down to get a better grip on her. "Hey, come on... Look at me."

She did what he asked, and the next thing that Yuuno knew, her lips were mashed against his as she hugged him as tightly as she could.

(-)

Looking around, Nanoha blinked in confusion. "Where are Yuuno-kun and Fate-chan?"

"I saw Fate grab someone and pull them out of the room." Reinforce spoke to Nanoha, who nodded and quietly left the room. It didn't take long for her to hear the sound of someone sobbing not too far away. Turning a corner, her eyes widened as she saw Fate and Yuuno, both on their knees and making out in the hallway.

"Yuuno-kun... Fate-chan... What the?"

The two were startled and Fate looked at Nanoha, her eyes were more red than usual and tear streaks were down her face as she stood up and wobbly walked down the hall towards Nanoha. "Yoush!" Fate pointed a wobbly finger while trying to avoid falling over. "Not fair! Why do I likesh yoush when yoush my sishtah?"

Nanoha's eyes widened and her face was tinged with pink. "Ah, Fate-chan, that is, ah..."

"Ish not like Hay... Ha... Groper girl!" Fate shook her head and fell to her butt, giggling. "Hee hee, fell down, go boom!" Both Nanoha and Yuuno sweat-dropped heavily at that. "She hash it eashy! She only hash to ch..choo.. pick 'Forcesh and that'sh all. She hash a girl too! Yoush two..." Fate tried to spin around on the ground and only ended up laying flat on her back, her hands outstretched and pointing towards Nanoha and Yuuno. "Yoush two would be nicesh togethah... At leash I could jus... Hic..." Fate closed her eyes as a wave of sleep crashed over her. "I could jus go away and no, hic, no one would... care..."

Neither Yuuno nor Nanoha had anything to say as Fate suddenly rolled over and curled into a ball, her breathing started to even out, but the tears in her eyes didn't stop coming down out of her eyes.

The two walked over to the sleeping girl and Nanoha rubbed Fate's face before picking the blonde girl up. "She's not as heavy as I thought she'd be." Nanoha giggled softly at the look Yuuno gave her. "Fate-chan's all muscley, I thought she'd be heavier than this."

Yuuno nodded as he followed Nanoha. "Let's find her a room to sleep this off."

"Ne, Yuuno-kun..." Nanoha looked over her shoulder at him and he blinked several times. "Is Fate-chan a good kisser?" When Yuuno face-faulted, Nanoha giggled and stuck her tongue out at him. "Nyahahahahahaha..."

"Nanoha..." Yuuno groaned heavily as he stood up and walked after her. "You and your jokes."

Nanoha just continued giggling as she walked with Fate in her arms. "Ne, Yuuno-kun..."

"Yeah?" When Nanoha stopped in front of a door, Yuuno opened it up and nodded at the empty bed in the room. "What is it?"

"Wanna spend the night in here with me and Fate-chan?" Nanoha looked at him seriously as he stiffened at the question. "I think she needs some familiar people around her... And I wouldn't mind it either."

"Bad dreams again?" Yuuno asked, getting a shake from Nanoha as she walked into the room and put Fate onto the bed.

"No... I just want you and Fate-chan tonight."

Yuuno didn't need Thoth's input on the matter at all.

A moment later, the door was closed as the two teens joined Fate in the bed. They both swore that they heard Fate sign in contentment when they lay down on opposite sides of her.

The familiar act of being in the same bed at the same time was actually so comforting for Nanoha and Yuuno that it, despite how nervous they felt, didn't take them long to actually fall asleep in the same bed.

* * *

Fate's an angry, yet hilarious drunk.

As for the name of this mini-arc, well, if you know about music, Coda is the final part of the song that gets sung. So, Coda is the final mini-arc.


	194. Peek Finale Coda Two

Blood That Flows

Peek Finale

Coda Two

* * *

Looking around, Hayate fought the urge to yawn. "Thanks for putting my family and friends up for the night, Carim."

The blonde smiled and waved her off. "If I'm going to be a supporter of the new Riot Force, I can't very well turn away someone that I've come to see as family." The leader of the Saint Church blinked and looked around. "...I don't see my brother anywhere." Considering that most everyone had gone home, she was a little worried. It wasn't like him to leave early without a good reason, and if it was to investigate someone, she was certain that he would have told her.

"I'm sure that he's fine." Hayate smiled and looked around. "...Where did my knights go?"

"Zafira and Shamal both told me that they were turning in a bit early. Signum left three minutes ago," Reinforce said as she walked up to them, "however, I missed when Vita left."

Hayate frowned and looked around. "You think she's okay?"

Reinforce nodded to Hayate. "I doubt there is anyone here who would do something to Vita." A thin smile came to Reinforce's face. "And if they did take advantage of her, do you think that I would let them live for more than a moment?"

Hayate giggled softly and yawned. "I guess... Reinforce, I'm tired..." Nodding, the silver-haired device grabbed Hayate's hand with her own and escorted her out of the room.

Watching them, Carim had a small smile on her face. She didn't know if they were romantically involved or not, but the way they acted around each other was enough to make her think that they were, in fact a married couple. "Hmm..."

"I know that sound," a voice came from behind Carim. Turning, she smiled at Luna and Schach, the latter of whom had spoken, "you've got something planned, don't you?"

"Nothing much, just idly wondering about some stuff." Carim nodded to them. "Are you two capable of standing guard the whole night?"

Schach rolled her eyes. "Yes, you know that." She looked around and wrinkled her nose. "What the..?"

"Alcohol." Luna spoke up and walked towards the table where the remains of the punch were. Sniffing, she grabbed a glass and filled it up before taking a sip. "Whoo! Pretty strong. Probably wouldn't notice it when the punch bowl was full, but the bottom is mostly alcohol now."

"You drank a lot?" Schach raised an eyebrow, getting a snort from Luna.

"You know the saying 'don't drink the water'?" The two of them nodded. "Well, when we don't have water, we have other fluids to drink. Mead was pretty common and not that strong, so we could build up a tolerance." Luna shook her head. "In fact, I'd almost say that this was alcohol was purposely made to be extra strong to take effect faster."

"Spiked punch." Schach sighed softly. "Just great... I wonder how many people drank this."

"Run damage control." Carim advised them. "If people start screaming when they wake up, see what you can find out." Both of them nodded to Carim. "Right now, I'm just hoping that they crashed in some of the spare rooms and nothing else. ...And I _really_ hope that Verossa didn't get drunk."

Schach sweat-dropped at that. "Your brother has a hard enough time controlling his charm... I don't think any woman could resist him if he turned it on full blast." Both Luna and Carim looked at her. "...What? Your brother's hot."

Carim sighed and shook her head. "Schach, I've told you, if you end up sleeping with my brother, please make sure that you do that some place where I will not find you."

"...So, your office is out of the question?"

"YES!" Carim yelled so loudly that Schach found herself on her back. "Luna," Carim ignored Schach as she picked herself up off the floor, "please make sure to keep an eye out for anyone with a hangover in the morning." Luna nodded as Carim left the room. "Goodnight."

After Carim had left, Luna turned to look at Schach. "It's a good thing that she didn't catch you and Verossa last week then."

Schach could only stare in mute horror as Luna walked away, a smug grin on her face.

(-)

The next morning...

Groaning as she felt a pounding in her head, Vita cracked an eye open and slowly sat up, or tried to. "...What's with this weight..?" She asked herself, before blinking as several things came to her at once.

One, she was naked, which wasn't too unusual, she sometimes slept in nothing but her underwear, or even less on the hotter nights when the AC was out at the house.

Two, her mouth had a weird taste in it. Surprisingly, it wasn't as bad as some of Shamal's cooking attempts, so she wasn't going to complain too much.

Three, and the most surprising thing was that she was sore between her legs. "What the heck..?" Looking down, her face turned red as the person that was on top of her moved and looked up to look at her in the face. "Verossa?"

"...My sister is going to kill me... And then your family will kill me." He muttered softly.

Vita winced at the smell and dropped her head on the mattress. At least now she knew why she was so sore and sticky all over. "...Please, please tell me that..."

"I think you still have two condoms left." Verossa muttered as he slid off of her and grabbed her pants, which, for some reason, were under Vita's butt. Shifting her hips, Vita watched as he pulled her sticky, wet pants out from under her and reached into the front pocket, pulling out one unused condom. "...Okay, just one left, I guess... Lost track how often, uh..." He blinked as Vita started taking deep breaths, doing interesting things to her fairly large breasts. "Vita?"

"I am never questioning dad again." Vita was starting to sound a little hysterical as she giggled while rubbing her face.

Verossa watched as Vita rolled over and he gulped as he saw her glorious rear end facing him. "...You okay?"

Vita nodded and groaned softly as moving like that caused more soreness to make itself known. "...Just what... Did we..."

"...Everything under the sun, I think." Verossa admitted, while blushing and looking away. Dammit, the last thing he wanted to be right now was more turned on.

"Everything?" Vita asked, her eyes widening as she thought about it.

"Yeah..." Verossa blushed hard. "Your mouth, your breasts... You even let me hotdog you until I came on your back, you let me use... Um, both your crotch and your butt last night." By now, both of them were blushing as memories rushed through them. "...Um, you didn't tell me that you were a virgin..."

"I was..." Vita sat up and turned to glare at him. "Until you took advantage..."

"Hey!" Verossa spun around to look at her with narrowed eyes. "You're the one who pulled me into this room, threw me on the bed and started doing stuff to me!"

Vita blinked and groaned as she thought about what happened. "...Sorry, I just..."

"I was drunk too." Verossa rubbed his head. "Gah... It's like..."

"Graf Eisen pounding my head." Vita rubbed her forehead. "You know..." Verossa looked at her. "Um... You got enough in you for one more round?"

"...Wanna find out?"

Vita nodded and blushed as she was laying on her back again. "This isn't anything serious."

"Of course." Verossa nodded to her. "I wouldn't force you into a relationship because of this."

"Good." Vita grinned at him as he moved over her. "Just be careful, I'm a bit sore."

Verossa nodded and Vita groaned as he gently grabbed her breasts. She closed her eyes and moaned softly as his hand slid between her legs to rub her sore crotch. 'If I'm going to do this...' She shivered at how wet she was getting from him touching her. 'If I lost my virginity, I want to remember how good the guy was that took it from me.'

A quick glance at the clock revealed that they had at least an hour before breakfast was going to be served. Well, at least they had time to enjoy this.

(-)

"Nnngh..." She groaned as she felt something on her body. "What?" Her eyes snapped open as she felt not one but two fairly heavy weights on her chest. "Who the?"

"Fate-chan is loud in the morning." Nanoha muttered as she moved her head off of Fate's right breast while Yuuno did the same on her left on. "And after we put this silly drunk to bed last night." Nanoha giggled while Fate blushed hard enough to light up the room. "Morning, silly."

Before Fate could respond, Nanoha leaned in and kissed her on the lips gently. "Na...Nanoha?" Fate pulled her head back, wondering what brought that on. Before Nanoha could reply, she felt Yuuno hug her from the side. "Yuuno?"

"Fate..." He said softly as Nanoha moved and straddled the blonde's waist, keeping her from moving. "Last night, you were kind of drunk."

"Was not." Fate muttered softly. "If I was drunk, how come I don't have a hangover?"

Nanoha shrugged at her. "Some people don't get hangovers, Fate. Good metabolism and lots of good muscles help." Before Fate knew what was happening, Nanoha's fingers went to the blonde's stomach and started tickling her, causing Fate to squirm and start laughing.

"N...Nanohahahahahaha... Stop!" Fate squirmed, and laughed, panting as Nanoha did what she asked before patting Fate's belly. "What.. Do... You... Want?" Fate said between gasps of air.

"Fate-chan, what do _you_ want?" Nanoha asked her seriously. "I saw you and Yuuno-kun making out in the hallway last night and you said that you liked me..." Nanoha nodded as Fate was becoming more and more pale after each moment. "Tell me, Fate-chan..." She leaned in and rested her head against Fate's. "What do you want?"

"I... I..." Fate felt her eyes burning as tears suddenly welled up in them. "I don't know!" Fate pushed Nanoha off of her and tried to sit up, before she found herself face down on the bed with Yuuno sitting on top of her. "Yuuno!"

"Fate!" Yuuno sat on her butt while pushing his fingers into her shoulders, causing her to stiffen. "Listen, Fate, you need to calm down, okay?" Fate nodded as his fingers pushed into her back. "Nanoha, you really shouldn't have pushed her."

"Sorry," Nanoha blinked and looked at Yuuno suspiciously, "how do you know about stuff like this?"

"Miyuki and I talk a lot." Yuuno rolled his eyes. "Anyway, Fate, just calm down, okay? You were drunk, maybe you said some stuff that you meant, maybe you were just horny and drunk."

Fate buried her face into the pillow as deeply as it would go. She didn't want to admit it, but she probably was a bit horny last night. She groaned as she felt his thumbs push under her shoulders and start working some stubborn knots out of her body. "Mmmm..."

Nanoha giggled softly and moved to Fate's feet, rubbing them, causing the blonde to lift her head up and let out a throaty moan. "Fate-chan, if you need to talk, Yuuno-kun and I will listen. Please don't bottle it up... I don't think that getting you drunk is a good way to hear about your problems."

"Shloookaayyy..." Fate practically purred as the two worked her body over.

"Ne, Yuuno-kun..." Nanoha giggled softly. "Is Fate-chan's butt good to sit on?"

Yuuno wiggled on Fate's butt slightly before nodding. "Well, I can't complain, feels comfy."

Fate was blushing hard as she heard Yuuno and Nanoha's conversation. "Mouu... No it's not..."

"Yes it is!" Nanoha said as Yuuno got off of Fate's butt, allowing the girl to cup and squeeze the blonde girl's butt. "It's so round, so firm, so perfect that if people are looking at your boobies, they're looking at your butt, Fate-chan!"

"N...Nanoha!" Fate was blushing hard. "But I..."

"Dunno, Nanoha..." Before Nanoha knew it, she found herself laying face-down, next to Fate with Yuuno kneading and rubbing her butt. "I think you got a nice butt too."

"Yuuno-kun!" Nanoha was blushing as Yuuno grinned behind her.

"Fate, why don't you see for yourself?"

Nanoha was blushing hard as she felt both Yuuno and Fate rubbing her butt. "Mouuu..."

"It is nice." Fate nodded, her face flushed, but when Nanoha started giggling, she blinked and looked at Yuuno's grin. "Um..."

"Fate-chan feels better." Nanoha grinned, turned and pounced on Fate, pinning her down. "Ha ha! I got the mighty Fate-chan pinned down!"

Fate blinked, before grinning and rolling over to pin Nanoha. "Nah uh, I got you." Her eyes widened as she felt a pair of strong arms wrap around her and pull her away. "Y..Yuuno?"

"I got you, Fate..." He smirked and sat back, making her sit in his lap. "And now..."

Fate was blushing hard as she felt something poking her butt. "Ah, Yuuno..." The next thing she knew, Nanoha was hugging her from the front and making her press her body against Yuuno's more.

"Fate-chan..." Nanoha smiled at her. "You, me, Yuuno-kun, we three wouldn't be here today if it wasn't for each other." She leaned back and poked Fate in between her breasts. "So, if you ever have a problem, you will tell us, okay?" She walked her fingers up Fate's chest, neck and stopped at her chin, before Nanoha tapped Fate on the nose. "Even if it's just something like you want a kiss from Yuuno-kun, tell us, okay?"

Fate nodded, blushing hard. "Okay."

Nanoha grinned at that. "Good. Now then... I want a bath." At that moment, all three of them had their stomachs growl at the same time. "...And food. Food is good."

"Yeah." Both Yuuno and Fate nodded at the same time.

"Yuuno-kun..." Nanoha said as the three of them got out of the bed and he grabbed his glasses off of the table by the bed. "You're joining us."

"HUH?" Yuuno and Fate stared at Nanoha, wide-eyed.

"It'll be faster." Nanoha rolled her eyes as the two followed her out, blushing the whole while.

* * *

Nanoha, you pervert.

Also, I wonder how many other fics did to Vita what I just did to her. Then again, I don't know of any other fics that let Vita grow up, so...


	195. Peek Finale Coda Three

Blood That Flows

Peek Finale

Coda Three

* * *

Reinforce sighed as she wrapped a bathrobe around her damp, naked body. She wasn't sure why she was up so early, she just never was able to sleep for very long. Then again, Hayate more than made up for it by sleeping longer than anyone other than Vita and Zwei some days. At least it made some sense, since the three of them needed their sleep.

Her musings were cut short as she saw Vita, in nothing but a large towel, walk into the bathing room. "Vita..." Reinforce narrowed her eyes as several things caught her attention at once. The redhead was rather sweaty and disheveled, she seemed to be walking with a rather stiff limp that seemed focused around her crotch, and, as Reinforce focused on Vita, the redhead seemed to have a rather unusual scent. "...What happened?"

Vita bit back a curse, of course Reinforce would notice, she wondered why she didn't just wait until later before trying to get into the baths. Groaning, she rubbed her forehead and shook it, trying to fight off that blasted hangover that decided to remind her that, yes, she was still dehydrated and yes, she was going to pay for drinking last night. "Ugh... Not so loud please, hangover."

Reinforce nodded at Vita. 'Well, that answers a couple of questions I had.' She thought to herself. "Okay, Vita..." She said softer, causing the girl to look at her curiously. "Were you raped?"

"No!" Vita immediately regretted yelling as she grabbed her head and let out a groan of pain. "Oww. No, we used protection, nnnngh!"

Reinforce narrowed her eyes and walked over to Vita and cupped the girl's chin, forcing her to look up. "Tell me again, were you raped?"

Vita blinked before narrowing her eyes in annoyance. "I told you, no!" She shook her head away from Reinforce and groaned. "Please, just drop it, I've got a headache and I just want to get cleaned up before getting some food."

"Don't you think I worry about you?" Reinforce asked her softly.

"I know that." Vita hissed softly, mentally groaning as the headache was starting to get worse. "You don't need to keep reminding me about what happened." She pushed past Reinforce and walked towards the door.

"Don't you worry about the consequences of your actions?" Reinforce turned to Vita, who stopped and whirled back on her.

"Yes, I am, but I can't change what happened, can I?" Vita looked away, sighing softly. "Sorry, look, I'll get Shamal to look me over later, okay?"

"Just make sure that you take care of yourself, Vita." Reinforce spoke softly still, noting that the girl still winced from her tone of voice. "And try to avoid too much alcohol in the future."

Vita nodded before looking at Reinforce. "So, what was with you asking me the second time if I was raped?"

"I was making sure that you weren't under some sort of mind control." At least Vita's reactions assured her that the girl was fairly lucid.

"Yeah, you'd know..." Vita's eyes widened and she slapped her hands over her mouth. Seeing Reinforce's stunned look, Vita shook her head and held her hands out. "Reinforce, wait, I.."

Reinforce said nothing, turned around and left the girl in the room by herself.

"Reinforce..." Vita whimpered and started to tremble softly. "I... I didn't mean..." She balled her hands into fists and slammed them against the wall. "Stupid, stupid!"

(-)

Shamal wasn't one who was surprised by too much when it came to her family. She generally knew how things were going to go at home. Wake up, Reinforce or Hayate had breakfast cooked, throughout the day either stock supplies, try to learn to cook better, or hang out with some of the older women in the area, though lately that had been replaced with meeting with various people of the Bureau with either Zafira or Hayate near her at all times. When she got home, she generally was either tired, needed some food, or had to patch Signum or Vita up when their sparring with each other, Nanoha, Fate, Yuuno, Hayate or even Arisa got out of hand.

Thankfully that last one didn't happen too often anymore. Mostly because Vita and Signum had both been forced, on the threat of being forced to go ten rounds against Reinforce, to learn some basic healing so that they wouldn't wear Shamal out on days when she was dead tired.

And other than dealing with Vita or Signum's teasing of each other, or Zwei deciding to dress up as a miniature catgirl, cupcake, or whatever else caught the small device's attention that day, there wasn't too much that was rather unusual around the house, thankfully.

So when Reinforce suddenly came into the room and knocked Shamal over, the Knight of the Lake was concerned, she didn't think that Reinforce was in the habit of knocking people over for no reason. When Reinforce suddenly hugged her, her concern grew tremendously, since the device wasn't prone to emotional outbursts at all. "Reinforce?"

"...Shamal." Reinforce's voice wavered slightly and Shamal just silently hugged her, holding her for comfort.

Shamal wasn't sure why Reinforce came to her over Hayate, but figured that there had to be something that Reinforce was worried about and didn't want Hayate worrying about it. She was also sure that Reinforce would tell her as soon as she was ready for it.

(-)

Nanoha looked up as she, Fate and Yuuno were relaxing in the tub. Even if it was technically the women's bath, they were the only ones there at the moment, since Reinforce had left not too long ago. Oddly enough, Reinforce didn't mind Yuuno seeing her completely naked.

None of them could figure out if it was because Reinforce only had eyes for Hayate, had no nudity taboo, was a lesbian or if she was asexual, since all of those were possibilities in their minds.

The fact that Yuuno was being escorted by Fate and Nanoha and wasn't likely to try something never crossed their minds at all.

"Vita-chan?" Nanoha blinked as she looked at the upset redhead as she sat down, unwrapped the towel around her body and started to wash herself down. "Vita-chan?"

"...Reinforce hates me." Vita said after several minutes of scrubbing herself down. One thing that confused the three in the tub was how much attention Vita was giving her thighs with her cleaning.

"Huh?" Nanoha blinked and looked back at Fate and Yuuno, both of whom were just as confused as she was. "Vita-chan, what are you talking about?" Nanoha got up and walked over to the naked redhead. The instant that she touched Vita's shoulder, the naked, soapy girl suddenly turned and hugged Nanoha tightly, trembling. "GAH!" Nanoha gasped, her eyes wide as Vita hugged her tightly. She swore that Vita didn't know her own strength sometimes. When Vita loosened the hug slightly, Nanoha took a deep breath and gently hugged Vita back. "Vita-chan? What's wrong?"

"I shouldn't have... Nnngh... Damn headache." Vita groaned softly. "I said something to Reinforce I shouldn't have."

Nanoha looked back at Fate and Yuuno, the latter was looking away slightly while blushing. "Um, Vita-chan, I'll wash your back and hair, you tell me what happened, okay?" Vita nodded and let go of the hug, causing Nanoha to groan softly, it almost felt like her ribs were shifting around when Vita let go of her hug. Getting behind Vita, Nanoha lathered up a cloth and started scrubbing Vita's back for her. "So, what happened?"

"Well..." As Vita told them what happened between her and Reinforce just outside of the door and Nanoha nodded as she listened. "And then, she left, and... Gah!" The redhead slumped forward. "I wasn't thinking."

"I don't think Reinforce hates you." Fate said as she moved forward in the bath water. "I think what you said hurt her really bad and she left before she said something that would hurt you too."

"Maybe, but..." Vita had tears in her eyes as she buried her face into her hands. "Why couldn't I just shut up?"

"Alcohol makes people stupid." Yuuno said, causing Vita to look at him with tear-streaked eyes. "You aren't used to drinking it, right?"

"Yuuno, that was the first bit of alcohol I've ever drank as a human." Vita sighed softly. "Used to drink in the past, but it's been a long time and that stuff was really strong."

Yuuno blinked and looked at Fate, who was blushing hard. "...How strong?"

Vita groaned and rubbed her forehead. "Let's see, if I drank more than three glasses I wouldn't be able to get out of bed this morning, why?"

"...I had four." Fate admitted, blushing hard as Nanoha, Yuuno and Vita stared at her. "Um..."

Vita shook her head and groaned. "Don't worry about it. But, what am I going to do about Reinforce?"

"Well..." Nanoha started before reaching down and washing Vita's lower back. "I'd wait a little bit, right now, I think Reinforce needs to relax and calm down. Give her about an hour, you know she's got really good control over her emotions." Vita nodded, sighing as Nanoha washed her back off more fully. "I think she'll forgive you, Vita-chan."

"If she doesn't spank me again." Vita muttered softly, wincing at the thought of being bent over Reinforce's lap, again. The spanking wasn't so bad, it was pretty humiliating having to stand in the corner afterwords though.

"Well, let's hope not." Nanoha nodded and gently swatted Vita's butt, causing the girl to jump. "Though, we could spank you for Reinforce."

Vita shook her head at that. "No thanks..." She blinked and looked at Yuuno, who was blushing more and looking away. "...Oi, get those thoughts out of your head right now."

Yuuno looked at her with narrowed eyes. "Like I can help what I'm thinking." Plus, it really wasn't fair, Vita was standing there, naked, Fate was slightly bent over the tub and her ass was sticking up above the water and Nanoha was busy rinsing soap off of her front and it was morning, he really didn't think that standing up would be conductive for his health at that moment.

Vita rolled her eyes and took the bucket that Nanoha offered her before dumping it over herself. "Brr..."

"Come on, Vita-chan," Nanoha smiled and slipped into the bath, "you should get cleaned up before breakfast."

"Thanks, but I think I'll just go get changed and find Reinforce." Vita didn't mind the thought of taking a bath, but she was clean and not soapy, and, unlike Nanoha and Fate, she didn't really find the thought of being with a boy in the tub a good idea right now.

After Vita grabbed a clean towel and wrapped her body and hair up before leaving, Nanoha looked at Fate and Yuuno, a soft blush coming to her cheeks. "I'm surprised that Vita-chan would tell us that she had sex last night."

The two blondes gave Nanoha a flat stare before splashing her in the face with warm water.

"Nyahahahahah..." Nanoha giggled softly and tried to splash the two of them back.

It wasn't like the three of them weren't interested in that sort of thing, thanks to Thoth's constant comments and their own growing hormones, it was that if they thought about it too long, things would become more complicated than they wanted it to become at that moment.

(-)

"So, that's what happened, huh?" Shamal asked softly as she combed Reinforce's hair. The latter was dressed in some normal clothes by now and nodded softly.

"Yes, I... I can't believe she..."

"Reinforce," Shamal interrupted the silver-haired device, "I'm sure that Vita-chan didn't mean to hurt your feelings." When Reinforce tried to speak up again, Shamal gently bopped Reinforce on the head with the brush she was using. "Please listen. You said that she tried to get you to stop, right?" Reinforce nodded and Shamal smiled. "Then I'm sure that she was just upset, cranky and not thinking this morning. You know how she is in the morning normally, add a hangover and she probably won't think before saying something."

"...I guess, but... She's right... I would know what mind control looks like, I did it to, oww!" Reinforce winced at the force behind the blow Shamal gave her head. "That hurt."

"Good." Shamal nodded, her voice unusually stern. "You're being stupid, maybe Vita-chan was right, maybe she meant those things, I don't know, but I'm sure that she feels bad for saying them. And, Reinforce, you should go easy on her this time."

"...What about you?" Reinforce asked softly. "Are you going to..."

"Of course I'll give her some exams." Shamal nodded at Reinforce. "Of course, if she picked up anything, we won't know for a few weeks at least." Shamal shook her head and sighed softly. "If this had happened next week instead of last night..."

"Huh?" Reinforce blinked and looked over her shoulder at Shamal. "What do you mean?"

"Oh, Vita-chan would have had some birth control pills by then."

"What?" Reinforce stood up and spun around, looking at Shamal with wide eyes. "What do you..."

"Relax, relax!" Shamal smiled and waved her hands up and down, trying to get Reinforce to calm down. "She was getting them to help ease her periods."

Reinforce blinked and relaxed. "Oh... Why didn't you..?"

"She wanted to keep it quiet." Shamal shook her head. "She was complaining so much after her last period that I told her that those pills can help ease the symptoms. So, we got her an exam and the pills were supposed to arrive sometime this week..."

"Oh..." Reinforce actually blushed, feeling rather stupid for assuming the worst. "Sorry."

"It's fine." Shamal smiled at her. "But, you know what you need to do?" Shamal pointed at the door. "Find Vita and talk to her."

Reinforce nodded, though she said nothing as she left the room, causing Shamal to sigh and sit down.

"...Maybe I should be a psychologist." Shamal half-joked with herself.

(-)

It didn't take long for Reinforce to find Vita. Though, she did find it surprising that the girl was already cleaned up and dressed. "Vita..."

"Reinforce, um..." Vita looked down and away. "About what I said..." She blinked as she felt Reinforce's hands on her shoulder. Looking at the device, she was surprised to see her smiling softly.

"I'm sorry for reacting like I did." Reinforce leaned forward and kissed Vita on the forehead. "I was worried."

Vita sighed and hugged Reinforce. "And I was just..."

"I know." Reinforce nodded, hugging Vita again. "Just promise me that you'll be careful in the future, okay?" Vita nodded against her body. "I won't stop you from living your life, Vita, just make sure that you take care, please? I don't want you hurt."

"I promise." Vita nodded and blinked as Reinforce pulled back, giving her a stern look. "Reinforce?"

"I mean it, Vita. I won't tell Hayate about what you said to me, so just be careful."

Vita nodded at her. "Sure, I promise."

"Good." Reinforce turned and started to walk away. "Want some breakfast?"

Vita's stomach growled and she quickly found herself following Reinforce, even though she was still sore all over. "Sure."

Well, at least Reinforce didn't seem to be mad at her. That was always good.

* * *

Now, to actually go and wrap up some major loose ends that this story has had.


	196. Peek Finale Coda Four

Blood That Flows

Peek Finale

Coda Four

* * *

Meanwhile, on Earth...

"Are you sure that you wish to do this, Miss Bannings?"

Arisa looked at her butler and nodded at him. "We didn't come back to England for no reason."

Her butler nodded as he let her out of the rental that they had picked up from the airport. As the teenaged girl stepped out into the windy air, she closed her eyes as her shoulder-length blonde hair whipped up and nearly poked her in the eye. "I won't be long." She dusted off her pants and made sure that her light jacket was in place properly before walking towards the building.

She had thought about wearing a skirt today, but with the wind, all that would happen was her flashing her underwear at people. That wasn't something that she wanted to do on normal days, much less on a very windy day.

The older man nodded as he watched Arisa approach a non-descript building. From the outside, it looked like a warehouse. Why there was one out in the country, he wasn't sure, but he didn't care about that.

(-)

Arisa groaned and grabbed at her head. "...So, I was here at one point, wasn't I?" She looked at the building before walking up the stone steps that were in front of her, leading to a door. "What happened?" She asked herself softly as she walked up the steps and to the door. Arisa wasn't surprised when she found the door to be locked. A quick application of her magic burned through the lock and allowed her inside.

The musty air inside had her wincing slightly. "Yuck." Still, part of her needed to continue to move forward.

After three steps inside, Arisa's eyes widened as something flashed in her mind.

_"Man, I can't believe how much of a pain in the ass it was to get her!" A man, she couldn't see his face clearly, in a short-sleeved shirt, yelled at another man, who merely smirked at him._

_"True, it was a pain in the ass, but think of the money her parents will pay to get her back. And all we have to do is make sure that they throw in a small plane and we'll be out of the country in a heartbeat."_

_"You think that they'll let us just walk?"_

_"Leave that to me." The second one said and looked at her. "After all... Something might just... Happen to this girl if they're not careful."_

Arisa groaned and grabbed her head. "...What was that?" Shaking her head, the blonde looked around and frowned as she continued to walk into the room. "Something's missing here." As she got to the center of the building, she blinked in confusion at the darkened portion of the floor. There was no dust covering it up, like there had been everywhere else. "...What is going..." Her eyes widened and she gripped her head, groaning.

_"Just chain her to the ceiling." That calm, smirking man said again as he looked at her. "By the way, did you get it?"_

_The first man nodded as he tied her body to a chain that was hanging from the ceiling. "By the time that they figure everything out, we'll be long gone."_

_The calm man nodded as he stretched. "Good." Looking at her, he smirked and looked at the first one. "You know, maybe we should keep her. It wouldn't be too hard to train her properly, would it?"_

_"You insane?" The first one hissed at him. "It's bad enough that we got a kidnapping charge on us, you really want to add that too?"_

_"Let me go." She whimpered softly and looked at them, tears falling from her eyes as her tiny body tried to escape. "Just let me go."_

Arisa shook her head and rubbed her temples. "Nnngh... What the hell... That was me, wasn't it?" She heard a noise behind her and spun around, gasping as she saw her butler standing there. "What are you doing here? I thought you were going to wait by the car!"

"Miss Bannings, while I did promise that, I think you need to know what happened... At least, what your parents told me." Arisa nodded, looking at him in worry. "It was only three hours after you were kidnapped that something unusual happened." He gestured to the insides of the building. "You see how scorched this building is?"

"Now that you mention it..." Arisa looked around, frowning softly. "It's like a big fire happened here."

"It did." Her butler turned to look at her. "Your parents told me that when they got here, a fire was spreading out inside of the building... One that was blue in color."

Arisa's eyes widened before grabbing her head. "Naaah!"

"Miss Bannings!" He grabbed her shoulders to keep her from falling to the floor. "Miss Bannings!"

_"What the hell is going on?" The first man took a step back as he saw the air slowly warp and turn blue around their victim._

_"How the hell should I know?"_

_"Just let me go!" The girl's voice was a roar as the chain around her body suddenly exploded outwards and she landed on her feet. "You two..." She looked at them, tears leaking out of her eyes and evaporating in the heat an instant later. "WHY? Why wouldn't you let me GO?"_

_The two men didn't even have time to scream as fire washed over them, killing them instantly and leaving two horribly burned and smoking bodies..._

_Or would have, had the fire not continued to grow and consume nearly everything in the room._

_"Why?" The girl curled into a ball and sobbed. "Why wouldn't they let me go?"_

"...I killed them." Arisa said softly, trembling as her memories continued to resurface. "I... They were..."

"Horrible people, Miss Bannings." Her butler broke through her musings. "No one will misses them. You had extreme nightmares from that incident, which is why..."

"Those seals were placed on me." Arisa nodded and hugged herself. "Can we please leave? I'd rather not be here anymore."

"Of course." He nodded and helped her leave the building.

As they left, the butler looked over his shoulder to see the one spot that was still immaculate, no dust or scortch marks around that one small spot. He wasn't sure why it was that way, but with his knowledge of Arisa's nature, he just thought that maybe it was something that time just did not want to touch.

For that, he wasn't sure if he was thankful or not.

(-)

Days later...

Smiling as she saw Arisa and her butler get off the plane, Suzuka waved at them. "Arisa-chan! Butler-san! Over here!"

Arisa smiled and took a few bags from her butler, who was still carrying the larger suitcase behind him. "Are you certain you can handle that?"

"Please, miss Bannings." He smiled at her. "You packed very light, only a couple dozen changes of clothes, some books and a portable gaming unit, I've hauled around heavier stuff before."

Arisa sweat-dropped heavily. "When you put it like that, I feel like a brat." She pouted when he chuckled at her. "Not funny."

"I'm sorry, miss Bannings, but you are not a brat, your friends keep you from becoming one." Arisa sweat-dropped again. "Though, I do find it odd that you like to spar with them so much."

"Well..." Arisa trailed off as they got close to the limo that Suzuka and Falin were at. "Finding out that I can do magic is just so neat."

"Plus you still want to pay Nanoha-chan back for keeping secrets." Suzuka giggled, causing Arisa's eyes to go stark white while she blushed.

"Suzuka!" Arisa yelled, dropped her bags and ran after her friend. "They didn't need to know that!"

Watching the two run around the car, both Falin and the butler laughed softly while putting the luggage into the trunk of the car. "Thank you for picking us up, miss Falin."

"Don't mention it." Falin smiled at him as she shut the trunk of the car. "Suzuka wanted to make sure that you had a ride in a comfortable car, not a rental." She turned to the two teens and gestured to the car. "Come along, Miss Arisa, Miss Suzuka, you can chase each other when we get back to the mansion." Laughing softly, Falin looked at the butler. "Will you join us?"

"I think I might, yes." He smiled at her and got into the passenger side in front after the two girls got into the limo.

Falin smiled as she got in and drove off.

(-)

A little later...

"Have you two given much thought to your future?" Noel asked Arisa and Suzuka as she poured them some tea. "From what I've heard, Nanoha-chan, Fate-chan, Hayate-chan and Yuuno-kun are all going to be leaving for Mid-Childa and working for that Bureau soon."

Arisa nodded and sighed softly. "Even if I wanted to go, someone needs to inherit my parents' company."

"I agree, as much as I would love to go with as well, I do have things to look forward to here, which means that I'll have to stick around here and continue my education." Suzuka smiled softly and took a sip of her tea. "After all, it would not be good for someone who was ignorant to inherit the family fortune and any businesses."

"Your sister would be first in line for it anyway, miss Suzuka," Noel smiled at the young heiress, "but, I must wonder, is the only reason that you're thinking of staying here because you think that you need more education?"

"I doubt that I could inherit my family's business if I didn't have more education." Arisa sighed softly. "After all, who would want an ignorant moron to run the company?"

"A lot of people, it would be easier to take over the company that way." Noel said before shaking her head. "But, you know..." She stood up and started to walk out of the room. "I've never heard of someone who spent time in a military to be truly disorganized, plus think of how it will look to your peers if you have experience traveling and seeing new places."

Arisa looked at her friend and blinked as a thought came to her. "You know, Suzuka..."

Suzuka smiled at Arisa. "Why not?" She giggled as Arisa nodded.

Outside of the room, Noel smiled softly. 'Could be interesting, I do hope that things work out.' A sudden loud thump had the whole house shaking. Quickly making her way outside, she stared at the small smoking crater in the middle of the yard. "...What happened?"

"Mr. Snuggles exploded!" Caro cried out while Arashi, Fried and Erio were looking shocked at what happened. The children were spending the day playing with the cats and kittens around the mansion. "Arashi-kun and Erio-kun were trying something and then it all exploded!"

"Just what did you do?" Suzuka asked as she came in to hear about her favorite kitten exploding again.

"They were trying some magic out and Arashi tried something weird and it all went boom!" Caro threw her hands high into the air, before dropping her head. "I'm sorry, Mr. Snuggles exploded and I couldn't stop it."

"Well, if he didn't survive," Arisa put her hands on Suzuka's shoulders as the purple-haired girl trembled softly, "at least he won't be in danger of exploding anymore."

"Not funny." Suzuka muttered softly, hoping that Mr. Snuggles was better off, wherever he was.

(-)

"Sette..." Tre spoke up as she looked at the tall pinkette. "There's a cat on your head."

Blinking, the tall partial Dragon reached to the top of her head and pulled off a small white kitten with black spots on it. "...It has a collar..." She looked at it more closely. "...Mr. Snuggles?"

"Meow." The cat tilted his head at Sette, who put it against her large breasts and idly started stroking it.

"I want to know how a cat magically appeared in here." Tre muttered and motioned for Sette to follow her. "Maybe the doctor will know."

"...Maybe." Sette nodded and wondered why the cat was making a rumbling noise. For some reason, it brought a small smile to her lips.

* * *

Arisa's past sucked, huh?

And, Mr. Snuggles, still exploding, though this time he was blown all the way across the universe.


	197. Peek Finale Coda Five

Blood That Flows

Peek Finale

Coda Five

* * *

Back on Earth...

Chrono rubbed his forehead as he, Filia and Amy finally returned home after a couple of weeks of vacation. Well, that's what it was called, the truth was, it was finally their honeymoon and his mother had forced him to take his wives on a honeymoon. "I just hope our children aren't running mom into the ground." At least it was fairly late, he was certain that the children were in bed by now.

Rolling her eyes, Amy put a hand on his shoulders. "Relax, Chrono... I'm sure that the little ones didn't bother Lindy too much."

"Besides, I'm sure that Val was an excellent big brother to his little sisters and baby brother." Filia smiled as Chrono opened the door.

"I hope so, because I would hate to come home and see mom all frazzled and..." Chrono trailed off as he took two steps into his home. "...I sense something, something I've not felt since..."

"Chronosuke!" A rather familiar female voice shrieked out and Chrono found himself being pinned under a familiar gray haired catgirl. "Missed you so much!" Her tail waggled behind her. "How are you?"

"L...Lotte?" Chrono stared at the girl, who was grinning at him.

There was a clearing of throats and Lotte blinked and looked up, sweat-dropping at the dark aura that was surrounding Amy and Filia while their eyes glowed an eerie white color. "I was just saying hello..."

"And the thought of making out with our husband never crossed your mind?" Amy said flatly, getting a shake of Lotte's head as she jumped away from Chrono.

"Nah uh! Dad would be mad at me if I caused problems. I just wanted to say hello." The cat girl looked weird in normal clothes, a blue shirt and pants combo as she rubbed the back of her head, laughing nervously. "Please don't tell your mom or my dad that I was bad." She clapped her hands in front of her face and bowed her head. "Miss Lindy had to call a couple of favors in just to get us to come here."

"Then..." Amy trailed off as another cat girl, this one had longer hair on her head and was in a soft red colored shirt and gray pants, walked into the room. "Aria..." She said a bit cooly, causing the familiar, who was holding a sleeping baby in her hands.

"Hey, come on... Neither of us can do any magic outside of altering our shapes a little right now." Aria gulped softly and looked at Lotte. "You just had to pounce him, didn't you?"

"Couldn't help myself." Lotte sweat-dropped at the looks she was getting from Chrono's wives. "Please, we've been really good. Your children were all angels, didn't have any problems with them, outside of smelly diapers, at all."

"I don't know..." Amy trailed off as she walked over to Aria and took the baby in her hands. "Tell me, Karel, were Aria and Lotte good girls?" Amy smiled as her son started gurgling and waving his hands up at her. "Really? So they didn't try to make someone go berserk by pretending to kill their family in front of them?"

The twins winced and Chrono sighed as he stood up. "Amy, that was uncalled for." She looked at him in surprise and he looked at the twins. "Limiters?" He raised an eyebrow and they nodded sadly.

"We made a mistake, but father never wanted to do that to Hayate." Aria spoke to Chrono. "He just didn't know if there was any other way to stop something that couldn't be stopped normally. It was a last ditch effort and..."

"It's been years, Aria, Lotte, Amy..." Chrono shook his head as he looked at them. "They made a mistake, but I think they learned their lesson."

"You aren't mad?" Lotte said softly and smiled as he shook his head. "Thank you!" Lotte fell to her knees and bowed to him. "I'm so sorry about what..."

"Again, it's been years since that happened." Chrono shook his head. "How are Val, Liera and Lia doing?"

"Sleeping, except for Val." Aria gulped slightly at the look Amy gave her. "He woke up like ten minutes ago, I know it's late, but he said he wanted to..." Aria was knocked over as a ball of energy ran under her legs, causing her to lose balance as said ball of energy crashed into Filia, nearly knocking her over.

"Mom!" Val grinned up at his mother. "MISSED YOU!"

"Shhh!" Filia knelt down to hug her eldest son. "You'll wake your sisters up."

"Sorry." The boy said as he hugged his mother. "Was dad being stupid again?" Fate and Amy both laughed softly as Chrono rolled his eyes at the question.

"Nope." Filia smiled and kissed him on the forehead. "Not this time."

"Kay!" The young boy grinned and yawned loudly. "Moooom!" He whined when she told him it was time for bed.

"No arguing, young man, you're tired and you need your sleep. You don't want to be a runt Dragon when you grow up, do you?"

Val shook his head. "Nah uh!" He hugged Filia as the blonde carried him to his room.

"Amy..." Chrono looked at his wife, who sighed and looked at Aria, who was still on her butt, looking down at the floor.

"Sorry, Aria..." Amy walked over to the cat girl and knelt down. "...What's wrong?" For some reason, neither Aria nor Lotte seemed to be in good spirits. "I'm sorry about what I said, but..."

"It's not that, but father's getting older... And we're worried about him." Aria sighed softly. "Do those children forgive us?"

"You'll need to ask them." Chrono smiled softly and rubbed Lotte's head.

"We're afraid." Lotte whimpered softly. "Why would they forgive us? I mean, we did just..."

"If I know Nanoha like I think I do," Chrono interrupted her, "she doesn't hold grudges, except against those that tortured her and try to kill her friends. After all, she's good friends with Hayate's family, I don't think she hates you two for what happened."

"You think her mother will spank us again?" Lotte suddenly grabbed her butt and Aria shuddered in fright. "That hurt... We couldn't sit right for days! Even with healing magic!"

"That whip really hurt too." Aria nodded at her twin sister.

"How's your father doing?" Chrono asked the two, causing Aria to sigh softly.

"He hopes that everyone's doing okay, but you know he's not allowed to leave England. Your mother had to pull a lot of strings to get us to come here." Aria felt her shoulders slumping as Lotte stood up. "...Do you think Hayate hates him? He doesn't hear from her very often and he's worried that she's really mad at him."

Chrono shook his head. "I don't think she does," he frowned as Lotte looked down and trembled, sighing softly, he walked over to his old taskmaster and hugged her, much to Aria and Amy's surprise.

"Chronosuke!" Lotte hugged him tightly and started crying. "I'm so sorry!" She buried her face into his chest. "We were so wrong back then! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!"

Chrono just sighed as Filia walked back into the room and blinked at the sight of him holding a sobbing catgirl in his arms.

"I hope this doesn't happen too often." Filia shook her head. "I'll make some tea."

Amy nodded as she took Karel to bed. "I'll join you soon."

Filia nodded and stepped behind Aria, before giving the cat girl a push over to Chrono. Part of her was upset when he hugged her as well, but seeing how sad and miserable the twins were, even she couldn't stay mad at them for too long.

(-)

A little while later...

"So, that's what happened years ago." Filia said softly as she heard a brief over-view of what the twins, who had calmed down by now, had done in the past. "Can't say that I blame Amy for her comments though."

"I'm sorry too." Amy said, much to the twins' surprise. "I guess I'm just a little resentful that you two and your father got off scott-free."

"Not completely." Lotte spoke up and sighed as she looked down at her lap. "Father and the two of us are under some powerful limiters and we're only given enough money every month to survive. Well, a little more here and there, but we're also under constant watch by the Bureau."

"A glorified house arrest?" Amy blinked as they both nodded at her. "I'm a little surprised..."

"Father admitted to what he did." Aria shook her head. "The only special treatment he gets is a personal nurse." She blushed at that. "It's not like that. He's getting older, and we can't be there all the time, and even if we could, we don't know how to help him all the time, so, we have a nurse that lives with us. She's someone from the Bureau who doesn't mind living here anyway, so it's not a bad thing."

"Isolation from what you've come to know for years can sometimes be the worst punishment possible." Filia muttered softly, much to everyone's surprise. "...Even if people think that his punishment is light, the fact that he's now forced to live the rest of his life away from the people he knows and cares about really hurts." The Golden Dragon understood that better than anyone. There were so many nights that she would wake up in tears simply because she could never be near her people again that sometimes she wondered if maybe she wasn't punishing herself for some reason.

"Um..." Lotte poked her fingers together. "Can we live here for awhile? We can help watch your children... And father's in good hands... Plus we can call him whenever we need to and let him know what's going on here."

Chrono shrugged and looked at his wives. "It's up to you two, do we kick them out or let them live with us?"

"Well... If they do live with us..." Amy trailed off as the two looked at her hopefully. "They'll need to basically be maids around here."

"We can do that!" The two said at the same time.

"And keep your paws off of our husband." Filia spoke, getting a nod from the two of them.

Chrono smirked at them. "And you'll need to teach all four of our children how to use magic." The two blinked at him. "Hey, you two taught me, and I wasn't that talented after all."

When they nodded, Filia looked at Amy, who nodded at her. "Then it's decided, they can stay here for awhile. But, as for a place to stay..." She blinked as Aria turned into a gray cat.

"We don't take up much room." Lotte smiled at them.

"Fine, we'll need to get you some maid outfits for later." Filia nodded to them and tapped her fingers. "I wonder if the rumors about combat maids are real."

The others all sweat-dropped as Filia stood up and walked off, muttering something about lethal dusting.

"She is kidding, right?" Lotte looked at Chrono. "Tell me that she's joking."

"Filia saw Black Lagoon and thought Roberta was an awesome character and wanted a maid like her." Amy shook her head. "Looks like she'll get her wish."

Aria and Lotte both gulped, but were grateful they had a place to stay now.

* * *

Bet none of you were expecting this, were you?


	198. Peek Finale Coda Six

Blood That Flows

Peek Finale

Coda Six

* * *

On Midchilda, it was getting close to lunch time.

Or would be if lunch was at noon instead of ten in the morning.

"I'd criticize how much you're eating, but I don't have room to talk." Teana muttered as she bit into her lunch in front of her. Said lunch was a pile almost a meter in height.

Sein and Subaru's lunches, on the other hand, were nearly two meters in height.

"Tea's just jealous that I can eat so much and not gain any weight." Subaru stuck her tongue out at Teana and dug into her pasta.

Sein shook her head. "Nah, all of Lanster's food goes to her boobs and butt." She giggled as Teana glared at her while her face turned bright red.

"You two..." Teana growled at the two short-haired girls before going back to her food. "Hmph, just because you're flat-chested, Sein, doesn't mean you need to tease me about my breasts."

Sein pouted and looked at her gloved hand. "Just because I'm petite doesn't mean that I'm jealous, Lanster, I like all boobies, big and small."

Teana slapped her forehead. "And this is why people think that I'm a lesbian." She groaned and lowered her head, shaking her head slowly.

"You're not?" Sein blinked at Teana while grinning softly. "I thought you liked the way that Subaru and I wake you up."

Teana snapped her head up and glared across the table. "I'd strangle you if I thought it would do any good." She still didn't know how the petite girl was able to be so skilled at her variation of movement magic when she didn't even seem to know the basics of magic until she started to learn at the academy.

"So, we have the rest of today and tomorrow off," Subaru began around a bite of food, grinning at the two girls, "wanna go hang out on our day off?"

"Why? So you two can embarrass me again when we're alone?" Teana asked as she ate some more food.

Subaru shook her head. "Nah uh. I want you to meet Gin-nee and maybe my mom will be there too."

Sein blinked and looked at the purple-haired girl. "Well, my sisters might be able to show up... Maybe. But I'd love to meet your family." She looked at Teana. "What about you, Lanster? Wanna join us?"

Teana frowned and stood up. "Excuse me." Before either girl could say anything, Teana was already out of the room, causing the two to look at each other in confusion.

"...She didn't finish her food." Subaru pointed out.

"She seemed upset, I mean more than usual." Sein stood up and stretched. "I need to go and make a call."

Subaru watched as Sein ran off before looking at all the food left behind by her and Teana. "...More for me then." People watching sweat-dropped heavily as the purple-haired girl dug into the food with abandon. Bets were quickly made wondering if she could finish it off completely or not.

Mouths hit the floor and wallets were emptied the instant that Subaru finished the last speck of food on the plates. "YUMMY!" Subaru leaned back in her chair and patted her belly. "Mmmm!" She closed her eyes and practically purred in delight. "Sooooo full!"

(-)

"Lanster!" Teana turned to see Sein running up to her. "Hey, wait!" Sein picked up her pace before dropping through the floor and reappearing right in front of her. "What's wrong?"

"Just leave me alone." Teana turned to leave, but Sein grabbed her arm and stopped her from leaving.

"Lanster, you're stronger than you look, I know you could throw me if you wanted to, but just listen, okay?" When Teana didn't make any motion, Sein let go of her arm. "Look, I haven't seen your family before, except for that picture of that guy that looks like you kind of... Who is that?"

"...Follow me, Sein." Teana said and started walking back to their shared room.

Five minutes later Sein found herself looking at a slightly old picture of a young Teana with a small gun and an older man holding her above his head. "His name was Tiida Lanster..." Teana said softly as she gripped the picture tightly. "He died on a mission a couple of years ago..."

Sein watched as Teana's body started to tremble. "...Lan.."

"And," Teana screwed her eyes shut tightly to keep from crying, "I can't prove it, but I know, I know he was murdered!" She spun to look at Sein, tears falling down her face. "Sure, his device recorded him killing the suspect and then taking his own life, but that's not him! I know it's not! Someone murdered him and messed with his device to cover it up!"

Sein blinked and pulled Teana into a hug. "...You don't have the recording, do you?"

"Why?" Teana asked as she buried her head into Sein's shoulder. "What good would it..."

"My oldest sister can hack into any system with ease, finding out if something was messed with is within her abilities. Hell, she copied the base programming of an Intelligent Device that was heavily damaged and helped turn that into a new device."

Teana stiffened and pulled back, looking at Sein hopefully. "...You would..."

"We're friends, right?" Sein smiled, before her eyes widened as Teana suddenly kissed her. "MMmph?"

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" Teana said after breaking the kiss and hugging the girl tightly.

Sein blinked several times. "...You sure you're not a lesbian?"

The next thing Sein knew, she was flying through the air and crashing onto the floor, her butt sticking up into the air as she landed on her head. "...Oww."

"I'll get you the recording, but you better not make a joke like that again." Teana crossed her arms and Sein grinned at her. "...What?"

"You coming to meet mine and Subaru's families then?"

Teana sighed at that but nodded. "Sure, what could it hurt?"

Sein grinned more as, a moment later, Subaru suddenly appeared out of nowhere and hugged Teana tightly, causing their temperamental friend to gasp in pain as Subaru hugged her extremely tightly.

Still, Sein wondered who would be good enough to manipulate a device, those things were designed to be nearly tamper-proof. 'If anyone can find out, it's Un-nee.' She thought to herself, hoping that she was correct in this statement.

(-)

A few days later...

Teana, dressed in tall socks, a black skirt and a short-sleeved white shirt, idly kicked her legs as she sat on a park bench and looked at her two roommates. Sein was dressed in jeans and a green shirt that was only a shade darker than her hair and Subaru was in short that went down to her knees and a tank-top that really didn't leave anything to the imagination. "So, when is your families going to be here?"

"Soon, I..." Sein trailed off and her eyes lit up in happiness. "Nove! Wendi! Dieci!" She stood up and waved at two redheads, the shorter of the two was in jeans and a light blue t-shirt, the taller of the two was wearing shorts and light gray t-shirt while the brown haired girl had tight jeans and a long-sleeved shirt on. "Over here!"

"You don't need to be so loud." Nove rubbed her forehead. "Wendi kept me up all night." When Sein grinned and tilted her head, Nove glared at her older sister. "She was excited to see you again, you don't need to look like that. We're not like you and Tre."

"Aww!" Wendi suddenly hugged Nove. "Come on! Don't be so mean to your familiar and baby sister!"

Nove twitched as Wendi's tail unwrapped from her waist and twitched behind her. 'I swear, I'm going to need to beat Un-nee up for that suggestion.'

"She's your familiar?" Teana asked as she and Subaru came over to look at Sein's sisters. One thing that struck Teana as odd was how similar Nove looked to Subaru, except for her amber eyes and red hair... Teana was struck by an odd thought of putting Subaru and Nove next to each other and see if they really were twins or something.

"Not really." Nove rolled her eyes. "We're raised as sisters, even though we're not related... If anything, she's the Doctor's familiar."

Before Teana could question that, Subaru's stomach started to grumble. "Eh heh heh..." Subaru rubbed the back of her head and grinned softly. "Guess I'm really hungry."

Teana rolled her eyes. "You're always hungry."

"I can't help it!" Subaru whined and hugged Teana. "You know that my magic style makes me hungry all the time!"

Nove sweat-dropped heavily. "Is she like this a lot?" She asked Sein, who grinned at her shorter sister.

"Yep!" Sein looked around and grinned as she saw a food vendor. "Hey, Nakajima, let's go there."

"Sure!" Subaru grinned and followed Sein. She couldn't wait to get her hands on all that yummy food.

"Hey! Wait for me!" Wendi ran after them. "I'm hungry too!"

"Wendi, don't you dare lose your temper!" Nove yelled at the slightly taller redhead, who waved back at her. "Ugh... That girl..." When Dieci patted her on the back, she nodded. "Thanks."

"It's not a problem." Dieci smiled softly. "You know that the doctor is working on something to help her control herself more."

"Huh?" Teana blinked and looked at the two. "What do you mean? What do you mean doctor?"

"He's not really a doctor, but he doesn't want us calling him 'dad', so we call him doctor instead." Dieci explained to Teana. "He has been raising the four of us, and eight others for as long as I can remember."

"Twelve children?" Teana sweat-dropped heavily and Nove shrugged at her. "So, um... Sein's your sister then?"

"Unfortunately." Both Dieci and Nove said at the same time, sighing and causing Teana to blink in confusion.

"Don't get me wrong, I don't mind her, but she's just..." Nove trailed off, not sure what to say.

"Grabby?" Teana suggested.

"Perverted?" Dieci continued.

"Clingy." Nove said, much to their surprise. "You should see her around Tre-nee. But Sein's really nice, just kind of crazy." Which described most of her sisters, now that she thought about it.

"I guess..." Teana shook her head. "We might as well find a table to sit down at. If I know Subaru like I think I do, she's going to order a mountain of food."

"Good, I'm hungry too." Nove muttered and looked around for a good place to sit down.

It didn't take them long to find a place that was partially in the shade and shielded from the breeze enough to prevent any food or napkins from flying around. "So..." Dieci began while looking at Teana. "I have to admit, you're as pretty as Sein said you'd be."

Teana's face went completely red and she leaned back. "Huh? Don't tell me that you're into girls too!" There wasn't anything wrong with that, but Teana wasn't sure if she wanted girls hitting on her all the time.

Dieci shrugged as she leaned against the table. "Whether I am or not doesn't matter, I can still appreciate someone who's very pretty."

Teana rubbed her forehead. "Ugh... Between Subaru and Sein, I think I'm the only..."

"Normal one around?" Nove ventured for her and the orange-haired girl looked at the redhead in shock. "Don't be too surprised, other than my two older sisters who don't fight and Sein, most of my sisters make me seem rather normal and weak." She looked at Dieci, who flinched. "Oh, come on, you know that I've gotten over that."

"Sorry, it's just..." Dieci sighed and Nove pulled the taller girl into a hug. "Thanks." Dieci closed her eyes and started to relax as Nove hugged her more.

"...Something I should know?" Teana blinked and Nove shook her head.

"Not something we talk about if we can help it. Dieci just gets upset when we talk about it."

Seeing Dieci relaxing against Nove, Teana smiled softly. "You're a good sister."

Blinking at the compliment, Nove blushed heavily and looked away. "Well, uh... If I don't look out for her, not many will, you know?" Chancing a glance, Nove's blush grew as Teana continued to smile at her. "Gah! No wonder Sein likes you!"

Teana blinked in confusion, wondering what Nove was talking about. "Uh... What?"

Nove shook her head as she blushed. "Nothing." Damn, she didn't know why, but that girl's smile was enough to make her body feel hot and flushed for some odd reason.

"Heeeeey!" Nove turned to look as Subaru, Sein and Wendi came back with several piles of food. "We got lots of... Hey! Nove! Why is Dieci sleeping?" Sein yelled at her, causing Dieci to blink and sit up. "Oh, you weren't sleeping."

Dieci shook her head and smiled as food was laid out in front of them. "No, just relaxing, that's all." Sein nodded and put the food out on the table. "Lots of food, huh?"

"Don't worry," Teana looked at Subaru, "she'll eat anything we don't finish off."

"I still say Tea's just jealous that I can eat without getting fat."

Sein giggled softly. "And I say that Nakajima's jealous that she can't grow her boobs and butt like Lanster can."

"I don't know," Wendi smirked as she looked at Teana, "I'd say that her bigger boobs and butt suit her just fine."

Teana and Nove both slapped their foreheads, groaning in dismay at the comments being tossed around.

"How do you put up with them?" Nove asked Teana before grabbing some of the food that the three had brought back.

"Either ignore them or throw them across the room." Teana rolled her eyes while doing the same. "How about you?"

"I'd kick Wendi's ass in training, but I think she likes it when I do."

Wendi just grinned and Teana blinked as she got a closer look at the redhead's eyes and ears. "What can I say? Nove hits just right."

'...Are her eyes slitted? Are those... Pointed ears?' It was a little hard to notice at first, since Wendi's hair tended to cover her ears, but now that Teana had a closer look, she could say that, without a doubt, Wendi couldn't be anything but a familiar of some sort.

(-)

A little later...

"Mom! Gin-nee!" Subaru suddenly stood up and ran out as two older women, both with long purple hair walked up to the group. "Hi!" She grinned as she punched out at her sister, who blocked it easily. "Ha ha! Gin-nee!"

As they watched Subaru and her older sister started to spin around while grinning happily and punching at each other and either blocking or parrying the other one's attack with ease. "...And I thought Nove and Tre-nee were battle maniacs." Wendi muttered, getting a look from Nove. "Sorry."

"I think I'm beginning to understand why Subaru's the way she is." Teana sighed and blinked as the other woman walked over to them, smiling.

"Hello." She nodded at the small group. "My name's Quint Nakajima and I'm sorry that we're late, I had to finish up some paperwork and Ginga slipped on some water before crashing into a fire hydrant."

"Moooom!" Ginga yelled, her face red. "You didn't need to tell them that! You could have said a dog bit my butt and tore my pants."

"Ginga, please, I'm sure that dog wouldn't do such a thing to you again." Ginga just buried her face in her hands as Quint giggled softly. "It's your fault for having beef jerky in your butt pocket like that." Smiling at her daughter, Quint turned to look at the others. "Teana, Sein and... I'm sorry, who are you three?" She recognized Teana and Sein from the pictures that Subaru had sent her, but the other three were completely unknown to her.

"These are my sisters, Nove, Wendi and Dieci." Sein introduced each one in turn.

Quint smiled, but blinked as she got a good look at Nove. "...You look..." The redhead started to squirm under Quint's gaze.

"What are you doing?" Nove asked as Quint knelt down and cupped her face, looking her right in the eyes. "...Uh..."

"Oh, hush..." Quint smiled at her before letting the girl go and ruffling her hair. "For a moment, I could have sworn that you looked like my girl, Subaru, but I can see that I was wrong." Quint reached into her pocket and pulled out a small piece of paper and a pen, before writing something down and handing it to Nove. "You'll need to come visit me some day, Nove. That's my home address on top and my work address on the bottom."

Nove was blushing hard as she took it. "Um, sure." The woman was beautiful, but for some reason, all Nove wanted to do was get a hug from this woman. "I think that we need to get going."

"Aww..." Wendi pouted, but nodded. "Okay, we'll go..."

"Oh!" Sein's eyes widened and she looked at Teana, who nodded and pulled out a small data strip, before handing it to Nove. "Could you have Un-nee take a look at that for me? I think it might have been tampered with."

Nove shrugged and took it, sliding it into her pants pocket. "Sure, shouldn't be hard... Come on, Wendi, Dieci."

Dieci smiled at Quint. "It was nice to meet you today."

Quint nodded and smiled as she watched the three walk off. _"Ginga."_ She shot her oldest daughter telepathically. _"Remind me to talk to Zest and Regius when we get back."_

_"Uh, sure, but why?"_

Quint never answered Ginga, but there was a look in her eyes that had Ginga wondering what was going through her mother's mind at that moment.


	199. Peek Finale Coda Seven

Blood That Flows

Peek Finale

Coda Seven

* * *

Elsewhere...

Smiling as she saw her three younger sisters come back into the base, Uno walked up to them while wiping her hands. Sometimes Jail's experiments were quite messy. Though why he decided he needed to see if he could make explosive paint, Uno would never figure out. "Welcome back."

"Un-nee!" Wendi squealed and glomped her older sister. "Your coaching worked so well! I almost didn't feel weird out there without my suit on." She then grinned as she grabbed her shirt. "I'm going to go put it on now!"

Uno, Dieci and Nove all sweat-dropped as Wendi ran out, stripping the whole way. "...I never thought someone would like the spandex so much." Uno shook her head and looked at the remaining two. "So, it went well then?"

Nove nodded at her. "Yeah... It was weird... Oh!" Her eyes widened as she reached into her pants pocket and pulled out a data strip. "Sein wanted you to look this over for her."

Taking it, Uno shrugged and pulled up a holographic terminal. "What? Sein's got some porn she wants to share with us to make Tre jealous?" As the video in the data strip played, Uno frowned softly. "Huh... Didn't know Sein was... Wait a second." If her eyes were any less sharp, she may have missed a minor, extremely minor hiccup in the recording. Then again, her I.S. and the equipment she was using was also a big help in that matter. "...This may take awhile... Nove, clean up Wendi's mess, and make sure that she's not harassing the twins again."

Nove nodded, wondering why Wendi was so... Excitable all the time.

Uno personally thought that Wendi just needed to get her own vibrator so she wouldn't pester everyone all the time.

Dieci was just glad that the drugs she was taking kept her emotions in check. "Excuse me..." She walked away, rubbing her arm the whole time.

Watching her leave, Nove sighed and looked at Uno. "Un-nee... My sisters... None of them are ever going to be able to live like they should, right?"

Uno looked at her and raised an eyebrow. "...I think you were around normal people too much, Nove..." The girl flushed and looked away, causing Uno to snort. "Yeah, out of all of us, only you and Sein have any chance at a normal life." Nove looked at her and blinked. "What? Due, Tre and myself are utterly loyal to Jail, Quattro wouldn't mix well with society, Cinque and Dieci are monsters if they lose their tempers, Otto, Deed, Wendi and Sette are part Dragon and have tempers on them... Well, Wendi doesn't, she's just too excitable. You think any of us have a chance to live a normal life even if we were given a chance?"

Nove just watched as Uno turned and walked away, working on the data strip that Sein had sent back. She really wanted to ask Uno what she meant, but the words just chilled her to the bone for some reason.

Looking at her hands, which were shaking, the short redhead balled them into fists and looked at them as she tried to stop them from shaking. "...Then I'll protect all of you. I'll make sure that you all get a chance to live a normal life."

Nove wouldn't abandon them. Even if Quattro was weird and gave off a weird vibe, she was still one of her sisters.

Running down the corridor, Nove narrowed her eyes, she had some practice to do... And she needed to make sure that her Revolver Gauntlet and Gun Knuckle were modified properly.

After all, she didn't think that the tomato juice it spewed out last time was supposed to smell that bad. 'Though, I don't recall asking for tomato juice for the Gun Knuckle.' She thought to herself.

(-)

Meanwhile...

"Come in." Regius blinked as Quint came through his door with a rather... Upset look on her face. "Nakajima..." He trailed off as she closed and locked the door behind her. "...What do you want to know?" As she walked closer to his desk, he realized that she was holding a folder that she threw onto his desk, which flipped open to reveal a certain report. "...The combat cyborg investigation? That was closed years ago."

"I know." Quint narrowed her eyes at him. "But I met someone today that makes me think that Subaru and Ginga weren't the only Combat Cyborgs out there. She looked too much like Subaru to be a coincidence." When Regius said nothing, Quint leaned forward on his desk, giving him an excellent view down her shirt, had he been looking at her chest rather than her eyes. "Tell me, Regius, that girl that injured myself, Zest and ended up killing Megane... Was she a combat cyborg?"

"You're treading into dangerous waters, Quint." Regius surprised her when he called her by her first name. "I can tell you a lot of stuff, but the question is, what will you do when you find out the truth?"

Quint was quiet, before her eyes widened and horror dawned on her. "...You knew, didn't you? You know all about it, don't you?"

"Yes." There was no more point in hiding it. Standing up, Regius turned away from her and looked out the window. "...Do you know of Jail Scagiletti?"

"The scientist who was involved in more than a dozen illegal schemes? What about him?"

"He was involved in Project F, laid the ground work that Precia Testarossa perfected." Regius said softly. "But that's not all he did... Under orders of the High Council," Regius turned his head to look at Quint, who was visibly pale at that moment, "under their orders, he was ordered to find a faster, more effective way to create artificial mages."

"But, the problem with that is that they're almost always failures somehow..." Quint could barely speak at that moment. "Project F was stated to be the most successful version of that, if the reports on Fate Testarossa's abilities are any indication."

"A few exceptions exist, but for the most part you're correct. However, the combat cyborg program... Your daughters were the first two..." He raised an eyebrow as she looked away. "Yes, well..." Regius didn't have to dig too deeply, he had a feeling that Quint had, shortly after finding out that she couldn't have children, done something to find a way to have some children some way and was disgusted by what the end result was. Of course, he couldn't prove it, and he didn't wish to ask, since it wasn't completely illegal to do something like that in the first place. "He also created several Combat Cyborgs, like your daughters, he started with cloning... But he revealed that he could create the Combat Cyborgs without cloning, by inducing invitro fertilization into a woman and they would be born naturally."

"...What... Regius, how do you..?"

"Quint," he narrowed his eyes at her, "I have a lot of dirty laundry and skeletons in my closet. I became so desperate to save Mid-Childa that I would have made a deal with the devil to accomplish my goal... If that meant breaking a few laws and having a criminal create an army of combat-capable individuals in under a decade, I would do so."

"...You asked... You..."

"Yes, I worked with Jail, providing him cover and supplies to create combat cyborgs... And I don't know how many he created. The last I heard, he had successfully created twelve, but not all were active."

Quint sat down and trembled. "...Why are you telling me this?"

"I could have kept it to myself, but the question is, what will you do now?" Regius turned to look out at Mid-Childa. "Certainly, you have enough dirt on me to have me thrown in prison for a long time, however, that Riot Force that I'm helping to create, which will undoubtedly come into contact with Jail at one point or another, may in fact fail if this information is leaked out to the public. After all, I might be using it to give Jail more materials that he could use to make more Combat Cyborgs."

"...What do you hope to gain with this?"

"Quint, I need someone who can make sure that if the Riot Force does, in fact, come into contact with Jail, that the group can prepare for the worst." He looked at her. "You and your daughters are more connected to Jail than anyone besides those who were made by Project F." When she looked like she was about to speak, he continued. "And I want someone I trust with this information, someone who won't draw suspicion if they're digging up highly classified information on the Combat Cyborgs." He walked over to the desk and opened a drawer before pulling out a folder and handing it to her. "These will be the people you will be working with."

"Regius... Why not Zest?"

"I trust him, I do, but he might draw suspicion my way." Regius leaned on the table and looked at Quint seriously. "The High Council and many other members of the Bureau aren't to be trusted, Quint. And I was one of them. I need you to trust me now, I need you to be my eyes and ears."

Quint nodded and took the folder before standing up and saluting him. "Yes, sir. But, may I ask one thing?" He nodded at her. "What are you hoping for?"

"I'm hoping that my gut feeling is wrong... That something bad isn't coming and that I'm paranoid, considering what's going on... I just don't trust anyone but you and Zest right now."

"Very well, sir, consider it done." She nodded at him and opened the folder, blinking at the first picture. "...Hayate Yagami?"

Regius nodded and turned away to look out the window again. "Quint... When this is over, you can do whatever you want with the information I gave you, including exposing me for criminal activity."

"If you did have Jail create more Combat Cyborgs, I don't know if I can stay mad at you." Quint closed the folder and headed to the door. "After all... I have another daughter out there now."

(-)

Later that day...

"Mama!" Quint smiled as she heard her youngest child come running at her with arms wide open.

"Aston." Picking her son up, she smiled at him as the wind caused his short, dark hair to get all messed up. "Were you a good boy today?"

"NNNGH!" He nodded, grinning and kicking his legs back and forth. His eyes were bright green and they shimmered in happiness at seeing his mother again.

"Where is..." Quint trailed off as another young child, this one with purple hair and lighter green eyes. "Ceilia."

"Mama!" Her daughter's eyes lit up and she ran towards the older woman, who knelt down and picked the two of them up, smiling happily as they hugged her. "Missed you!"

"Missed you two too." She kissed them both on their cheeks. "You been good for daddy?" They both nodded, getting a smile from her. "Good. Your big sister Subaru and Ginga should get next weekend off, so we'll all go spend the day at the park, okay?"

"Yay!" The two yelled happily, the thought of seeing their big sisters making them extremely giddy and bubbly.

Quint smiled and put the two of them down. "Why don't you run off and play, I need to talk to your father." They nodded and ran off, causing Quint to smile softly as she watched them run off. It was still so new to her, having children that she actually gave birth to, rather than adopting. "Genya?"

"Yeah?" She found him at the kitchen table, putting some plates down. "You're back early."

Quint smiled before walking up and giving him a kiss on the cheek. "You're a sweet-heart for doing the cooking tonight."

He grinned at her. "Well... I would like to say that it was just for the joy of seeing my wife's face light up, but I think that you know that I have another thought in mind."

Quint blushed at that, but grinned right back at him. "Oh, sure, just because I'm hot and sexy, you feel the need to ravish me every night."

Genya moved towards Quint and in one motion, grabbed her lower back and pulled her against his body as he leaned forward. "Do you blame me?"

Quint smiled and kissed him on the lips. "Not at all." She whispered to him. "But it'll have to wait until the twins are asleep."

"Of course." He said, kissing her on the jaw as his hand rolled down to her rear and squeezed, causing his wife to groan in delight. "Doesn't mean I can't get you worked up ahead of time."

Quint closed her eyes and groaned at the attention her husband was giving her. As nice as it was... "Genya, I need to tell you something." She mentally pouted as he stopped groping her butt. "I'm going to be transferred over to the new Riot Force division, the one that Regius is helping to start up."

Genya blinked at that. That was news to him. "Any reason why?"

"Mostly to give the younger kids some guidance and have someone on hand who can navigate the more complex political situations." Quint shrugged and Genya nodded. "Now then..." She grinned at him and pushed him against the table. "You better not disappoint me after getting me worked up, husband... I may have to... Get creative then."

Genya nodded at her. "Not a problem." At least Quint didn't take after that pen pal that she had a few years ago. His back still ached from hearing about how Quint's pen pal suplexed her husband onto the bed during the honeymoon.

"Good." Quint grinned as she leaned down and kissed him while pressing her body against his. Part of her realized that if she kept this up they wouldn't make it to the bedroom and that their twins were still awake somewhere.

While she didn't care about making it to the bedroom, the twins were a different matter all together. "...We should make sure that Aston and Ceilia are in bed first." She nodded at the look he gave her. "Trust me, I don't like it either, but it's either that... Or they get to watch us."

Genya sweat-dropped. "I don't think we need to traumatize them this early." Quint nodded and got off of him, before jumping as he stood up and slapped her butt. "Let's try not to take too long, hmm?"

Quint was blushing, but nodded as she ran off to take care of the twins.

After all, she wasn't going to let an opportunity for a wild night slip away on her.

* * *

I think that I'm the ONLY person to write Regius in a likeable manner.


	200. Peek Finale Coda End

Blood That Flows

Peek Finale

Coda End

I swear, I did not do this intentionally, having the final Coda on chapter 200.

* * *

Days later...

Uno grinned nastily as she finally broke through whatever it was that was used on this data strip. "Try and keep me from finding out your secrets, huh? Well, you've just lost to Supreme Hacker, Uno! Ohohohohoho!" She put the back of her hand over her chin as she laughed.

Blinking, Sette tilted her head while she petted Mr. Snuggles, who was purring and nuzzling her chest. "What is so funny, Uno?"

"Some hacker tried to keep me from figuring out what was on this data strip. As if someone can stop me from finding out the truth of the matter." She looked at the cat. "...So, what did the doctor say about that cat?"

"The doctor is unsure about this cat, but..." Sette pulled Mr. Snuggles away from her body and looked at the cat more closely.

"Meow."

"...He said that he's got something unusual in store for it."

"Meow?"

Sette blinked and shook her head. "No, I do not think that it would harm you. If anything, it may help you avoid being blown up by giant balls of magic."

"Meow!"

Sette nodded at him. "I do think that the doctor would want you to help if possible, I will make sure to tell him that you wish to be helpful."

Uno stared at Sette. "...You can understand that thing?"

Sette looked at Uno and blinked several times. "It is not hard to understand Mr. Snuggles. Do you not understand him?"

Uno slowly shook her head. "Sette, dear, I think we may need to get your hearing checked."

"I can hear just fine, but thank you for your concern, Un-nee."

"Meow." Mr. Snuggles tilted his head and Sette nodded at the cat, before pulling him against her breasts, causing the cat to purr again.

"Yes, I doubt that she would appreciate it if you made her underwear disappear on her."

Uno rolled her eyes. "If my underwear suddenly goes missing, I'm pretty sure that Dieci could use some target practice in her cow field, Mr. Snuggles."

"MEOW!"

Uno turned and had a small smile grace her face. 'That will teach you to try and steal my underwear.' "Anyway..." Uno's grin slowly disappeared as the data she was viewing changed. "...He did kill himself." Uno shook her head and narrowed her eyes. "But..." She turned up the volume and a frown came to her features.

_"Really... Trying to take me on? Just because I killed him?" A female voice was heard on the screen._

Behind Uno, Sette and Mr. Snuggles both looked at the screen and watched the events play out. A woman appeared on screen, but for some reason, a clear view of her face was impossible to get, even with Uno's continued work in trying to clear the picture up.

One thing that Sette found interesting was that even though the woman was in a skin-tight black suit, there was a red mark on her chest, right between her breasts and down to her stomach. Well, that and how her light blue hair turned dark at the tips.

_"Who... Who are..?"_

_"Stupid humans." The woman snorted and pointed her finger at him. "You think I care about what you think?"_

_The man made a garbled noise as he pulled his gun up to his head and pulled the trigger, causing him to fall to the floor, dead a moment later._

_"Heh... Maybe I shouldn't have super-charged that magic so much." The woman chuckled and turned to walk away. She took three steps before turning around and grabbing the device. "Hmm, maybe I should... Make sure that no one finds out it's me." She held her hand up and a nearly invisible keyboard appeared in front of it. "I know that. Don't worry, I just need to erase the data and over-write it. No one will know." The woman sighed and shook her head. "Of course there's a chance that it could go wrong, I don't know how these things work completely. I never learned that when I was still human and my master didn't have any use for them, except how to find the ancient ones and break them." Several moments later, the woman set the device back down on the ground and nodded. "Good, that should do it. Yeah, I know, I know, gotta hurry up or my cover will be blown, sheesh!"_

"...The doctor was right." Uno said softly as the video went completely out at that moment. "...There are Mazoku still out there."

Sette blinked as she thought back some time ago. '...That mark... Is Quattro...' She shook her head. Even if Quattro was an annoyance, she shouldn't think that Quattro was a Mazoku. After all, if she wasn't, then Sette would feel horrible about casting suspicion on her sister.

...Even if she didn't like the cyborg personally.

(-)

Meanwhile, at a secret location, a meeting of great importance was taking place...

Three individuals stood in silence, yet, despite that silence, they were still able to communicate with each other.

Even though they were nothing more than giant brains in even larger jars.

_"We've let Jail have too much freedom."_

**"What do you suggest? He cut his ties to us. I knew that we should have put chemical controls in his brain."**

"That would have gotten too expensive too quickly. The cost of cloning him alone..."

_"What do you suggest then?"_

**"Well..."**

"You three..." A female voice spoke up a blue-haired woman walked in front of the three brains. Grinning, she smirked at them. "Don't bother calling security, I've already killed them all."

_"Who are you?"_The first voice was wary, but interested.

"Let's just say that you want Jail under control and I want him out of my hair." She grinned at them. "Although, it may take awhile before that happens."

**"What do you want?"**

"Heh..." She smirked at them. "Using Jail himself will amount nothing... But use those precious cyborgs of his... You can control him through them."

"...We're listening."

"Trust me, just give me something that can put a small little..." The woman grinned at the brains. "Something that will make about... Half of the 'numbers' listen to you, no matter what." She tapped her chin and shook her head. "Actually, no, even I can't do that, not right now, but, if you get me the materials..." The blue-haired woman grinned at them. "I can make it so that those 'numbers' won't be an issue, in fact, they'll be quite... Helpful to all of us." Her purple-red eyes flashed as she grinned. "What do you say?"

**"Very well, we'll leave the details to you."**

Levi just grinned as she told them the materials she would need.

'The future is looking good.' She thought to herself.

* * *

And there you go, the final mini-arc is completed. Up next, StrikerS!

However, seeing as I do not have much done with StrikerS yet, I will not be posting it yet. Thankfully, at my speed, I should be posting it by the end of January... Provided that the Mayan calendar was lying and that the world won't end sometime in 2012.

But, for the most part, I think most of the loose ends were wrapped up while creating new ones to deal with in the future.


	201. StrikerS Start

Blood That Flows

StrikerS Start

Well, here we go. It's been a long while, hasn't it?

I give you a word of warning though, this arc is significantly darker than previous arcs have been.

* * *

Hayate, dressed in a brown mini-skirt military outfit smiled and saluted at the preliminary staff of the new Riot Force group. "Morning, everyone." She said from her position on top of a small stage.

"Morning." The group said as one.

"As you know, this is the first official meeting of the new Riot Force group. As it stands, we are an experimental group that was formed to be able to move freely without red tape clogging us down, as well as the ability to respond to any sort of crisis, regardless if it's Ground Forces, Navy or Air Force that would take care of it normally. Because of the large amount of staff that will be here right away, we are also tasked with the policing of various Lost Logia that are smuggled through Cranagan. The Bureau will continue to police Lost Logia as normal, so we only have to deal with any that happens here, or if we run into them while on a mission." She fought the urge to smile as the various staff members nodded their heads. "Keep in mind, that not all of the staff is here yet. Over the next couple of weeks, there will be other members of the Bureau coming and joining us, so do not be surprised if you see many new faces in the coming days." Smiling, Hayate saluted everyone again. "I'm not big on speeches, so, I'll end it with one last word. Of the new people coming in, we're going to have a small amount of trainees coming in. I will ask that, even though they are younger and less experienced than most of us, that you give them an honest chance." When no one said anything, Hayate nodded at them. "Dismissed."

(-)

Later in the day...

Hayate sighed as she sat behind her desk and groaned softly. "Gods, I feel tired." She looked up as there was a knock on the door. "Come in."

"Hayate..." Hayate's eyes lit up as she saw Reinforce walk in, dressed in a similar outfit to what Hayate wore. "I take it that the morning meeting went well?"

"Yes, but I've been up for almost thirty hours straight." Hayate sighed softly. "Ugh, just getting the movers to get everything right, making sure that people know what they're doing and having to do the whole meet and greet with all the new recruits, I could use a nap."

"Don't push yourself too hard..." Reinforce said to her softly. "Where is everyone else?"

"They'll be here this afternoon, actually." Hayate smiled as she saw Rein Zwei and Zafira, the latter in wolf form, walk in. "This morning was just for the base staff. We'll be getting the rest of the staff soon."

"Daddy looks like she's going to pass out." Zwei said and floated over to Hayate, patting her on the head. "You should take a nap, daddy."

Hayate blinked and wondered why she suddenly felt so groggy. "...Sleeping..." She yawned before leaning forward and passing out while resting her head on her desk.

"I don't think that Lina taught you that sleep spell for something like that, Zwei." Reinforce shook her head and walked over to Hayate and picked the small woman up. "Please tell me that you didn't make it too deep."

Zwei shook her head. "Nah uh. Daddy was really tired, I used just enough to make a person feel like yawning."

Reinforce nodded as she carried Hayate over to the couch and put her down on it. "Very well, but, please, refrain from that in the future."

"Okay, mommy." Zwei saluted her mother while giving her a determined look. "...Will daddy be mad at me?"

"A little upset, but not angry, I think." Reinforce smiled at her daughter.

"Besides," Zafira spoke up and looked at the small device, "like you said, Hayate was pretty tired, a couple of hours of sleep won't hurt her."

Reinforce nodded and looked back at Hayate. "Until Hayate wakes up, I'll be in charge, do either of you have a problem with that?" They both shook their heads and Reinforce nodded to them. Thankfully, being in charge today was mostly just making sure that people knew what to do later.

Most everyone was a professional anyway, so it wouldn't be a problem.

Walking over to the desk, Reinforce raised an eyebrow. "Missions, already?" She narrowed her eyes at them and sighed heavily. "Looks like we won't get much time to get together today. There's a few scouting missions that are requested, and one to deal with some criminals and they need extra fire power."

"How dangerous?"

"Not very." Reinforce shook her head. "Just small time thugs, but they're holed up pretty good. Just some extra firepower to draw them out is needed."

"Zaffy and I can go." Rein Zwei saluted her mother. "Zaffy won't let me get hurt and I'll punish the bad guys."

Reinforce smiled lightly. "Very well, be careful out there you two."

They both nodded and Zafira turned to walk away and smiled to himself as he felt Zwei land on his back as he walked out.

Reinforce waited until they were gone before closing her eyes. _"Vita, are you somewhere close?"_

_"GAH! Mom, what do you want?"_

Reinforce smiled at the title, but continued. _"Just where are you at?"_

_"...Um... Not out partying again?"_

_"...Vita, I swear, if you're hanging out at a club again, you'll be in such trouble..."_

_"I was just listening to the music. I swear, that's all. I wasn't looking for anything else."_ Vita's voice sounded sincere, so Reinforce decided to drop it at that moment. _"I was just relaxing until I needed to show up. Something wrong?"_

_"While I trust them, I'd feel better if you were with Zwei and Zafira, they went to help subdue some criminals and I worry about them."_

_"Not a problem, I'll head out right away."_ Vita cut the communication there.

(-)

"Sorry guys, I gotta go." Vita, dressed in black pants that looked almost painted on and a red, short sleeved shirt that was only loose enough to allow for easy movement, but did nothing to hide her generous chest, gave a small salute to the people at the dance club, most of whom all groaned in dismay. "Hey, family first, you know." She rolled her eyes as she threw on a leather jacket and ran out the door, nodding to the bouncer. "Keep up the good work, Bill."

The bouncer smiled at her. "You're always welcome back here anytime, Vita."

Grinning, the busty redhead ran out of the dance hall and grimaced slightly. "...Why are dance halls open all day and night anyway?" She asked herself before frowning slightly. _"Hey, mom, where is..."_ Vita nodded to herself as Reinforce gave her some directions before turning and running off in that direction. Even if she was restricted for flight in the city, she was still faster on foot than anyone besides Fate.

Vita stopped at a corner and grinned as she came across a motorcycle. 'Course, having one of these babies is just awesome.' It had taken her years of saving money, looking for deals and doing special favors to finally get a motorcycle, but it had been worth it in the end. Tossing on the helmet, she dropped the visor and got on the bike, turning it on and grinning as the engine roared to life. "Alright!"

While nothing could beat flying, this was a pretty close second in Vita's opinion.

(-)

Less than an hour later...

Vita arrived, somewhat grumpily, at the scene of several police cars in front of a two-story warehouse before nodding as she got off her bike after parking it and walking over to the captain before pulling her helmet off. "Bureau Captain Vita Yagami reporting in. What's the situation?"

"It's well in hand, ma'am." The captain saluted her. "Just moments ago, Sergeant Major Reinforce Zwei Yagami and Zafira Yagami showed up and went inside, and well..."

Vita looked up and sweat-dropped as a man was blown out of the window while crackling with lightning. "...Someone said she was a midget again." Vita shook her head and chuckled heavily. Her sister wasn't too forgiving when someone called her that.

"Is she like this very often?"

"Only if you call her a midget or try to take her food." Vita shook her head as another body came out, this time it was encased in a thin layer of ice. "She's not likely to kill them though, unless they somehow hurt Zafira." Zwei was so protective of her family that it would be cute if it wasn't for the fact that she was probably capable of re-writing local weather patterns when she got upset if she tried hard enough.

"And that's for trying to say that I was smaller than a nugget!" Zwei yelled as she floated out of the broken window, Zafira, still in wolf form, followed her, dragging five other, unconscious men out after him. "Sis!" Zwei spotted Vita instantly and flew over to her, trying, and failing, due to how small her tiny unison body was, to hug the redhead's breasts completely. "How are you? You don't smell funny today."

Vita sweat-dropped at the looks she was getting. "I'm fine, mom wanted me to make sure that you and Zafira were okay." She blushed as Zafira looked at her while dropping the chained up men in front of the police. "Hey, I was clear on the other side of Cranagan, it took me nearly forty minutes to get out here."

_"I didn't say anything."_ Zafira mentioned to her telepathically.

Vita just rolled her eyes and looked at the police captain, who was grinning at her, Zwei and Zafira. "We done, captain?"

He nodded at her. "Yep. If need a statement from you, we'll give you a call."

Vita smiled at him. "Cool. Zafira, Zwei, want a ride?"

Zwei grinned and nodded. "Uh huh!" Before Vita could say anything, Zwei flew up Vita's shirt sleeve before sliding into position between her large, comfortable breasts. "Ahhh!"

Vita felt like slapping herself in the face, but just shook her head, put her helmet on and got on the bike as Zafira turned back into human form and got on behind her. "A tank top and jeans?"

Zafira snorted at her and grabbed her side as she started up the bike and took off towards the new headquarters.

* * *

What did I do to Vita? Well, that's all Verossa's fault. He slept with her first, and her hormones went into overdrive.

Hundreds of years of being a child and her body is finally trying to catch up on all that time.


	202. StrikerS Two

Blood That Flows

StrikerS Two

* * *

"Hayate..." A soft voice was speaking to her. "Time to wake up."

"Nnngh?" Opening her eyes groggily and blinking as she saw Reinforce's face close to hers, Hayate blinked several more times before sitting up and rubbing her eyes. "I was asleep?"

"Zwei put you to sleep." Reinforce smiled and stepped back as Hayate sat up. "It's been four hours."

Hayate's eyes widened as she stood up in a flash. "Four hours?" She admitted, she felt more awake, albeit still groggy, but more awake. "I've got to..."

"Relax, dad." Hayate blinked and looked across the room where Vita was laying on the other couch, her hands behind her head as Zwei was apparently using her breasts as a trampoline to bounce into the air. Considering that Vita didn't have any discomfort on her face and Zwei was giggling madly, Hayate assumed that Zwei was just barely touching them and was really propelling herself upwards with a spell. "Signum, Nanoha, Fate and Yuuno haven't shown up yet. Shamal said she'd call as soon as they got here."

The second Vita stopped speaking, a screen popped up and Shamal's face appeared on it. "Hey, we're here."

Reinforce nodded to the screen. "Very well, come on up, we need to do some debriefing anyway."

"Ack!" Hayate tried to smooth her hair down. "I'm a mess."

Reinforce rolled her eyes and walked over to Hayate, pulled a comb out of her pocket and sat down behind Hayate, combing the girl's hair. "You're overly stressed."

"Just nervous." Hayate muttered as Reinforce combed her hair down. "I'm worried that this won't work, that I'm wasting my time, that I'm wasting all of your time, that..."

"Dad..." Vita spoke up and looked at Hayate with her left eye closed. "If this was a waste of time, none of us would be here. I'm sure that Nanoha, Fate, Yuuno, and Signum don't like to waste time on things either." If there was one thing Vita knew how to do, it was burn some time, usually out dancing and with any date she had.

Those were fun days.

"Thanks, Vita-chan, it's just..." Hayate trailed off and closed her eyes as Reinforce finished combing her hair out. "Guess that I'm just nervous about all of this."

"Don't worry, daddy." Zwei stopped bouncing and was sitting on Vita's breasts directly. "I'm sure that you'll do just fine."

Hayate smiled and stood up. "Thanks." The door opened at that moment and Shamal, Nanoha, and Signum walked into the room. "...Where's Fate-chan and Yuuno-kun?"

"Out picking up a couple of stragglers." Signum chuckled softly as she looked at the others in the room. "This isn't even everyone, huh?"

"I would hope not," Shamal shook her head, "how else are we supposed to operate with a bunch of rookies, a few Aces and a bunch of bridge bunnies?"

Everyone in the room laughed, except for Reinforce, who just smiled, and Rein Zwei, who looked confused and blinked several times.

"Anyway..." Hayate looked at them as the door closed. "Since we're here, I may as well go over who's going to be joining us for sure." The others nodded and she turned as a large screen popped up in the middle of the room. "Quint Nakajima, AA rank, ground forces Warrant Officer, mother of four, wife of Genya Nakajima, will be transferring over here, both because it gives us someone who's got experience with dealing with the politics that the Bureau has, and someone who's got connections and favors that she can use."

They nodded as the image changed to a man with brown hair and dark eyes. "This is Zest Grangeitz. Sadly, his transfer here may or may not happen. But if it does, he's over S rank and Quint Nakajima's direct superior."

"His role, should he transfer, would be to undertake, along with three others, missions requiring massive firepower." Reinforce spoke up to the group. The screen changed again and a man with purple hair and blue eyes appeared on the screen. "Zelgadis Greywords, as of this moment is finishing up some training with several new recruits. S rank, captain of the training corp, the man responsible for the expanding growth of the hybrid style of magic that many in the Bureau are adopting."

"Despite the fact that none of us have any problems using it," Hayate took over, "other than migraines when we push ourselves too much, we have the mana reserves to throw around spells that would quickly burn out weaker mages. I was reminded of the fact last week when I saw some C rank trainees using the hybrid style. They passed out after only five of the hybrid spells. However, these hybrid spells are the only way that, as far as I know, we humans can fight against the various threats that exist."

"Like the Mazoku." Nanoha said, her voice laced with disgust. "What else?"

Reinforce nodded and the screen changed again, this time revealing two young children that everyone in the room knew. "As you know, Erio Mondial and Caro Lu Rushe-Scrya," she smiled softly, remembering how utterly _happy_ Caro had been to find out that she was part of Yuuno's clan officially now, hearing her call him 'papa' was the highlight of her day.

Especially with how jealous some of the girls around Yuuno seemed to act when they heard that and saw the flying hug Caro gave him.

"As you know, the two of them were in accelerated basic training for the past eight months and will be joining us soon." When Signum smirked, she raised an eyebrow. "Just what is so funny, Signum Yagami?"

"Who do you think Testarossa and Scrya are picking up?"

Reinforce nodded and blinked as the door behind Nanoha, Shamal and Signum opened up. "Greywords..."

"Sorry that I am late." He said as he stood there in a light blue uniform, looking at them. "I did intend to get here sooner."

"Don't you have training?" Vita said as she sat up and got off the couch, as she did so, Rein Zwei climbed up her breasts so that she could sit in the valley between them. "I thought you were joining us later?"

"Officially, I am, I gave my students the day off so I could get here." Reinforce nodded at him and Zelgadis continued on. "Going over some new recruits?"

"You have a suggestion?" Hayate asked and Zelgadis nodded as he pulled out a small data pad and tossed it to Reinforce, who caught it easily.

"Hmm..." Reinforce looked at the data and raised an eyebrow before putting the images up on the screen.

"Subaru Nakajima and Teana Lanster, both are recent graduates of mine, I was trying to find them an advanced course to take to further their skills." Zelgadis explained to the group. "Despite being hot-headed, the two of them work rather well together. They did have a third roommate, but she left just days before graduation and we haven't found her yet."

"Would the third roommate have been a suggestion as well?" Reinforce raised an eyebrow as Zelgadis nodded to her. "I see, too bad. Anyone else?"

"At the moment, no, but I might suggest asking some of the Saint Church members to help train those four, they could use it." Zelgadis smirked at Reinforce.

"There's a couple more people who will be joining us." Hayate said as the screen changed one last time. "I'm sure that we know both of them by now, for you, Greywords-san, I'll explain," the image zoomed in on the one with short blonde hair. "This is Arisa Bannings, host of the Azure Dragon, which allows her to manifest several constructs of any element she wants to," on the screen, Arisa was holding a shield of ice that seemed to spin around on her left arm while her right arm had a mace of water and her back had two blue wings of fire, " that shield was made up of ice and wind, if any of you were curious about it. Not too long ago, she joined the Bureau and has been in training, most of it was the boring training." She shot at look to Vita, who merely snorted. "As for the other one..."

"Suzuka-chan..." Nanoha muttered as she looked at her friend on screen. "I thought she didn't have any magic?"

"She doesn't." Hayate admitted truthfully. "However, her body was, in fact, modified to be able to fight against Astral beings almost perfectly. And since she has some unusual abilities due to her lineage, well, Mary and Shari Finieno, both of whom are known for being geniuses when it comes to building new devices and upgrading old ones, figure that she can be the best person to test new devices and equipment that they have planned for mass-release."

Nanoha, Zelgadis, Signum and Vita all sweat-dropped heavily. "Um, Hayate-chan..." Nanoha trailed off, scratching her cheek idly as Raising Heart, which was chained around her neck, suddenly flashed lightly. "Do you recall what happened when they tried to install a cartridge system into your staff?"

"...I don't want to think about it." Hayate muttered, remembering the end result of that little experiment. "At least they fixed it."

Reinforce patted Hayate on the shoulders to calm her down. "Speaking of which, Nanoha, did they fix your Assault Mode?"

Nanoha nodded and grinned. "Yeah. They changed the cannon so that it's smaller and more stream-lined and turned the whip into a blade that rests against my arm so that I can block strikes to my arm, or extend out so I can strike back."

"Did they get rid of the wings?" Hayate asked, gulping as Nanoha narrowed her eyes. "Guess not."

"No one touches the wings! They are cool and you will leave them alone."

Hayate nodded before clearing her throat. "Anyway, that's all for now, so... We won't start operations fully for a few more days, so get to know the rest of the staff. But, remember, we're professionals, so act that way when on duty."

Everyone stood to attention and saluted Hayate, even Rein Zwei, who somehow managed it while standing on Vita's breasts.

"Dismissed." Hayate said to them and smiled to herself as everyone left the room, leaving her and Reinforce alone. "That went well."

"Indeed." Reinforce blinked as Hayate called up a holo computer and locked the door. "...Hayate?"

"I think I want some... Fun time with you." Hayate turned and grinned, causing Reinforce to gulp and blush at the same time.

Well, at least fun time was fun for the both of them.

'At least she locked the door this time.' Having Rein Zwei float in on them last time was rather... Embarrassing.


	203. StrikerS Three

Blood That Flows

StrikerS Three

* * *

Meanwhile...

Smiling at Jail, Lutecia and the other cyborgs, Quattro nodded to Uno, who started to type on a holographic keyboard, causing a screen to appear behind her. "Well, I'm glad that you could all make it, now then..." The screen behind her lit up and the large, white humanoid mechanical creatures that Quattro had in her lab appeared on it. "As you know, I've come into possession of a lot of these things lately."

"Can we skip the preliminaries?" Nove asked and blinked as Quattro shook her head.

"I swear, no appreciation for build-up." Quattro sighed and nodded to Uno, who tapped a few more buttons. "I need to explain a few things, okay?" She narrowed her eyes at Nove, who nodded back at her. "These Megah, as I'm calling them, have one weapon, the giant cannon on their arms, however, I discovered, through some work, that there's an area between the cannon and the arm that holds a large blade under it. Anyway, that's all of its weapons, it does, however, have incredible physical prowess."

"I might have to agree with your sisters, Quattro," Jail spoke up as he looked at the thing, "what is the point of describing this?"

"Well, I discovered that the cannon blasts are unaffected by AMF, unlike most of the Bureau's forces," Quattro smirked as Jail raised an eyebrow, "in addition, with some modification, I think I may have created a weapon that even the Aces of the Bureau would fear and respect."

_Now_ she had their undivided attention. Smirking, Quattro motioned for Uno to bring up an image of the gadget drones that they had around. "This is the standard unit that we use." On the screen, a digital image of the oval-shaped machine sprang to life against a digitized human opponent. "Against a C Rank mage, the AMF is rather debilitating." A bubble appeared around the drone on the screen, "and can be extended fairly far. The normal one, these ground ones, are, let's say, rated at 500. A group of five of them would be rated, combined, a total of 2400." She shrugged at the looks she was getting. "It's a slightly cumulative effect, anyway, the problem is, the strongest effect of the AMF is right up against the drones, as it spreads out, the effect weakens and becomes nothing more than a slight annoyance."

Quattro then snapped her right middle finger and thumb before pointing to Sein. "Thanks to the data that our cute little sister got us from her training period, I was able to learn quite a bit about magic... And something unusual happened."

Uno pushed another button and continued to speak. "According to the data that Quattro's shared with me, we'll use a simple spell, a chain bind. It's something that even a C rank mage can do without too much of a problem. At its current level, let's say that the number is 400." She blinked as Wendi raised her hand. "Yes?"

"Are these numbers accurate?"

"We're pulling them out of our asses." Uno shot back before snorting. "No, they aren't accurate, we're just using them for comparison, okay?" Wendi nodded, and Uno continued on, "anyway, a chain bind wouldn't last very long in an AMF by a single one of these gadget drones. It would hold, let's use Tre as an example. While it would stop her, she would likely break free a few seconds later." On the screen, five gadget drones appeared. "Under an effect like this, that same chain bind would barely be noticed by Tre."

"Of course, again, like before, the problem is, the strongest point of the AMF is right against the gadget drones and spreading them out causes the effect to weak even more." Quattro spoke up before grinning as the Megah reappeared on the screen. "However..."

Everyone blinked as the five gadget drones suddenly split in half before wires shot out and covered the Megah over its arms, legs and chest.

"When you combine them with the Megah, I found something interesting..." Quattro grinned as the data appeared on the screen. "Where five gadget drones would create a field of 2400, when they get onto the Megah, that same field increases almost five fold to 10,000." The glasses wearing cyborg sighed as she looked at the screen. "Sadly, where the gadget drones could spread the effect fairly far, the Megah concentrates it closer to the body."

"Instead of an AMF, think of it as an AMS, Anti-Magic Shield," Uno looked at her notes then at Quattro, "and I'm sure that you pulled _that_ out of your ass." Quattro just rolled her eyes. "Anyway, the effect is a shield that would make even some of the strongest of Aces have trouble hurting the Megahs."

"Now, onto the reason I developed this." Quattro smirked as the screen changed again. "Under normal circumstances, the AMS would keep a chain bind, or even an ice spell from doing too much, however, I discovered why the hybrid magic is so... Frightening." The chain, which had been yellow at this point, had turned to an icy blue color. Quattro brought her hands up and entwined them together. "The hybrid magic uses the Belkan or Mid-Childan style, which is a mathematical formula to generate the spells, and this... Spirit style, I guess you could call it, which draws upon gods, demons and lesser spirits, to generate the spells. Normally they're incompatible, but..." Quattro looked up as a Belkan triangle and a Mid-Childa circle both appeared on the screen. "Someone found a way."

"Normally, again, we'll use the chain bind here as an example," Uno looked at the screen, "normally this would only create one circle for a Mid spell or one triangle for a Belkan spell. However, if you combine it with the spirit ice spell, you add a second layer to it."

On the screen, a second circle appeared on the outside of the first circle on the Mid-Childa magic circle while a second triangle intersected the first one on the Belkan side, making it look like a six-point star.

"Of course, that's just the simple stuff... If you use a really strong, high level spell," Quattro trailed off as a third circle appeared around the Mid-Childa circle and a circle spun around the Belkan triangles, "it's nearly impossible to do the high level stuff without a device of some sort."

"I see..." Jail nodded as the screen turned off and the lights turned on. "The AMF was never designed to deal with such a complex array. In fact, I would think that even magic cancellation would have a hard time breaking down such a complex array."

Quattro nodded at him. "That's what I think as well. If one doesn't know about the interlacing and interlocking arrays, even if you cancel the part of the spell that you know of, the remainder of the spell would still connect." Looking at the table, Quattro mentally smirked as she saw the glasses in front of Otto, Deed, Sette and Wendi were either empty or almost empty. It was a good thing that she had made sure that the temperature in the room was fairly uncomfortable, otherwise she wasn't sure if those four would have taken that drink. 'Now the fun begins.' She heard her master chuckle in the back of her mind.

'Not yet, master Levi, but soon.' Quattro thought to herself as everyone left the room slowly. 'Very soon.'

"Quattro..." She turned her head to look at Jail. "Very soon I'll be getting that package, you know the one." Quattro's eyes flashed in delight at that. "We may have some trouble getting it, make sure that, when I send you and your sisters to retrieve it, that nothing goes wrong."

"Of course!" Quattro smirked and walked out of the room. When she left the room, she frowned as she saw Lutecia with Due and Agito. "Lutecia..."

"Master..." Lutecia turned and bowed her head. "I'm sorry, but Due, Agito and I were asked by the doctor to find some relics."

"I see..." Quattro had a tight smile on her face and looked at Due. "Well, have fun, but make sure that you come back."

Lutecia nodded and turned to walk with Due and Agito.

_"I don't trust her."_ Agito sent to Due, who could only nod.

For some reason, Due didn't trust Quattro either.

* * *

Pay attention, class, there's a quiz on this later.

Fate: It's been a long time.  
Yuuno: Tell me about it.  
Fate: Does the plot start yet?  
Yuuno: It's getting there, slowly.  
Fate: Next time, on Blood That Flows - StrikerS, we meet again.  
Yuuno: Sure won't be the last time.


	204. StrikerS Four

Blood That Flows

StrikerS Four

Sorry about no update yesterday, I was really exhausted after work.

* * *

Elsewhere...

Fate smiled as she and Yuuno sat on the benches, waiting for the dimensional planes to touch down. "It's been almost a year, hasn't it?"

"Yeah." Yuuno nodded, looking up and hoping to see which planes the two were going to touch down on. "Amazing that they actually wanted to go through with the basic training."

"I'm not surprised." Fate leaned back, closed her eyes and smiled softly. "They're surrounded by people like us, who enjoy using our magic, they look up to us and wish to emulate us." Opening one eye, she looked at Yuuno. "Or did you not notice how much Caro was watching you every time she saw you spar and train?"

"To busy with you and Nanoha against Signum, Vita and Hayate." Yuuno gave her a flat look as she giggled. "If I remember right, you ended up in just your underwear, Vita had just a bra on, Hayate ended up naked and Signum and Nanoha were all bloodied up from trying to bludgeon each other to death."

"I seem to recall that you were pinned under a giant rock Hayate summoned." Fate giggled, though her face was completely flush at that memory. "What was wrong? Too distracted from the nudity to get out?"

"Well, I sure couldn't complain about the sight." Yuuno grinned at her, causing her to lightly punch him in the arm. "Besides, I'm sure that you would have stared at me if I ended up naked."

**"Nah, if she wanted to stare at you naked, boss, she would get Nanoha and they'd ask you to join them in the bath."**

"I would not." Fate turned away, blushing hard. "I'm a perfect lady in the bath."

Yuuno stared at her, before smirking at the other blonde. "Sure you are, that's why you asked Thoth for pictures of myself and Nanoha on the beach."

Fate turned to look at him sharply, her face completely red. "How did you know?" Yuuno turned away and coughed. "...You tricked me."

Yuuno turned back to look at her and smirked. "Yeah, I did." He blinked as she narrowed her eyes and suddenly lunged forward. "Ah..." He gulped as she pinned him under her. "Fate, ah..." Dammit, why were her breasts so soft and yet so heavy in just the right way?

"Remember what happened last time you teased me?" Fate leaned in, before surprising Yuuno when she kissed him on the lips lightly.

Yuuno blinked at Fate and blushed as she pulled back and got off of him. "...Um..." If she would react like this more often, maybe he would tease her more often.

"Fate-san!" Fate looked up and she and Yuuno sat up as they heard that voice.

"Erio!" Fate smiled as she stood up and waved to the boy, who ran towards her as fast as he could. One thing that Fate found interesting was the long bundle wrapped on his back. "I'm surprised that he got that through security."

"Bureau clearance, likely." Yuuno muttered softly, "plus your mom is really good at designing stuff that hides metal from being scanned. How do you think she's able to carry that dagger of hers everywhere?"

Blinking in confusion, Fate wondered what he meant by that, but shrugged it off as Erio stopped just in front of them, grinning at them. "Fate-san!" As soon as Fate stood up, Erio jumped forward and hugged her tightly, smiling as she hugged him back. "Mmmm! Missed you!"

"Missed you too, Erio." Fate smiled as she hugged him back. "Been taking lessons from Caro on how to butter someone up?"

Erio let go of the hug and shook his head. "Nah, haven't seen her since we left home." Grinning, Erio rubbed his hands together as his eyes seemed to glow in delight. "I hope Signum-san, Vita-san and Reinforce-san will keep their promise."

Fate sweat-dropped and scratched her cheek idly. "I'm sure that they will."

**"Hey, boss, where's your midget?"**

Yuuno blinked and looked around. "...I'm not sure."

"Bardiche?" Fate frowned softly. "Has any new planes come in yet?"

**"Yes, sir, one just landed."**

Erio blinked and pointed down the air port. "I'll go and get her." Before either of them could stop him, the boy ran off, causing Fate to sigh softly.

"Those kids..." She trailed off and shook her head as Yuuno followed behind her.

"Not that you're any different at times." Yuuno looked at Fate as she walked in front of him. He wasn't sure if it was his own hormones or Thoth's influence, but a large part of him wanted to reach out and grab Fate's rear end while she was walking. Thankfully, despite those urges, he had more control over himself.

Besides, he didn't want to have to take on Fate, Nanoha and Vita in a three-on-one fight again. He was still sore from the thought of that.

Fate turned back to look at him and had a small grin on her face. "You know... If we get a chance, we should play beach volley ball again."

Yuuno nodded, the game was fun, and seeing the girls in their swimsuits bouncing around on the beach was rather lovely.

Regardless of what anyone would say about Yuuno, he was a guy and the women around him were all incredibly beautiful, he couldn't help but look at them when they were in eye-catching swim wear.

(-)

"Caro..." Erio called out as he got to an escalator near where he saw Caro's plane touch down. "Private Lu Ruche-Scrya!"

"Here!" Erio turned around to see Caro, in a white hooded cloak over a small pair of brown pants and shirt while lugging a giant, compared to her, duffel bag. "I'm, eeek!" She tripped over her own feet and lurched forward.

Erio's eyes widened. "Caro!" Everything suddenly slowed down for the boy as he used a spell that he was only taught once. The boy seemed to turn into a bolt of energy and he zipped up the escalator, bouncing off the sides as fast as he could, before reappearing at the top of the stairs and grabbing Caro before she fell off the stairs. Wrapping his arms around her, he spun so that he would land on his back and she would land on top of him, he grimaced as he felt his bundle push hard into his back. "Nnngh! You okay?" He blinked as his hands seemed to, somehow, end up grabbing her right on her chest to two very small and soft mounds.

Caro winced slightly. "Um, Erio-kun..." She got off of him and crossed her arms over her chest. "You squeezed too hard."

"Sorry, didn't mean to, you okay?" Erio looked at her in concern.

"KU!" A familiar Dragon popped out of the big duffel bag, before flying out and slamming its head into Erio's forehead. "Ku!"

"OWW!" Erio fell over and rubbed his forehead. "OWW! Dang it! Stupid attack Dragons!"

Caro giggled softly. "I'm sorry, Fried, bad Dragon. And Erio, it's okay, I'm okay, you just surprised me." Standing up, she smiled as Fried landed on her head before offering a hand to Erio. "Did you learn a lot?"

Erio nodded and grabbed her hand to stand up. "Yeah. Learned a lot, and grandma mailed this to me." He pointed to the bundle on his back. "Said that I earned it and can keep it if I promise to be a really good knight. How about you? Did you learn a lot?"

Caro nodded and grinned. "Uh huh! I even met a new Dragon summon! Now I got three!"

Erio's eyes lit up at that. "Awesome!" He then sweat-dropped lightly. "Just don't teach it to slam my head."

"Sure." Caro smiled and turned her head as she heard her name. "PAPA!" Her eyes lit up when she saw Yuuno step off the escalator and kneel down.

For a moment Erio thought that Caro used a sonic move with how fast she moved to hug Yuuno as tightly as she could. She moved so fast that Fried found himself laying on the ground, stars spinning around his eyes.

"PAPA!" Caro cried out happily, tears leaking out of her eyes. "Missed you!"

"Missed you too, Caro, missed you too." Yuuno smiled as he hugged her while rocking back and forth softly.

* * *

Yes, I know, it's slow. Trust me, it'll pick up.  
Subaru: Finally! It's our time to shine! Tea!  
Teana: Don't get too excited, stupid Subaru, otherwise we'll fail.  
Subaru: Aww! Come on, Tea! Next time on Blood That Flows - StrikerS, I will succeed!  
Teana: We'll see.


	205. StrikerS Five

Blood That Flows

StrikerS Five

* * *

Three days later...

It was a fairly cool day as the wind blew through her short hair and caused her headband to flick around behind her. Pounding her right fist into her left palm, she bounced on her roller blades as she did some quick punches into the air in front of her.

"Subaru." Her partner said from behind her as she finished checking on her gun-like device. "If you don't calm down, you'll break your skates."

"Nah uh!" Subaru turned to face Teana, who was wearing a brown one-piece dress-like outfit. Subaru, herself, was in a halter top that was covered by a white jacket, short shorts that covered her hips and nothing else, and had knee pads on to protect her knees from what she was going to put them through. "You know that mom made sure that my roller blades are better than what we had in training."

"That's fine, but why did she give you one of her gauntlets anyway?" Teana asked as she looked the glove over. "I know it was a graduation present, but..."

"Mom's getting different ones for herself and gave Gin-nee one and me the other one, said that it would help us more."

Teana rolled her eyes and blinked as a large screen appeared in front of them.

"Oh!" A silver-haired, blue-eyed girl appeared on screen and smiled at them. "Are you two here to take the B-Rank test?"

"Yes, sir!" Both of them stood to attention.

"Good." She smiled at them. "Just to make sure, it's one Private Subaru Nakajima?"

"Yes!" Subaru nodded at the screen.

"And Private Teana Lanster?"

"Yes, sir!"

"I am Sergeant Major Reinforce Zwei Yagami." She saluted the two of them. "And I will be your supervising officer for today." She held up a finger while smiling. "Your mission is to go through the obstacle course," a small map appeared on screen, showing the area and a line giving the general path, "if you follow this path, you'll eventually end up where I am. You have to not only get to me before time is up, you'll have thirty minutes, but you also must take out all security drones and marked targets."

An image of small spheres appeared on the screen, as did some glass, full-body figures appeared on screen, some had red circles, others had blue triangles. "You are to only destroy the red circles, any others will count against you."

"Yes!"

Rein smiled at them. "Well, good luck and don't get hurt."

(-)

High above them, in a helicopter, Vita, in a brown suit jacket and miniskirt, yawned softly while cracking an eye open. Her long braided hair was over her shoulder as she held her arms behind her head. "So, how long is this?"

"About thirty minutes." Hayate, in a similar outfit, everyone who was sitting in the helicopter had on a similar outfit, signifying that they were from the same military branch, replied and looked at her. "And you shouldn't be so casual."

"Sorry, just a touch bored, I'd rather be back at base..." Vita trailed off at the look Hayate gave her. "I swear, I would have been good, I just wanted to get to know the place better."

"You would probably spend your time looking for the best make-out places when you weren't on duty."

"Signum!" Vita sat up, twitching and looking at the seat next to hers. "You'd be a lot more fun if you pulled Laevantein out of your butt more often and went on some dates or something."

Signum rolled her eyes at Vita. "I'm more comfortable not indulging your bad habits, thank you very much."

_"That's not what you said a couple weeks ago."_ Vita shot to Signum telepathically and smirked as the pinkette blushed hard.

"Vita, stop teasing Signum, Signum, stop baiting Vita, or I'll make the two of you suffer through Shamal's newest attempt at fancy cooking." Hayate had a tight grin on her face as the two turned away from each other, settling down. Some days, Hayate wondered how the heck Lina was able to deal with five kids, two grandchildren and the various guests that lived at her house for so long.

"Hmm, looks like they've split up." The last person in the helicopter said. "It'll be interesting to see what they can do alone."

"Already thinking about how to use their skills, eh, Fate-chan?" Hayate teased the blonde, who didn't refute the claim.

"That girl needs a better gun." Vita commented as she looked at Teana while leaning to the side in her chair. "She reloads it too often and it's barely a storage device."

"Not everyone can afford a good quality device, Vita." Hayate replied, getting a nod from Vita.

"Oh, I know, I'm just saying that she won't last long in a real fight with a device like that." Vita didn't know why graduates weren't given upgraded devices at the very least. Even if it was a custom job, Teana's device was barely adequate for someone of C rank, much less the B rank she was aiming to get in this test.

"It's too bad that she's not a B rank mage." Signum commented softly. "She would have gotten a back-up weapon in case something happened to her device."

"Oh yeah, those Shine Swords." Hayate nodded at that. "Why haven't they been given out to any below B rank yet anyway?"

"Mostly politics," Fate shook her head and sighed, "understandable concerns, however, about the chance of low-ranking, and thus not loyal, mages and knights leaving the Bureau for mercenary work would be a bad thing, plus it's not an emergency situation."

Vita watched, slightly bored, as Teana and Subaru met up again and started to take off towards the next set of obstacles. "I say we just fire whoever thought up that obstacles was a good way to test the level of someone and just get someone who's A rank to fight against these rookies." It made much more sense to her. "What? I wasn't allowed to be a knight until I beat my master in the past, Fate needed to fight against Chrono to get her AAA license, it makes a lot more sense than just doing something stupid like this."

"I never made the rules, and I guess people thought it was becoming too easy to get higher ranked." Hayate shrugged at Vita and watched as Teana and Subaru disappeared into the second part of the course. "Hmm, I wonder what they'll do here."

Vita shrugged at that. "Hmm, I wonder how much they know of magic other than Mid and Belkan?"

She got her answer a moment later when the area was quickly frozen due to Freezing Bullets from Teana, only to shatter when Subaru punched it with all her might. "Not bad." Vita could appreciate something like that, if only because she had been frozen more than once by her friends.

A moment later, the camera broke and Vita sighed heavily. "Dammit, that was the only thing entertaining."

(-)

Minutes later...

Subaru stood on the top of a building that was several hundred yards in front of her. "I can't fly, and I can't fight at long range, all I really have are my fists and my mother's fighting style." She closed her eyes before snapping them open, a determined look crossing her features. "But!" A Belkan triangle appeared under her feet and for some reason, she thought she was hearing dramatic music being played. "I can't let that stop me. I will be strong, stronger than even mama is. Wing... ROAAAAD!"

A blue strip of magic shot out in front of Subaru that didn't stop until it slammed into the building that was her target. "Let's GO!" The gears on her gauntlet started to spin as she rushed forward as fast as possible. Reaching the wall where her Wing Road was stopped, she punched forward, shattering through the stone wall and saw multiple copies of Teana, due to the latter's skill in illusion magic, standing around a large, ball-like machine thing.

Punching forward, she let out a yell as the shield was holding strong against her attack. "NNNGGGGGAAAAAHHH!" She let out a scream as she was able to open her gauntlet-covered fingers and push through the barrier, before grabbing it and pulling back, shattering it into pieces. When the thing fired at her, she was forced to do some back flips to get away from it. "Now, to keep you from moving!"

A blue triangle appeared under her and Subaru grinned as she called up her secret weapon. The only downside to the spell was that she wasn't sure if she could pull it off correctly or not. Especially since the last time that she did it, it exploded in her face. That had been one long and painful trip to the emergency room for that. "Strike... CHAIN!"

Two blue chains with sharp tips shot up through the ground around the fat ball, floating upwards until they were above it before slamming down, through it, at an angle and crossing past each other on the inside, forming an 'X' pattern and anchoring itself to the floor.

"With a single blow... DESTROY!" Subaru let out a screech as a ball of flame formed in her left hand and a blue magic sphere appeared in her right. "Flame..." She tossed the fireball upwards gently before rolling back a few centimeters back and lobbing the blue sphere forward. "Sphere..." Subaru quickly spun around in a complete circle and rushed forward, her right hand covered in energy before she lashed out with her fist, connecting with the ball of energy as it and the fireball connected at that moment. "BREAKER!"

As the energy built up, Subaru's only hope was that this wouldn't explode in her face like it did last time.

Her worries were unfounded as a jet of pure flame shot out, hitting the large drone and expanded, instantly incinerating it and engulfing the Teana images.

"Alright!" Subaru grinned at her work. "That worked and..." Her eyes widened as the wave of fire came right at her. "EEEK! Running, running, running!" Turning around, she shot for the hole that she created on her way there. "Wing Road!" She wasn't as good as her mother or Ginga at creating this move on the fly, but at the moment, she didn't have a choice.

When the road appeared under her feet, she was thankful that she didn't screw it up.

When the building exploded moments later, Subaru wondered if maybe that spell wasn't meant for close quarters.

(-)

Minutes later...

Reinforce Zwei looked at the time and nodded. "Still thirty seconds, they still have time." Granted, not a lot and if they didn't hurry...

Her thoughts trailed off as she looked down the highway. "Ah! I see them!" She smiled as the last target between them and the end was destroyed. "Good, now they just have to..." She sweat-dropped as they started to pick up speed. "Get across the finish line. I just hope they have good brakes."

She sighed as she heard them screaming loudly. "Guess they don't." Well, it was going to suck, having to fail them just because they were too reckless, though, at their current pace, they might make it across the finish line before time was up. "Mouuu... They did good too." She pouted, before blinking as several blue chains appeared between her and the two girls as they zoomed past the finish line. "Huh?"

Rein Zwei blinked several times as the chains managed to slow the girls down enough to keep them from crashing into the wall behind her.

"See? Told you I could make brakes!" Subaru said, giggling softly. "And they didn't hurt either." She yelped as Teana cracked her on the head with her gun. "Oww! Tea! What was that for?"

"Scaring me half to death!" Teana said as she gingerly hobbled away from Subaru. "Dang twisted ankle." Why did that have to happen while she was doing the test? Why couldn't it happen some other time? Like, never.

Subaru just rubbed the spot where Teana hit her and giggled nervously.

"Well, I have to admit," a male voice spoke up, causing Subaru and Teana to turn to face the newcomer, "that was quite the interesting use of a chain bind."

"Yuuno-san." Subaru said, her face flushing, before she shook her head and saluted the man who saved her life.

Teana mentally groaned, if Subaru started to act like a fan girl now, they might be failed just for that.

She just hoped not.

"As for your test," Reinforce Zwei looked at the two of them, before smiling, "you did pass, but I'd like it if you two would be more careful out there, okay?" She smiled as their eyes lit up in joy. "Yuuno, you want to tell them the other news?"

Subaru and Teana both blinked as Yuuno smiled at them. "Well, Rein is right, there is one other piece of news... Teana Lanster," he frowned as he saw her favoring her right ankle, "Rein, can you heal her ankle for her?"

"Sure!" The small device zipped over to Teana and had her sit down so she could heal the damages properly.

"And you, Subaru Nakajima, are both invited to join the new Riot Force that myself and several others are making up." Both girls blinked in surprise and Yuuno smiled at them. "How about it? Care to join an elite group of the military? It's a one-year gig, and when you're done, you'll be almost assured to get a high ranking position in any division after you're done."

"SURE!" Subaru was overjoyed and her eyes sparkling in happiness. "Tea!"

Teana smiled and nodded. "Yeah, I'd like that."

Yuuno smiled and looked up as a helicopter came down towards them. "Well then," the door opened up, revealing Hayate, Vita, Signum and Fate, "welcome to the Riot Force."

* * *

Yes, I know, I know, that went, more-or-less, straight how it went in canon, with some minor changes. Don't worry, bigger changes are coming, I promise.


	206. StrikerS Six

Blood That Flows

StrikerS Six

Sorry for not updating yesterday, was busy.

* * *

"I'm... Surprised." Teana said as she, Subaru, Rein and Yuuno were in the helicopter with Signum, Vita, Hayate and Fate. "That you would accept us so easily."

"Don't be," Signum looked at her. "You were recommended to us by your old teacher, and seeing you and Nakajima out there, I think you do have some potential." Teana blushed at that, she wasn't used to getting such praise from her superiors.

"Course," Vita smirked at the two rookies as she leaned against the side of her chair, "you two aren't anything too special yet."

"Vita!" Hayate yelled at her, causing Vita to look away. Sighing, Hayate looked at Teana and Subaru. "Despite her frank words, she means well. As for you two, you'll be joining two others to learn from some of the best ever." For some reason, Subaru and Teana could have sworn that the light was dimming around Hayate and her eyes seemed to flash as she grinned at them. "Of course, we'll have to have you two try on lots of different outfits first and foremost!"

**"They won't be as cute as Caro and Erio were."**

"Of course not," Hayate grinned while cupping her chin, "I think I'll go for the sexy look on the two of them, really get some mileage out of what possible service shots I can get away with."

Signum just sighed as Teana seemed to get afraid of Hayate. "Just relax, she won't do that, unless you get out of line, then you'll have to worry." She mentally snorted as the two nodded to her. Idly, Signum wondered how fun it would be to see the two get really nervous at the thought of making Hayate angry.

It was almost enough to make her laugh.

Subaru was going to say something when a building outside caught her attention, turning her head, her eyes widened at the sheer [i]size[/i] of the building. "Woah!"

Fate smiled at Subaru's reaction. "That's the Riot Force headquarters."

"Is that thing eighteen stories tall?" Subaru blinked, she had been in a lot of tall buildings, but seeing two tall buildings, side by side scrawling upwards, was rather impressive.

"Twenty four stories tall, four stories under ground." Yuuno spoke and looked at her curiously. "It's not that large, is it?"

"Most Bureau buildings aren't more than eight stories tall, this thing dwarfs them." Subaru looked at him. "The Ground Forces headquarters is, I think, twenty five stories tall, but it's just one building, this is two side by side!" She blushed when he smiled and nodded at her.

"This is true. Guess I got used to seeing buildings that were at least this tall all the time back on Earth."

Seeing Subaru turn away and try to hide a blush on her face, Teana felt the urge to sigh heavily. 'Just because she's talking to the guy she practically built a shrine over...' She thought to herself, looking out the window and idly wondering what Sein was doing. Even if it had been a long while since she had seen the other girl, they were friends and the fact that Sein had disappeared with a note saying that she was sorry about leaving and that Teana had been right about her brother really did hurt.

Even if it gave her new determination. If this group could help her just find out who murdered her brother, she'd feel a lot better about her lot in life.

"Anyway," Fate spoke up to the group, "I hope it's not too sudden, but as we're in a state of chaos at the moment, myself and your other superiors would like to do some training with you two and the other two who will be joining you."

"Not at all." Subaru grinned at Fate. "I'd love to!" She looked at Teana, who could only nod as well.

"Yes, I wouldn't mind it either."

Teana wished she could take that back a moment later when she felt the air literally start to get heavy with anticipation. There wasn't a change on anyone's face or body posture, but for some reason, Teana felt like she was going to hate the next few days.

(-)

Later in the day...

'Hate', Teana decided as she tried to pick herself up from being knocked around by Vita again, 'is too weak of a word.'

The only comfort Teana had from all of this was that Subaru was also picking herself off the ground from trying to beat the same redhead, who was still in that long-sleeved red jacket and black pants. One thing that Teana found completely unfair was that Vita was completely unarmed and tossing them around so easily.

A quick glance to the side had Yuuno facing off against a small pink haired girl named Caro and a short redheaded boy named Erio. One thing that Teana found weird was that Caro, despite being in the same gray training pants and white shirt combination that everyone but Vita was in, had this weird smile on her face.

Well, Erio did as well, but that spear in his hands looked rather weird, way different than any standard Bureau spear she had ever seen.

"Oi, you two done already?" Vita shook her head in disgust. "Really, this is all you can do? I could have beaten the two of you stupid when I was eight years old, not that it's too hard, considering the lack of intelligence you two have."

Vita grinned as Teana and Subaru both stood up, anger clouding their faces. "Wow, I think I hit a sore spot," she turned her head to look back at Signum and smirked, "think they're mad?"

"Perhaps." Signum smirked as Vita twisted to avoid a punch from Teana and held up a hand to casually block a shot from Teana.

"Lesson one, kiddos, psychological warfare is something that we all deal with. Whether its to get someone mad, terrified or disheartened, we all deal with it and use it to our advantage." Vita grabbed Subaru by her pants, pulled up hard, causing the girl to let out a scream of pain as her underwear was pulled up hard against her crotch and between her butt-cheeks before tossing her into Teana at such high speeds that they created a deep trench in the ground. "Really, we've only been out here for about," she turned to look at Signum again, "how long?"

"Twenty minutes, Vita." Signum rolled her eyes as Teana and Subaru, the latter reaching into her pants to adjust her panties, stood back up.

Subaru didn't get a chance to fix her underwear completely as several flying metal spheres came rushing towards them.

"Twenty minutes?" Vita turned back to smirk at the girls as they moved to avoid her attack. "Come on, those two kids can last longer than you two have!"

"Why..." Teana asked as she ducked another attack. "So hard?"

Vita smirked at them as she flew right at them. "This," the next thing Teana knew, Vita's fist was in her stomach, causing her to fly off her feet and into the air.

"Tea!" Subaru cried out, before letting out a yelp of pain as Vita grabbed her panties directly and yanked them up, driving them against her crotch and ass more tightly.

"Is to get a gauge of what sorry weaklings we're working with." Vita had a nasty grin on her face as she held out her arm and caught Teana with ease. "Take the rest of the day off and relax."

Signum raised an eyebrow as she walked over to them. "Went a little hard on them, didn't you?"

"Oh please, you and I both know that our spars with each other are a lot worse than that." Vita rolled her eyes and turned to look at Subaru and Teana's shocked faces. "Get used to it, kiddos, you two will probably hate us when we're done, but you're going to be amongst the best when we're done."

"As sad as it is," Signum continued to speak as she noted Erio get knocked away by Yuuno's shield and Caro ended up with her feet frozen to the ground, keeping her from moving, "we don't have time to mess around with you two. Training from tomorrow out will be closer to your level, but still punishing at the same time."

The two nodded at that. "But, it was so short and..."

Signum shook her head, interrupting Teana. "Push you too hard and your body won't be able to respond, so, you two, take some time and jog back to headquarters, get washed up, eat and get plenty of rest, okay?"

Vita rolled her eyes after all of the rookies had left. "They've got some potential. If they were normal B ranks, they wouldn't have lasted ten minutes."

Signum nodded and looked at Yuuno. "What do you think?"

"They've improved," he said, thinking about Caro and Erio, "at the very least, they forced me to actually take a couple of steps back and fight back for once."

Vita grinned at that. "Well then... This isn't a waste of time after all, I might have some fun then..."

"...You're not going to wear nothing but a thin tank-top and tight shorts again, are you?" Signum asked, getting a smirk from Vita at that. "...At least wear a bra this time."

"Oh, come on..." Vita started to walk away with her hands crossed over the back of her head, her long, braided hair bounced off her rear as she walked. "I think that everyone enjoys it when I'm like that." She turned to see both Yuuno and Signum looking away from her. "Heh, got'cha."

"Yuuno..." Signum narrowed her eyes as she called out Laevantein. "I think we need to... Punish Vita."

**"Ja!"**

"Sounds good to me." Yuuno grinned as he activated Thoth's real form.

**"Does it involve lots of chains, no clothes and lots of fun?"**

Vita called up Graf Eisen and smirked at them. "Bring it on. Let's go, Eisen!"

**"Jawol!"**

(-)

Hours later...

Nanoha frowned as she saw Yuuno, Signum and Vita, all three of them in extremely tattered and dirty clothes, walk through the doors. "...You had a three-way and didn't invite me? How could you?"

Considering that Vita's top threatened to tear open, Signum looked like her clothes would disintegrate and Yuuno's pants looked like a wild animal got at them, it didn't take long for the rumors to start flying.

(-)

The next morning...

Teana rubbed the sleep out of her eyes as she, Subaru, Caro, that small Dragon of hers and Erio, all walked out onto the training field. Her eyes widened and the tiredness in her mind cleared in an instant as she saw who was waiting for them. "Instructor Zelgadis!"

The man nodded at her while he had his arms crossed over his chest. "Good to see you this morning as well, Teana Lanster, Subaru Nakajima," he looked at the two shortest people on the field and raised an eyebrow, "and you two are?"

"Erio Mondial," the boy with the bundle strapped to his back saluted Zelgadis.

"Caro Lu Ruche-Scrya," the girl with pink hair and a small Dragon floating next to her saluted him. "This is Fried."

"Ku."

Zelgadis smirked and looked at the woman by his side, "you have anything to say, Nanoha?"

Turning, Nanoha smiled at them. "Well, yesterday, they went up against Yuuno and Vita in training," Nanoha smiled lightly as she saw the four of them look down, "but that was just to get an idea of where they're at."

Zelgadis nodded as a city seemed to materialize over the water. "Well, today's early training will be easy," he smirked at them as they looked up at him, "your mission today... Is to defeat me."

The four stared as Zelgadis jumped upwards and flew into the holographic city.

"Is he serious?" Teana looked at Nanoha, who merely raised an eyebrow at them.

"I think he is, you might want to hurry." Nanoha smiled as the four of them disappeared into the virtual city. "...And now, for the fun part." She chuckled softly and floated upwards above the city. "This might be interesting." Idly she wondered how they would take it, before shrugging it off.

If they couldn't handle this level of training they probably would never be ready for anything truly dangerous.

Like Vita when she was going through PMS.

(-)

Zelgadis had his eyes closed while he hovered a few inches off of the ground. His arms were crossed over his chest as he mentally sought out each of the trainees. 'Let's see, Erio is behind me, Subaru just in front of me, both out of sight, that's good, Teana is...' His thoughts trailed off and he grinned before spinning around and pointing right at where Teana was hiding. "Flare Arrow!"

Hearing Teana yelp and jump out of the building, Zelgadis was glad that the holographic city was full of abandoned and decayed buildings.

It made it easier to watch the buildings explode from various spells.

"Fried, Blast Flare!" Zelgadis turned his head to see the small Dragon fire a ball of flame at him.

He merely chuckled as the fire dissipated against his barrier before turning as Erio popped out and zipped right at him. "Diem Wind!" There was no point in ripping out the large spells yet, these kids needed to get a handle on things first.

Zelgadis was surprised that Erio managed to avoid the attack by jumping straight up. "Levitation, huh?"

"Subaru, now!" Erio called out and Zelgadis turned his head to see Subaru rushing right up at him.

"Revolver..." Subaru pulled her arm back to strike at Zelgadis, who was merely smirking at her. Just as Subaru was beginning to wonder what that was about, she was bombarded from above with several pink spheres that crashed down around her, causing her to lose her balance and have to jump to the side to keep from being blown up.

"Even the most simple of tasks can suddenly become difficult if something unexpected happens." Zelgadis turned and suddenly took off running at a speed that left most people astonished. "Like if your enemy decides to target one of your group instead of anyone at random." He jumped off the ground and ran across a wall before flipping and landing on his feet behind Teana, who had been ducking into an alley to get more cover.

Teana could only stare as Zelgadis grabbed her forehead, his hand glowing a soft blue color. "I have one of your teammates, if you all surrender, I won't flash freeze her skull." While holding Teana by her forehead, he walked out into the street to show off his prized catch. "So, tell me, what do you do?"

Subaru growled and clenched her fists. If only she knew what to do she could... Her thoughts trailed off as she got an idea and held up her hands. "Well, I don't think I can..."

Erio was kneeling and chanting softly. "Earth below me, submit to my will..."

Subaru snapped her hand out and Zelgadis found a chain wrapped around his neck tightly, pulling on him. "Chain bind!"

"Dug Haut!" Erio cried out and grinned as the ground under Zelgadis shook and a stone spike shot up, forcing him to let go of Teana and take a step back.

Not wasting any time, Teana took a few steps back before turning and firing at him, what shocked her though was that he kicked the stone spike, causing it to fall and become a shield that blocked her attack with ease. Her eyes widened as the stone spike suddenly levitated upwards and Zelgadis was revealed looking just fine, no chain around his neck at all.

Smirking at them, he nodded, pleased at them. "Very good teamwork there, all of you."

"How come Nanoha-san interfered?" Subaru yelled as the mage in question descended down and sat on the spike that Zelgadis was levitating.

"Because you're going to have enemies who appear out of nowhere and will strike you down without warning." Nanoha said, her eyes narrowed as memories of what Gaav did to her came back to her mind. "Despite this, you four were still able to function, even with one member in jeopardy of being killed, that's good."

Making the stone spike fly backwards and forcing Nanoha to get off of it, Zelgadis smirked at them. "But, we're not done yet. Let a little praise get to your head and you won't last more than a few minutes here!"

(-)

"So, how are they doing?" Signum asked as she walked up behind Reinforce, who merely turned to look at her.

"Could be worse." She nodded at the pinkette. "Don't you have a mission?"

"Yes, a simple one, Testarossa and I shall be back in three days."

Reinforce nodded at her. "Be careful out there, Signum." She knew Signum wouldn't need to be, but she still worried about her family.

"I'll be fine, Reinforce." Signum turned to walk away. "But... Thank you for worrying about me."

As she watched Signum leave, Reinforce called up a screen and looked at who was out. 'Let's see, Vita is meeting up with those two, they'll be here by this afternoon...'

This Riot Force was looking more interesting by the moment.

* * *

Teana: More training?  
Subaru: It is really only our first day, Tea.  
Teana: Ugh, training episodes could really slow down the plot, you know?  
Subaru: What are you talking about?  
Teana: Never mind that, next time on Blood That Flows - StrikerS, please let it be the end of these training episodes.  
Nanoha: Not likely.

Don't worry, pretty soon all training will be done off-screen. Need to give other characters screen time as well, ya know?


	207. StrikerS Seven

Blood That Flows

StrikerS Seven

* * *

That afternoon...

"Ugh, more training..." Teana groaned as she stretched her legs out.

"Could be worse," Erio spoke up as he lay his spear, which was unwrapped, to the side, "we could have to clean the kitchen up."

Nodding, Teana sweat-dropped heavily. "I guess so... What is that spear, I never saw anything like it in training."

Erio blinked and looked at it, smiling. "Oh, you wouldn't. Grandma gave me that spear, said that I earned it after I decided to go get some basic training... Plus it likes me."

"Likes you?" Teana blinked at that as Erio nodded and gripped his spear after he was done stretching. "How?"

"I don't know," Erio scratched his head, "but I can tell that it likes me."

"That's weird," a new female voice spoke up and Erio, Teana, Caro and Subaru turned to see two new girls walking towards them, "I always thought that Fried liked you, since he headbutted you so often."

"Arisa-mama!" Caro squealed in joy and ran towards the short-haired blonde, hugging her tightly. "What are you doing here?"

Arisa hugged Caro back tightly. "Well, I'm here to refine my magic abilities, plus I didn't want to miss out on seeing you again." She smiled as Caro blushed and buried her face into Arisa's stomach. "And Suzuka here just wanted to come with and be part of the group."

Suzuka waved at them. "Hello." She smiled at them peacefully.

For some reason, Teana was really starting to wonder about this Riot Force division that she was a part of. "...Why do I have the feeling that things aren't as they appear around here?"

"It's probably a good idea to think that." A female voice said as two people walked up behind Suzuka and Arisa.

"M...Mom?" Subaru stood up, her eyes wide at the sight of her mother in the same training outfit the rest of them had on.

Quint smirked at Subaru. "Good to see you too, dear, but don't think I'll go easy on you."

"Thankfully the afternoon's easier than the morning for you guys." A familiar and almost unwelcome voice said as Vita came into view.

Whatever Subaru was going to say died on her lips as she practically choked on her tongue. Vita was in a very tight black tank top that seemed molded to her very nice breasts and biker shorts that revealed all of her curves while keeping some places amply covered. The image was made worse due to the fact that every step had Vita's breasts bouncing in just the right way that radiated raw, primal sexual energy.

_"Tea..."_

_"Yeah?"_ Teana asked as she got Subaru's telepathic message. _"What is it?"_

_"Is it possible to suddenly go from being angry at someone to wanting to make out and do other things with them so fast?"_

Teana's face went completely red and her eyes white as she got that message. _"...Why do you ask?"_

Instead of answering, Subaru just blushed and tried to fight the urge to shiver for some odd reason.

"Usually they wait until I kiss them before creaming their panties." Vita muttered to herself before snapping her fingers. "Subaru, stay here for a moment, the rest of you, follow Quint out to the training field."

"Yes, sir!"

"That's ma'am to you!"

"Yes sir!" Vita twitched as everyone said that in unison before running off to the training field. After they were gone, she walked over to Subaru, who was staring at her, before looking at her right in the eyes.

"Listen and listen well, girl, I don't date jerks, weaklings or my underlings, got it?" Vita grabbed Subaru's chin to keep her looking up instead of at her breasts. "If we're off duty, I don't mind the thought of having some fun, but since we're not, you've got to keep yourself in check, got it?"

"But... You're..."

Vita rolled her eyes before snorting. "I was teasing you, let's just get it straight, Subaru, while I think that you're very good looking, right now, you're a weakling and you're my subordinate. I'm not going to ruin anything for either of us by dating or having fun with you anytime soon, do you understand?" When Subaru didn't react, Vita squeezed Subaru's jaw. "Do you?"

"Yesh..." Subaru looked like she was about to cry when Vita let go of her jaw.

"Good, just remember that for the future." Vita walked off, leaving a confused Subaru standing there. She crinkled her nose slightly as a certain odor got to her nose. "Oh yeah, go change your panties before they get stained."

Watching Subaru stumble off, Vita rolled her eyes and sighed. She hated to turn the girl down, but it would hurt her future in the long run if they were having fun together at any time in the near future.

The sooner Subaru learned that, the better.

(-)

Elsewhere...

"Tell me something, Testarossa," Signum began as she and Fate made their way down the side of a mountain to check on something in the valley below, "your mother was against you, your sister and Scrya from entering the Bureau for a long time, even Hayate didn't enter the Bureau because of your mother's interference. So, why would she allow Erio and Caro to join the Bureau?"

"It... Took us awhile to convince her." Fate said softly, before shaking her head. "In the end, mother only agreed to allow it because she trusted us." Signum looked at her with a raised eyebrow. "Mother trusted us to make sure that they would be taken care of properly."

"Properly?" Signum asked as they touched down and started looking around. "What does that mean?"

"It means, Signum," Fate narrowed her eyes at a rock that seemed to be melted somehow, "that because of Erio and Caro's unique natures, and the fact that we would be here, that their involvement in Bureau affairs would be kept to a minimum, plus, if things got bad, we could pull them out and keep them safe."

"Is that all?"

Fate shook her head as she moved some dust off of the rock and frowned at the glass she was seeing under the dust. "No, she felt that the fact that Erio, and likely Caro, are the reincarnations of Dark Star and Vorfeed, plus with Arisa having the Azure Dragon's soul inside of her, that they would need to learn to tap into their power more freely."

"More freely?" Signum moved her foot to move some dust and raised an eyebrow at the glass that cracked from the movement. "And what's with this glass?"

"I think mother is too paranoid sometimes, but considering how our lives have been in the past ten years, Signum, I don't blame her at all." Fate and Signum both flew up off the glass. "She's worried that, unlike us, something bad may come for the two of them. Keeping them close to us would help them out."

"So, even though she was against it," Signum looked at the side of the mountain and raised an eyebrow as the glass continued down the side of it until it got to the base, where it disappeared, "you went against her and brought them to the Bureau?"

"There's something mother once told me," Fate said as she looked at the glass, "that even if you don't want your children to do something, it's best to know where they're at, so sometimes, even if you would they rather stay at home, you bring them along. It's better to know where they are, than where they aren't."

Signum smirked at that and nodded. "I agree, as long as they aren't put into serious danger."

"It's more dangerous at times if you try to keep them at home, at least if they're invited along, you can direct them towards a safer place, rather than having them show up out of the blue and surprising you." Fate narrowed her eyes as she and Signum flew to the base of the mountain. "Okay, either this mountain is made out of glass, or someone was messing around with a powerful fire spell."

"I think the latter." Signum narrowed her eyes and took a closer look. "...This wasn't caused by fire, Testarossa." Fate blinked at her and Signum ran her finger over the edge of it, where the glass met the rock. "It's too stiff here, if fire caused this, the edges would be more melted. This was caused by friction... But, it's almost like..."

"Someone ran so fast that they left a trench." Fate finished for Signum and looked out across the water. "This had to be hours ago, how did..?"

"Something moving fast enough to demolish a mountain and leave nothing but glass behind? You think we wouldn't notice that?" Signum said, her eyes narrowed as she looked at the ground. 'But what could move that fast? Even Testarossa isn't quite this fast.'

"So, what now?" Fate asked as she and Signum turned to look out at the ocean.

"...Return to base and report this." Signum didn't like that thought at all. "There's nothing more that we can do here."

Fate could only nod mutely.

(-)

Seeing the four kids and Arisa sitting and chatting, laughing about something, Nanoha made her way over to them and nodded to Suzuka as she moved to join them as well. "Hello." The group looked at her and calmed down. "Oh, please, I'm not here to disrupt any conversation longer than I have to, I just wanted to talk to you four about your training from here on out." She looked at Arisa and then turned to Suzuka. "You two will have your own regiment, but all six of you will meet up in the afternoon to undergo training from both Vita and Yuuno when they're around."

"What?" Arisa blinked at Nanoha, who snorted softly.

"When I said that we were in a state of chaos around here, I wasn't kidding." Nanoha shook her head. "A lot of us are going to be on missions a lot of times, so we won't be around too often. So, in the morning, most of you will have myself and Zelgadis for training, after lunch until dinner it will be Vita and Yuuno training you. Arisa, Suzuka, you two are more advanced, so you'll be working on other skills in the morning." The two of them nodded and Nanoha looked at the other four. "Teana, Subaru, you two don't know, but Arisa and Suzuka both have had fairly extensive training before joining up, they just need some refinement."

Both girls nodded, though Teana personally wondered if everyone but her was connected to the staff of this Riot Force somehow.

"Um... What about Fate-san, Signum-san and the others?" Erio asked, mentally pouting that Fate wouldn't be training with them. If the pink midget got to have Yuuno around, why couldn't he have Fate?

Nanoha smiled at him. "Actually, that brings up my next part. While Fate, Signum and others will be running in and out on missions, don't hesitate, if they don't have to rush off, to ask them for some one-on-one training if you think they can help you with an area you think could use work on."

"Isn't that your job?" Subaru asked her and Nanoha sighed and leaned back in her chair.

"Technically yes, but Fate's better at using high speed magic than myself and Signum's far better with weapon techniques and Belkan magic than I could possibly be." Nanoha winked at Subaru and held up a finger. "I'm good at shooting, bombardment and the hybrid style magic. Zelgadis is better at teaching some of the finer points of the Spirit Style than I am. Yuuno can teach you more about barriers, support, binds and stuff in the hybrid style I haven't figured out yet. Vita's good with offensive and defensive skills," Nanoha smirked at the girls, "in fact, if you want to work on your defense, just ask Vita to wail on your barriers until they break." Other than Yuuno, no one had lasted too long against Vita's barrier breaking skills. "As for Reinforce and Hayate," Nanoha shook her head, "the two of them could teach you any Ancient Belkan skill you wanted to learn, but they're very busy, so try to remember that if you want to learn a new skill." The group nodded and Nanoha giggled softly. "Now that we all know what we're doing, I just want to tell you four that you're doing good. Keep it up and you'll soon be able to tear it up with the best of us."

"Nice speech." Nanoha turned around to see Reinforce looking at her, by her side, Zafira was walking along silently in his wolf form. "We got a mission request for some extra firepower, as Yuuno, Fate and Signum are out on missions, I thought to ask you to handle it."

Nanoha nodded before tilting her head. "I haven't seen Zwei around lately, where is she?"

Reinforce smiled lightly. "Zwei is busy helping Shamal set up her office." She nodded as Nanoha sweat-dropped heavily. Both of them knew that Shamal was a touch obsessive-compulsive when it came to getting her personal working quarters just the way she wanted it.

"Any idea how long it will take?"

"No longer than a couple of hours at most." Reinforce said as she, Nanoha and Zafira left the others at the table. "Just some extra firepower." Reinforce quickly shot to Nanoha telepathically. _"There's some worry that there's a Lost Logia nearby, so they want the extra firepower in case something goes wrong."_ Nanoha nodded, since it was on Mid-Childa, it was best to get that dealt with quickly enough.

"I'll leave immediately." Nanoha saluted Reinforce, who saluted her right back.

* * *

Teana: No more training episodes?  
Subaru: At least not for awhile.  
Teana: Finally!  
Subaru: Next time on Blood That Flows - StrikerS, time to get the plot moving.

* * *

I edited a part above. The original version didn't go over so well with some people, so I edited it and people liked it better.

BUT! I will show you the original version now. You can decide which version you like better.

* * *

"Thankfully the afternoon's easier than the morning for you guys." A familiar and almost unwelcome voice said as Vita came into view.

Whatever Subaru was going to say died on her lips as she practically choked on her tongue. Vita was in a very tight black tank top that seemed molded to her very nice breasts and biker shorts that revealed all of her curves while keeping some places amply covered. The image was made worse due to the fact that every step had Vita's breasts bouncing in just the right way that radiated raw, primal sexual energy.

_"Tea..."_

_"Yeah?"_ Teana asked as she got Subaru's telepathic message. _"What is it?"_

_"Is it possible to orgasm just from looking at someone?"_

Teana's face went completely red and her eyes white as she got that message. _"...Why do you ask?"_

Instead of answering, Subaru fell to her knees and twitched slightly, causing Vita to blink and sigh heavily.

"Usually they wait until I kiss them before creaming their panties." She muttered to herself before snapping her fingers. "Subaru, stay there for a moment, the rest of you, follow Quint out to the training field."

"Yes, sir!"

"That's ma'am to you!"

"Yes sir!" Vita twitched as everyone said that in unison before running off to the training field. After they were gone, she walked over to Subaru, who was staring at her, before kneeling and looking at her right in the eyes.

"Listen and listen well, girl, I don't date jerks, weaklings or my underlings, got it?" Vita grabbed Subaru's chin to keep her looking up instead of at her breasts. "If we're off duty, I don't mind the thought of having some fun, but since we're not, you've got to keep yourself in check, got it?"

"But... You're..."

Vita rolled her eyes before snorting. "I was teasing you, let's just get it straight, Subaru, while I think that you're very good looking, right now, you're a weakling and you're my subordinate. I'm not going to ruin anything for either of us by dating or having fun with you anytime soon, do you understand?" When Subaru didn't react, Vita squeezed Subaru's jaw. "Do you?"

"Yesh..." Subaru looked like she was about to cry when Vita let go of her jaw and stood up.

"Good, just remember that for the future." Vita walked off, leaving a confused Subaru laying on the ground. "Oh yeah, go change your panties before they get stained."

Watching Subaru stumble off, Vita rolled her eyes and sighed. She hated to turn the girl down, but it would hurt her future in the long run if they were having fun together at any time in the near future.

The sooner Subaru learned that, the better.


	208. StrikerS Eight

Blood That Flows

StrikerS Eight

* * *

Weeks later at an undisclosed location...

"I trust that you had no trouble getting the materials for me?" She asked as he tossed her a small item.

"Please," he snorted, his voice was pleasantly deep as he adjusted the sunglasses that were on his face, "getting these... Trinkets from high security areas was rather easy, especially since they wouldn't want anyone to know about the illegal operations." He turned and started limping away from her while his back was slightly hunched over.

"You're officially just a C rank knight, and just barely at that." She spoke to him, getting him to stand straight up and turn back to look at her, a slight scowl on his face. "And, yet, from what I've seen, you're at least a AA rank knight, what gives?"

"Please, if I showed off everything I could do, they would have forced me to stay in the Bureau, but me?" He jabbed his chest with his thumb. "I'm not like those guys, I prefer to be wild and free." He grinned at her. "Besides, losing a low-ranking knight like myself was no big loss for the Bureau, and being a mercenary gives me a lot more freedom."

"So, you couldn't handle it then?" She smirked at him, causing him to snort.

"Oh please! If I had wanted to deal with the Bureau's politics, it would be easy." He waved his hand at her. "But I would rather do anything other than politics and limits that they think I have."

"Whatever, just don't forget to hit that train today."

He snorted and waved behind him. "Please, that won't be too hard for me. Just make sure to send a large enough of a distraction so that I don't have to reveal anything." After all, if he went full-out, someone would likely end up dead. "Just the medical supplies, correct?"

"Yes." She said and watched him walk out, before shaking her head. "Fool." He might have been fast, faster than any human had any right to be, but his magic had a severe downside. The stress his body was suffering through made it almost impossible for him to walk unless he was using his magic power.

Still, if he had even a small amount of Astral power added to his kicks and speed attacks, he might be an actual problem for her if he fought against her.

(-)

Nanoha smiled at the group as they looked at their new devices. Hopefully they wouldn't mind them too much.

"How come I got a wristwatch?" Erio looked at Nanoha sourly. "Please don't tell me that I got something like Thoth!" Both Subaru and Teana blushed at that. They had both had to deal with the more... Interesting comments that device spewed out on a daily basis.

Teana knew for a fact that her panties were _not_ in a bunch and she did _not_ need Yuuno to unbind them for her.

Nanoha shook her head. "No, your device isn't like Thoth Driver is, that one was designed for a specific reason, unfortunately, whoever did the core programming was a bit of a weird pervert, so you shouldn't have to worry about that. Your device is meant to help you process data faster for quicker spell usage."

Erio nodded at her. "Okay."

"Anyway," Nanoha smiled at the four, "there's a mission this afternoon, the four of you, myself and Vita are all going to be doing a mission."

"What is it, ma'am?" Teana asked her, hopeful to put their training to some practical use.

"Well, there's some information that there's a train that's smuggling in a Lost Logia to the capital city. The four of you are going to board it and retrieve the Lost Logia, Vita and myself will be backup in case something goes wrong."

"Vita also took the mission because she's tired of the limiter on her, huh?" Shari asked Nanoha, who nodded to her.

"Limiters?" Caro asked, confused as Nanoha turned back and sighed heavily.

"Sadly, as this group is rather... Heavy handed with a few things, a lot of the highest staff members are under strong limiters when not on any sort of mission around here." Nanoha shook her head. "I'm not sure what everyone's limit is, but I'm under a five stage limiter, as is Fate, Reinforce Eins and Hayate. I think Signum and Vita are both under a three stage limiter."

"Actually, you're over-counting, Nanoha." Shari spoke up. "You're under a four stage and Vita's under a two stage limiter."

Blinking, Nanoha tapped her fingers against her thumb and counted down, "huh, you're right." She shrugged at that. "Never said that I was perfect." Nanoha snorted as everyone in the room laughed softly. "Anyway, yes, those of us at or above S rank are under some strong limiters right now. We do, however, in times of emergency, have the authority to recall the limiters for five minutes at a time."

"Why so short?" Subaru asked and Nanoha sighed to her.

"Politics, mostly. As missions change all the time, we can't wait to get the limiters removed from base, so we were given the authority to have our limiters removed for a short period of time every time we go on a mission, in case something goes wrong." The four of them nodded.

"What about Arisa and Suzuka?" Teana asked Nanoha, who rubbed her head softly.

"Those two are currently on a scouting mission not too far from where we'll be intercepting the train along with Yuuno and Reinforce Zwei. If you were wondering about limiters, Yuuno and Reinforce Zwei both have a one stage limiter on them."

Caro frowned softly and looked at Nanoha. "Um, what level are you right now, with the limiters on?"

"A rank," Nanoha shook her head and grumbled at how unfair it was to be limited so hard. No wonder her mother didn't want her as part of the Bureau if they would pull off stuff like this.

"Four stages..." Caro blinked and counted upwards before her eyes widened. "You're a SS mage?"

"SS minus actually." Nanoha rubbed the back of her head, a little nervously. "Same with Fate. Hayate's a SS plus mage, as is Reinforce Eins. We don't like to think about the levels of power that we have."

"Why?" Teana asked and blinked as Shari shook her head and waved her hands rapidly.

"Because power levels are just a waste of time pondering about." Nanoha growled angrily. "Did you know that even though Suzuka-chan's E-rank, meaning she has no magic ability at all, she could actually beat even Vita in a sparring match? And Vita-chan and Signum-san are both S rank knights."

The four of them sweat-dropped heavily and took steps backwards. "Uh, really?" Teana gulped as Nanoha nodded.

"Yes. Suzuka-chan beat Vita-chan in arm-wrestling a couple of months ago." Ignoring the way that the four of them face-faulted, Nanoha cleared her throat. "Anyway, it shouldn't be too hard, think of it as a great way to test your new gear out." The four nodded to her and she smiled at them. "Vita's waiting for us at the helicopter."

"Yes, ma'am!"

(-)

An hour later...

Vita frowned as she saw several flying objects between them and the train. "Hey, Nanoha, I don't think those things are supposed to be there."

Nanoha looked out the window and nodded. "I agree." She looked at the four in the helicopter. "Change of plans, the two of us will intercept those fliers, keep them away from the chopper, you four will still board the train as per the original plan."

They nodded and watched as Vita jumped clear and called up Graf Eisen, transforming into her red dress outfit while Nanoha followed suit and transformed into her barrier jacket.

"Hey," the four looked at the pilot, a man with short brown hair that smiled at them, "don't be too nervous, besides those two, there's still four others not too far away that can fight and help you out. So, just relax and do your best, okay?" The four of them nodded to him. "Also, if it gets too bad, just blow the whole thing up." He smirked at their shocked looks. "I was kidding. Don't destroy the train if you can help it."

The four of them nodded at that as the pilot got them through the turbulence and over the train.

(-)

In the center car, the man who had been asked to steal the medical supplies shook his head as he carefully put them into a bag. "Man, when she said she'd send some distractions, she wasn't kidding." He smirked and shut the bag before shouldering it and limping his way out of the train. "Now then, all I have to..."

"Hold it!"

Sighing, he turned to see a young girl in her teenaged years with her orange hair done up in twin pigtails, which were held into place by hair ribbons that had crosses on them, her outfit was a short black dress, a short white vest over her shoulders, belts that covered her mid-section that also held the lower part of a white coat while her black-covered shoes led up to stockings that went almost all the way up her legs.

"Hey, Missy," he grinned at her, "if your dress was any shorter, I could see more than you'd want me to." He chuckled as her face got red and she pointed her guns at him. "Ah ah ah..." He jerked his thumb over his shoulder. "I take it you're here for that Lost Logia, well, my job was only to get these medical supplies, nothing more."

"You're still under arrest for theft of property." She said while looking at him. He had on some sort of blue and purple pants with a white jacket on top of it and pink sunglasses. His hair was brown that was combed backwards to a point behind him. There wasn't anything remarkable about him, but she blinked as she felt a quick surge of magic and his legs were covered in fancy boots that went from his feet to his knees.

"Perhaps," he grinned at her, "but you see, little Missy, I'm in a hurry, if I don't get back to my boss and soon, she won't pay me any of that hard-earned money that I asked for, and as long as your captains are busy, it would be easy to just slip away. So, you see, as long as I hurry up and get out of here, there's no problem, right?"

"Wrong, you'll be staying there, I, Teana Lanster, am placing you under arrest."

The man shook his head. "Well, Tiyana," he said, only to get interrupted by Teana.

"That's Teana!"

"Whatever!" He snorted and jerked a thumb behind him. "That big ball is going to break what you're here for if you're not careful." He blinked as Teana smiled before shooting the ground under the large ball, causing a giant metal spike to rip upwards from the train. "...That's one way to deal with it."

"The rest of my team will be here soon, I suggest that you surrender." Teana's eyes widened as the man sighed and spun around before kicking the wall down. "What the?"

"Sorry, Tiyana..."

"Teana!"

"Whatever, well, I gotta jet and it looks like those fliers are useless, so..." He spun around to face Teana before dropping backwards out of the train.

"You idiot!" Teana ran to the edge, only to stare as the man was running along the side of the stone wall, looking up and grinning at her. "...What the?"

"Remember this, Tiyana," he yelled up at her, "my magic is that of Radical Good Speed! HA HA!"

"That's Teana!" She yelled down and stared as he seemingly disappeared in a blur of green, leaving behind a trail of glass in his wake. "...That was weird."

"Tea!" Subaru said as she got into the room. "Is the logia secure?"

Teana stood up and stepped away from the edge, nodding to her. "Yeah, but I just met the weirdest person ever."

Subaru could only blink in confusion.

(-)

Minutes later...

Erio was slightly upset as he got off the stopped train. "Well, they weren't too hard..." Though, he had to admit, that weird effect that those machines put out to weaken magic did make things interesting.

Nanoha nodded as she looked at Vita, who lightly bit her lower lip. "That was an Anti-Magic Field. Not very strong by themselves, but they weaken all magic around them," she looked at Fried, who was in his full-size form, "I see someone's been taking their vitamins. Anyway," she ignored the light laughter from the group, "job well done, we'll have to look into this Anti-Magic Field a bit more when we get back, but it shouldn't be too much a problem."

"Too bad," a new female voice spoke up from above, causing everyone to turn and look up as two tall and very curvy women in blue spandex hovered above them, and several more of the drones, the small oblong ones surrounded them, "because that Lost Logia, the Relic, is something that we'll be taking with us." The one with short purple hair said while the one with long pink hair just looked down calmly.

Nanoha and Vita narrowed their eyes. For some reason, they didn't think the following conflict would be anywhere near as easy as the mission had been.

* * *

Nanoha: I guess we'll have to fight.  
Vita: Not like we haven't done that before.  
Nanoha: Just be careful. Next time on Blood That Flows - StrikerS, eh? What is this?  
Vita: Okay, this is pretty good.


	209. StrikerS Nine

Blood That Flows

StrikerS Nine

* * *

"Deal with the hammer knight," the one with short purple hair said to the woman with long pink hair, "I'll handle the one in white."

"Vita, be careful, something," Nanoha never got to finish her statement as the one with short hair suddenly accelerated at a speed that was closer to what Fate could do and slammed into Nanoha, forcing the two into the train before going upwards and ending up against the side of the mountain.

"Nanoha!" Vita yelled, before flying back as the pink haired one slammed some sort of large bladed weapon into the ground where she was a moment ago. "Eisen!"

**"Gigant Form!"**

When the hammer popped up and dropped back down with a clack, the small metal ends of the hammer became much larger and yellow in color.

"Slaughter Arms..." The pink haired woman said as she threw her weapons at Vita before reaching behind her and pulling out two more.

"Well, this could be interesting." Vita muttered as she batted the blades away. "Is that all?"

The woman flew up into the air to meet her. "Shattering Slaughter."

Vita felt like her stomach dropped out of her stomach as the woman threw her third blade and she watched as it and the other two that had been batted away suddenly shatter and turn into much smaller blades that started to spin in mid air. "...This could be a pain."

"Yes." The woman squeezed her hand into a fist and the blades suddenly shot towards Vita, who shot straight up, causing the wave to follow her. "Is that all you can do?"

"Nope!" Vita shot up before flipping around and rushing back down, slamming Graf Eisen into the blades, scattering them. "Can't let you just..." Vita trailed off as she saw the scattered blades start moving back towards her while spinning around her slowly. "...I want to say that this is cheating."

"It is." The woman nodded and squeezed her left hand into a fist, the blades shot forward and slammed into Vita, somehow creating an explosion in mid-air.

"Vita-san!" Erio called out, his eyes wide at what he just saw. "How..?" Vita was so strong, even Fate-san couldn't drop her so easily.

"Now then," the woman turned back to look down. "I suggest that you..."

**"Schwalbefliegen."**

The pinkette turned and grunted as she was slammed with a large metal ball in the stomach, sending her flying into the forest below.

Vita panted softly as her barrier was able to hold, just barely, under the assault. "Ngh... Eisen, full limit release!"

**"Voll Freisetzung!"**

Vita closed her eyes as her body was covered in a red glow and the limiter was fully released. "Alright, now let's see how you handle me with nothing holding me back."

The only response Vita got was a giant metal ball flying right back at her. Growling, she swung Eisen at her own attack, knocking it away and into the ground below.

Vita could only blink as the pinkette flew up at a high speed to meet her in mid air. "You're very strong." Her opponent had her eyes narrowed and Vita blinked in shock.

Those eyes were reptilian in nature.

(-)

Nanoha was never more grateful that she sparred against Signum quite often than she was now. Her opponent's purple blade were sharp as hell, and the woman's strength was even higher than Vita's was. "What do you want the Lost Logia for? If it's for something reasonable, we could help you!"

The woman narrowed her eyes at Nanoha as the redhead's barrier and staff were able to hold her attack off. "Even if I was to tell you, you would refuse to help us out, after all, why would you want someone to have a Lost Logia?"

"You're right," Nanoha agreed before propping her feet against the woman's stomach and pushing her back hard. "I wouldn't want someone who has an attitude like yours to have any sort of Lost Logia!" She held her hand out and watched dispassionately as she let loose a Val Flare at close range. Floating away from the rock, Nanoha frowned as her attack actually missed and continued on. "...Where did you..?"

"Too slow." She heard a whisper from above and behind. Spinning around, her eyes widened as the woman's wing blades managed to sever her shoulder padding like it was tissue paper.

Then the woman got fancy as she seemed to curl into a ball before lashing out with her feet, striking Nanoha in the stomach, forcing her away from her. "You're," the woman seemed to disappear before slamming a knee into Nanoha's stomach, causing the redhead to gasp out in pain as the air was driven out of her lungs, "too WEAK!"

"Raising Heart," Nanoha whispered as her opponent rushed at her, "Limiter Release."

**"Alright, full Limit Release."**

The woman let out a yell as she punched forward, only to stare as Nanoha caught it open handed.

"Let's see you say that again." Nanoha narrowed her eyes while squeezing the fist and pulling down before slamming her head against the other woman's. "Tell me that I'm weak again."

**"Axel Bolt."**

Several pink bolts shot out of Raising Heart, spun around and slammed into the woman from behind.

"Now then," Nanoha let go of the woman's hand and grabbed her by the scuff of her neck, "just what do you want the..." She stopped talking as she saw the woman suddenly grin at her.

"Heh," a loose line of blood was coming out of her mouth, "good, good, I needed a **challenge!**"

**"MASTER!"**

The next thing Nanoha knew, those purple blades turned white and tore through her shields, barrier jacket and into her stomach with ease.

Flying back, Nanoha put her hand over her stomach and gasped heavily as she felt her blood flowing out of her body. 'What the?' That was almost like Fate's dimensional blade, but Nanoha hadn't felt any magic with that.

"Don't worry, it was a shallow cut, so long as you get it healed, you'll be fine." Smirking the woman held her arms out, pointing downwards, "but," those blades started to flash white, "I wonder how well you can fight with your body bleeding like that."

Nanoha twitched, this wasn't going to be easy.

(-)

Vita had thought that the pink-haired woman was going to be a problem, especially after revealing that she had reptilian eyes.

She never imagined that her opponent would start generating electricity over her sword-like object and start swinging something so awkwardly so fast and hard that she was hard-pressed to keep up. "Gah, it's like I'm fighting Signum or something." Gritting her teeth, Vita rushed back towards her opponent, only to stare as she caught Graf Eisen with her open hand with ease. "...Okay, this is just cheating."

"You forgot something."

Vita's eyes widened as pain lashed out against her back and legs as those blades tore into her back, cutting her dress open and exposing her bloodied backside. 'How? Even if it's weaker, my automatic barrier should have at least parried them.'

"Surprised? My blades are designed to cut through weaker barriers." She said while pulling her sword back. "Goodbye."

Before she could strike, the pink-haired opponent had to fly backwards as a blue-white beam cut through where she was a moment ago. Looking down, she saw Erio holding his spear, except that the metal blade had been replaced by an energy one.

"Leave her alone!" Erio yelled at her.

Vita gritted her teeth as she saw the smaller blades heading towards the four rookies. "Hey," her opponent looked at her just in time to get hit by Graf Eisen in the side of the head, "bleeding as I am, I'm still going to kick your big ass!"

The woman twitched and shook her head before looking at Vita, and for the first time, Vita noticed some anger in her eyes. "However large my rear is, it is no concern of yours."

Despite bleeding and her back, legs and rear all feeling like they were on fire, Vita actually grinned at her opponent. "I could get to like you." Still, she only had a little bit more time before the limiter kicked back in, she couldn't afford to waste time like this.

(-)

Nanoha did find it interesting that even with a small hole in her stomach she was still able to fight against her extremely fast, strong and outright lethal opponent. "Strike Flame!" She snapped her hand out in the direction that she was certain her opponent was heading and launched a gout of fire towards her. A grim smile came to her face as the woman was forced to cut it in half, but still had some burn marks on her face and arms from the attack.

"You think you can beat me with that?"

Nanoha shook her head and grinned as a magic circle appeared under her and expanded around her. "I doubt I could hit you with any of my stronger spells, you'd likely dodge them and anything that would hit you would do too much damage, so..." She winced as her stomach protested. Putting her bloodied hand over her wound, she held Raising Heart up. "If you survive, you can thank my sister for teaching me this spell."

Several tornadoes spun into life around Nanoha and her opponent as lightning started to crash around them. "What is this?"

Nanoha grinned darkly at her opponent. "Do it, Raising Heart."

**"Alright, Thunder Digger Rage."**

The next thing that the woman knew was that she was blasted from several angles at once by several power lightning bolts of a combined Digger Bolt and Thunder Rage crashed into her at once.

Nanoha could only watch as the woman cried out in sheer pain from the attack. Not that she blamed her, Fate's lightning magic attacks hurt like hell. Nanoha might not have been as good at lightning as Fate was, but she could still cast them.

When the attack ended, Nanoha was rather shocked to see the woman still floating in mid-air, panting hard and trembling, but not out. "What the..?"

She looked at Nanoha, her amber eyes full of anger as she continued to pant while lightning danced over her suit and skin. "You..." She turned to Nanoha and growled as her outfit fell apart, leaving her completely naked in mid-air. "...I hate you."

Nanoha was blushing and scratching her cheek. "Um... Hate to sound rude, but how did you..."

"Those suits were insulated against things like that, it still hurt, you know." She blinked as Nanoha pointed Raising Heart at her, shakily slightly with the effort, obviously from the loss of blood through her stomach.

"I suggest surrendering now. I can get you some cover to reclaim what little dignity you have left, but, I..."

She smirked at Nanoha. "I'm naked and having a hard time moving, and you're about to pass out from blood loss, I'd say that I'll recover before you do."

(-)

Down below, Teana might have been blushing as she looked up at the naked woman, but she figured one good shot. "Freeze..."

"Teana-san!" Caro cried out as she saw a hand reach through the ground and grab Teana's ankle.

"What the?" Teana looked down and paled, she knew this hand. "GAH!" The next thing she knew, a second hand joined the first and twisted her ankle hard enough to break it, causing her to fall over in pain. "S...Sein..." She groaned as the petite girl in question, also wearing a skin-tight body suit, though this one was black in nature, jumped through the ground and grabbed the lost logia from a shocked Subaru.

"Sein?" Subaru's eyes widened as she held that glove up to her. "Wh..Why?"

"I'm sorry." Sein whispered before firing a strong concussive force at Subaru, knocking her into the train, destroying another section of it. Turning to look at Erio, who narrowed his eyes and gripped his glowing spear, and Caro, who was by Fried's full form, she shook her head. "I'm not here to fight you." Six wings appeared on her back as she jumped into the air and flew away at a high speed.

Teana could only stare in shock. Sein was an enemy? But the girl had been such a good friend, why would she do something like this?

(-)

Looking down below, the short-haired woman nodded to Nanoha. "Our mission is done, get healed up, I look forward to any future fights."

Before Nanoha could reply, she had turned into a burst of purple light and shot off in the direction that the newest interloper had disappeared. "...What the..?" Groaning, Nanoha slowly lowered herself to the platform and noticed that Vita's opponent had left as well, though not quite as fast as the first two had, it was still faster than any of them could go at the moment. "...This was a complete failure." Nanoha said as she touched down and looked at the others. "...We were too overconfident."

Vita groaned as she knelt down. "This is going to be one hell of a report." She looked at Caro, who was helping Teana out and looked to see Erio as he helped Subaru back to the group. "Are you four okay?"

"My ankle's broken." Teana groaned in pain as Caro worked some healing magic into it. "You okay, Subaru?"

"I landed on my head, so, yeah, I'm okay. What was that?"

"Very dangerous enemies." Nanoha muttered softly and winced as she felt rather cold throughout her body. "...I... Don't..."

"Nanoha-san!" Erio and Subaru cried out at the same time as Nanoha fell over to her side, passed out.

Caro quickly left Teana's side and moved Nanoha's arm out of the way so she could work what healing magic she had into Nanoha's wound to try and stop the bleeding.

Vita shook her head and shivered as the blood loss was starting to get to her as well. _"Rein, Yuuno, Arisa, you three better get your butts over to where we are, Nanoha and I are down and need healing."_

That wasn't something she ever thought she'd need to say, ever.

Even if they were taken by surprise by their opponent's strength and there was some sort of anti-magic field that had been in play at the time, it was still an inexcusable loss.

"...Wait, where are those..?" Vita looked up and blinked at not seeing any of the Gadget Drones anymore.

"They exploded." Caro explained to her, looking confused. "When Erio-kun tried to save you, they all just exploded for some reason."

Vita nodded and fought the urge to fall asleep, she didn't know how much blood she had lost, but she didn't think it was a good idea to pass out at that moment. A flash of movement had her looking and she smiled as she saw Yuuno, Rein and Arisa, the latter carrying Suzuka, fly over the mountain. "Well... At least we'll be okay now."

The rookies could only watch in mute horror as Vita passed out and joined Nanoha on the dock, their blood slowly pooling out of their bodies.

* * *

Tre: Let's get out of here.  
Sein: Back to base!  
Sette: Indeed. Next time on Blood That Flows - StrikerS, we are back at base.  
Sein: Mouu... How come you got to do that?

What? You thought that it was going to be exactly like canon?


	210. StrikerS Ten

Blood That Flows

StrikerS Ten

* * *

Hours later...

Grumbling as she took the towel that Sette offered her, Tre couldn't believe how that had happened. "Ugh, that mission sucked, are they all that strong?"

"I hope not." Sette muttered as Tre wrapped herself up while the three of them walked back into their base. "That redhead with the hammer was a very strong opponent."

"I know some of them." Sein said, her voice was very soft, causing Tre and Sette to look at the girl as her shoulders slumped. "Teana and Subaru... I... I..."

Tre narrowed her eyes and lightly rapped Sein on the head. "Knock it off, you knew what would happen if you went on that mission." When Sein didn't respond, Tre sighed and grabbed Sein and held her against her body. "Listen to me, Sein, sometimes we have to do things we don't want to do, okay?" Sein just nodded against Tre's body and rested her head against the taller one's breasts.

Sette ignored it and smiled as she saw the person she missed the most. "Mr. Snuggles," the cat immediately ran towards her as she knelt down and hugged it to her breasts, causing him to purr loudly, "how have you been?"

_"Someone needs to warn me when Dieci is using the practice range, I accidentally got under one of the cows."_

Sette sweat-dropped as she stood up and put Mr. Snuggles on top of her shoulder, petting him lightly. "I am sure that it will be fine." When Jail had actually gotten into his head to turn Mr. Snuggles into some sort of cyborg familiar, Sette wasn't against it, initially, however, seeing Mr. Snuggles have to go through that operation, it actually distressed her for some reason. "You do know that..."

_"Yes, I know, I can talk now, and I still don't know why or how he had cybernetics for animals just laying around, or why it was easier for him to do that to me than a human, but I am not upset about it."_

"Still, seeing you being operated on..."

"Aww..." Sein suddenly got behind Sette and grabbed the pinkette's breasts while snuggling up to her backside. "See? You do have more emotions than you think you do!"

"Sein, while I understand that you enjoy grabbing breasts, please let mine go." Sette asked and let out a sigh as Sein did just that. "You could go do that to Wendi or Tre, as they do not seem to mind."

Tre twitched and got in front of Sette. "Just what do you mean by that?"

_"Sette means that you smell like a cat in heat when you and Sein are alone for more than ten seconds."_ Mr. Snuggles gave Tre a self-amused smirk as the latter twitched.

"Sette, keep your familiar from saying anything in the future." Tre turned and walked off.

"Hey! Tre!" Sein ran around Sette and after the older cyborg. "Wait up!"

Sette merely blinked as Mr. Snuggles jumped off of her shoulder. Turning, she nodded at the case that he landed on. "Yes, the doctor would like that." Walking over to it, she picked it up and walked further into the base, smiling as Mr. Snuggles jumped up onto her shoulder, before walking down and settling on the valley in-between her large breasts. "Why do you like that place?"

_"It's comfortable."_ Was all Mr. Snuggles could reply to her with.

Sette nodded at that, if it was comfortable, she couldn't argue against that.

After all, she liked her bed, and that was really comfortable.

(-)

Quattro raised an eyebrow as she saw Tre walking in nothing more than a large bed sheet. "Just what happened to you?" Now that she got a closer look, she noted the burns on Tre's arms and the slightly frazzled hair. "...Run into a power line?"

"Close enough," Tre muttered and ran a hand through her hair, grimacing at the static crack. "I'm lucky that I was able to survive those lightning strikes."

Quattro smirked and walked up to Tre, before gently patting Tre's breasts from underneath. "I think it's because of all the padding you have here, and," before Tre could react, her face flushed as she felt Quattro patting her butt, "here, of course..." Quattro reached forward and pinched Tre's belly, "yep, just as I thought, you've got some padding here too, no wonder you survived..."

"Quattro..." Tre's face was completely red as she turned to grab Quattro, who stepped back and smiled harmlessly.

"You should work on your temper, Tre," Quattro waggled her finger, "and perhaps your figure, I mean, your ass can't get any bigger and your breasts," she shook her head, "I think they're fake."

"They are not!" Sein said as she jumped in and hugged Tre's side. "I know they aren't, I squeeze them all the time, they're completely natural!"

Tre was twitching and blushing at the interaction. "Knock it off, both of you." She pushed Sein off of her and turned away, only to have her sheet get ripped off of her naked body.

"Yep, you've got a bit too much padding." Quattro couldn't help but smirk as Tre actually stormed out and Sein followed her, apologizing. 'This is too much fun, I didn't know that she was so... Sensitive about her huge ass and tits.'

'Master Levi, our breasts aren't really much smaller, are they?'

Levi waved her hand and walked off. 'Nah, it's just...' Her thoughts trailed off as she felt a hand grab her shoulder. "Uno, what is it?"

"You know, Quattro, I'm a little tired of hearing you pick on Tre like you are." Uno's eyes narrowed at her younger sister. "While I don't mind that you tease her at times, I think you really hurt her feelings there, so..."

Before Levi could figure out what was going on, she found herself dragged into a room and strapped to a chair. "Uno, what is the meaning of this?"

Several screens appeared around Levi and the Mazoku in disguise was starting to sweat-drop as Uno grinned savagely at her.

"Well, since you continue to be so mean to Tre, I think that it's time to... Turn the tables a little bit. Enjoy this three hour marathon..."

Uno pressed a button and Levi paled as she saw what was on the screen. "No, anything but this, NOOOO!"

_"I love you, you love me, we're a happy family."_

"NOOOOOOOOOO!"

As she walked out of the room, Uno actually smiled to herself. "Huh, torturing Quattro doesn't make me feel bad." Stretching her arms, Uno walked down the hallway and blinked as she saw Sette, Mr. Snuggles and a containment unit. "I take it that the mission was successful?"

"Yes, but the enemies are much harder than we thought they would be. Even for myself, that hammer knight was a formidable opponent." Sette blinked as she heard a scream. "...Was that Quattro?"

_"She is currently twitching, screaming and seems to be crying due to something that she is watching... Why does the images of a person in a felt purple dinosaur outfit cause her such distress?"_ Mr. Snuggles asked, his eyes were glowing red as data streams were visible on his eyeballs, if one had incredibly sharp eyesight.

Uno smirked at him and petted him on the head. "Let's just say that I'm tired of her picking on Tre."

Both Mr. Snuggles and Sette could understand that themselves, it was annoying to hear Quattro constantly making fun of Tre's features and saying that she was too big.

(-)

Flopping onto her bed, still naked, Tre didn't even bother reacting as she felt a body lay on top of her back and start rubbing her back muscles while sitting on her ass. "...What do you want, Sein?"

"Tre... Can't I just massage you?" Sein asked while trying to help Tre relax.

Neither of them said anything for nearly a half an hour, the only thing in the room was Tre's grunts as Sein's fingers worked into her back muscles. Some reason, somehow, during those thirty minutes, Sein ended up naked on top of Tre. The only reason Tre knew that was because she could feel Sein's bare butt sitting on hers.

Still, Tre wondered where Sein picked up the skills to give a good massage. "Sein, where did you learn this?" She asked as Sein got a particularly tough knot in her neck out.

"When I was training with the Bureau, I found someone who knew how to give them, so I learned," Sein smiled as she got the last knot of Tre's neck and shoulders to finally give way. "So," she leaned down and pressed her naked front to Tre's naked back, "do you like it?" She blinked when she got no response. "Tre?" She moved her head and sighed as she saw Tre was actually sleeping. "Mouuu..." Sein wanted to be upset, but Tre was too cute when sleeping. "And I was looking forward to getting sweaty, smelly and sticky with you again." Sein sighed and leaned forward to kiss Tre on the cheek before reaching for the sheets and blankets and phasing the two of them until they were under the blankets completely.

Sighing softly, Sein spread herself out on Tre's back and smiled lightly. Tre was a pretty solid sleeper and wouldn't toss her off in her sleep, which made sleeping on top of her easy.

Plus Sein was rather light, so she didn't have to crushing Tre under her.

Just before she fell asleep, Sein reached around and giggled as she squeezed Tre's breasts. "Mmm... So perfect."

It didn't take her long to fall asleep either.

(-)

A couple of hours later...

Jail blinked as he saw Quattro trying to crawl out of a room, foaming at the mouth, and Uno, who looked completely normal, walk out behind her. "What happened?"

Uno shrugged at him. "I'm not sure myself."

Jail nodded, before grinning and helping Quattro, who was reaching up feebly, to her feet. "I've got great news! To celebrate such a success, we're going to try something that Wendi managed to find not too long ago."

"What's that?" Uno blinked in confusion as Jail grinned.

"Karaoke! I'm sure that we'll all have lots of fun."

Quattro was still twitching from the three hour marathon of such horrors that her mind was still having a hard time comprehending such things could exist.

When the door opened and Wendi was up on stage singing, Quattro suddenly spasmed and fell to the floor, tears leaking out of her eyes. 'Why is the universe so cruel?'

"Happy, happy, joy, joy! Happy, happy, joy!" Wendi sang out on stage, getting giggles from Dieci and Cinque as Wendi's voice went off pitch at times.

Uno just smirked at Quattro and leaned down to whisper to her. "If you pick on Tre again, I'll make you suffer worse than this next time."

The only response she got was a spasm and twitch from Quattro.

* * *

Hayate: I see, so that's what happened.  
Shari: Yep.  
Hayate: Next time on Blood That Flows - StrikerS, let's deal with this problem right now.  
Zwei: Eeek! Daddy's being scary again!

Poor, poor Quattro...


	211. StrikerS Eleven

Blood That Flows

StrikerS Eleven

* * *

Meanwhile...

Shari gulped as she stood in front of Hayate's desk. The commander of the Riot Force had her hands crossed in front of her, which hid her mouth, and was looking at Shari with a very serious expression. The poor technician might have been good, but she was fighting the urge to wet her panties and run home crying at that moment.

"Knock it off, daddy." Rein Zwei said as she flew into the room. "Big sis is fine and Nanoha's just fine, she just needs to wake up." The small device pouted as she saw Hayate's expression. "Signum-nee! Daddy's stuck in her Gendo Ikari impersonation mode!"

Walking into the office, Signum rubbed her eyes. "Hayate, if you don't stop that, I'm going to make you wear a chastity belt and tie your hands behind your back for a week." Seeing Hayate instantly change from terrifying to a more scared and emotional mood, Signum nodded and turned to Shari. "Sometimes you need to scare her into not having fun for awhile."

Shari nodded and sighed in relief as the mood in the room lightened up. "Well, I finished the data gathering from both Graf Eisen and Raising Heart." Shari pulled out a small remote and pushed a button, causing a screen to appear in the room, showing off the two opponents that Nanoha and Vita had fought against. "I am unable to determine who they are or who they work for in such a short time, but I can tell you a little more about them."

Hayate blinked as she looked at the pink-haired one and turned to Signum. "Did you have a daughter and not tell us?"

"Hayate, by that logic, Caro would be my daughter, no, I don't have one." Signum rolled her eyes and looked at the pink-haired one more closely. "Though, considering that she has hair similar to mine and blades, I can see why you might think that."

"Though, I doubt Signum has anyone in her family with reptilian eyes." Signum, Hayate and Rein all blinked and stared as later battle footage was shown. "As you can see, her eyes became very reptilian shortly after Vita released her limiter, and her strength and power seemed to increase as well."

Signum raised an eyebrow as she saw the pink-haired opponent easily block Graf Eisen. "Impressive, to say the least."

"Yes, but she can also create four swords, and this..." Signum raised an eyebrow as the swords seemed to shatter into millions of smaller blades.

"...That is impressive." Even if the woman was an enemy, Signum couldn't help but appreciate a powerful technique such as that. Especially as it was later shown to tear through Vita's outfit easily. "That shouldn't be possible, even if Vita does like to expose her backside quite often, her Knight Armor should have held against normal blades, even Laevantine has trouble tearing through a Barrier Jacket, so, how?"

"That's a question I asked as well, so I took a closer look at the blades." Shari shook her head. "Without one on hand, I can't tell for sure what they were made of, but, just from a visual glance..." The image zoomed in on one of the smaller blades and Hayate blinked at the slight difference between the cutting edge and the flat of the blade itself. "Just from a visual glance, it kind of looks like whoever made these blades managed to come up with a lot of the Blaster Metal." Shari frowned as she looked at the other three in the room. "Which should be impossible, even if the production of the Blaster Metal has gotten easier over the years, it should be impossible to make such a large amount."

Hayate nodded at that. "Understandable, Signum, if you go against her in the future, try to get one of those blades for yourself."

Signum raised an eyebrow, but nodded. If she fought against that pink haired woman, she really did relish the thought of fighting such an opponent. "What about the other one?"

"From the data we got from Raising Heart, this woman has speed on par with Fate and greater strength, but what surprised me was this..." Shari pushed a button and Hayate, Signum and Rein all winced as they saw the woman's blades change color and cut through Nanoha's Barrier Jacket with ease and cut into her stomach with ease.

Hayate frowned as she watched it. "How long will Nanoha and Vita be out of action?"

"A day or two at most." Shari blinked and Hayate nodded, leaning back, sighing in relief.

"That's good, write up a report and we'll get it to the right people."

Shari nodded and left the room.

Hayate sighed and massaged her temples. 'Who were those two? Why were they after that Lost Logia? And why do I feel that there's more coming?'

(-)

Quint frowned as she listened to Erio, Caro and Subaru about what happened. "So, there were four people at that train?"

"Yes." Quint turned to see Teana walking with a limp, her ankle in a cast, towards them.

"You could have that healed, you know."

Teana nodded as Subaru helped her to the couch. "Yeah, but I didn't want to bother Dr. Shamal and..." She wilted under the look that Quint gave her. "It'll heal just fine."

Quint shook her head. "I know you're tough, but no need to stress your body." She frowned softly and Teana blushed hard as Quint called up Shamal to come and see them as soon as possible. "Teana, Subaru mentioned something about a fourth person that Erio and Caro did not see, can you describe any details?"

The teenager nodded to the older woman. "Yeah, he was kind of tall, at least taller than I was, he kept saying my name wrong..." She frowned as a thought came to her. "He sounded somewhat like instructor Greywords did, but I just ignored that, brown hair that was streaked backwards... And he was fast, very fast, he ran on the side of the mountain as though he was on normal ground, before moving really fast and leaving glass in his wake."

Quint blinked and nodded at that. "Did he fight against you?" Teana shook her head. "What was he there for?"

"He was stealing something, but I'm not sure what it was." Teana leaned back and frowned softly. "...Still can't believe that..."

"Sein betrayed you?" Quint finished and Teana sat straight up and looked at Quint, who nodded at her. "Erio, Caro and Subaru all described her to me, and I remember that cute girl from anywhere."

"But, why?" Subaru asked, looking as confused, lost and hurt as Teana felt. "She was super friendly, nice, bubbly, why would she do this?"

"I'm not sure," Quint shook her head, "but I want you four to do your part and write up your reports on what happened, okay?" Teana and Subaru nodded, but Caro and Erio blinked in confusion and Quint smiled at them before standing up and walking over and kneeling down. "See, we need as much point of views as possible in reports, and Teana and Subaru both knew Sein, so they might be a bit too emotionally invested, you two need to write up good reports so that we get all the details, okay?" She winked and rubbed their heads, causing the two children to blush.

Quint lasted all of three seconds before she pulled the two of them into a hug and started squealing. "Oooh! You two are just so cute!" She hugged them tightly and started rocking back and forth. "I could just gobble you two up right now and..."

"Mom! Stop it, people are staring!" Subaru blushed hard as others in the room were, in fact, looking, smiling and laughing softly, most of them remembering what their own mothers did to them.

"Sorry, sorry." Quint let go of the two children, who were still blushing hard. "Just take your time and write as clearly as you can, get all the details you can into the report, okay?" She stood up as Caro and Erio did as well, the two children saluted Quint, who returned the gesture, before they ran off to find a terminal to write their reports down.

"I need to go talk to some people, you two will be okay, right?"

Subaru was still blushing, but nodded as Shamal walked into the area.

Quint smiled and left the area, her smile quickly left her face as her mind went over what she had just been told. '...They had to be Scagiletti's Combat Cyborgs.' If Sein was with them, and she was that girl's, Nove's, sister, and those two were working with Sein... 'Did he know this would happen?'

Still, this was something, and she would get to see the reports before they were sent to Hayate's desk anyway.

Quint stopped walking and her face paled visibly as a flash of memory came to her. "That one..." She hadn't been too conscious, but she remembered the reports that Zest had given, about his opponent from years ago.

"Please, please don't let me be right." She said softly while continuing to walk down the hall.

If she was, things were going to be a lot...

Worse from here on out.

(-)

"Oi..." Vita grumbled as she was laying face down on her bed. "Reinforce, don't you knock? I'm naked here!"

"One, you're wearing a hospital gown, two, I've spanked that ass how many times over the years? And finally, you've got nothing that I haven't seen already."

Vita snorted at that. "Yeah, you probably get to look at Hayate naked all the, OWW!" She yelped as Reinforce pinched her butt and twisted her fingers. "That hurts, oww!" She looked at Reinforce with tears in her eyes as Reinforce let go of Vita's butt. "Why'd you do that?"

"For one, even if I am doing that stuff with Hayate behind closed doors, it's none of your business what I have or have not seen." Reinforce crossed her arms under her breasts and closed her eyes. "And two, like I said, I care not if you're naked or not, I have to ask you some questions."

Vita grunted, but didn't move from her spot. "Fine, if you're going to ask, can you at least rub that lotion onto my back, legs and butt then? Feels like I got a sunburn."

Reinforce rolled her eyes, but opened up the back of Vita's gown and did as she was asked. "Rapidly healed skin does feel tight and itchy, huh?" She could still see the marks on Vita's back, legs and butt. "...Tell me something, Vita, you fought against one of them, huh?"

Vita let out a hiss of pleasure as the cool lotion was rubbed onto her butt. "Mmmmhmm... She had pink hair, this weird multi-colored headband, a blue body outfit and used swords... Kind of weird looking." The redhead closed her eyes as she felt Reinforce's fingers massage her rear end while working the lotion into it. "Feels nice..."

"Focus." Reinforce gave Vita's butt a slap, getting a hiss from the redhead. "Weird how?"

"Like they were meant to be thrown and not swung around." Vita closed her eyes and enjoyed the sensations of Reinforce's massage. "Anything else?"

"Did you feel malice from any of them?"

"No," Vita shook her head slowly, "some anger at me for hitting her, but I didn't think she wanted to cause me any real harm, but her anger was just some frustration, nothing compared to you when you're mad at me." Vita laughed softly and enjoyed the sensation of Reinforce rubbing the lotion onto the back of her legs.

"I see. How would you compare her to the rest of us?"

"Stronger than me," Vita muttered softly, "and tougher than Signum is, but I could beat her in skill, and if I wasn't bleeding, I might have been able to stop her without too much damage to either of us."

"You think she's not bad?"

"No," Vita shook her head again and sighed in delight as Reinforce worked on her other leg, "compared to Signum, Shamal, Zafira and myself when we were hunting Linker Cores down, no, she's not bad, just doing what she was asked to do, I think."

"Good to know." Reinforce patted Vita's butt before closing her gown and standing up. "What's your recommendation for her?"

"If you face her, go all out as soon as possible but avoid lethal strikes."

Reinforce nodded and left the room, smiling softly. Still, the fact that someone was able to injure Vita bad enough to put her in the hospital, even if she'd be out in a few hours at most, was worrying. As she walked down the hallway, she blinked as she saw Yuuno in the hallway. "Aren't you with Nanoha?"

Yuuno chuckled and rubbed the back of his heck nervously. "She just woke up, actually." Considering how flushed Yuuno became and how he was acting slightly nervous, Reinforce shook her head.

"I don't care if you had sex on the hospital bed, but I do need some information from you." At least Yuuno stopped looking so flushed at that point. "You, Zwei, Arisa and Suzuka all went on a mission, but, I need to ask, did you find anything?"

Yuuno shook his head, a confused frown on his face. "No, we didn't. We found some sort of cave, but that was it. We were about to go inside when Vita called for us."

"I see... Thanks." Reinforce frowned softly. If there was nothing there, why did the scanners pick up a weird signal near that area.

"Um, Reinforce," Reinforce looked at Yuuno and blinked at him, "I was wondering something."

**"What's your bra size?"**

"THOTH!" Yuuno went beet red and Reinforce put a hand up to her mouth and coughed, trying to fight off the laughter that threatened to burst out at that moment. "No, I wasn't wondering that! I swear!"

Reinforce shook her head. "I have no doubt, Yuuno, and I'm not offended... If you must know, Thoth, it's," she leaned in and whispered to Yuuno and Thoth, leaving Yuuno completely red-faced at that.

**"Wow, you're even bigger than Signum, Vita and Suzuka."**

Yuuno coughed to clear his mind, or at least try to, 'E-cup indeed' his mind couldn't help but remind him. "Um, no, that wasn't it, I was just wondering what we're going to do next?"

"For now, continue to train the rookies as you have been, though I'd like the training to pick up as soon as it can," Yuuno nodded at those remarks, "other than that, don't work them so hard that they pass out."

"Right." Yuuno saluted Reinforce who pointed towards the door. "Uh..."

"I think Nanoha's calling for you." Reinforce smiled as she walked away. Still, part of her wondered, just what was the point of that signal if there was nothing there. "Zafira," she nodded to the Guardian Beast as he stood up from where he was laying on one of the couches and walked over to her, "did you hear about the beacon that Zwei, Yuuno, Arisa and Suzuka checked out?"

"I heard that it turned over nothing, if Arisa's rants were to be believed."

Reinforce nodded at that. "Yuuno said as much himself, what do you think?"

The wolf looked up at her. "I'm not sure what to think, I'll leave that to you and some of the others, but if I was to say, I'd say it was a distraction to keep us from noticing something else."

Reinforce frowned softly, if that was the case then... 'Who's hiding what now?'

(-)

Elsewhere, a couple of days later...

"You look like hell." He raised an eyebrow as he gently put the bag of stolen medical equipment down. "Get into a fight with a boar?"

"Something like that," she muttered as she twitched, 'Chaotic Blue, dammit, did Jail _have_ to go off and be so dammed _happy_?' It offset _any_ negative emotions she would have gotten from Tre or anyone else.

Of course, she just _had_ to run into Tre and Sein just as they were getting cleaned up from their activities that morning, didn't she? The two were practically _glowing_ and so... Content and... Happy!

"ARRGH!" She yelled and slammed her fist onto the table while twitching. "Straight Kuma, you had BETTER not have given any information to those Bureau dogs!"

He raised his hands and grinned at her. "Hey, chill, Bevi..."

"That's Levi, you twit!"

"My bad." He rubbed the back of his head, "but you need to chill out, I told them nothing that can link us. Is there anything else?" He blinked as she tossed him a large manilla envelope.

"Not for awhile, payment's in there..." She trailed off and looked at him seriously. "You remember an old associate of yours?"

Kuma twitched slightly, he had an idea of who she was talking about. "Yes, I remember him. He wasn't that strong, but he loved to throw his weight around, he got kicked out of the Bureau for excessive force. Wait, you're not seriously thinking..?"

She grinned at him. "I'll need you two later. Take some time and enjoy yourself until then... I need time to prepare."

"Whatever..." He turned and walked out of the room. At least his legs weren't hurting too badly at that moment.

'Still, what would she want with a dangerous lunatic like him anyway?' It might not have been his concern, but he did have a few other mercenary friends out there, he knew of one that could keep the big jackass in check if he got out of control again and tried to attack civilians like he did last time.

* * *

Due: Hey! It's finally time for us to shine!  
Agito: Shine is kind of subjective.  
Lutecia: Um... Next time on Blood That Flows - StrikerS, we're up, I guess...  
Due: Knock it off before I tickle you.  
Lutecia: Yes, ma'am.

You can thank Kuroi Hadou for the suggestion on Reinforce's bra size.


	212. StrikerS Twelve

Blood That Flows

StrikerS Twelve

* * *

On the outskirts of Cranagan, there was a meeting taking place, one of grave importance...

"Oi... Meister..." A small, redheaded girl with her hair done up into three pigtails, two on each side of her head and one in the back. "Tell me again, why are we doing this?"

Due rolled her eyes. "Because, Agito, we're trying to see if there are any Relics near here, at the very least, I know that there's a good food shop around here."

"Did we just come here for the food?" The last member, Lutecia, asked softly as she sat across from the fire that Due was attending and looked at Due and Agito. "I should be with..."

"Us," Agito interrupted her while crossing her arms and legs and frowning at the young girl, "if you say that you should be with Quattro, I'll give you such a wedgie that you won't be able to walk for a week!"

Lutecia just blinked and slowly nodded. "...Very well." The girl pulled her knees up to her face and started fidgeting slightly.

Due looked at Lutecia and frowned at her. She may not have found out everything that Quattro did, but the one thing she did find out, well... It made her wonder why Quattro would do that.

Technically, there was nothing wrong with being attracted to people of the same gender, Due would know, she had spent plenty of time in the arms of both genders. If anyone asked about it, all she would say is that being a spy was hard work some days. However, Due really wondered why Quattro would want someone so young.

"Lu," the girl looked at Due and blinked in confusion as Due pulled a towel out of somewhere and tossed it to her, "I'd prefer that you go and get some privacy before doing that." Seeing the girl stand up and run out, blushing, Due sighed and growled to herself. "Ugh..."

"Oi, Meister, shouldn't we just tell her the truth?"

"That we're worried something bad happened to Quattro?" Due looked at Agito. "Twisted, as Quattro might have been, she was more interested in science than she was in something like this." Due narrowed her eyes and looked at the fire. "Something about her changed, a long time ago..."

"You don't think that maybe she was possessed by one of those Mazuko thingies, do you?"

"Mazoku," Due corrected the device, "but, it's possible. But, I'm not sure, not like I can ask her, she'd deny it, and even if I confronted her in front of the doctor..."

"You could ask Lutecia." Agito ventured and then sweat-dropped as they heard Lutecia's voice from behind the bushes. "...Or we could wait."

Due twitched as she heard Lutecia's voice again and let out a sigh. Even if hearing the girl go off to do that was bad, it was at least better than hearing her whimper, toss and turn while crying because she wouldn't use her own fingers to get herself off. "Agito."

"Hmm?" Agito blinked at Due. "What is it?"

Due stood up and grinned at her. "I think it's time for a Unison again." Agito just tilted her head in confusion. "Because if I'm going to do some baking for Lutecia, I'm going to need some fire power."

Agito grinned and nodded. Sure, Due tended to make a mess and things sometimes exploded when she was cooking, but at least the end result was _awesome_ and tasty.

(-)

While Due and Agito were planning on baking Lutecia some food, Jail was busy with problems of his own.

Jail frowned as he looked at the data. "Uno," his female clone looked at him in confusion, "something seems wrong here."

"What? Did your subscription to Mad Scientist weekly get cancelled when you weren't looking?" Uno asked while walking over to him. "Huh, that is weird." She blinked as she took a closer look at the data. "The Saint's Cradle, huh?" She raised an eyebrow at him. "I don't know about you, but I don't think that a crib would be useful for showing Mid-Childa anything."

"It's a space ship." Jail frowned softly as he turned away from the control panel. "My research says that it should be on Mid-Childa somewhere, but..."

"Look, even if it was here, Dr., without a Kaiser, and, if I'm not mistaken, they're all dead, to power it, it's just a hunk of metal."

Jail looked at her and smirked, causing Uno to blink several times in confusion. "You remember that shroud I had Due steal?" Uno nodded slowly. "Even if the Saint Kaiser was killed, her DNA remained... That can be very... Useful, don't you agree?"

"Wouldn't the genetic markers have broken down over a few hundred years?" She then looked at Jail and grimaced. "Never mind, I forgot that you're even older than that."

"Don't ask me," Jail shrugged before turning around and looking at the data, "but still, I can't find the Saint's Cradle just yet. Who's out right now?"

"Cinque and Nove are." Uno looked at him, "should I put a call into them?"

"Please do, you know what to tell them."

Uno nodded as Jail left the room. "Nove, Cinque..."

_"Un-nee!"_ Both Cinque and Nove said as their faces appeared on the screen.

Uno smiled at them. "If I could, would you two be willing to be on the look-out for the Saint's Cradle?" The two of them blinked in confusion, well, Nove blinked, Cinque was wearing her eye-patch, so blinking was a bit harder. "Sorry, I forget, you don't have all the data I do. Anyway, the Saint's Cradle is supposed to be something like a giant space ship that got buried in the ground somewhere on this planet. If you two happen to come across any space ships..."

_"Would that count?"_ Nove pointed behind her and Uno felt like groaning.

"No, I don't think that small space fighter is what the doctor is looking for..." Uno frowned as she looked at it. "...Just what is that anyway?"

_"I dunno, but I pushed a button and this holographic image of a small green Muppet thing appeared and started speaking weirdly."_

Cinque looked at Uno, then at the ship. _"The green thing is freaky, can we blow it up?"_

"Permission granted." Uno smiled as Cinque ran to the ship and put both hands on the hull.

_"Rumble Detonator."_

_"Ah, detonation of this ship, do, you should not."_ A voice that was old and slightly high pitched said as Cinque and Nove ran away from the ship. The silver-haired cyborg snapped her fingers and the whole thing exploded into thousands of pieces in an instant.

"Anwyay," Uno couldn't help but chuckle softly as she reformed the screen in front of Nove and Cinque, "if the two of you come across any space ships that are large enough to house all of us, then that is possibly what we are looking for."

The two of them saluted Uno and she shut off the screen before turning around and leaving the room. As she walked down the hallway, she stopped at Jail's laboratory and raised an eyebrow as he was working on that Knight Valkyrie Armor some more. "Doctor, just what are you doing?"

"I wonder, Uno..." Jail grinned at her. "I wonder if I can make a copy of this and give it to everyone."

Uno blinked and thought about her sisters wearing matching black suits instead of blue ones. "...That is probably the most stylish idea you've ever had. Why didn't you do that before?"

"I don't want to get just the look, I want the properties as well." Jail grumbled while looking at the material. "If only I knew what they used to make this with..."

"A thread and needle." Uno said as she held up a needle. "Of course, if you want, I can probably scan the thing rather fast to find out what magic was used on it. I was always curious, doctor..."

"Hmm?" He asked while not looking up from his work.

"Why make all the cyborgs women?" Jail fell down and Uno blinked at him. "Is that some skill from Al Hazard?" Jail looked up at her, annoyance written on his face. "Well, I think it's a legitimate question."

"Don't look into it too much," Jail said as he stood up, "I was ordered, by the brains, to create nothing but female cyborgs. Before you say anything, just remember that I was listening to them somewhat in the past."

"That's fine, so, just what are your plans?"

Jail looked at her through one eye closed. "To show Mid-Childa that the nightmare from ten years ago is far from over." Uno stared at him. "Even the might Saint Kaiser would not be anything to that being, Death Bringer..." He squeezed his hand into a fist tightly, "even if the world sees me as a villain, I would rather be a villain if it meant that I would never have to worry about that creature ever again."

Unseen to both, Mr. Snuggles hopped down from where he was hiding on the ceiling before leaving the room.

(-)

_"Sette,"_ the pink-haired cyborg smiled as she saw her cat and knelt down so that he could jump onto her breasts, _"I worry a little about the doctor, he seems afraid of something that may not be real."_

"There is no evidence that what he is or is not afraid of is real or not." Sette said as she stood up and scratched Mr. Snuggles' head. "Therefore, I must conclude that the doctor is possibly insane."

_"What if he is right then?"_

Sette stopped and thought about what she had seen around Quattro that one time. "...Then I would owe him an apology for being wrong."

Mr. Snuggles just purred softly as Sette scratched his head.

(-)

Elsewhere...

"So, what are we looking for?" Nove asked as she kicked a dead tree out of the way. "I mean, look for a space ship? We already found the Aluminum Falcon, but that was too small!"

"Nove, I'm going to take my eye patch off." Nove looked at her and nodded slowly. "I know it makes you nervous, but I find that even the doctor's advances to the eye patch does not match up to my new eye."

Nove nodded and took a deep breath. "No, I won't look away, Cinque." Sure, that eye was freaky as hell, but it was Cinque, and she was nice, even if she had a freaky eyeball.

Nove fought the urge to shudder as Cinque took her eye-patch off, revealing her eye that was black where it should have been white and the gold iris hidden. "Cinque, can... Can I do something first?"

Blinking, Cinque nodded and wondered why Nove walked up to her and gently grabbed her cheeks before looking at her right eye. "Nove?"

Nove didn't say anything for a few moments, before she sighed and hugged Cinque to her. "I'm sorry, that eye just looks too weird, but, even if it looks evil, it's still Cinque's eye," Nove smiled as Cinque hugged her back, "I'm sorry, Cinque, it just scares me."

"I know." Cinque buried her face into Nove's chest. "And I'm not angry or sad."

Nove let go of the hug and blushed as Cinque smiled at her. "Even if the eye is evil, it's Cinque's eye, so it's not so bad."

Smiling, Cinque looked around and had to admit, her new eye seemed to be able to anything that it needed to at the time. "...I swear, it's almost like this eye can do whatever is needed to help us out. If we were in a book, I'd say it could advance the plot for no good reason."

"Don't talk like that," Nove shuddered softly, "if you say that, then I might find out that this is all a dream and that something bad will happen when I wake up."

Narrowing her eyes, Cinque pointed off in the distance. "There's something over there."

"How can you..?"

Cinque looked at Nove's confused expression and smiled at her. "There's something different with the color in the air over that way."

Nove just shrugged and followed Cinque. When they got close enough to see what it was that Cinque had seen, Nove just stared and Cinque's eyes got big as she gasped at what she saw.

"A man that has pink hair and a pink face?" Nove sweat-dropped as the man, who was sitting on a rock, turned to look at them. He was wearing a white cloak over his body, but since his hood was down completely, the two of them could see his face clearly.

"Normally I would not be found unless I wanted to be found." He stood up and walked towards them, curiosity adorning his features. "However, you two managed to find me, impressive. My name, is Sirius, Shinzoku from the Lost Dark World."

Nove's pupils shrank and she got in front of Cinque, her Gun Knuckle aimed right at Sirius' head. "You're a Shinzoku? That some sort of term for Mazoku where you're from?" She had some special bullets just for these kind of creatures. She doubted it would kill something like this, but if Cinque could get away, then she wouldn't have to use that scary power of hers.

"Relax." Sirius waved his hand and Nove's eyes widened and she blushed hard as her knees felt like giving out on her. "I have no intention of harming any of you. Mazoku are, for the most part, the natural enemies of Shinzoku." He narrowed his eyes as he looked at the two of them. "You two aren't normal, are you?"

Cinque's eye opened and a knife suddenly appeared in her hand as she jumped out behind Nove. "How can you..?"

"Interesting, you two aren't completely human, in fact, you feel..." He nodded as he looked at them, the redhead had managed to get her footing back. "Part machine, aren't you?"

Nove shook her head and tried to clear her thoughts. "So, you're some Shinzoku from a world that got no light or something and it exploded?"

Sirius blinked a few times before realization came to his eyes. "Ah, I understand, you're human, to you, a world is a planet. No, to me, the world is the entire universe. So, you could say that I'm from the Lost Dark Universe."

Both Nove and Cinque stared, wide-eyed at that. "...The whole universe?" Nove couldn't even think of the sheer _scope_ of power that would be needed to do something like that.

"When the creator..." He trailed off as he looked at Cinque's face. "...You..." Before Cinque or Nove could respond, he was kneeling in front of them while cupping Cinque's face. "...You've been touched by her, the Golden Lord."

"Hey!" Nove growled at him. "What are you..." When Sirius waved at her again and told her to calm down, her face turned completely red and her knees gave out on her, causing her to fall to her butt.

"The Golden Lord of Nightmares..." Sirius looked at her more closely. "...How is this possible? I thought only Lina Inverse and her children had the ability to use such a power, but you, you can use it."

Nove gasped a few times, trying to get her breath back. "Um... If you're not a Mazoku, you think you could do something for us?" The Shinzoku looked at Nove as she tried to stand up. "There's someone that we would like you to meet, he's been trying to prepare us against Mazoku for a long while now, do you think you could help him?"

"...Against high level Mazoku, there is almost nothing that any human can do, short of calling forth the Golden Lord and the Chaos She gives." Sirius looked at them frankly. "However, if he wishes to protect himself and you from Mazoku, I would not mind seeing him."

"I'll give him a call." Cinque said as she put her eye patch back on.

Nove was blushing hard and she looked at Sirius. "...Could you... Um, do that again?" He blinked at her and waved his hand at her, causing Nove to let out a small high pitched whine as she shook and fell to the ground, grinning stupidly.

"...Humans are weird." Then again, he _was_ affecting her senses, and overloaded the ones that would make her the least angry. How was he supposed to know that she would react so... Strongly?

(-)

Quattro blinked as she walked past Jail's office and shuddered from the sheer elation that was coming from the room. She would have walked further on had she not heard Jail yell loudly.

"A SHINZOKU?"

Quattro's eyes widened and she turned to look at the room. '...Impossible, if one comes here...'

'Calm down, you stupid fool, a half Mazoku like us can't be detected too easily, but even so, we should get out of here.'

'Good thing we have that hidden base, Master Levi.' Quattro said as she spun and ran out of the area.

The last thing she wanted to deal with was a Shinzoku.

(-)

Hours later...

Sirius looked around and narrowed his eyes as he saw the place. "...Something feels off."

Before Cinque could ask him what he meant, Nove had taken off to get a fresh change of clothes, and crashed into Uno.

Looking at Nove, who crashed to the floor, Uno raised an eyebrow as she saw Nove's flushed face, slightly damp outfit and the smell coming from her and looked at Sirius. "...Nove, he might be a man who's not the doctor, but that doesn't mean you have to put out on your first date."

"Didn't put out." Nove grumbled as she stood up and ran off, causing Uno to sigh heavily.

"I swear, between Quattro leaving for research and Nove smelling like Tre and Sein do when they're alone for more than ten minutes, I have no idea what today is." Uno rolled her eyes and looked at Sirius. "So, you're an actual god then?"

Sirius gave her a small smile. "Some might call me that." He stared as he saw Sette with Mr. Snuggles on her breasts, walk by. "...An Ancient Dragon?" Uno and Cinque both stared at him. "Even if it was tainted by a Mazoku, I shall never forget the feel of an Ancient Dragon. But I thought they were almost all killed off."

"You'll need to talk to the doctor."

Sirius just blinked at that and let them lead him to the room in question.

(-)

Seeing Sirius walk in after Uno and before Cinque, Jail had a grin that threatened to split his face. "A Shinzoku, a real Shinzoku, unbelievable!" He threw his head back and started laughing heavily. "Yeahahahahahahahahaeeesss! Take THAT, Death Bringer! Hahahahahahahaha! A Shinzoku!"

Sirius sweat-dropped and looked around the laboratory, before frowning as he saw a naked woman in a tube with long purple hair floating in a tube. "...What is wrong with her?"

Uno looked at the woman and sighed softly. "She was badly injured a few years ago, we're trying to heal her, but something..."

"Chaos." Sirius said, causing Jail to stop laughing and look at him in confusion. "I can feel that energy... It's keeping her from healing properly." He looked down at Cinque, who was looking away and the emotions coming from her told him all that he needed to know. "You caused this, huh?"

Cinque looked away, shame and pain radiating off of her. "Yes..." Her eye widened and she looked at him. "Can you heal her?"

"I doubt I could, the only thing that can heal her for sure is the same power that injured her."

Cinque grimaced at that. "I... I'm afraid I can't." Such a power, it terrified her.

Before Sirius could say anything, two more people walked into the room. "Doctor..." The one with long hair blinked as she saw the guest. "...You are..?"

"...Another Ancient Dragon?" Sirius looked at the girl with long brown hair and reddish eyes. He turned to look at the one with spiky brown hair and green eyes. "...You look similar, but you feel more like a Golden Dragon."

"That would be my fault." Jail caught Sirius' attention. "Awhile ago, I got my hands on a tissue sample of a Gold and Ancient Dragon and used that to modify some of these girls, their DNA, which caused some unusual effects with them."

Sirius nodded and looked at the petite one with the very flat chest. "...Are you sure you're a girl?"

The girl's face flushed and she looked away. "Yes."

"Very well." He nodded at her. "Your names?"

"I'm Deed." The one with long hair said as she grabbed her twin and turned her towards the Shinzoku. "And this is Otto."

"I was told that you were trying to fight against Mazoku." Sirius said while not looking away from the twins, though, he could have sworn that they were blushing the longer he looked at them. "I think I can help you."

Jail just grinned.

This... Was going to be interesting.

* * *

Teana: How? How did this happen? I can't believe it. To me... To Subaru. Next time on Blood That Flows - StrikerS.


	213. StrikerS Thirteen

Blood That Flows

StrikerS Thirteen

* * *

Several days later, at the Riot Force, something unusual was happening...

'How did this happen?' Teana asked herself as she sat in front of a man that looked at her with contempt.

"You do realize that you have no rights in these proceedings, correct?" Teana nodded slowly as he looked at the recorder that was on the table. "And failure to answer any question will lead to automatic assumption of guilt and the likelihood of you being thrown out of the Bureau in shame."

"Yes." Teana's normally strong voice was weak sounding, even to her.

"Good, now that the niceties are taken care of..."

'Niceties? You practically tore me and Subaru away from breakfast to have this meeting.' Teana mentally railed, she couldn't believe that she was the subject of an internal affairs investigation. She had heard about them in the past, but to actually be a part of one?

It wasn't fun.

"During the last mission that you and Private Nakajima were part of," the man called up a small screen and Teana saw Sein pop through the floor to break her ankle before slamming Subaru into the train and taking off through the air, "your old roommate, this Sein person, appeared, shortly after two others appeared and managed to badly injure two of the Bureau's strongest magic users. She attacked two of her former roommates before grabbing the Lost Logia, which you were supposed to secure, and then managed to escape in the confusion."

"That's right." Teana said, gulping as the screen turned off and the man leaned in to glare at her.

"And how is that possible? That was a top secret mission."

"I... I don't know." Teana shook her head and really wished that she had Sein's ability to phase through matter. If only she learned some sort of movement magic, but then remembered that these rooms were specifically designed to shut magic use down, so even if she knew movement magic, it would be useless.

"I think you gave her the information."

"What?" Teana looked at him in shock. "Why would I do that? I don't know where she is now. And I just..."

"Enough with your lies." The man snorted and another screen popped up, this one showing a younger Teana and Subaru, though not by much, eating lunch with Sein. "It was a well-known fact that you and Nakajima were her roommates."

"Well, yeah, we were roommates, but she disappeared before we graduated and we haven't heard anything from her."

"Really?" The man leaned in as the screen turned off, and for some reason, Teana felt really small as he looked at her. "Missy, you do realize that I have authority to, if I feel like it, lock you up until I get enough evidence to work a case against you, and unlike most people I investigate, you don't have any ties, you're just a grunt, no one special." He smirked at her and leaned back. "You really only got into this group because of your partner, and she only got here because of her mother, neither of you two are worth anything other than a body."

"That's..."

He snorted and narrowed his eyes at her. "Enough of that, tell me about her, this Sein."

"Well..." Teana trailed off as she tried to remember what Sein was like in the academy.

***Flash...***

"Gah!" Teana's pupils shrank as she felt a familiar set of hands on her breasts. "Sein! Knock it off!" She spun around, grabbed her towel and turned it into a make-shift whip, snapping it at Sein, who jumped away at it connected with her butt. As the girl howled, Teana rolled her eyes. "I didn't hit you that hard, shee!" It was bad enough that she had to share a shower with so many people, but between Subaru and Sein, her breasts and ass were incredibly sore from all the groping that the two of them did.

"Ne, Tea," Subaru said as she washed her body down next to the carrot-top, "we're supposed to have some time off after this, wanna head into town?"

"Not really." Teana, her face in a frown and her eyes closed, said as she washed her hair, only to growl as she felt a pair of hands on her ass again. "Subaru, if that's you..."

"Me again." Sein giggled as she let go of Teana's butt-cheeks and plopped down next to her. "So, time off? There's that neat amusement park that opened up in town and I wanted to..."

"I'm not interested." Teana frowned while keeping her eyes closed and scrubbing her hair.

"Pleeaaaase!" Sein went to her knees and started begging Teana to come with. "It won't be as much fun without you."

"No." Teana twitched irritably.

"Come on, Tea!" Subaru grinned at her. "Think about how much fun we'll have! Rollercoasters, Ferris wheels, the games, the food, OOOH!" Subaru's eyes sparkled at that thought.

"Not interested, besides, that stuff's for kids, what," Teana yelped as she was pulled down to her butt and was forced to sit on the floor.

Straddling her naked friend, Subaru pouted. "Come on, Tea, we're not officially part of the Bureau yet..."

"Besides," Sein grinned at Teana, "all work and no play makes Teana a dull friend. If all you do is work, work, work, you'll have no energy for fun. Then you start to get fat and people think that you're lazy, even if you're a hard worker, you just don't have time, energy or any reason to do anything besides drop in front of your computer and television and shut your mind off."

Teana blinked a few times as the water washed the soap out of her hair. "...That is... Uh..."

"So, come on! Live a little!" Sein grinned at Teana as she and Subaru leaned in, both smiling brightly.

"Alright, alright! Fine! I'll go with you two." Teana's face flushed as she admitted that and yelped as Subaru and Sein cheered and hugged her tightly. "GAH! Come on you two, knock it off!"

***End Flashback***

"So, she was your friend, huh?"

"Well, yeah..." Teana twitched slightly at the accusing look in his eyes. "Even so, I never would betray my comrades like that!"

He laughed and Teana frowned at him. "What's so funny?"

"That you think we're done." He grinned at her. "We're not going to be done until I find out the truth, and if you're wondering what truth that is, the truth of how she managed to find out about the mission in time to interfere with it."

"I swear, I don't know!" Teana paled as the man walked around the table and stood over her, forcing her to lean back. "I don't!"

"We'll see," was all that the man said to her.

(-)

Hours later Teana was finally allowed to leave the room, tears falling down her face as the man looked at her while she left. "Don't forget, Lanster, that you're going to be on desk duty, and no device, until I get this sorted out." The girl nodded, still trying to hide her tears.

The man shook his head and turned around, blinking as a screen in the room turned on. "...Colonel Yagami."

"I don't appreciate it when Internal Affairs thinks that my people are corrupt or are the reason that a mission went bad." The man blinked as the small, brown-haired woman seemed to loom ominously on the screen. "But when you make them cry, that really angers me. I saw the whole thing, sir, I shall be giving you and your partner a complete write-up over the whole thing."

He smirked at her. "Too bad that's all you can do." That smirk on his face died when she grinned at him darkly.

"You should be thankful that I don't take after the woman who was basically my foster mother growing up. If I did, I would have blasted you all the way across Cranagan by now." He frowned at her and she chuckled at him. "Think about it, good sir, at most, I'd get a slap on the wrist, especially if all it did was land you in the hospital for awhile."

"...You wouldn't."

"You're right, **I** won't. Can't say the same about others though." With that, the screen turned off, leaving the man staring at the screen before turning around slowly and sighing as no one was there.

(-)

"You really wouldn't do that, would you?" Reinforce looked at Hayate, who shook her head.

"No, I wouldn't, but if he thinks I would, that's just as effective, I think."

"What about Lanster and Nakajima?" Reinforce looked at Hayate, who smiled softly.

"I think some R and R would be just perfect for everyone right now. Pretty stressful around here."

Reinforce just nodded and smiled, that was a good idea.

(-)

Meanwhile...

"You understand that you have no rights here, correct?" He asked the short-haired girl, who just nodded silently at him. "Good, now then, you also realize that any failure to answer these questions will lead to an automatic assumption of guilt and expulsion from the Bureau." She nodded silently, almost whimpering, "and I don't think I need to remind you that even though your parents and your sister are all in the Bureau and fairly high ranking, you do not have the same sort of allies they do."

Subaru nodded at him. "Y, yes."

"Good. Now, I'm not here to be your friend, pretend to be your friend or even attempt to be nice, I'm just here for the truth." A screen appeared in front of Subaru, showing the events of the train again. "Now, when your partner, someone you've known for at least three years now, was injured, how come you did not come to her aid? Instead you stood there and let a deserter take the Lost Logia and escape."

"I was in shock," Subaru managed to stutter out, "I never thought I'd see her again. And she shows up and..."

"A likely story." He snorted at her, "if anything, you were sending her data on the mission."

"No!" Subaru had a frightened expression on her face. "I would never..."

"Lost Logia sell for a lot of money, it wouldn't be hard to feign incompetence, allow a Lost Logia to get stolen from under everyone's noses and let the person sell it off for a large profit. Even if it was split five ways, a small Lost Logia could set a person up for years." He crossed his arms over his chest and narrowed his eyes. "Really, considering that your mother's a top investigator, your father's a major and your sister is a Sergeant, I'm shocked that you would resort to such tactics just to get money."

"I would never!"

He snorted at her outburst. "You say that, but I'm almost certain that you're the one who sent her information. Or maybe it was your friend?"

"Tea would never do that!" Subaru protested and the man snorted at her.

"Right now, your so-called friend is telling my partner everything." He narrowed his eyes at her. "You might as well come clean and admit to what you did."

"What did I do?" Subaru asked and gulped as he walked around the table to stand directly above her.

"You know what you did, you gave that deserter information and she used that to not only appear at the train, but injure two of your superior officers!" Subaru tried to shake her head and he grabbed her chair and leaned in, shaking it. "You think I can't see it? Greed's a powerful emotion, but I wonder how you and your family would feel if you were forced to spend a few decades in prison for treason?"

Subaru just whimpered and shook her head.

"Then tell me about this Sein, it might save you, it might not, but just remember, you're no one important."

Subaru just gulped and nodded. "Uh huh..."

***Flash***

"Your mom and sister are really pretty and nice." Teana smiled at Subaru. "I can see why you look up to them."

Subaru rubbed the back of her head and giggled nervously. "Mom and Gin-nee taught me Shooting and Strike Arts to be strong, but I really want to be more like Yuuno-san." Subaru smiled softly. "He was so cool, put out that fire so easily, so maybe one day, I can be helpful to him."

Teana rolled her eyes and looked at Sein, who was walking a little bit behind them and smiling softly. "What about you, Sein? We met your sisters, what about your parents?"

Sein sighed softly. "You probably won't meet the man who raised me, he's always busy... But... I don't know my mom." Both Teana and Subaru blinked at her, this was rather unusual. "One day, I'll find her again, even if she's dead, I just want to find her one day, to see her and let her know how I'm doing." Sein then pointed at Subaru. "But, until then, I'll say that I'm jealous of Nakajima for having her mother still, but at least I have more sisters than she does!"

Subaru nodded and smiled. "Don't worry, I'll help you find her one day."

***End Flash...***

"So, in the end, you did promise to help her, huh?"

"But if she was looking for her mother, isn't that something a Bureau member should do?" Subaru gulped as he snorted at her.

"Your only mission is to do whatever your superior tells you to do. You don't have the power, rank nor leverage to get away with such ideology. Now, we're going to continue this interview and we won't stop until I'm satisfied."

Subaru just whimpered.

(-)

Hours later, Subaru left the room on shaky legs and unshed tears in her eyes. Each step had her shaking hard.

"Subaru," she turned to see her mother standing there. The two stood there for exactly ten seconds before Quint walked up to Subaru and pulled her into a hug. It was no surprise to Quint that Subaru hugged her back, started whining and broke down crying fully. "It'll be okay, Su-chan..." Quint said softly as she rocked her daughter softly. "You did nothing wrong, I promise that you'll be just fine."

After a few moments of crying, Subaru pulled back and wiped her eyes. "Thanks, mama."

Quint smiled and gently punched Subaru in the shoulder. "Go get washed up, I'll take you and Teana out for some ice cream, okay?" At least that got a smile out of Subaru. "I'll get Ginga, your father and the twins to join us, okay?"

"Sure." Subaru turned and left to go get cleaned up.

After she left, the smile left Quint's face and she turned, stopping the Internal Affairs officer as he was leaving the meeting room. "You didn't need to be so hard on a private."

"Ma'am, with all due..."

"Shut the hell up." Quint interrupted him. "Accusing someone of being a traitor is serious, and doing so without any real evidence..." She squeezed her hands into fists. "And I'm not saying that as a mother, but as a Bureau member." Turning away, the purple-haired woman started to walk out of the area. "Just so you know, you should be thankful that I'm here and not my eldest daughter, she's... More protective than I am of our family."

He snorted. "Ma'am, you don't scare me. You're barely half my height, and..."

The next thing he knew, he was back in the interrogation room, laying on his shoulders as he wondered what happened.

Quint just smirked as she lowered her leg to the floor. "And this little woman just laid you out, I'd shut up if I was you."

(-)

Hours later...

Teana, dressed in a white shirt and dark skirt combo, smiled lightly as she, Quint, who was dressed in blue pants and a light blue shirt, and Subaru, who was in a light skirt and blue shirt, all were meeting at a familiar park. "This is..."

"Where Subaru introduced you to me." Quint smiled at Teana. "I'm not going to press the issue, but I think after what happened today, you two could relax, and I don't know anything that helps more than ice cream."

Teana smiled softly and looked away, her face lightly flushed, "I don't deserve it, I..." She blinked as Quint squeezed her shoulder. "Quint?"

"What you do or do not deserve is not for you to decide." Quint shook her head. "Besides, Teana, regardless of anything else, I don't blame you for the failed mission."

Teana blinked and looked at her in shock. "You... You don't?"

Quint shook her head. "Stuff happens all the time. I don't believe in coincidence, so I don't think she was just there by chance. Lost Logia are, after all, very valuable items, so it wouldn't surprise me if that she might be working for someone who wanted them for themselves and found out about this one."

"What if she shows up again? Then more people will," Teana blinked as Quint put a finger to her lips, causing Teana to blush as the older woman pressed on her lips.

"Regardless, Teana, I'm sure that the truth will come out soon enough," Quint smiled and pulled her finger away from the teenager's lips and started to walk away. "I'll get some ice cream."

"I like strawberry and chocolate, mom! With sprinkles!"

Quint nodded and looked at Teana. "How about you?"

"Ah, uh... I think I'll try the triple flavor one."

"Sure." Quint walked off with a small sway in her hips.

"Ne, Tea..." Teana looked at Subaru and blushed as the girl suddenly hugged her.

"S...Subaru!" Teana's face was completely red as Subaru rubbed her cheek. "What's with you? Stop it!"

"Sorry!" Subaru let go and stepped back. "But you looked so cute that I couldn't help it." Subaru beamed at Teana, who just groaned and buried her face into her palm.

Sometimes Teana wondered just _why_ Subaru was so excitable all the blasted time.

It didn't take long for Quint to come back with lots of ice cream, even for Subaru's appetite, it was too much. Quint just winked at their confusion before jerking her head behind her.

"Gin-nee!" Subaru's eyes sparkled and she jumped from her seat to go and meet her big sister. "Dad! Aston, Cecilia!" The excitable teenager grabbed Ginga in a quick hug, before doing the same to her father and picking up her little brother and swinging him happily in the air.

Genya smiled as he watched Subaru play with her younger brother. "Ah, you must be Teana Lanster, Subaru keeps saying such nice things about you." He laughed when the girl blushed heavily.

"Dear, don't make me put this ice cream down and show you why I married you." Quint winked at him as she put the ice cream out for everyone.

"Mom, please," Ginga shivered at that, "there are people around, we don't need to give them nightmares." The last thing she wanted to do was accidentally walk in on her parents having sex again. Five times in the past year had been enough, thank you very much!

"Trust me, Ginga," Genya chuckled softly as Subaru took Aston over to the table, "when you find someone that drives you crazy, you'll probably be the same as your mother."

"Not likely." Ginga snorted as she sat down at the table. "Hello, Teana." She smiled at the girl across from her. "Nice outfit."

"Thanks, you too." Ginga did look nice in her short-sleeved gray shirt and dark jeans that hugged her legs and butt and really made her look like some sort of...

Ginga blinked as Teana's face suddenly went red and she shook her head. "Uh huh..." She had no idea what was going through the girl's head. It wasn't like she could read minds, even if she had telepathy, that didn't mean she could read a person's mind like some of those psychics claimed they could.

Other than getting Cecilia and Aston to try and calm down, and Subaru's near orgasm from eating ice cream, it was pretty quiet overall.

"Actually, Ginga, since you're here, I'd like to ask you something." Quint spoke up and Ginga looked at her mother in confusion. "Would you like to transfer over to the Riot Force?" Ginga blinked in confusion. "We're in need of more personnel," Quint smiled at her, "and you could use an Intelligent Device of your own."

"Really?" Ginga blinked at her mother. "I thought you weren't going to let me get one until I earned it."

"Trust me, Gin-nee, survive a week with the lunatics we have a trainers and you'll have it earned." Subaru said, causing Teana to nod emphatically.

"...They can't be that bad, can they?"

Teana shuddered, causing Ginga to blink at her. "I'm just a B rank mage and they're training us as if we were all at AA rank or higher."

Quint just laughed as Ginga sweat-dropped. "And Ginga, you're A rank, right? You might benefit from this as much as Subaru has."

"Uhh..." Ginga blinked and looked at her mother, Subaru and Teana, before shrugging. "Sure, why not?" It probably couldn't hurt at the very least.

"Not that we can do much right now anyway." Teana looked down, feeling all the joy leaving her as she remembered what had happened that day.

"You let Hayate and Reinforce worry about that." Quint spoke up, causing Teana to look at her tiredly. "No one is going to make you two miss any training, and if that dummy thinks he can just bully you and get away with it, you need to remember this," Quint grinned at her, "nearly everyone in the Riot Force is very... Protective of their friends and family, Teana." Not to mention explosive in power, but that wasn't something that Teana needed to worry about. "So, I'm certain that none of them care what happened."

"Wish I could share your enthusiasm." Teana looked down, sighing heavily. What did she do to have this happen to her? Her brother was killed, but people dismissed it as a suicide, Sein turned out to be a deserter and traitor and now she was in danger of losing everything, finding out who killed her brother and spending a lot of time in prison on top of it.

'...Why? What did I do to deserve this?' Teana could feel her eyes starting to burn and she tried to fight off the tears that were threatening to come. She didn't want to cry, not in front of everyone like this. 'Stop, dammit, stop... Stop...'

"Teana..." She felt Quint slide into the booth next to her and the next thing that she knew, Teana found herself pulled into a hug as Quint rocked her back and forth. "It's okay, Teana." She felt the girl stiffen in her arms. "Let it out, it's eating away at you." Quint just grinned as she rubbed Teana's back. "And if anyone makes fun of you, they'll find out just how hard a Nakajima looks out for their friends and family."

It didn't surprise anyone that Teana wrapped her arms around Quint and started to softly cry into the older woman's shoulder. After what had happened that day, Subaru knew better than anyone how much Teana was in need of this.

* * *

Subaru: I'm not even in the next chapter! So, we'll see you next time on Blood That Flows - StrikerS.

What? You REALLY thought that there wouldn't be SOME fall-out from Sein's actions?


	214. StrikerS Fourteen

Blood That Flows

StrikerS Fourteen

Shorter chapter, sorry.

* * *

At an undisclosed location...

"How could this happen?" Her eyes were wide as she started to hyperventilate. Grabbing her head, she let out a scream of frustration and knocked aside several vials of chemicals. "A Shinzoku? GAH! I'm so fucking CLOSE!" Her blue hair covered her face as she tried to take several deep breaths. "I could get my normal body back, but I'm not strong enough yet. So close... So close!"

"Master Levi..." She turned to see a projection of Quattro walking about the room. "Might I suggest something?"

Levi looked at the cyborg and narrowed her eyes as Quattro adjusted her glasses. "What is it?"

Looking at the Mazoku that was currently using her body, Quattro smirked at her. "We have a situation where a Shinzoku is snooping around back at the base, and yet, if I'm not there, people might get suspicious of us."

Levi's purple eyes flashed and she panted heavily. "And what, exactly, do you propose? If I take my leave of you, what's to stop you from betraying me the instant you get back? I'm nothing compared to a Shinzoku right now!"

"Master Levi, I wouldn't dare betray you, things are more interesting right now." Quattro smirked at her master and looked at the notes that were strewn about on the table. "Remember that plan you had for your 'dear sister'?"

Levi blinked and walked over to where Quattro was, before grinning. "...This could work... Yes." Her eyes gleamed as she looked at Quattro, before looking at the notes. "Yes, you'll be my little test subject before I give Fate what she deserves."

"And the best thing, master." Quattro grinned at her. "You can make sure that I don't speak, no matter what, so I can't betray you, and you get to keep that body."

Levi grinned heavily. "Well then, I better get to work..." She threw her head back and started laughing. "If this works..." The grin that appeared was so wide that it threatened to split her face in half. After all, she had a bone to pick with a lot of people, but Fate... She couldn't wait to see the look on that worthless clone's face when she finally realized the truth.

(-)

Elsewhere...

Dieci looked at the training area and sighed heavily. "...Another field of cows?"

"I added sheep this time, if they were real, we could have mutton chops!" Wendi grinned at Dieci as she looked at the destruction. "Wow, I can't match this on my best days." She pouted at the look Dieci gave her. "Hey, come on, it's not _my_ fault that you make such awesome explosions! I wish I could get mine even half as awesome as you can get yours!"

Wendi grabbed her hover board and grinned. "You know..." Dieci looked at her in confusion. "I don't really need the board anymore, watch."

Dieci blinked as Wendi put the board down and she actually flew out to the center of the area as small targets started to appear. Before the brunette could ask what was going on, she stared in shock as her redheaded sister called up several pink balls around her, before launching them out in multiple directions with ease.

Grinning, Wendi nearly cheered as she didn't miss a single target, her teeth practically lengthened out as a final target, a tall pillar, appeared just in front of her. "Watch this!" Before Dieci could ask what was going on, Wendi opened her mouth and a thin, blue energy stream erupted from her mouth and split the pillar in half.

Wendi grinned, before her eyes widened and she grabbed at her throat. "GAH!" She fell to the ground and groaned as Dieci was there a moment later with some water. Quickly taking it, she drank it down and sighed as the pain went away. "...Otto?"

"Yes." Dieci nodded to her. "Otto has a similar problem when she uses that breath laser, water helps sooth your throat."

Wendi panted and stood up, her red tail hung limply behind her. "Ugh... It feels like my throat was completely dried out." When Dieci offered her another glass of water, she took it and drank it greedily. "Mmmmm..." Tears were pouring out of her eyes as her throat felt normal again. "Gah... How does Otto deal with it?"

"By not using it too often." Dieci suggested to Wendi, who just glared at her. "You are strong enough, focus more on your beams and you'll be more than dangerous enough. Leave that as a final option."

Pouting, Wendi crossed her arms under her breasts and huffed. "But I like the thought of shooting stuff from my mouth! It feels... Natural almost."

"Your body doesn't like you using it." Dieci pointed out as she walked off the training floor. "We should go meet the doctor's guest anyway."

Wendi shrugged and grabbed Dieci before flying up and out of the training area. "So, this guy," she said as she put Dieci down and walked out after her, the redhead's tail slowly wagging behind her, "what you think he's like?"

Dieci just shrugged and blinked. "...I left my cannon back there."

"Don't worry about it." Wendi grinned at her. "I know you think you're naked without out, but you're not." Not that Wendi would mind seeing Dieci naked, the girl was really pretty without trying most of the time.

"Oh, uh..." Dieci fidgeted, and blushed while looking back at the training area. "...I really think I should..."

"No!" Wendi grabbed Dieci and pulled her along. "You're going to get your cute face and butt out of there and meet the guy without your big cannon!"

_"You two are loud."_

"Mr. Snuggles!" Wendi smiled as she held onto Dieci. "Sette! How are you two?"

"We are fine." Sette said while petting Mr. Snuggles on the head, causing the cat to purr loudly. "The doctor has a visitor."

_"He's right behind us."_

Turning, Sette blinked as she saw Uno leading a man with pink hair and a white-pink face down the hallway. "This is Sette," Uno pointed to Sette, "Mr. Snuggles, her cyborg cat familiar, Dieci and Wendi. Everyone, this is Sirius, a god from another universe."

"...Another Golden Dragon?" Sirius looked at Wendi, before blinking as he looked at Dieci. "...You are similar to the small one, you have Chaos in you as well." When they stared at him in shock, he shook his head. "I have been in many battles, I will never forget the feeling of an Ancient or Golden Dragon for as long as I live. And having met the source of all Chaos, I recognize that easily."

"Well, other than Quattro, who's going to be out until tomorrow, and Due, who's with Lutecia and Agito, you've met everyone."

Sirius nodded and looked at the people in front of him more closely. "I cannot stay for too long. However, I do think that a few days will not harm anything."

Uno smiled and nodded. "The doctor would like that very much." Especially if he could help copy several pieces of the Knight Valkyre Armor. Even if it wasn't perfect, it was a lot better for everyone than the alternative.

Honestly, Uno wasn't sure how future fights against the Bureau would go, especially if all of the Numbers were wearing armor that the Saint Kaisers themselves tried to emulate with their powers.

Such an event...

Would be interesting.

* * *

Regius: I think it's time to deal with this situation. Next time on Blood That Flows - StrikerS.


	215. StrikerS Fifteen

Blood That Flows

StrikerS Fifteen

Of course I own nothing.

* * *

The next morning...

Walking around the base, Erio blinked as he overheard some members of the staff talking. Even though he didn't know their names, he just felt compelled to listen in on what they were saying.

"Yeah, I know, I mean, an investigation... That can ruin you." The first one, a woman with long, light brown hair, spoke to her male co-worker.

"Been through one yourself?" The man was fairly tall and had sandy blond hair that was cropped at his neck.

"No, thankfully, but those two... Can't imagine what they did to deserve that." The woman shook her head. "You think they did something wrong?"

The man snorted. "Those two? I doubt it was anything here. Might have been from a previous squad, but they've been pretty good here."

"Yeah." She nodded at him. "Can't see those two doing something to get in trouble like that."

Erio blinked and shrugged before turning around and leaving. He liked Subaru and Teana, they were really cool people. He looked at his wrist watch and blinked. "Oh yeah!" He picked up his speed and made his way towards the lab. He needed to see Shari about his device.

(-)

"Nanoha..." Fate, in nothing more than black panties and a dark, semi-transparent nightie, rolled over in her bed and raised an eyebrow as she saw her roommate looking at a square box. "Those are..?"

"The Demon's Blood Talismans." Nanoha, in only a large t-shirt and panties, said as she ran her thumb over them, before shaking her head and putting it away. When Fate asked her what she was doing, Nanoha turned to look at her. "Fate-chan, don't you ever get the feeling that we're nothing more than monsters in human flesh?" Fate blinked at her, confused by the question. "I mean, you, myself, Hayate-chan, we're all so powerful, sometimes I wonder..." She trailed off as Fate, who she swore was in bed a moment ago, got behind her and hugged her.

"Nanoha, if you weren't powerful, you wouldn't have saved me, wouldn't have saved Yuuno, wouldn't have been able to save Hayate." Fate hugged Nanoha to her tightly and closed her eyes as Nanoha put the talismans down and closed the box before leaning back against her.

"Fate-chan, I... I don't know, sometimes I think that the reason so many weird things happen is because we're so powerful. If we weren't..."

"We'd be dead." Fate pulled Nanoha away from the dresser and over to the couch. "What brings this up?"

"...What right do we have to bring those four into our world?" Nanoha asked bitterly as she let Fate hug her. "Those four, Erio, Caro, Subaru, Teana... They didn't need to be part of our world. We should have found some other people, AA to S rank and taught them, instead we're going to shatter four innocents and expose them to what we've gone through."

"Nanoha," Fate sighed and made Nanoha lean back so that she was resting against Fate completely, "I was never innocent, I lost that when my mother took the whip to me the first time... And then, finding out that my sister was corrupted and turned into a Mazoku... And what about Hayate? Or Yuuno? You're just like us, you were born into the magic, even if you didn't know it. Even Erio and Caro were born into their magic and were born to live dangerous lives like we have. What's the real problem, Nanoha?"

Nanoha sighed and moved so that she was sitting on Fate's lap and could hug the blonde closer. "It's something that mom told me once. That the more people you have in your close circle, the more dangerous it becomes for everyone. Fate-chan, think... When I first started, I had to deal with you and Yuuno-kun dealt with Arf. Mom eventually dealt with Precia-san, but it wasn't too bad, right?" Fate nodded slowly, wondering where Nanoha was going with this. "After you came back, we had to deal with Hayate-chan's family and eventually your sister and Death Bringer."

"That's the nature of things." Fate smiled at Nanoha. "If we were alone, we wouldn't have attracted their attention, but we did, and we wouldn't have survived if we weren't together." When Nanoha looked up at her, Fate had to fight the urge to kiss her. 'Dammit, just why do you have to be my sister?' Images of others flashed through her mind and she fought the urge to groan. 'Dammit, I blame you, Hayate and you, Thoth Driver, for this!' She mentally yelled, knowing that they wouldn't hear her.

"Fate-chan?" Nanoha blinked as Fate took a deep breath.

"Nanoha, regardless of how we got here, none of us made it here alone." Fate smiled at her. "Having more people is risky, I know, but," Fate put a finger to Nanoha's lips to keep her from saying anything, "so is having less. You're not invincible, Nanoha, no one is. Train up the others so that they can fight along side of us and not have to worry about being a burden."

"Thanks, Fate-chan." Nanoha smiled and surprised Fate by leaning up and giving her a kiss on the lips. Before Fate could respond, Nanoha got off of her and went to get dressed. "I might need those Talismans, but I think that they'd be better suited for someone else."

Fate twitched, her face completely red as she touched her lips. "...Nanoha... Why did..?"

Nanoha turned to look at Fate with a confused expression on her face as she started to put on her training pants. "...What? Didn't like it? Next time I'll make sure that Yuuno-kun kisses you instead, okay?" She giggled as Fate's hair stood completely on end while her face turned three shades redder. "Oh, and Fate-chan..." Nanoha had a very wide grin on her face. "Yuuno-kun is a _very_ passionate kisser."

"HUH?" Fate stared at Nanoha, steam practically coming out of her ears. "You, you, you..." She pointed a shaky finger at her sister, who stuck her tongue out at Fate.

"Yes, we did kiss, he's quite good at it." Nanoha smiled while turning away and getting dressed. She didn't want Fate to see the blush that came to her cheeks as she thought about the _other_ things Yuuno was quite good at.

Fate really didn't need Nanoha to tell her much else, her mind was already working overtime and imagining the two of them doing a _lot_ more than just kissing each other.

As she finished putting on her training shirt, as she was going to spar with Signum that morning, Nanoha blinked as she heard a thump. Turning around, she stared as Fate was on the floor, twitching and grinning like mad. "Fate-chan..." Nanoha sighed before deciding to leave her like that. It would be for the best. "Raising Heart..."

**"Yes, my master?"**

"Make sure to lock the door when I leave."

**"Alright."** Her device said as it flew around her as she put her shoes on for the day.

(-)

Elsewhere...

Regius looked over the reports he was given and narrowed his eyes. "Well then..." He looked at Auris. "These are accurate?"

"There are at least five different accounts of what happened and all say very similar things, though some are more anger-laden than others."

"Very well, it's time to have that conference then." Regius grabbed his papers and left his office, his daughter following behind him.

It was time to deal with those limiters and some of the rules more closely now.

(-)

Later...

Looking at the assembled members of the Bureau council, Regius was glad that this was one of the few meetings that was behind closed doors. Mostly because there was only a few high ranking Generals and Admirals that could pass decisions down, and something like this needed some backroom dealings to happen. Certain things just weren't meant to be aired out in public, after all.

"Ladies and Gentlemen," he spoke to everyone, getting their attention, "it has recently come to my attention that, as many of you probably know, there is a competing, criminal element searching for Lost Logia on Cranagan," Regius had a good idea of who it was too, "as such, certain things are in need of change if we are to combat this threat."

Allowing that to sink in for a moment, Regius leaned forward and continued to speak. "The newly formed Riot Force isn't your usual policing force. They were always intended to deal with threats that no normal mage or knight group could possibly hope to combat. That two of their best operatives ended wounded because they were constrained on a ridiculous level against an unknown enemy of at _least_ S Rank only shows that the current control system, while useful on normal mages, its a call for disaster or worse for members of this new unit. A unit, I might remind you, that was created to avoid the problems of red tape and be able to scramble quickly to a new threat."

Taking a deep breath, he continued on, "however, this incident left a very clear message. There are forces in the background that are, for some reason, gathering Lost Logia and other worrisome material, and they have shown to have operatives on the order of AAA to S Rank at the very least. Had those operatives gone up against a fair majority of the Bureau, we would not be here talking about this in a civilized fashion, but rather trying to place blame upon one another for deaths in the field. And so, if you all are ok with this, I will order an increase in the mass production of Shine Swords to all Ground Forces, and the deployment of the current reserve of Blaster Armors to the Elite TSAB Air Units on call for an emergency, while increasing the ratio of production of Blaster Armors. Any objections to this?"

When all he heard was a negative response, Regius nodded. "Before we go, however, a report landed on my desk this morning, concerning the activities of Internal Affairs. Concerning the matter of the incident that landed the two operatives of the Riot Force in the hospital was, in part, because of someone who, from my information, left the Bureau before graduating the academy, I am sad to say that I am greatly irritated with the way that Internal Affairs dealt with the matter of the deserter. They were expected to try to find the truth, if one of the Privates had been supplying her with information, only to have the officers in question attempt to enact a witch's hunt on two young recruits."

Regius took a deep breath before continuing. "Not only were they deeply screened before joining the new unit, but they also have a record of excellent service for the Bureau, in addition, one of them is the daughter of not only a known TSAB officer known by her integrity and service to the forces, and all but an insult to her, but also a renowned Colonel who leads his own division. While corruption should be investigated fully, we must do so with the thought that the people we are investigating are, in fact, people who may or may not be in a bad situation."

"What are you suggesting then?" One of the members spoke up and Regius looked at him with narrowed eyes. "Aren't you the one who's always harped on justice?"

"Indeed, but I am not so stupid as to think that people do not have skeletons and ghosts in the closet. Whatever happened between the two privates and the deserter happened, and it needs to be investigated, but remember, sometimes what you see is not always what you get. Remember that."

(-)

"I'm surprised," Auris said as she followed Regius down the hall after the meeting was over, "I thought you'd want to give those two a commendation."

Regius looked at his daughter. "Auris, there are times when pursuit of justice is, in itself, a criminal act." He then gave her a small grin. "Besides," he leaned in and whispered quietly, "I think that those two showing up is because of some... Dirty laundry."

Auris's pupils shrank and she nodded slowly. "Very well." That was probably something that was better left alone. "What are you going to do about the Internal Affairs investigation?"

"Nothing, nothing will turn up." He started to walk again and she followed him, "still, I'm going to give Yagami the okay to allow those two to continue on their missions," he didn't need to look to know that his daughter was surprised by that, "provided that they're in a group mission for now. I've got enough pull to turn this into probation for them."

Auris nodded and mentally bit her lip. 'You've changed, father... And I think it's for the better.'

"Make sure to give Zest a call, Auris." She blinked at that. "What is he up to right now?"

"Currently, he's working with the Navy on dealing with an active Lost Logia not too far from here," she adjusted her glasses, "it's not one that's too dangerous for him, but it was a little beyond the level of the group that was there. I'm rather surprised that he volunteered to help out."

Regius smiled grimly. "We're all part of the Bureau, Auris, no matter what, we're all part of the Bureau, and we all need to do our part to save lives and protect the sky."

(-)

Later that week...

Hayate looked at Yuuno, Fate, Arisa and Quint. "I just got confirmation from Regius, until the Internal Affairs investigation is over with, both Subaru and Teana are on probationary status." She gave them a slight smirk. "The only thing it means is that they have to be supervised under most circumstances." She looked to her side and nodded at Reinforce.

"As to the problem with Limiters, right now, the limiters have been mostly lifted, however..." Reinforce sighed softly. "We're still under them, however, they were lifted so that none of us can be stronger than AAA right now. Even so, every one of us has been given total authority to have the limiters lifted at any time during a mission for the duration of the mission."

"However, doing that," Hayate linked her fingers in front of her face, "will, of course, require that you write up a very detailed report over the very reason why you did it."

Arisa rubbed the back of her head. "Um, why am I here? I mean, I'm not under one."

"Which is only because Holy magic is harder to scale properly than normal magic." Reinforce reminded her. "Anyway, there are rumors of a shipment of various illegal goods, including Lost Logia, running through Cranagan today."

Fate blinked at that. "...Normally that would be kept very quiet, unless it was a trap, so, how did..."

"Vita got the information, and, no, you don't want to know who or what she did to get that information." Reinforce gave Fate a pointed look and the blonde nodded, blushing softly. "Anyway, the stuff's pretty hush-hush, and Vita even commented that she got lucky with getting the information."

"Speaking of which, where are they today?"

Hayate sighed at Quint's question. "Part of the reason we gathered you here today. Nanoha and Zelgadis are, unfortunately, forced into a meeting with several trainers, Vita, Signum and Rein Zwei are together on the northern side of the planet right now... So, we're down a few staff members at the moment."

"Before you say anything, we wanted you four to do this mission anyway." Reinforce spoke up. "So don't think that you're only being used because we don't have others. We want you to take Teana, Subaru, Ginga, Erio and Caro out on the mission with you, if something goes wrong, the four of you are less likely to destroy the city than the others are."

"Why don't we use those dimension fields?" Arisa asked, scratching her head and blinked as she caught Quint shaking her head. "Uh... I miss something?"

"Those fields are to be used on less advanced worlds where magic isn't as well known." Quint started to explain. "However, on worlds such as Mid-Childa, the usage of a dimension field indicates that there may be criminal activity going on. After all, you could easily kill someone in a dimension field in cold blood, say that it was self-defense and most people wouldn't know the difference."

Quint nodded as Yuuno, Fate and Arisa all looked disgruntled at that. "They were abused in the past, it's just better for everyone if they're not used like that again."

Arisa grimaced and nodded. "I guess so."

"Anyway, the shipment's expected to move in a couple of hours, I want you four to brief them on the situation, handle it as you see fit, but don't hesitate to unseal the limiters if you need to." Hayate looked at Fate, who nodded at her. "Just remember that even though we have the authorization to do this, there was still a lot of problems with getting this cleared."

They nodded and left as Hayate dismissed them.

"Something wrong?" Reinforce looked at Hayate.

"I think if a mission comes up that needs more firepower, I might just take it myself. I need to get out of here once in awhile." Hayate stood up and stretched. "I swear though, if there are more missions with those 'weird signals' that turns up nothing, I'm going to start ignoring them."

Reinforce looked at the mission documents. "Perhaps I can go to one in the future? If it's just something like an old computer system or something, it won't take long for us."

Hayate nodded and turned to Reinforce. "...What's the rest of the day look like?"

"...Until they leave on their mission..." Reinforce trailed off, she knew that look on Hayate's face. Sighing, she pushed a button on the desk. "Hold all calls for the next two hours, and do not let anyone in here unless it's an emergency."

_"How bad of an emergency?"_

"There better be a zombie breakout at the very least, or you're in trouble." Reinforce turned off the intercom and pushed another button to lock the doors. "I think our schedule just opened up."

The next thing the tall device knew, Hayate was in her arms and they were laying on the couch. 'This is one way to burn off stress.' Reinforce mentally commented to herself as Hayate had a hungry, almost needy look on her face.

Reinforce mentally shrugged as clothes started going everywhere. After all, they could be replaced easily enough.

She stopped thinking when Hayate kissed her on the lips, and any other thinking went out the window for the next couple of hours.

* * *

Levi: Excellent, excellent.  
Quattro: You've been watching Beast Wars again, haven't you?  
Levi: I happen to like that Megatron, so yes. Next time on Blood That Flows - StrikerS.  
Quattro: And the plot moves again.

What? I think I like making some characters likable.


	216. StrikerS Sixteen

Blood That Flows

StrikerS Sixteen

Of course I own nothing.

* * *

Elsewhere...

"How do you like the body, Quattro?" Levi smirked as she saw Quattro walking around, her steps a little stiff and a little uncertain.

Rolling her shoulders, Quattro had to admit, this new body was rather interesting. "I'm surprised you put so much effort into it." It was actually nice to feel air going into her body without someone in the background of her mind.

Levi just grinned at her. "Don't forget, that body's only temporary for now, should it be destroyed, you'll end up back in this body." Quattro nodded at her and adjusted her glasses. "I made sure that you still have access to your abilities..."

"Hey!" Both Levi and Quattro turned to see Straight Kuma walk in with another man, this one was wearing a dark tank top, black pants and boots, his had blond hair that was fairly curly and a savage grin on his face. "Wow, my female boss got a cute co-worker!" Kuma grinned as he looked at Quattro. "Not bad, though if I was you, I'd wear my hair down, it would look better."

Levi just snorted at him. "Don't even try it, Kuma, who's this?"

"I'm George Tetsunami, I prefer it when people call me Tetsunami, it's better than George, in my books!" The man grinned as her as he pulled out a weird looking gun and spun it around a few times. "I hear that the pay is really good for this job."

"Only if you or one of the women that shows up, can secure the Lost Logia and get them away from other forces." Levi looked at Kuma, who had hobbled up to her. "He's a lot weaker than I thought he was. What took you so long to get back to me?"

Kuma shrugged and his eyes narrowed behind his pink shades. "Had to get his specialized device from storage, and even with my speed, that wasn't easy."

"Cry me a river." The Mazoku snorted at him. "Listen and listen well, in a few hours, there's going to be a major shipment of various illegal goods in the city. I need the two of you to stop the shipment from getting to the downtown area and get the materials for me." She grinned at them. "You'll be joined by three others." She tossed Kuma a few pictures. "Their names are Due, Lutecia and Agito. There may be others as well, but you will work with those three to secure the Lost Logia."

"I'll be heading out now." Quattro smirked as she left the building. "Oh yeah, should I send those things in?"

"Just one, I want to test how good it is with the AMS." Levi grinned and then looked at Tetsunami and Kuma again. "There will be, later on, a rather large mechanical being that will show up, I suggest you clear out by then."

Kuma grinned at her. "Regardless, it looks fun." He looked at the people in the images.

"Oh, and Kuma..." Levi looked at him as Tetsunami left the room. "That purple haired girl is mine, don't try anything with her."

Kuma merely raised an eyebrow, but nodded and left.

Levi just smirked and turned to look at a small laptop. Turning it on, her smirk turned into a grin as she worked on the program. Even if they failed, she had a back-up plan in store.

Seeing two figures appear on the screen, she wondered if she'd need them today or not.

(-)

"You get that, Asuka?" Kuma said to the third person waiting by his car.

The third member, a man with short brown hair nodded as a green sphere floated out of Kuma's hands towards him. "I got that," he turned to look at Tetsunami as he looked around, twitching slightly, "and you, Tetsunami, keep yourself under control today, got it?

Tetsunami just grinned and spun his gun around a few times. "Between my magnum, your balls and Kuma's speed, there ain't anyone who can deal with us."

(-)

Two hours later...

Looking down at the traffic, Yuuno turned to the rest of the group. "Okay, our information points to those semi trucks coming this way as the ones carrying the shipment. Arisa and I will stop the trucks, Teana, Subaru, Ginga, I want you three to get the drivers out of there, Quint and Fate will deal with them and Erio and Caro, I want you two to open the trucks after the drivers are out, got it?"

They nodded and Yuuno smiled at them. "Alright, let's do this!"

A few moments later, Teana smiled as the plan was moving along just perfect, no one was interfering and all the semi doors were opened up. "That everything?"

"Not quite." A female voice spoke up and Teana turned to see a thin woman with blonde hair, and a rather sharp weapon on her hand, wearing a blue body suit, a younger, purple haired girl in a black dress that showed off the top part of her breasts and dropped just enough to preserve her modesty, if one was looking right at her, instead of up like Teana was. Teana had to admit, at least the girl's purple panties seemed to work for her.

Teana felt like smacking herself, why did she have that thought right now? Clearing her head, she saw the final member, a small creature with wings sprouting out of her back, red hair done up into three pig tails, and her outfit was rather skimpy, a small skirt around her waist and some sort of bra over her chest.

"You're outnumbered." Teana pointed up at her as Ginga and Subaru jumped to the top of nearby semi-trucks.

"I wouldn't say that, Tiyana." A familiar male voice said from behind, causing Teana to spin around and glare at the person who said it.

"That's Teana!"

"My bad!" The man grinned as he stood beside a rather... Unusual pink car. "But I think that the three of you are outnumbered here."

Teana turned her head and saw a rather solidly built man with a gun pointing at Subaru's back and another man with eight green balls of light around him. "...Well, damn."

_"Teana-san, Erio-kun and I are in position, if things go bad, we'll help."_

_"Thanks, Caro."_ Teana had to admit, having a summoner really did make things somewhat better. "Even if you out number us, you can't win. After all, don't you think that there's others here too?"

"Lutecia," the blonde haired woman said, catching everyone's attention, "call Garyuu."

Lutecia nodded and Teana felt the bottom of her stomach drop out from under her as some sort of black, humanoid creature appeared next to Lutecia. "...She's a summoner too?"

"Garyuu?" Teana turned to see Quint staring at Garyuu and the young girl, completely pale. "...You're Lutecia?"

Due looked at Quint and narrowed her eyes. "You..."

"You're still alive? I thought you were dead! We all thought you were dead!" Sure, she looked way too old to be Lutecia, but if that was Zest's daughter...

"Call up Jiraiou," Due whispered to Lutecia, knowing this could get out of hand quickly unless something was done.

"Jiraiou," Lutecia said calmly and several large horned beetles appeared around the group, "I suggest you leave now."

_"We'll deal with the large summons."_ Fate sent to the group.

_"Don't hurt them too much."_ Quint shot to them. "Lutecia, please, if that's you..."

The small device growled and floated in front of Lutecia. "My name's Agito, the mistress of fire, and you better leave Lutecia alone! She doesn't need more crap from people like you!" She snapped her hand out and a gout of flame erupted at Quint, who was forced to dodge out of the way.

Quint dodged out of the way and held a green gem in front of her. "Snap Calibur, let's go." A flash later, and Quint was in a light purple one-piece body outfit, a sleeveless vest covered her shoulders, while light colored leggings went from her feet up to her knees, leaving her thighs exposed. On each hand, a metal gauntlet with gears just over the wrists, and the back of the glove extended backwards towards her elbows while her feet were covered in armored roller blades with similar gears over her ankles.

Due blinked and looked at Quint, her eyes wide. '...That's just like Nove's...' She looked at Subaru, who had jumped down to deal with the guy with the eight points of light, and Ginga, who had jumped down to deal with the man that had the gun, '...Those two are type Zeros...' She snorted to herself. "Dammit, doctor, you really had to have us fight against Nove's family, didn't you?"

She turned her head as she saw a young boy with a rather weird looking spear land on the trailer that she and Lutecia were on. "Lutecia, you better use your summons to..." She trailed off as she saw a fairly small, though compared to the boy in front of it and the girl riding it, it was big, white Dragon, appear behind him. "I'm not one for front line fighting myself, Lutecia, you and Garyuu better be able to handle them, I need to help Agito out. She might be small, but her power's better for Unison."

Lutecia nodded and watched as Due jumped down and shifted forms, losing a few centimeters in the process, until she resembled a Saint Church nun. Who, Lutecia wasn't sure, but the woman had short pink hair and was wielding two tonfas.

Lutecia turned to look at the boy and the girl and pointed at them. "Garyuu."

Her insectoid summon sprouted wings and rushed at Erio, who frowned and rushed at him.

(-)

Quint had to admit, she underestimated this device. Unison devices by their very natures were rare, but there was something awfully familiar with this one. "You're pretty strong."

Agito grinned and sat cross-legged in mid-air. "Of course I am!" She suddenly stood straight up and held her arm in the air as fire swirled into an unusual shape. "Try my heat cannon!" Agito grinned and Quint's eyes widened as she saw that.

Not for the move...

But for what it looked like... A giant clawed hand with a cannon on top of it.

"Now I remember..." Quint quickly created a barrier to block the stream of fire that was launched at her. 'She's that device that I tore out of that thing.' If there were more coincidences today, Quint wasn't sure if she could handle it. Turning her head, she blinked as she saw someone she didn't expect to see out there. "Sister Schach? What are you doGAH!" Quint winced as Schach suddenly rushed up and slammed her side with those Tonfas of hers, knocking Quint into the side of a building.

"Agito," the one who looked like Schach said to the small demon before her form shifted and lost a little bit of height in the process, "let's go."

"Heh!" Agito grinned and shot into Due. "Nice trick, boss! Unison in!"

Due closed her eyes as her body was engulfed in flames, when they died out, she opened her eyes, which had changed to a blue coloring while her hair became red and yellow. "Now then," she held up her metal claws, which erupted into fire, "shall we continue?"

Quint rubbed her mouth and smirked at Due. "Well, didn't expect this, you're that spy that was in our group years ago, huh?" Standing up, Quint started chuckling at Due. "Seems like the past never truly leaves us? Let's go!" She yelled while rushing at Due, all of the gears on her gauntlets spinning at once.

(-)

Subaru narrowed her eyes at the young-looking man as the eight energy spheres rotated around him. "What is your purpose here?" She squeezed her gloved fist and narrowed her eyes at the man as he looked at her calmly.

The man raised his right hand up. "My name is Asuka Tackibana. And this is nothing more than a job for me."

The next thing that Subaru knew, the energy balls started whipping out at her body. Batting aside three with her right hand, she quickly created a barrier with her left hand that blocked three others before the last two went around her barrier and slammed into her legs with enough force to knock her over. "GAH!"

"Don't think that just because my treasure balls aren't large they aren't powerful." Tackibana said as the six balls that Subaru had knocked aside flew back to spin around his right hand. A small grin came to his face as he launched two straight at the downed Subaru's head. "Don't worry, this will only hurt for a moment, then it will all be over."

Subaru watched as the balls flew right at her face. "Sorry, but I'd rather not get slapped in the face by these balls." Throwing her hands up, she grinned as Tackibana stared in shock as she grabbed his ball and squeezed hard enough to crush them in her palms.

"You... Crushed my balls..." Tackibana stuttered out and took a step back as Subaru got to her knees and knocked the balls off of her legs so she could stand up properly. "...You monster."

Subaru stared at him in mute horror. "...I did what..?" Her mind went over what he had just said before shuddering. "Eww! I don't even know where those things were!"

"You..." Tackibana growled as his balls started spinning around him quickly. "I'll make you pay for that!" He snapped his hand out and the remaining six balls lashed out in random patterns towards Subaru.

"Wing... Road!" Subaru called out and took to the skies before staring as those balls were not only capable of moving into the air quickly, but they were capable of keeping up with her with ease.

"Don't think that just because you have air superiority that I can't stop you." Tackibana made some quick motions with his hands, which the balls quickly followed. He smirked as he watched Subaru try and block the balls, but seeing as they rushed from all sides, some hitting her on the left side, before one hit her in the small of her back, and another one hit her on the right side of her face, it was impossible for her to block all of them. He let out a small laugh as one smashed through her Wing Road, causing her to fall straight onto it, before she flopped down onto the ground.

"Oww..." Subaru grabbed her stomach and tried to stand up. "...That hurt."

"Give up then?" Tackibana slowly walked to her as he recalled his balls to his side. "Or I can keep pounding on you until your bones are nothing more than dust."

"No, I give up." Subaru got to her knees, still clutching her stomach with her left hand.

"Well then," the balls around his arm formed a line before a crystal layer formed around them, resembling a short sword, "this won't take long at all, don't worry, when it's done, you won't feel," he raised his arm up, "a," and started to swing down, "thing." He grinned as his weapon neared Subaru's head.

The only warning he got was a small smirk from Subaru as she suddenly grabbed his weapon and squeezed, stopping him cold. "You fell for it."

"What?" Tackibana stared as she stood up with a rather nasty grin on her face that actually had him worried. "I had you beaten! You gave up!"

"Oh please." Subaru grabbed his sword from his hands and squeezed so hard that there was a cracking sound from his weapon. "You really thought I gave up? Those things didn't hurt at all, to be honest, but letting you drag this fight out would be bad, so I had to make you think that you were winning."

Tackibana could only stare in mute horror as she crushed his remaining balls with her hand, causing it to fall to the ground harmlessly before turning to dust. "...You crushed my balls again."

Subaru looked at her hand and shuddered. "Eww! Eww! I'll need to boil my hand in bleach when I get home!"

"You do know that I can make more, right?" Tackibana blinked as Subaru rolled up to him. "Uh..."

"I think it'll be hard to do if you're out cold." Subaru grinned before slamming her right fist into his head and sending him flying across the field until he crashed into a building, where he slumped against the ground, completely out of it.

A couple of moments later, Subaru snapped some binds around his body. "That'll keep him still if he gets back up." Looking at her gloved hand, she shuddered softly. "Eww... I feel dirty from that fight."

(-)

"Well, I have to say that I never expected to have to fight such a lovely woman like you." He grinned while looking his opponent over. "In fact, why don't you just step aside? I know a good place we can..."

"Forget it." She narrowed her eyes at him. "There's something about you that I don't like. Ginga Nakajima, and you're under arrest if you don't have a really good reason for being here."

"George Tetsunami," he pulled out a gun and smirked at her, "and I think you shouldn't worry about why I'm here and worry about what I'm going to do to you if you're not careful." Grinning, he pulled the trigger and Ginga was forced to create a barrier as a fairly powerful beam struck it. "Ah ha! But how long can you keep up with me and my magnum?"

Ginga closed one eye and smirked at him. "If they're as weak as this, I'm not to worried about a quick shot like you. I've seen your type before, talk big, put up a good show, but then you run out of steam after only one or two shots and go so fast that it leaves a girl unsatisfied."

Tetsunami grinned at her as he continued to fire at her. "Ah, but if you think I'm good now, you'll just _love_ my Big Magnum."

Ginga sweat-dropped before finally having enough and dodged out of the way of his next shot. "You know, that almost sounds like a come on."

"Really? I wouldn't know," Tetsunami grinned as he squeezed the trigger and a rather solid beam of energy rushed out towards Ginga, "then again, you've only had to deal with the warm-up shots that can't help but rush out."

Ginga's gloved hand spun around as an energy sphere appeared in her hand. "Revolver... SPIKE!" Punching forward, she grinned as her attack blocked and nullified the energy beam that was launched at her. "If those are your warm-up shots, then I'm not too worried about anything else you might have, you're probably just shooting blanks."

Tetsunami growled and Ginga stared as his whole body started to glow brightly before a large gun, a very large gun with a revolver chamber and a long barrel appeared behind him. "Impressed with my Big Magnum?"

"...I've seen bigger." Though, Ginga would admit that it was still pretty impressive, just not to this guy.

"Really? But I can fire shots from this thing all day, and I never have to worry about getting worn out or leaving nothing but a giant mess behind," Tetsunami grinned as he held his hand upwards, "because that's all that it does!"

"I bet!" Ginga was looking at the thing and didn't think it could move very fast, but it probably didn't need to. "You know that I can just get you from the sides or behind right?"

"I'd like to see you TRY to get a shot in from behind!" Tetsunami grinned and pointed behind Ginga, who turned her head to look and paled as she saw several people who were fairly far from the battle field, but could still get hurt if something went flying right at them. "After all, I don't have any protection on and this thing is fully loaded and ready to fire. Can you let yourself live if even one of them gets hurt?"

Ginga turned to him and growled. "You..."

"Now then! Wind good! Humidity fine! Fire!"

Ginga's gauntlet started to spin as light blue energy covered her hand. "Freeze... Cannon!"

Tetsunami blinked as his bullet was frozen and then shattered instantly. "Impressive! Too bad for you," he jumped to stand on the top of his gun and crossed his arms over his chest, "that I can fire more than one shot!"

Ginga stared as a second bullet seemed to materialize out of nowhere before she was recovered from the first shot. Grunting as she tried to hold off the shot, she had to grit her teeth as the bullet was able to not only crack her gauntlet, but send her tumbling back several feet at the same time.

"Ha ha ha!" Tetsunami laughed even as he saw his bullet had fallen to the ground harmlessly. "You really think that you can stand up to my thick, hard magnum with that puny little fist of yours?"

Ginga shook her head to clear out any cobwebs and stood up. "Yeah, well at least this puny little fist is more satisfying to me than your big magnum is!"

"Oh really?" Tetsunami smirked as he fired another shot. "It's thick," he smirked as Ginga had to block that one with her shields, "it's **hard**," another shot fired and Tetsunami's smirk turned into a rather perverse grin as he saw Ginga struggling to keep up with his multiple shots, "**and it's coming to get'cha!**" He roared as he fired several more shots almost simultaneously, bombarding Ginga and kicking up a cloud of dust in its wake.

When no more bullets came out of his Magnum, Tetsunami jumped to the ground and smirked as he recalled his gun. "How do you like my Big Magnum now?"

When the dust cleared, Tetsunami stared as Ginga was not only standing, she barely looked hurt, sure there was some blood running down from the cuts on her face and her outfit was filthy, but she looked ready to go still. "Like I said before, my puny little fist is more satisfying to me than your magnum is," Ginga grinned at him, "at least my puny little fist doesn't run out and fail to perform at critical moments."

"You..." Tetsunami took a step back and pointed at her. "Fire!"

Ginga just smirked as all she heard was a click. "Looks to me that you're out of ammo, how... Typical of a man, always getting your guns off and never thinking of a woman."

Before Tetsunami could retort, he found himself quickly bound up so tightly that he let go of his gun device out of reflex.

Snorting as she saw Tetsunami's larger gun disappear, Ginga quickly cast a sealing bind on the gun before turning and rolling away. "Just stay there, oh, and by the way..." She turned to look at him before giving out one final parting shot, "I've had better from my own sister before."

(-)

"Gin-nee..." Subaru stared at her sister's appearance as she saw her two minutes later. "What happened?"

"...Let's just say that I didn't appreciate his Big Magnum... How about you?"

"...His balls were annoying." Subaru muttered.

The two sisters looked at each other and shuddered.

* * *

Erio: We're up?  
Caro: For now it seems.  
Erio: Then, next time on Blood That Flows - StrikerS, just watch us.  
Lutecia: I am, but I am not impressed.  
Erio: HEY!

I admit, I had WAY too much fun with the s-CRY-ed expies that Subaru and Ginga fought against.


	217. StrikerS Seventeen

Blood That Flows

StrikerS Seventeen

Of course I own nothing.

* * *

Erio looked at the slightly older girl and narrowed his eyes. "What are you doing here?" His only answer was the black armored bug person moving towards him. Running forward, he swung his spear right at the black being and could only stare as a spike extended from its arm and drove into his blade. "Caro, stop her!"

Nodding, Caro looked at the girl, who calmly stared back at her. "Please, who are you? At least tell me that much."

The purple haired girl said nothing and held up her hand and Caro gasped as a large sphere of fire appeared in her hand. "...A fireball?"

When the fireball seemed to start to shrink and smaller fireballs erupted from it, Caro let out a small yelp as she was attacked with something similar to a Burst Brondo. Her barrier was able to hold up against it easily enough, thankfully. "Fried! Blast Flare!"

A circle appeared under her as a stream of magic went to her Dragon. Fried's eyes flashed before he launched a powerful fireball at the other summoner.

Caro felt her stomach drop as the other girl easily blocked it. "That..."

The girl pointed a finger at her and a purple blast rushed at Caro, overwhelming her barrier and pushing her and her Dragon away from the truck.

"Caro!" Erio cried out, catching the girl's attention. Before she could say or do anything, he snapped a wind spell out that caught the girl by surprise, sending her flying off of the truck and towards the water. However, as Erio turned to look at the summon, he recieved a kick to the jaw so strong that his teeth rattled.

Garyuu swung his fist forward, fully intending to take Erio down in one strike, but stared as the boy got his hands up and blocked the strike with a quickly created barrier. He zipped backwards before rushing to the side and grabbing his mistress, who was hovering just above the water. "I am fine, Garyuu." Lutecia gave him a pat on the head. "Thank you." She looked up and her pupils shrank. "Watch out."

Garyuu zipped to the side as a white beam bisected where he had been just a moment ago. Quickly snapping to the side, he tossed Lutecia up before charging down with a strong kick, forcing Erio to jump off of the semi truck to avoid getting his head knocked off. Getting into a crouch, he shot forward and slammed his fist into the side of the truck.

"Listen! I don't want to hurt..." Erio was forced to twist out of the way as Garyuu tried to take his head off, "okay! I'm sorry for shooting at your mistress! Can you calm down!"

Above them, Lutecia slowly floated downwards, though, anyone who bothered to look up would have had a good look at her underwear. "Garyuu..." She whispered softly and looked at Caro who was riding on the Dragon's back. Holding her hand out, she shot several purple beams at Caro and Fried, the latter flying up to avoid the shots. "I wonder if Otto will be mad for me copying her?" True, it wasn't the same as the cyborg's newer ability, but it was as close as Lutecia could get on her own.

Caro stared as a purple sphere shot up at her and quickly encompassed her and Fried. "...Fried, Blast, AHHH!" The small summoner screamed out in pain as the sphere seemed to explode, energy lashing out at her from all angles to fast and hard for her to put up a barrier. "NNNNGAAAAAHHH!" Tears formed in her eyes as she and Fried screamed in pain from the bombarding energy. 'No more. No more. NO MORE!' She screamed to herself as tears fell out of her eyes.

Lutecia stared as the energy turned from purple to a light blue and the summoner girl was surrounded in a sphere of water. "...What is that?" It didn't feel like Mid or Belkan, or even Levi's magic. In fact, if Lutecia was to place it anywhere, it felt completely opposite of Levi's magic.

If only she knew what it was.

As Lutecia touched down softly by a tree, she gasped as Garyuu slammed into the ground next to her, a crackle of lightning covering his body while Erio flew up to meet Caro, who was slowly coming down to meet him.

Erio narrowed his eyes at the opposing summoner. "Caro," he whispered while holding Ragudo Mezzagis in front of him, "got any attack spells?"

"A few." Caro looked at him. "But I'm better with Fried..."

Erio grinned at that. "Well then, how about..." Before he could finish the sentence, a green light filled the air and forced him to look up as a large beam came crashing down at him. Swinging up his spear, he grunted as the energy of the beam was blocked by the spear.

"Erio-kun!" Caro gasped as she saw him being pushed through the roof of the semi-truck.

"Worry about yourself." Caro gasped as binds snapped around her and Fried, causing them to fall to the ground. Turning her head, she stared as a brown haired girl with a red blade in each hand looked at her. "Just give us the contents of the truck, and we'll be on our way."

Erio grunted and swung his weapon down, causing the energy to dissipate fully. Standing in front of him was a short, boyish-looking person with spiky brown hair, green eyes and was wearing a skin-tight black outfit. "You're outnumbered."

Erio narrowed his eyes and grit his teeth. This didn't look good.

(-)

Meanwhile...

Due grimaced as she blocked a kick, sending her flying back into one of the semi trucks. "Nnngh... Dammit."

"You're not much of a fighter, huh?" Quint looked at the shorter blonde, who looked at her and smirked.

"I'm a spy and assassin, I'd get into places that people shouldn't get into, get information any way possible, and I mean _any_ way I could, torture, friendship, even sleeping with the target, whatever it takes to get information, and then, when I got what I needed, I eliminated the target." Due smirked at Quint. "So, yeah, I'm not much of a fighter, I'm better at killing people when they least expect it."

_"If you're not much of a fighter, turn into someone who is!"_

Due grimaced as she heard Agito's voice in her head. "Even if I do that, my skill level doesn't increase just because I turn into someone who can fight."

Quint looked at Due. "So, tell me, what does Jail want with these items?" Seeing Due narrow her eyes, Quint nodded and adjusted her body "He wants them, what for, and why are you using Lutecia for it?"

"Whatever Jail wants with them isn't my concern," Due snorted as she swung her arm up, a wave of flames rushing out towards the other woman, "however, I will not let you take Lutecia for your own deeds."

Quint narrowed her eyes at the blonde. "Then tell me what you want with my god child. If anything, you should give her to me so we can help her."

Due hesitated. Giving Lutecia to a Bureau member would be a way to get her away from Quattro, but at the same time...

The image of Lutecia's naked mother floating in a tube, unknowing of everything that was going on around her.

"As much as I'd like to let you have her, there's someone else that I need to answer to, and you aren't her."

Quint's pupils shrank. "...You... Are you talking about Megane?" That was too much to hope for, but it was the first thing that came to her mind.

Due slammed her palm down onto the sidewalk and a layer of smoke appeared between her and Quint. "Even if I was, that isn't for you to worry about right now."

Quint covered her eyes and frowned softly. "Where did you go?" Thrusting her palm out, she nearly cursed as the quick burst of wind was enough to clear the smoke away, but not fast enough to keep her opponent from escaping.

She turned to where Erio, Caro and Lutecia were and blinked as two new opponents appeared near Lutecia, both were black body outfits, one looked almost like a boy with short, spiky brown hair and a petite frame who stood in front of Erio, while the other one was a girl with long brown hair and she held a blade in each hand and was pointing them at Caro.

"Well, this can't be good." Quint muttered to herself.

(-)

Teana jumped out of the way as the man she was facing suddenly grinned, jumped backwards and sent his pink car flying right at her. "Aww, come on, Tiyana, I never get to see if my exploding car bomb can do the damage I think it can do." Kuma pouted and held up a hand to block Teana's return shots. "Huh, that's interesting."

"What is it you want?" Teana asked as a tire rolled up to him.

He grinned at her. "Oh, I just want a few items in that truck, nothing more, nothing less." He raised his foot so he could bounce the tire before kicking it up. "Really, I don't want to be here too long." He tilted his head. "I suggest you get out of here soon as well, I'd hate to see something happen to someone as lovely as you are, Tiyana."

"It's Teana." Teana narrowed her eyes at him and snapped her left hand out, the gun in it shifting forms and becoming an energy dagger.

"Huh, you didn't do that last time." Kuma raised an eyebrow. "Alright, guess I can have some fun for a little bit." The tire landed behind him as his whole body started to glow. "Radical Good Speed Wheels Unlimited!"

Teana covered her eyes as dust was kicked up. When it was done, Kuma had boots on his feet that were light pink in color. "What the heck is that?" She stared as he smirked at her.

"Oh, just a taste of my real power. To be honest, Tetsunami, myself and Asuka are all mages who were born with rather flawed Linker Cores. While none of us are lacking magic ability, we were, because of this flaw, forced to do one thing with our magic and do it well." He shook his head, "but unlike those two, I overcame that limitation."

"Why are you telling me this?" Teana held her blade in front of her as Kuma stood straight and bounced from foot to foot.

"Well, for one thing, I don't want your report to be incomplete, and for another," Teana stared as he suddenly turned and ran fast, before turning around and rushing right at her, "I want you to realize that you can't win!" He jumped forward, his foot extended and grinned as it slammed into a barrier she created. "Not bad, but considering that I'm barely putting anything into this attack..." He seemed to get confused for a second as he tilted his head. "Well, I don't know what that says, but I really find you to be interesting, Tiyana."

"Teana!" She snapped at him and pointed Cross Mirage at him. "Variable Bullet!"

Kuma's eyes widened and he leaned back, causing the bullet to fly just inches past his nose. "Hey! You almost shot my glasses!"

Teana just stared, how the hell did this guy lean back with both feet off of the ground?

"These glasses are expensive!" He pushed off of her shield and frowned as he flipped in mid-air and slid across the ground. "I mean, really! Do you know how hard it is to get glasses like this?"

"...You're completely insane, aren't you?" Teana couldn't help but stare at him as he tilted his head back and forth.

"Well, we're all a little crazy, little missy." He smirked at her. "If you want to fight in the big leagues, you've got to shrug off what you think reality is and accept that what you see is not always what you get." Standing straight up, he started spinning and twisting around as Teana shot at him. "You probably think that I'm a freak, huh?"

"That thought did cross my mind." Teana had to grit her teeth in frustration, why couldn't she hit him? He was barely moving. "Nnngh! Crossfire... SHHOOOT!" Several balls of energy surrounded her and her finger slipped to Cross Mirage's trigger and she started to squeeze it. "Take THIS!"

"All right! That's more like it!" Kuma did a backflip before rushing forward at such speeds that his body seemed to change colors. "Shocking Burst Bullet!"

Before Teana could react, she found his foot deeply planted into her stomach, driving her away from him and causing her to bounce off of the pavement a few times and crash into a dirt pile.

"Good..." Kuma muttered as the energy around him dissipated. He then looked at the semi trucks before rushing towards the first one and broke through the roof top, dropping into a nearly empty truck. "Nope, not this one," he muttered before turning and kicking forward and crashing through the side and into the second one, "huh, nothing here..." He narrowed his eyes and rushed out and through the trailer door before smashing into the third trailer from the front, shattering the truck's engine and the wall as he kicked forward. "Either someone gave out faulty information or..." His eyes widened behind his sunglasses. "We were all set up." It was possible, all of these trucks were completely empty. "...But who could set up everything?"

(-)

"Drat, I was hoping that it would take a little longer before someone got into those trailers." She sighed heavily and hit a button. "Is everything ready to go?"

"Yes. Just give me the word."

"Do... Wait," a small smile came to her face, "not yet, let's see just how things turn out here."

"Very well."

(-)

Teana groaned as she shook her head to get the loose dirt off of it. "Oww..."

"Need a hand?" She looked up to see Arisa standing above her, offering her a hand. "Looks like you've got a tough one."

Teana nodded and groaned, clutching her stomach. "Ugh... I feel sick." Looking up, she glared as that crazy man erupted from the third trailer, did a spinning flip in mid-air and landed on his feet not too far from them. "You..."

"Well, I have to admit, I'm a little disappointed that I came out here for nothing." He huffed, looking annoyed. "Well, almost nothing, I got to see the lovely Tiyana again," he ignored her when she corrected him, again, "and another very lovely woman." Standing straight, he bowed to them. "It's probably the best part of actually being a mercenary, all the lovely women I get to see."

Arisa narrowed her eyes and held out a hand, a flaming sword materializing in it. "I suggest," she said as blue wings appeared out of her back, "that you just give up."

He smirked at her. "Sorry, but I can't do that. See, I've got this thing called morals, and they're quite pesky, and part of them means that I can't just give up." His shoulders shook as he laughed to himself. "After all, what kind of man would I be if I just gave up all the time?"

Arisa smirked back at him. "I can appreciate a man like that." Teana stared at her, aghast. "After all, someone who can't man up and do what's needed is no man at all."

"Exactly! Exactly!" Kuma laughed and stomped his foot onto the ground. "Even if you've got your sights on another man, you have to recognize that a man with no conviction is no man at all. And without conviction, a man lets others control his life and without control a man has no destiny and without destiny there's no reason to live, so, I've got to do my job, even if it forces me to go up against a pair of lovely women like yourselves."

Teana looked back and forth between Arisa and Kuma and shuddered. "...You're both completely insane, aren't you?"

Arisa turned to her and grinned. "Teana, you'll understand someday as well." A flap of her wings had her floating upwards before she shot out at Kuma at high speeds. "Let's see what you got!"

"Oooh!" Kuma turned and started running, grinning as Arisa easily caught up to him and was able to keep going with his running. "Impressive, I've never actually met anyone who can keep up with me before."

"I'm even faster than you think." Arisa grinned and shot off like a cannon shot in front of him.

Kuma looked surprised, before furrowing his brow. "First of all, you're not flying very well, and secondly, you think you're faster than me, to tell you the truth, that's what really ticks me off!" A second burst of speed suddenly had Kuma rocketing down the street after Arisa.

Watching the two of them race, Teana stared, her eyes wide and a cold sensation ran through her body. "What am I doing here?" She asked herself, before shaking her head. 'Brother... I'll make you proud of me.' She thought to herself as she called up several balls of energy again. "Crossfire..." There was a sudden kick-up of dust and a small explosion from where the two had disappeared to. 'Did they just break the sound barrier?' It wasn't unheard of for fast mages to move that fast, but it wasn't exactly common either. "SHOOOT!" This time, she didn't bother taking her time until she had a good lock, she just hoped that she could hit that jerk and avoid hitting Arisa at the same time.

As they raced back to the battlefield, Kuma had to duck under and twist around several strikes that Arisa sent his way. "I have to admit," he lashed out with several kicks, which were reflected by a powerful gust of wind each time, "that I'm somewhat impressed. No one's ever forced me to use this level of speed before."

"You should try my friends, they always force me to go as fast as I can." Arisa grinned before she and Kuma were forced to look forward as several shots came barreling down at them. "That idiot..." Arisa growled and snapped a wrist up, the ground snapped up and formed a wall to block the shots heading her way.

"Wow, you could have used that to stop me," Kuma laughed as he danced around the beams and shot forward right to Teana, who cast a barrier around her as she saw him coming at her. "You're too slow!" Teana stared upwards as he raised his foot upwards before slamming it down, shattering her barrier with ease before he drove a knee into her stomach, causing her cough up some blood.

"Ughhhh..." At least he didn't use much strength with that blow, though the speed was still incredible and she found herself staggering back before falling down and clutching her stomach.

"Listen, little missy, at this level, only the freaks of nature can survive, if you're normal, you're likely to get hurt." He grinned at her downed body before putting something into his pants pocket. "I'll keep these for now, maybe you'll learn to create better and faster defenses the next time we fight." He ducked out of the way of an ice spear that Arisa tossed at him. "Come on, that's not really nice."

Teana didn't hear what Arisa shot back at Kuma. Those words rang through her head constantly. Well, that and the sudden realization that it was rather breezy under her skirt. 'Only... Wait a second...' She blinked and her face turned completely red as she stood up. "That..." She trailed off as she saw Kuma bouncing off of the walls and vehicles. "...What the..?"

"Oh, come on, I barely did anything!" Kuma yelled as he danced around Arisa's swings. A beeping sound came from his watch and he grimaced. "Sorry, miss, ah..."

"Arisa Bannings." She narrowed her eyes as he suddenly stopped and bowed to her.

"Miss Alisa."

"Arisa!"

"Sorry, I'm not too good with names." He rubbed the back of his neck. "But, I'm sorry, but it's time for me to leave, and I suggest that you do the same."

"What are you..?" Arisa stared as he seemed to split into four before a powerful gust of wind kicked up, a loud boom was heard in the air and the ground itself broke up as a trail of glass was left in his wake. "...I couldn't even see him move." She hated to admit it, but he was probably playing around with her and Teana. Turning, she flew back to Teana, who was rather red faced while tugging on her skirt. "...What's wrong?"

"...He stole my underwear."

Arisa stared at her and she nodded, causing the blonde to groan. "Great, just great, anyway..." She trailed off as something caught her eyes. Looking up, she stared and paled as a signal appeared in the sky. "...What is that?"

Teana could only turn and stare in shock. "...I have no clue."

* * *

Erio: The fight continues, doesn't it?  
Lutecia: Indeed, it does.  
Caro: You have help now?  
Lutecia: Next time on Blood That Flows - StrikerS, yes I do.


	218. StrikerS Eighteen

Blood That Flows

StrikerS Eighteen

Of course I own nothing.

* * *

Erio looked at the boyish-looking enemy in front of him. "You..."

"Surrender, I do not wish to harm you or your friend." The girl with long hair said as she pointed her blade at Caro. When Erio growled at her and gripped his spear tighter, she sighed softly. "Otto, deal with the girl, I will handle the boy." She snapped her fingers and Erio found himself wrapped up in binds.

"You..." Erio growled at her. "Damn you."

"Caro! Erio!" Subaru yelled as she rushed towards the young children, Ginga and Quint right behind her. "Stop!"

"I would listen." A male voice spoke up and the two that were in front of Erio and Caro looked up to see Yuuno and Fate, the latter with Bardiche in Zambar form, looking down at them with narrow eyes. "I'd hate to have to hurt you too badly because you harmed those two."

"...Deed, take her, I will go against him." Otto said as she floated upwards, followed by Deed.

Lutecia watched them float upwards to meet their opponents before looking at Caro, Erio, Subaru, Ginga and Quint. "...Garyuu, are you okay?" She had other concerns on her mind other than her enemies at that moment. When Garyuu nodded his head, she smiled at him. "Good boy."

"Garyuu, that is you, isn't it?" The insectoid summon turned and looked at the older woman as she walked towards Garyuu, her hands held up in front of her. "It's me, Quint, you remember me, don't you? I was your mistress's friend."

Lutecia looked at Garyuu as he took a step backwards. "...You know her, Garyuu?"

"Yes, he did." Quint smiled at Lutecia. "Because I knew him, and your mother." Lutecia looked at her, her pupils shrinking as she digested that. "Please, Lutecia," Quint held her hand out to the young girl. "Come with me. I can help you."

Before Lutecia could answer, several pink bolts bombarded the area around her, kicking up a lot of dust in the process. When the dust settled, a redheaded girl wearing a black body suit, a red thin belt or something around her waist, was next to Lutecia. Her red eyes sparkled in mirth as pink spheres surrounded her, Lutecia and Garyuu. Her hair was done up in a ponytail that was pressed up against the back of her head as she grinned and leaned against a board of some sort. "Hey, Lu..." She narrowed her eyes as she saw Ginga make a move. "Ah ah ah..." She waggled a finger, "I wouldn't try anything..."

"Wendi..." Quint looked at the girl, who looked at her, blinking in shock. "What the heck, is _everyone_ I've met in the past going to show up or something?"

Wendi bit her lower lip. 'Maybe we should have had Cinque come in instead?' And where the heck was Due anyway?

(-)

Meanwhile...

Otto grimaced as her opponent easily blocked her Ray Storm. Granted, it wasn't her strongest ability anymore, but it was still a little worrying to see her taller adversary block it so easily.

"I don't know what you're playing at, boy, but..."

**"That's a girl, boss."**

Yuuno blinked and looked at Otto, tilting his head. "...You sure?"

**"No Adam's apple. If she wasn't wearing those pants, I bet that outfit would be just as tight on her as it is on that other cute girl."**

"Leave my sister out of this." Otto said, narrowing her eyes at Yuuno and Thoth Driver.

**"Boss, it is every man's dream to get two cute sisters after you at the same time, do it."**

Yuuno just palmed his face and sighed as the girl twitched and glared at him. "Regardless of my device, I do respect women a lot more than that. Unless you and your sister both would want to do that, I wouldn't ask that of you."

"Good, because I do not like your device." Otto said, her face red as she fumed silently.

"Listen," Yuuno held up his hands to try and keep her calm, "I don't really want to fight, but you were threatening someone who I look at like a daughter. But, tell me, what do you want right now? If it's something that we can help with, the Bureau would be glad to help you. Or at the very least, my friends and I would help you."

Narrowing her eyes, Otto brought her hand up to her face. "I am sorry, but I doubt that you could help someone like myself."

**"Hey, boss, how come she has a tail?"**

"What?" Yuuno blinked and looked at Otto's waist, his eyes widened as the thing he thought was a belt suddenly unwrapped from her waist and stuck out. "...You're a Dragon?"

"Ray Slice." A thin green beam rushed out towards Yuuno, forcing him to throw a hand up to block it. Grimacing at the strength of the blow, he looked at his device.

"Thoth!"

**"On it boss, Reflect."**

Otto stared as Yuuno tilted his barrier slightly and her shot was reflected right back at her, though slightly to the right as the beam missed her by only a few centimeters. Her body trembled as she looked at him with fear in her eyes. "...You could have..."

"I didn't want to." He said, his eyes narrowed as he looked at her. Between the glint on his glasses, the scar on his face and his narrow eyes, Otto really was scared. "Listen, again, I don't want to hurt you, but you need to stop before I have to."

_"None of us really have a future, we lost that chance. No one will accept most of us for what we are, just remember that."_

Uno's words were harsh, but Otto knew that they were true. Taking a deep breath, she tried to remind herself that she had a very durable piece of armor on. "I am sorry, but I do not have a choice." Before the petite girl could say anything, her head throbbed and she clutched her skull, groaning. 'What, what is this?'

(-)

Deed grimaced as the blonde she was facing was not only fast, but also incredibly strong. 'It is almost like facing Tre one-on-one.' It really was too, every time that Deed tried to make a move, her opponent was either behind her, at her side, or in her guard, smacking her with her large blade.

"You're not too bad." Fate said as she watched Deed's movements. "A little too reliant on how tough you are, but you do not leave too many openings in your style."

Deed closed her eyes. "Unlike most of my sisters, I am not too special, however, I recently discovered a unique ability of mine."

Fate blinked, wondering what the girl was talking about, before staring as she suddenly split into three other replicas of herself. "...What is this?"

One of the clones swung her blade out at Fate and a wave of lightning shot at her. Spinning, Fate blocked that with Bardiche, but grunted as a blade beam struck her back. "Bardiche, status."

**"Yes, sir. All four are the same, no differences."**

"Great." Fate grimaced and held a hand up. "Dimension Thunder!" At full power, this spell was strong enough to nearly destroy even a Bureau ship with a single shot, as her deceased mother, Precia, could have done many years ago. However, Fate wasn't aiming to kill her opponent, so she put only enough power to cast the spell and nothing more.

Fate watched as all four clones covered their bodies as the lightning struck them from all angles. "I do not wish for this fight to continue."

"I was thinking the same thing." Fate stared as not only were the four copies of her opponent not out cold, but they were also completely unharmed from that attack, other than some singe marks on their skin.

"Very well," Fate ran her hand across the flat of her blade, causing it to glow white. "You leave me no choice, Dimension Zambar." She still didn't want to kill anyone, but she didn't know if she could afford to hold back too much against this girl who could clone herself.

A blast of cold air struck out at Fate from behind, forcing the Ace to spin and cut upwards to diffuse the energy. Turning to the side, she swung outwards, cutting through a blast of wind as she looked at the clones with her eyes narrowed. "You cannot hope to win like this." When one of the clones suddenly looked afraid, Fate gave a grim smile and turned to slash the one across from that copy in half.

Deed stared and trembled as that Zambar sword turned from white back to yellow. The reason she was afraid?

That woman cut through the Valkyrie body armor with ease. If Deed's state of mind was more calm, she would have realized that it was because of how large the sword was, and that Tre's own blades could do similar effects.

But seeing a clone get chopped down so easily, it didn't sit well with the cyborg, who gulped as Fate spun and pointed Bardiche Zambar at her face.

"Please surrender, I do not wish to harm you for real."

Before Deed could answer, her head throbbed and she was forced to grab at the top of her skull as she groaned in pain. 'What is this?'

(-)

Sighing as she saw what was happening on the screen, Levi felt the urge to take off a pair of glasses and wipe them down.

Never mind the fact that she didn't have glasses to begin with, she still felt the urge to do so.

"Worthless Dragons." She muttered to herself. 'What's the point of giving you those nanites if they activate when you're stressed out?' Oh well, she could have Quattro fix things later. "Quattro..." She said, grinning as she heard Quattro's voice in her head.

_"Yes, my master?"_

"It's time..." Her purple eyes flashed as she connected her mind to Lutecia's. "Lutecia..."

(-)

Lutecia gasped softly. 'Master Levi?'

_"Good girl, now, I need you to create a summoning sigil... Oh, about twelve feet into the air for me."_

"Yes, master." Lutecia said as she closed her eyes and focused.

"Wendi, what is..." Subaru trailed off as she noticed Lutecia's summoning circle appear under her.

"...That's a big summon." Wendi said as she looked up into the air.

"And that's why we're going." Wendi turned to see Due and Agito, though the former was clutching her ribs while trying to grab Lutecia. "Sorry about disappearing, but that woman down there hits pretty damn hard, broke a couple of my ribs." She looked up at Otto and Deed. "Dammit! Wendi, you grab them, I'll get Lutecia, Agito, get us out of here."

Agito saluted Due and a Belkan triangle appeared under her. "Ready when you are, Meister."

Up above, Wendi grabbed Otto and grinned at Yuuno. "Sorry, but you can't have her, and I don't want to stick around when that thing shows up." She pointed at the summoning circle and Yuuno could only blink as, by the time he turned back, both Otto and Wendi were already over to where Fate and Deed were.

"...She's fast."

**"Bet she's like that with more than just flying, boss."**

"Not now, Thoth." Yuuno grumbled as he saw Wendi grab Deed and rush both Otto and Deed back to Due, Agito and Lutecia. "What is..." His eyes widened as five gadget drones came out of the summoning array, followed by the largest humanoid machines Yuuno had ever seen.

Shortly after the machine was summoned, Wendi, Due, Agito, Lutecia, Deed and Otto all vanished in a flash of white light.

Even though he was the tallest person on the field, the machine was more than twice his height, pure white in color, wide enough that it took up most of the street when it touched down, its feet were very jagged and its fingers looked like knives, on its right arm was a large cannon while its face reminded Yuuno of a shark for some odd reason.

When the eyes flashed red, Yuuno gulped. When the Gadget Drones suddenly split into two and tubes came out of them, only for one gadget drone to latch onto each arm, one to each leg, and one to the chest while the other half latched onto the thing's back and a bubble suddenly appeared, six feet in all directions from the thing, Yuuno wondered what the heck was happening.

One thing was for certain, it wouldn't take long to find out.

* * *

Yuuno: Who the heck ordered a robot?  
Fate: It does look cool, though.  
Arisa: Stop admiring the robots!  
Fate: I can't help it, mother does like mecha anime so much. Next time on Blood That Flows - StrikerS, robot attack.  
Arisa: I've got a bad feeling about this.


	219. StrikerS Nineteen

Blood That Flows

StrikerS Nineteen

Of course I own nothing.

This is a shorter chapter.

* * *

The first thing that the robot did was turn to face them more fully and it then pointed its cannon at them.

"Move!" No one was sure who yelled that, maybe it was all of them, but a moment later there was a giant pot hole in the street.

"What the heck?" Erio yelped as he flew upwards.

**"Photon Lancer, full auto fire."**

Swinging Bardiche Zambar down, Fate watched as her projectiles slammed into the bubble that the thing had around itself. Her eyes widened in shock as the projectiles fizzled out shortly after hitting it. "What the?"

"Just hit with everything you got!" Yuuno said while creating a thick lance of ice and launching it at the machine. Most everyone followed suit, launching various projectiles at the machine and kicking up dust in the process.

Arisa was the only one who didn't fire at the thing. Her eyes narrowed as she watched the others finally stop attacking. "...I don't think it's dead!" A moment later, a beam lanced out of the dust, causing the dust to swirl to prove Arisa right and forcing Arisa to create a thick barrier of rock from the ground. When the ground started to crack and give way, Arisa dodged to the side as the beam tore through where she was a moment ago.

"Arisa!" Yuuno turned to see that she was okay before looking back at the Megah, staring as there wasn't even a scratch on it.

"Well, if magic doesn't work..." Ginga trailed off, creating a Wind Road under her and getting above it.

"Ginga! Wait!" Quint called after her daughter, who let out a yell and dove straight down on her Wing Road. Her eyes widened as the Wing Road disappeared the instant that it touched the bubble.

"Take this!" Ginga yelled as she went through the bubble and gasped as her clothing started to dissolve. "AAAAH!" She tried to punch at the thing's head, but found that it, despite its height and bulk, was incredibly agile, as it suddenly took a couple of steps backwards before swatting her out of mid-air, causing her to cry out in pain as she hit the pavement and bounced off of it a couple of times as she slid down the street.

"Gin-nee!" Subaru stared and grit her teeth as the thing turned to her. "You..."

"Aim for the chest! The core to these things are there!" Quint called out as she held her hands to the side. "Subaru, distract it for a few seconds."

_"I've got a clear shot at its back."_ She heard Fate's voice speak up, causing her to nod as she and Subaru shot Revolver Cannon shots into the barrier, to completely no effect.

"Damn." Quint muttered as she saw Fate zip in low. "Get him!"

Just as Fate was about to enter the bubble, the thing turned and with speed that shocked even her, it stepped forward, reached out and grabbed her blade with its non-cannon arm and held her up. Fate stared as the thing quickly crushed her blade and then smacked her out of the field as well, causing her to crash into a building with only the clothes around her chest, arms, waist and feet still intact. "Damn, that field's dangerous." It was almost like anything that was made out of magic fell apart the instant that it was in that field. "Bardiche, are you okay?"

**"Yes, sir, no problem."**

Fate smiled softly. "Good boy."

She watched as Erio and Caro both took shots at the thing. One thing that interested her was that the Spear of Light's energy beams were able to get to the mechanical creature, even if all they could do was touch the thing's armor, at least they could get to it. "Which means you just need to overwhelm it." If she was by herself, it wouldn't be too hard, just launch her stronger attacks into the field until it exploded, but her strongest attacks were a bit too dangerous to use with a group of people around her.

She narrowed her eyes as the thing outright ignored Teana, Subaru and Quint and focused on Erio and Caro. "...Can it learn?" Fate felt the urge to shiver and blinked. "Wait, is it getting colder?" Looking down, she stared as Yuuno held his hand up and breathed out slowly, her breath heating the air around her. "Well, that answers that."

On the ground, Teana really wished that her skirt wasn't so short. Even with the ability of her field to moderate temperatures around her, the sudden decrease in heat was quickly reminding her that she didn't have any underwear on anymore and that she didn't like it when it got too cold.

Yuuno grinned as he saw frost starting to form on the ground. "That's it, just a little more." He could see the thing was starting to slow down, even if it was just a little bit, plus it was aiming at Caro and Erio, both of whom where small, mid-air targets.

The next thing he knew, the Megah reached down, grabbed a car and threw it right at him.

"SHIT!" Yuuno lost his concentration for making it colder and created several barriers to block the car that was thrown at him.

**"Boss, is that thing hovering now?"**

Yuuno looked and stared, Thoth was right about that, as the thing's feet were several centimeters off of the ground. "I'm open to suggestions!"

"I got one!" Arisa flew right at the thing and swung her flaming sword right at it. "Let's see you handle a taste of this!" Cutting horizontally in front of her, Arisa grinned as the flames cut into the bubble with no problem and continued on without dissipating, at least until the Megah suddenly turned and batted her flame sword, causing it to flicker out completely. "...This thing can, EEEK!" It pointed its cannon at her and fired a quick shot into a hastily created ice barrier that Arisa threw up as she tried to fly away from the field. When the ice shattered, she was certain that she was going to get blasted into pieces. Had a green barrier suddenly appeared, she may have found that to be the truth.

Yuuno grunted as he held his hand up. "Any _other_ suggestions?"

"Dug Haut!" Teana called out as she shot the ground several times around the Megah and grinned as spikes shot up from the ground straight at the target. Her grin faded as the spikes slowed down and stopped just as the tips of the spikes touched the Megah, creating a painfully loud grinding sound as the Megah moved forward and shot at Teana, who just barely dodged the initial shot, though she was hit hard by most of the debris, cutting into her back and sides with ease.

"Thunder... Rage!" Fate called out from her position in mid-air, turning her magic into lightning and letting it loose. She wasn't sure if it would work, but she had to try something. Plus, she used more than three times the amount of magic that was needed for this spell in hopes of overloading the bubble and hitting the machine.

A tight smile came to Fate's lips as the lightning struck true, hitting the machine and causing it to jerk before it fell to one knee and hunched over, the bubble disappearing as it did so.

"Did I get it?" Fate asked as she hovered down for a closer look.

Arisa suddenly got a chill up her spine as she looked at it. "Fate, look out!"

Before Fate could ask what she meant, the Megah reached up with its left hand and grabbed her leg, pulling her down in front of its arm cannon.

The next thing any of them knew, a blade had extended from under the arm cannon and imbedded itself into Fate's stomach and out of her back.

The blonde's eyes widened and she let out a rather pained gurgle as blood escaped her lips. The Megah swung its arm down and Fate was forcibly removed from its blade as she landed on the street with a sickening splat.

"Fate..?" Arisa stared as Fate twitched and spasmed, blood pooling out around her. "FATE!"

Even as Arisa screamed, the AMS was reignited around the Megah, which retracted its blade and stood ready to crush its enemies.

* * *

Subaru: It played possum! That's cheating!  
Yuuno: Fate! Don't you dare die on me!  
Fate: Let my... Guard down...  
Yuuno: Stop talking, I'll fix you up.  
Teana: That thing's moving again, next time on Blood That Flows - StrikerS  
Erio: Fate-san!

Alright, now then, if you were curious as to what this robot looks like...

Well, look up Megatron from Transformers Prime. It's a ten foot tall version of him. (Just LOVE that design.)


	220. StrikerS Twenty

Blood That Flows

StrikerS Twenty

Of course I own nothing.

Again, a shorter chapter than most.

* * *

"Fate!" Yuuno rushed to the blonde's side and put his hands over her wound. "Don't you dare! Don't you dare die on me! Resurrection!"

Fate twitched and spasmed as Yuuno's healing magic worked through her body.

"Come on, Fate! Don't you dare die on me!" Yuuno had to bite his lip to keep himself from grinding his teeth. "Think about what Nanoha would do if she found out you were dead!" The resurrection spell was the most potent healing spell known. While it could heal almost any wound and injury in a matter of moments, but wounds that were harsh enough to either kill or nearly kill a person in an instant took longer to heal.

Erio glared and balled his hands into fist. "You..." A dark aura suddenly surrounded him as he shot down, his eyes practically glowing red. "DIE!" The Spear of Light turned dark in color as Erio zipped into the bubble, the field shrinking as he did so, however, it was not enough to stop his attack as he cut through the Megah's left arm, detaching it from the main body in one strike. Turning, the redheaded boy was about to strike at the Megah again when the Megah's left leg struck out, smashing into Erio and sending him flying into a mailbox down the street.

The Megah pointed its arm at Erio and fired a powerful stream of energy at the boy as he tried to get up, but failed, and as the beam connected with his body, it turned into a pure white dome that kicked up wind and dirt and knocked the loose pieces of pink automobile to get tossed around.

Quint growled and, with tears in her eyes, spread her arms to the side. "Earth... And SKY!" One hand started glowing yellow while another one glowed red. "You're going to PAY for that!" Screaming as she forced her hands together, a powerful whirlwind was kicked up that barreled right at the Megah.

Subaru had to turn her head away as the roar of the technique nearly overwhelmed her hearing. Chancing a look, she gasped as the Megah wasn't paralyzed from the attack, and used its remaining arm to tear into the tornado and take a few steps towards Quint.

"AHHHH!" Quint rushed forward, letting out a scream as she pulled her hands back while rushing forward as hard as she could, breaking through the bubble, she could feel her magical strength ebbing fast. "Take... THIS!" She screamed, took to the air and slammed her knuckles into the Megah's chest as hard as she could. A grin came to her face as she saw her knuckles pressing into the Megah's chest, causing cracks to appear. Quint let out a scream as the Megah grabbed her and squeezed hard as it spun and threw her into a tree.

Turning its head, it pointed its arm cannon and fired, the beam of energy lancing out and slamming into Yuuno's back, tearing up his cape and outfit and causing his back to bleed horribly before he created a barrier to block the shot.

"Dammit! I can't focus on healing her and defending myself at the same time!" Yuuno growled as he tried to hold off on the attack.

"I got you covered!" Teana yelled out as she fired several shots into the ground, causing several stone and asphalt spikes to shoot up and hold up the the beam that was aimed at Yuuno.

The Megah turned its cannon to the side slightly, hitting a parked car near Teana, forcing the vehicle to explode and knock her off of her feet.

Subaru growled as she saw that. "You... Just DIE ALREADY!" A red sphere appeared in her right hand while a blue sphere appeared in her left hand. Slamming them together, she held it out in front of her with her left hand while a blue sphere appeared around her right fist. "Flame SPHERE BREAKER!" Punching forward, an oblong-shaped ball of red energy raced outwards, slamming into the AMS and exploding with such force that the Megah was forced to stumble forward.

Turning, the Megah pointed its cannon at Subaru and fired a beam right at her. The girl rolled out of the way and another blue and red sphere appeared in her hands before she slammed them together and, charging up energy in her gauntleted fist again, fired another Flame Sphere Breaker.

Arisa looked at Ginga, who was helping her mother out of the tree. "Ginga, come here!" She ignored how Teana was bleeding at that moment and put her hand on the ground. "How strong are you?"

Ginga blinked at the question as her mother rolled up next to her. "Pretty strong, why?"

"Can you throw a three meter pole of solid metal into that thing?"

Before Ginga could ask what she was talking about, the discarded metal that was the remains of several cars on the street came together before compacting and then stretching into a long pole. "Can you throw that? I need to concentrate."

"Better hurry." Quint said as she helped Ginga pick the pole up. "I don't think Subaru can keep that up much longer.

Her words rang true a moment later as the Megah suddenly put on a burst of speed and extended its blade again, this time stabbing into Subaru's leg, causing the blue-haired girl to let out a scream as she fell to the ground, clutching at her leg as the Megah recalled its blade and pointed its cannon at Subaru fully.

"What are we waiting for, mom?"

"A clean shot, we only get one chance at this!" Still, Quint was as worried as Ginga was. "Dammit!"

Up in the sky, Caro looked down at the battlefield. "Stop it..." She squeezed her eyes shut tightly as the image of Fate getting stabbed in the stomach came to her. "Fate-san..."

_Fate smiled at Caro as the younger girl had her pinned to the ground while holding a pillow over her head. "You win."_

"Yuuno-san..." Tears were falling out of her eyes at that moment.

_"Hey, Caro, um, apparently you got adopted into my clan." Yuuno chuckled and Caro blinked, before grinning at him._

_"YUUNO-PAPA!" She screamed and glomped onto his legs, crying happily._

"Erio-kun..." She balled her hands into fists as lines appeared on her gloves.

_Erio stared as Caro started crying as she dropped her ice cream onto the ground. "...Want some of mine?"_

_Caro sniffled and nodded, smiling as he ended up giving her his ice cream completely._

"Dragon Soul Summon..." Caro muttered and Fried let out a chirp of confusion as a summoning sigil appeared on the ground not too far from the Megah.

"LEVIATHAN!" The small girl cried out as a loud, high pitched lizard-like roar was heard. Out of the summoning sigil, a black, snake-like creature with a blue head and red wings appeared. It was easily four meters in length. Taking one look at the Megah, it opened its mouth and let out a powerful stream of water.

"Fried! Blast Flare!" Caro cried out, her hair fluttering in the air.

The white dragon let out a roar and a red beam of energy blasted out, slamming into the bubble as the Leviathan's water slammed into the other side. "Triple... Overload... BOOSTER!" Caro cried out as loudly as she could, several more lines appearing on her gloves as she fed as much power to both Fried and Leviathan as possible.

Both of her summons' eyes glowed before their beams increased to more than double their size and managed to slam into the Megah from both sides.

"NOW!" Ginga and Quint yelled at the same time as they threw the metal stick through the air, slamming through the Megah's back and through it's chest.

Arisa's eyes flashed blue as she aimed her hand into the sky, she balled her hand into a fist before snapping it down, causing a large and powerful bolt of lightning to slam down out of the sky, crashing into the AMS and the metal pole that stuck out of its chest.

The Megah jerked and spasmed from the forces slamming into it. The remaining arm, the legs and even the head exploded as it fell backwards and jerked a few more times before crackling and exploding, leaving only a small box behind in a pile of parts.

Panting, Quint looked at Teana, who was starting to get up and hobble towards her. "Teana, do you know how to do sealing magic?"

Teana nodded and blinked as Quint helped her out. "What do you need?"

"You need to seal something into your device for now." Quint said as she rolled slowly over to the debris. Putting a hand up to her ear, she radioed back to base. "Quint Nakajima to Riot Force, we need a medical pick-up, now!" She looked up as Fried brought a rather exhausted Caro down to the ground. "Multiple injuries and exhaustion, plus something potentially valuable, get out here now!"

Teana blinked as Quint stopped right at the box, knelt down and punched it with all her might, tearing her fist into it and pulling out a mess of wires. "What are you..?" She trailed off as she saw a small female body in Quint's hand as the latter opened her hand.

"Ask questions later, seal her now."

Teana nodded and tapped Cross Mirage against the Unison Device.

**"Sealing."** Her device spoke out as the girl disappeared into a flash of light, being sealed into her device.

Teana looked at her device and then at Quint and wondered how she knew about the Unison Device in that machine.

* * *

Levi: So, that is the power. Impressive. Next time on Blood That Flows - StrikerS.  
? ? ?: Where are we?  
? ? ?: Ooooh! Looks like fun!


	221. StrikerS Twenty One

Blood That Flows

StrikerS Twenty-One

Of course I own nothing.

* * *

"So, that's it, huh?" Levi said as she leaned back and the screen turned off. "Impressive... That Megah." She chuckled, her shoulders shaking as her chair leaned back with her.

"So that's what they're called, huh?" A familiar male voice spoke up and Levi turned to see Straight Kuma standing at the doorway. "Powerful monster, I admit, nearly managed to kill a SS mage." Levi narrowed her eyes at him. "Though, I suspect that the real reason you wanted myself, Asuka and Tetsunami out there was to just weaken up the group, not that any of us did a very good job at that."

"Perceptive, though I'm surprised you stuck around, I thought you left?"

He snorted at her. "Made a nice little ten kilometer round trip to watch the fight unfold from across the river. You set everyone up, didn't you?"

Levi rotated her chair to look at him, her eyes showing contempt for his questions. "So what if I did? It's amazing how fast people jump on false information that I circulated."

Kuma growled and squeezed his hands into a fist. "You bitch. You nearly killed two of the prettiest ladies I've seen."

Levi raised an eyebrow. "You're upset because the Megah stabbed Fate Testarossa?"

"No!" Kuma growled at her. "Though she's lovely, I was talking about Tiyana and Alisa." Levi just blinked several times. "Your monster could have killed them with ease, and then I'd have nothing to look forward to the next time I encounter that group."

Groaning, the blue-haired Mazoku just _had_ to wonder what the hell she was thinking when she asked this guy to work for her. "I see, anyway, I don't have a job for you right now," she turned away, grabbed a small bag and tossed it over her shoulder, "there's your standard payment for this one."

Kuma snorted and looked at the screen as two bodies appeared on it. "...Who are they?"

"Asuka and Tetsunami's replacements." Levi grinned as she looked at the bodies on the screen. "I admit, I was rather shocked when I found these two, and their power..." She grinned savagely as she pushed a few buttons on the console. Her eyes flashed as a door opened up on the far side of the room as two human-sized tubes were rolled out on carts.

"What the heck are those for?" Kuma was less surprised by the fact that they were rolled out automatically than he was by the fact that she had some human-sized tubes.

Levi smirked, somewhat grateful that Jail never sought to categorize how many tubes he had, a few missing never did anything. "A holding field, for THIS!" She typed a few more buttons before slamming down the enter key.

If Kuma wasn't wearing his glasses, he would have had to have looked away from the powerful flash of light that engulfed the room. When the light dimmed, even Kuma had to admit, he was impressed as he saw the two females in the tubes. "Quite interesting."

Levi grinned savagely. "And to think, they were going to be stuck between this dimension and Death Fog's universe."

Kuma just looked at her in confusion, wondering what she meant by that.

(-)

Walking into Quattro's lab, Uno narrowed her eyes as she saw the glasses wearing cyborg watching the battle again. "Quattro." Turning, the younger of the two wondered what was going on before a punch sent her sprawling to the ground. "Just what the hell were you thinking? That Megah's power..."

Quattro rubbed her jaw and saw that the punch had knocked her glasses off of her face. "What's your problem?" Quattro stood up and looked at Uno, the bruise on her face already healing. "I was testing the Megah with its AMS. If we're going prove that the Bureau, that the people of this planet aren't ready for another Mazoku like Death Bringer, you need something really strong. And if a few weak people end up... Getting removed from the picture, well, that can't be helped." She crossed her arms under her breasts and smirked at Uno. "Let me ask you this, U~n~o..." She sing-songed as Uno twitched slightly, "how would you go around showing the Bureau how weak they are? Unless you injure and kill one of their strongest operatives, there's no real way to prove anything."

"Try and keep casualties to a minimum... And make sure that you program those things not to attack the first thing that moves."

Quattro just grinned more savagely at Uno. "My dear sister, the Megah... It isn't just a stupid piece of machinery... It can learn... And all of its data is sent back here." Uno's face had a look of sick realization as Quattro nodded. "Think... Each one learns what the previous ones knew and then can use that to fight more effectively."

"...They're monsters." Uno managed to stutter out.

"They would be..." Quattro sighed heavily. "If the OS wasn't so freaking ancient that the new technology we use takes time to adapt. So, even if they learn, it's not instantaneous." She narrowed her eyes while grinning. "However, I'm working on that problem. That's why I don't send another one in to finish them off right now."

"Plus Lutecia's not there to summon them?" Uno smirked as Quattro twitched at that. "Next time, Quattro... Just use a bomb or something."

Quattro looked at Uno and chuckled softly, causing Uno to blink in confusion.

'If only you knew, Uno, if only you knew what kind of bombs I have.'

(-)

"Otto!" The brown-haired cyborg turned and blinked as Sein ran up to her. "How are you?"

"I am fine, now, if you will..." She stopped as Sein got behind her and hugged her tightly. "...Sein? If this an attempt to grope my chest, you know that I do not have much on my chest to grope. You would have better luck with Cinque than myself."

Sein shook her head as she made Otto rest her head against the slightly taller cyborg's chest. "I saw the battle... We all did..." Otto went stiff and Sein wasn't surprised by that. "I don't know what happened, but that had to be scary, huh?" Otto nodded slowly as Sein turned her so she could hug Otto more properly. "Are you okay?" Otto shook her head and trembled softly. "Wanna talk?"

"...No." Otto's mind flashed back to the battle and all that happened in it, before shuddering again. Such a thing, it was insane. How could anyone just block her attack so easily? "Sein, is it okay to say that I do not like fighting? My heart pounds, my head hurts and I feel like my body is going to tear itself apart, and I do not know why."

Sein didn't have an answer for that, she just stood there, holding Otto tightly. 'When did I become like this?'

An image of Nove trembling and hugging her after Dieci had gone berserk came to her mind and Sein sighed softly. No matter what, she couldn't leave her sisters alone when they were hurting somehow.

Even if it meant giving up everything, she would be there to hug her sisters.

Tre would hug her when she needed to hug someone, after all.

(-)

"So, you two are sisters, huh?" Kuma asked as he looked at the two more closely. One was in a blue skirt with a white and blue shirt and wore a blue jacket on her body. Her feet had a pair of dark blue shoes on while a pair of guns were easily seen in the holsters that were against her body. Her dark pink, almost red, hair was done up in a long, braided ponytail while her green eyes looked around in confusion.

"Yep!" The other one, this one with long pink hair and eyes, nodded at him, grinning. She was wearing red shoes, a light red, almost pink skirt, a white and red shirt with a bright red jacket on her shoulders. On her back was a very large two handed sword that was almost as large as she was. The handle was red and black, the edge of the sword was white and the middle was black. "My name is Kyrie and this is my sister, Amitie."

Levi smirked as she looked at the two of them. "Kuma, get them used to this world."

"As long as you're the only demon around here, I might like this world." Amitie said, causing Levi to stare at her, her pupils shrinking. "...What? I'm from a universe where there's lots of demons running around, I've learned to pick them out."

"That would explain a lot." Kuma narrowed his eyes at Levi.

Levi smirked at him. "A demon, I may be, but my master always told me, always honor your commitments. So long as you do what I ask, there won't be any problems."

Kyrie shrugged and looked at her sister. "Eh, no different than the Mazoku back home, huh?"

Kuma just looked at the three and wondered what kind of nuts these two were. "...I take it that you probably don't want people knowing about you?"

Levi grinned slowly. "You're getting it. Just keep your mouths shut, do the missions that I ask, and there won't be... Any problems between us, capiche?"

"Whatever. Can we go now?" Amitie asked, getting a smirk from Levi.

After the three left, Levi growled softly. "...Those two might be a problem."

(-)

As they walked out to Kuma's car, the man looked at Kyrie, or rather, her sword. "I don't suppose you can sheath that somehow, can you?" The girl blinked and pulled her large sword off of her back and Kuma watched as she held it up and the blade seemed to fold into itself before shrinking down and the handles on the hilt folded up, covering the blade and making it look like a normal short staff. She then clipped it to her waist and smiled at him.

"Kyrie," Amitie shook her head, "couldn't you have kept that hidden?"

"Come on, Ami," Kyrie winked at her sister as she walked over to the car, "we're not at home anymore, and from Kuma-san's reactions, there aren't too many Mazoku in this universe."

"Guess so," Amitie got into the passenger side after Kyrie popped the seat forward to jump into the back. Pushing the seat back into position, Amitie sat down and buckled up as Kuma got in and started the car up. "Oh well, it's no different than back home."

"That bad?" Kuma asked, getting a shrug from Amitie.

"Depends. You're either on the side of the Shinzoku or Mazoku. Very few people last long enough without being aligned to either side." Amitie closed her eyes and leaned back against the seat. "Before you think that we chose our side, I'll have you know that it wasn't by choice. Our father made a deal with the Mazoku and basically made us so we could fight on their side."

"Sins of the father, huh?" Kuma grinned as he punched the accelerator, making his car take off down the highway at over five times the speed limit. "It's always a pain in the butt whenever the parents make a choice for the children and then when it's time to collect you've got no choice in the matter, even though that's what you want more than anything, am I right?"

In her seat, Kyrie hummed softly. "Nah. We were alive and able to learn, so it wasn't like we lost out on too much. Neither the Mazoku nor Shinzoku seemed to eager to go to war, but having to serve one side or the other for your whole life, well," she shrugged at that, "what's the point of resisting?"

"You two really don't care that you're working for a demon?" Kuma would have looked at them, but he was too busy outracing all the cars on the freeway.

"You didn't care either, until you found out she was a Mazoku." Amitie said, not the least bit concerned with how fast they were going. "She hasn't stabbed us yet."

"Or boiled us alive." Kyrie added. "Course, she could have set us on fire..."

"Or cut into our legs." Amitie shook her head. "Good thing there was always a healer nearby."

"Mazoku are pretty evil, huh?"

"They need our pain and suffering to live, actually," Kyrie chirped up, not sounding the least bit upset about anything, "Could always be worse, we could be subject to a tentacle demon, those girls never survive for more than five years."

"It really doesn't matter. One master or another, we'll always be someone's slave." Amitie took a deep breath and opened her eyes.

"Don't you two have dreams for the future?"

Kyrie gave him an answer that chilled Kuma down to the bones, "what good are dreams? Hope for freedom and the future only leads to misery and pain. Just live with what you have and if you're still alive at the end of the day, be thankful."

* * *

Hayate: I'm getting tired of these missions that go bad.  
Reinforce: I think I can handle some of it. Next time on Blood That Flows - StrikerS.  
Hayate: Gah! Who gave me decaf?  
Reinforce: You need it.


	222. StrikerS Twenty Two

Blood That Flows

StrikerS Twenty-Two

Of course I own nothing.

* * *

Balling her hands into fists, Hayate took several deep breaths to try and control herself. "That's twice now..." She started pacing in her office, back and forth, looking every bit pissed off that she felt.

Reinforce merely watched her as she grumbled about several things at once. "They all came back alive, be thankful for that."

Hayate took several deep breaths and nodded stiffly. "I know... I know." She was so stressed out at that moment that she didn't know what to do.

The next thing Hayate knew, she was picked up by Reinforce, who walked over to her chair, put Hayate down in it and started to rub her shoulders. "Nnnngh..."

"Right now, there's not much we can do, Hayate, just try to relax, things should be getting better now. As soon as we have all reports on what happened, we can make plans to avoid this in the future."

Hayate just sighed and let Reinforce massage her back and neck.

(-)

"Yuuno-kun, Fate-chan..." Nanoha said softly as she walked into the hospital room. "Erio-kun and Subaru are both in other rooms right now. Subaru should be fine soon enough, but Erio was hurt pretty badly. If not for Ragudo Mezzagis, he'd be dead right now." She squeezed her hands into fists as she walked in between the beds. "I should have been there. I could have..."

"Shut up, Nanoha." Yuuno said, causing her to gasp as he looked at her. "We all could have done more, we were taken by surprise by a few things that thing could do, okay? Besides," he sat up and groaned as he did so, "next time I'm putting a barrier field up first then healing."

"Yuuno-kun..." Nanoha smiled and hugged him.

"Oww, oww, oww..." Yuuno groaned as she let go of him. "Back's sore."

"Sorry," Nanoha said softly and cupped his face and kissed him on the lips. "Mmmm..."

"Not the sight I wanna see after nearly dying." Fate said as she groaned, both from the pain in her head and her stomach. "My sister kissing her boyfriend." Her voice was laced with annoyance and some jealousy.

Nanoha broke the kiss with Yuuno and turned to look at Fate and grinned at her. "What? Would Fate-chan like a kiss as well?"

Fate blushed heavily and nodded slowly. "Well, I wouldn't..." When Nanoha suddenly grabbed her and picked her up, she started fidgeting. "Um, Nanoha, I don't mind this, but, um... Yuuno's watching and... Hey!" Fate yelped as Nanoha moved so that the blood and IV drips, which were on a wheeled stand, moved with her, "Nanoha, what are you?" Her eyes widened as she was taken over to Yuuno's bed and sat down on it. "Nanoha?"

Nanoha grinned at Fate and Yuuno. "I said that the next time that Fate-chan got a kiss, it would be from Yuuno-kun."

Yuuno started blushing at that. "Um, Nanoha, I don't think Fate would..."

"...If it's Yuuno, I wouldn't mind," Fate squirmed on the bed slightly. "But no other guys."

Nanoha blinked a few times and grinned at that. "Well, that's good, I'd hate to see Fate-chan become a kissing fiend and go after everyone's lips like Hayate-chan goes after our boobs."

Yuuno just groaned as he heard that. Looking at Fate looking at him nervously, he smiled leaned in and gave her a kiss on the lips. His eyes widened as she hugged him and returned the kiss.

**"Whoo hoo! Go boss! This is better than when she was drunk, huh?"**

Fate broke the kiss and rested her head on Yuuno's chest. "It's not fair..." She pouted, causing Nanoha and Yuuno to blink at her. "I only get to kiss someone I like when I'm either hurt or drunk or feeling down." She looked at Nanoha and sighed heavily. "And you... It's not fair that you're my sister."

Nanoha shrugged and sat down on Fate's bed. "Miyuki-nee was trying to get Kyouya-nii to choose her over others. By the way, Yuuno-kun, I thought you were still with Miyuki-nee."

Yuuno blushed heavily. "Ah, well... She's still on Earth, I'm here, we kind of put our relationship on hold since we can't be together as often as we'd like. If we find someone else, we both agreed it wouldn't be bad."

Fate sighed heavily and groaned as her body throbbed in pain. "That mission sucked. Can't believe that I got stabbed like that." She let out a small yelp as she felt Yuuno's hands touch her butt. "Hey!"

"Sorry!" Yuuno gulped as Fate glared at him while blushing. "Didn't mean to."

**"Your ass is awesome, Fate, take it as a compliment."**

"Quiet you." Yuuno, Fate and Nanoha all said at the same time.

"I think I could have beaten it if I didn't have to worry about friendly fire." Fate said after a moment. "I had to hold back so that I wouldn't hurt anyone."

Yuuno nodded as he rubbed her back. "I think that way too. Caro's summons were able to over-power the field, so even though those fields are really powerful and against magic, they can be overwhelmed."

None of them noticed Teana, who had been just outside of the room, suddenly turn and leave quickly.

"How did they all do anyway?" Nanoha asked, getting a smile from Yuuno and Fate. "That good?"

"Yeah, better than we expected..." Yuuno trailed off as he remembered something. "What happened to those two that Ginga and Subaru were fighting?"

"Heavily injured, one of them might not make it through the night." Nanoha shook her head. "I hope they'll be okay. If not, it might take a long time to get information from them."

"I don't like getting cut up and stabbed so much." Fate muttered and closed her eyes. "Next time that a mission comes up, I think I'll go into it with my limiter off, Nanoha, you should as well."

"Don't worry." Nanoha smiled at her. "Hayate-chan already told me that she's going to yell at everyone until she can get the limiters removed from us for all missions."

Fate smiled at that. "Good."

(-)

A few minutes ago...

Teana groaned as she walked with just the barest hint of a limp in her step. It wasn't because her leg was injured anymore, that had been fixed up rather quickly. No, her heels hurt for some odd reason, it made walking a slight pain. It wasn't anything that she couldn't get fixed with some quick healing or a massage, but it was still slightly painful.

But that was barely on her mind at that moment. She had wanted to see how the others had been doing, Fate, Yuuno and Erio had to be rushed for emergency medical treatment and even Subaru needed medical treatment for her leg. "I think I need to get a bionic ankle or something." Teana groused as she made her way down the hallway. She wanted to see how Fate and Yuuno were doing.

"I had to hold back so that I wouldn't hurt anyone." Fate's voice came through the open door, causing Teana to blink a few times.

"I think that way too. Caro's summons were able to over-power the field, so even though those fields are really powerful and against magic, they can be overwhelmed." Yuuno's voice was heard next and Teana tried to fight off the sudden cold feeling in her chest as she turned and, ignoring the way her heels started screaming at her, ran down the hallway, trying to get the cold chill to leave her body.

Ignoring the way people were looking at her, Teana made her way to the elevator and pushed a random button, not caring where it took her, but she just had to get away from what she just heard. 'Is that... How little they think about me?'

_"Listen, little missy, at this level, only the freaks of nature can survive, if you're normal, you're likely to get hurt."_

Teana trembled and screwed her eyes shut. She didn't need to remember that. She just needed to get out of there. Maybe get some fresh air and do something.

When the door dinged open, Teana turned and ran out, only to run head-first into a pair of large breasts, causing her to fall on her butt. Looking up, she saw Vita looking at her with a raised eyebrow. "Do you make it a habit to run into people's chests? Because I gotta tell you, there are easier ways to say hello." Offering Teana a hand, she helped the girl up. "Teana, follow me, will you?"

Teana nodded and followed Vita, blinking as she realized that they were on the roof. "Uh..."

"I come up here to think, it's got a great view." Vita said as she walked back to Teana, grabbed the girl by her wrist and led her to the edge. "See?"

Teana blinked several times and looked out at the scenery, nodding. It really was beautiful.

"So why do you look like you're about to do something stupid?" Vita asked as she sat down on the edge of the building, her long legs sticking over the edge. She didn't even look at Teana as she continued to speak. "I know a thing or two about stupid things, Teana. I've done more than my fair share in the past three years. Mom and dad get pretty upset about it."

"...Why do you keep doing them then?"

Vita shrugged at that. "I enjoy what I do, there's nothing wrong with it, even if mom and dad don't like it, I take precautions and I have Shamal check me out every few weeks." Turning to look at Teana, Vita narrowed her eyes at her. "Though, for some reason, something tells me that you aren't about to try something stupid like that, maybe you were going to jump off of the roof here," Vita turned her head and leaned forward, "sure is a long way down, you'd be a nice splatter mark at the bottom." Sitting back up, Vita looked at Teana, who was pale, "or maybe you just needed to get outside?"

"Y, yeah..." Teana nodded and trembled softly. "I..." She looked down and reached around to squeeze her right arm. "I overheard Fate-san and Yuuno-san talking... And..." She trembled, her eyes burning as she remembered their words. "I think it would have been better if I hadn't been there."

"Really?" Vita's voice sounded confused as she looked out at the city. "From what I heard, if you hadn't been there, Fate would likely be dead right now."

"H..Huh? But, they said that if there wasn't anyone around..."

"Yeah, friendly fire's a bitch to deal with." Vita admitted as she looked at Teana, her eyes narrowed slightly, "it's not you, Teana. The stronger spells that we have," Vita gestured to the city, "would wipe that out easily." Teana's eyes widened as she stared at Vita, who didn't take her eyes off of the younger girl. "Fate and Yuuno have years of working together and know how to protect each other from explosions like that." She pointed at Teana. "You, on the other hand, do not. If Fate had been by herself, or with just one other person, she wouldn't have hesitated to let loose some of her strongest stuff on the thing that hurt her. The more people around her though, the more she hesitates, and for good reason."

"That is..?" Teana blinked and Vita sighed as she pushed herself away from the edge.

"You're smart, Teana." Vita stood up and smiled at her as she walked to the elevator. "Oh yeah," she looked over her shoulder at the confused girl, "never forget that you were picked to be here. We don't ask for losers or trash to join our ranks."

As Vita left, Teana smiled softly. "Thank you." She whispered to herself.

* * *

Zest: What did you want to see me about?  
Quint: You better sit down for this.  
Zest: What could... Impossible.  
Quint: Next time on Blood That Flows - StrikerS


	223. StrikerS Twenty Three

Blood That Flows

StrikerS Twenty-Three

Of course I own nothing.

* * *

It was starting to get late in the day when Zest walked into Regius's office. Looking at his old friend, he was mildly surprised to see Quint there, and more surprised to see Auris there as well. "Nakajima," he nodded to her, "Regius, what's with this meeting?"

"Ask her." Regius said as he looked at Quint directly. "I haven't even gotten the reports back from Riot Force about their last mission, though, from what I've heard, that's probably because they're heavily injured."

"Partially," Quint nodded and looked at the windows. "I need this place locked down before I tell you anything."

Regius looked at Auris and nodded, when she pushed a button, all the windows in the room closed down and were covered as the shutters around them closed down. "Very well, talk."

Quint pulled out Snap Calibur and put it on the table. "Replay events 30 through 46 of the most recent battle."

**"Yes ma'am."**

A screen popped up in the room and Regius, Zest and Auris all wondered what it is they were looking for.

It took exactly two seconds to know why Quint didn't want others to see the footage.

"Megane?" Zest stared, before shaking his head. "No, she's too young to be Megane..."

"It's not Megane..." Quint said softly, what she said next had even Regius floored, "it's Lutecia, your daughter."

"She... She can't be, she's too old."

"That's kind of what I thought too, after the battle was over," Quint looked at him sharply, "even if she is simply a Project-F clone, the fact is, Zest, she is _still_ your daughter. Could you live with yourself knowing that you rejected someone who needs you right now? Do you think Megane would reject her, even if she was a clone?"

Zest twitched at hearing that, he knew she was right, but even so, such a thing... "Are you sure?" Just as he asked that, a familiar face appeared on the screen. "She... She looks..."

"Like someone you thought you killed." Quint supplied for him. "Remember the mission that went extremely sour and cost us Megane?"

"How could I..." Zest's eyes widened and his pupils shrank as he looked at the screen. "She was... I thought I killed her."

"Apparently not... Snap, replay her lines to me before she left."

**"Yes, ma'am."**

_"As much as I'd like to let you have her, there's someone else that I need to answer to, and you aren't her."_

Zest looked at Quint as the scene of battle continued on. "...Is... She wasn't talking about..?"

"I don't know, but Megane... She might not be dead like we thought she was." Quint crossed her arms under her breasts and took a deep breath. "The power that crippled me is known as Chaos... I dunno about you, but if I didn't die, there's a chance that Megane didn't either."

Zest looked at Quint and narrowed his eyes. "Are you sure?"

"Not at all, but..." She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, "think, after all this time, seeing Lutecia alive... And then that woman said that... There's no doubt in my mind... Megane has to be alive."

Zest turned and started walking to the door. "Nakajima..." He turned to look at her out of the corner of his eye. "I think I might just join your little group after all."

"Before you go, Zest..." Regius spoke up, catching his attention. "You'll need to know something," Zest turned to look at his oldest friend, "if you do run into those women, remember this, they may or may not be directly responsible for Lutecia's current condition. Try not to kill them."

"We shall see."

(-)

Meanwhile...

"How are you feeling, Subaru?" Ginga asked as she walked into her sister's hospital room.

Subaru smiled as she saw her sister enter the room. "I'm fine, other than my leg," she patted the bandage on her leg gently, "which should be fixed in a few hours. They just had to stop the bleeding, since Erio, Fate-san and Yuuno-san were all worse off. How are they?"

"Erio's awake, if that makes you feel better." Ginga smiled as she sat down on the bed. "Not what you expected out there, huh?"

Subaru shook her head and rubbed her leg softly again. "No. A lot more painful than I expected too. How about you, Gin-nee? You okay?"

"A lot better than you." Ginga snorted and moved so she was closer to her sister. "But, thanks, if you hadn't given Caro enough time to summon her other summon, mom and I couldn't have hit that thing like we did."

"Gin-nee..." Subaru sniffled and hugged her sister. "I wasn't even thinking of that. I was just thinking how mom was hurt, Erio was hurt, Fate-san, Yuuno-san... They were all hurt and I did nothing to stop it!"

Ginga sighed softly and rubbed her sister's back. "You always have been such a cry-baby." Ginga smirked when Subaru let out a cry of protest. "Yet, you've always been able to do what you needed to do when it counted."

"Gin-nee... I was scared that mom was going to die and..."

"So was I." Ginga hugged Subaru tighter, trying to fight the tears in her eyes. "And I was scared that you were going to die too." Squeezing her sister tightly, she continued to speak, "so don't ever do that again, you got it?"

"Right..."

(-)

Meanwhile, on top of the building...

"Ah," Teana turned to see Zelgadis walking out of the elevator, "Vita did tell me that I'd find you here." Smiling lightly he walked up to her. "Tell me something, Teana, you once said that you wished to join the Air Force, right?"

"Well, yeah, but... I flunked out of that and, well..." Teana grabbed at her right arm. "I can't fly anyway, I have no aptitude for flight magic."

"Oh?" Zelgadis looked at her curiously. "What makes you say that?"

"I'm not strong enough to do anything really." Teana sighed and turned away to look at the sky. "Flight sounds fun, but... I could never get to that level. Maybe I'll be able to stand on the air one day, but flight? Impossible."

"What if I said that you could fly?" Zelgadis smiled as she turned to look at him. "It's not exactly true flight, not compared to what a lot of people can do here, I admit, however..." He smiled as she turned to look at him fully. "I think you'll need it."

"...What?"

"It's called Levitation."

Teana stared and for the first time all day, a sense of hope came to her.

(-)

"It's done." Jail chuckled softly as he handed Nove her gun knuckle. "Plenty of nasty surprises in there, conventional, unconventional and extreme. I'd leave the last one for emergencies only."

Nove nodded and smiled as she held her arm cannons out and pointed them at various imaginary targets in the room while taking different stances. "I like it."

Before Jail could answer her, the door to the laboratory opened up. "Ah, Due..." He trailed off as he saw how she looked. "...Something the matter?"

"Yeah, you could have told us that we'd likely run into Nove's family out there." Due was still hurting, her ribs felt like they were about to break and her head was hurting from the chewing out Agito gave her. She looked at Nove, who stared at her in shock. "Yeah, your family, Nove. Why didn't you tell me that I'd run into Quint Nakajima again, doctor?"

Jail raised an eyebrow. "You did?" He frowned and looked at Nove, who was looking at the two of them stunned. "For one thing, even if I anticipated her being there, stopping everyone from going wasn't a good idea, and for one other thing," he had a small grin come to his face, "I've got something else in mind right now."

"...They're my family?" Nove said, her face pale as she looked at Jail. "...That woman's my mother?" Jail didn't say anything, the look on his face was more than enough for her. "Why didn't you tell me sooner? You knew, didn't you?"

"Yes, Nove, I did." Jail turned and looked at some stuff on his consoles. "...If it is a sin to keep you ignorant of the truth, then I am the most evil person alive. Nove, I just didn't want the Bureau knowing about things that they shouldn't know." He turned to her with a serious look on his face, "could you have kept quiet if you knew she was your mother? Tell me, what would you have done? Keep it to yourself? Write it down? Found her and talked to her? What about your biological sisters?" He gestured to Due, "and the sisters you've grown up with?"

"Why don't we just..." Nove fidgeted slightly as he continued to give her that serious look. It was really freaky on him. "We could team up with the Bureau! Find out.."

"I'm a criminal," Jail interrupted her and pointed to Due, "she's a murderer... And what about the rest of your sisters? Even if they're innocent, there's a lot of problems with them." He turned away from her to look at the computer. "...Nove, I'm not saying you have to stay, but I know for a fact that the Bureau would not want me around..."

"Doctor, I..." She trailed off as he sighed heavily.

"Nove," he looked at her again, this time he walked away from the computer and up to her to put his hands on her shoulders, before hugging the suddenly blushing girl, "you and your sisters are almost like my children. I promise you, Nove, in a few weeks, no matter what happens to me, you and the rest of your sisters will be free to see your family. I just ask that you help me now." Nove nodded against him.

"Doctor, what will happen in a few weeks?" Due asked, confusion on her face. "Unless you found the Saint's Cradle..." She trailed off as he shook his head. "Then..."

"Let me worry about that. Tre, Sette, Mr. Snuggles, Cinque and Dieci are looking right now, if anyone can or will find it, it's them. As for what will happen..?" He let go of Nove and pushed a button, calling up a screen. "In a few days, the package will be delivered."

"About time." Due grumbled as she looked at the screen. "Think it'll work?"

"It better." Jail bit his lip softly, if this plan failed then everything else was doomed to fail. "I don't need the cradle for its power, Due. I have no need for the power myself. I need it to travel though."

"Travel?" Due blinked as Jail suddenly grinned and spread his arms out. "Doctor?"

"Thanks to Sirius, I was able to unlock a piece of memory that was buried deep away." He hunched over and started chuckling, putting a hand on his forehead as he laughed softly. "If not for that Shinzoku, the ultimate weapon against all Mazoku would have never come to me."

Due and Nove just blinked at him. "Doctor?" The two said at the same time.

Jail looked at them and grinned savagely. "I remembered... I remembered the location... Of Al Hazard."

(-)

Meanwhile...

Shari smiled as Mary walked into the room. "Glad that you're here."

Mary waved her off and sat down at the table. "So, I hear we have a new Unison device?" Shari nodded and activated Cross Mirage, set it in a containment field before typing on a keyboard and causing a sphere to pop out of it.

"Yes, and..." Shari trailed off as she saw the thing twitch and spasm. "Something's wrong. It shouldn't be..." She and Mary had to cover their ears as the thing screamed loudly. "What the hell..?"

Both Shari and Mary could only stare in horror as the thing spasmed violently for a few moments, before going completely still. "Shari!" Mary grabbed the device and put it into a stasis field. "Find out what happened!"

"Already on it!" Shari didn't know what happened, but she was almost sure that shouldn't have happened. 'How could something like that happen?' She may not have known who or what the Unison Device was, but she just hoped that it was still alive.

(-)

Levi smirked as she finished mixing up a new formula of chemicals. "Fufufufufu... I wonder if those Bureau idiots have found out the true horror of the Megah yet?" It wasn't even something she did, which made it even more delicious and ironic. Agito was just lucky enough to have bonded with Due before her time was up. "After all..." Levi whispered to herself, "even those devices technically are living beings and they've long since passed their expiration date."

As she finished off her latest formula, Levi just grinned. "A few more days, if I time it right, I should have everything I want."

_"Master Levi..."_

"Yes, Quattro?" Levi raised an eyebrow as she heard her servant speaking up to her. "Something wrong?"

_"Not really right now, but I was wondering what to do with Lutecia right now, she's in the laboratory right now and..."_

Levi just smirked at that. "The three-hour treatment. Make sure to sound-proof and lock everything first."

_"Of course, my master."_

Grinning, Levi wondered what was going to happen next. As she held up a small box, her grin became a sinister smile as the light around her seemed to disappear while her eyes flashed red and her laughter was heard going from normal to high pitched before echoing and tapering off.

* * *

? ? ?: Well, well, well! So THIS is where you've been hiding out!  
Teana: Who the heck are you?  
? ? ?: Find out on the next Blood That Flows - StrikerS.


	224. StrikerS Twenty Four

Blood That Flows

StrikerS Twenty-Four

Of course I own nothing.

* * *

The next day around lunch time...

Teana blinked as she saw Vita eating alone. Normally it wasn't something that would interest her too much, but the woman looked like she was slightly upset about something. "Hey, Vita..." She said softly as she moved near the table. Teana's eyes widened when Vita looked at her. "What happened?"

"Sparring match with Suzuka." Vita grumbled, her eye was blackened and she had some blood on her face around her nose. "I lost."

"Ah, but, but, how?" Teana stared and Vita snorted, grimacing painfully.

"I'd curse Shamal, but she said she'd fix me up in a little bit, as for how? It was a sparring match, pure hand-to-hand, no magic and I didn't use Graf Eisen," Vita grinned painfully, "she got a lucky shot in and pinned me for three seconds, she won."

"Bu, bu, bu..." Teana stuttered as Vita rolled her eyes.

"Look, sometimes it's not who's more powerful, more skilled or more experienced, sometimes a fight comes down to a stupid lucky, or cheap, shot." Vita shrugged at her stare. "Trust me when I say that there's no one more skilled in armed combat than Signum is and she tends to win any one-on-one sparring match she's in, or at least draw. But throw her into a group sparring match and she's one of the first ones to lose." Vita smirked and shook her head. "If you're wondering about the blood, lemme tell ya, headbutts against the nose hurt." Taking a napkin, she dabbed at her face again before getting up and leaving the table. "See ya this afternoon."

Teana could only slowly shake her head. "...Everyone in this place is insane."

She just wondered what kind of insanity they lived through to make them come out like this.

(-)

A couple of hours later...

Subaru was bending down, stretching as she and Erio spoke before afternoon practice. "Really? The whole chicken?"

"Yeah!" The boy laughed as he twisted his back to get some tension out of it. "Great grandma was crazy with that recipe, but yum, it was good!"

Subaru laughed as she tried to imagine it. "Oh wow, I couldn't see mom doing that."

Erio kept laughing. "It got really funny with Fried was accidentally thrown in as well, great grandma wanted the other chicken but grabbed him instead. I thought Caro was going to cry."

"Great grandma shouldn't be trying to cook Fried!" Caro yelled at Erio while Fried chirped in as his mistress sat on the ground and tried to stretch her legs and back out. "It's not Fried's fault he was flying near the live chickens, he's a growing Dragon and he was hungry!"

"Ku ku!" The Dragon landed on Caro's shoulders as she sat up properly.

Caro had a rather mischievous grin on her face. "Besides, at least I didn't get kidnapped by a mama pig like you did, Erio-kun."

"That's a lie and you can't prove it!" Erio spun on the ground to face and point at her. "I was just playing with some baby pigs and followed it, that's all."

"Uh huh..." Caro grinned at him. "That's why Yuuno-papa found you in the mud begging to get out of the pig pen?" She giggled as Erio hung his head and sighed heavily.

Erio wanted to get mad, he really did, but seeing her smiling and giggling, well, it made it hard to get angry at her when she was being so cute. "Subaru..." When the older girl looked at him, he grinned at her. "Wanna help me with some stuff later?"

Subaru blinked a few times and shrugged. "Don't see why not." She bent over as she stretched her legs out again. After a few more minutes of stretching, she shook her arms and legs to get any lingering pains out of them before blinking as she saw Erio and Caro running laps around a few trees. 'Wait, no, is she chasing him?' Subaru had seen the two argue and fight before, but this was the first time that the two had acted like actual children, with Caro running after Erio, swinging her arms up and down and Erio running and sticking his tongue out at Caro, occasionally putting on a burst of speed so he could kick her in the butt before changing directions.

Looking at Fried, she just blinked as the small Dragon sat on the ground, doing nothing, no, wait, it was doing something, it was eating some jerky.

Subaru looked at Erio again and chuckled. 'He... He bribed a Dragon.' She knew how protective of Caro Fried was, the small Dragon had headbutted her several times in practice for nearly hurting Caro by accident.

"Alright! Knock it off!" Vita's voice was heard and the two children stopped running around and Subaru looked up as Yuuno, Vita and Teana walked towards them. "Arisa and Suzuka'll join us later, anyway..."

"Aww!" A new female voice spoke up, one that had Yuuno and Vita instantly pale and tense up. "And I was _so_ looking forward to having some fun with those two kiddies again!"

Yuuno, Vita and Teana all turned to see a rather tall and muscled woman with green hair, sunglasses over her eyes, a large grin on her face, looking at them. She was dressed in a green tank top that did absolutely nothing to hide her curves and what looked to be like military-grade camouflage pants with black boots on her feet. On her back was a sword hilt, but that was all most of them could tell at first glance.

"Riksfalto!" Yuuno and Vita hissed at the same time as the Mazoku general chuckled to herself.

"Glad to see that you didn't forget about me, kiddies!"

"Who is.." Teana started to speak, only to get interrupted by Yuuno.

"Someone who could likely fight everyone in the Riot Force right now and wipe the floor with all but a few of us by the time everything was said and done. She's nothing but a ruthless battle maniac who actually taught at our school back on Earth. At one point, she was an enemy, right now, you could probably place her in the category of ally... Tentatively."

"Aww!" Riksfalto suddenly disappeared before reappearing in front of Yuuno, hugging him tightly. "You say the sweetest things about me, and all it took was you nearly killing me when you were younger too!"

"Hey!" Caro yelled while swinging her arms up and down. "Stop hugging my papa!" It was rather simple for Caro, she didn't know Riksfalto personally, but she had heard Vita, Suzuka and Arisa complain about Riksfalto in gym class to give her the image of a horrible monster that liked to torment people endlessly. Besides, Riksfalto wasn't on Caro's "approved huggers of papa" list.

Granted, it was a very short list that really didn't extend too far, but it was still _her_ list, dang it!

"You're that weird lady!" Erio pointed at Riksfalto. "You said to try and not blow everything up to me."

"Hmm?" Riksfalto let go of Yuuno, mentally amused by the fact that he somehow managed to be both blue in the face and red on his cheeks. Then again, she _did_ hug him against her impressive chest. "Oh yeah, I remember you. That still stands kiddo, don't try to..." She trailed off as she looked at Caro and almost felt like taking a step back and looked at Yuuno. "...You adopted her?"

Yuuno patted his chest. "You do remember the rumors in school about me having a daughter?" He pointed to Caro. "She's my daughter."

Riksfalto looked at Caro, who smiled brightly and waved her hand slowly. "I see.." She looked at Teana and Subaru, both of whom were just looking at her in confusion. "I guess you two are interested in who I am?" They nodded slowly. "Name's Riksfalto, General to Lord Deep Sea Dolphin of the Red Staff," she lifted up her sunglasses, revealing one eye that was closed with a scar over it and the other eye had a look of almost insanity on it, "and I'm one Mazoku you'll never forget."

Subaru looked at the Mazoku and felt a shiver go up her spine. She wasn't exactly sure what a Mazoku was, but it probably wasn't a good thing.

_"By the way, Yuuno..."_ Riksfalto shot to Yuuno, who took a wary step towards Caro as the Mazoku general looked at the girl again. _"You do realize who those two are, right?"_

_"Erio and Caro being Dark Star and likely Vorfeed's reincarnations, yeah, why?"_

_"Just making sure."_ Riksfalto didn't like subterfuge, at all. However, when dealing with something that the Lord of Nightmares set up, well, it was best to not be straight forward.

"Actually..." Vita had a wicked, evil and flat-out mean idea enter her head at that moment. "We were about to start the afternoon training..." She trailed off and looked around. "Hey, where's Ginga?"

"Oh, mom needed her." Subaru rubbed the back of her head. "Sorry, I thought you knew."

Vita crossed her arms under her breasts and let out an annoyed snort. "Fine, well, you four..." She jerked a thumb at Riksfalto. "Care to try and beat her up?"

Riksfalto grinned and pulled her sword out. "Give me a good fight, or I may... Hurt you a bit."

_"You sure this is a good idea, Vita?"_

_"Trust me, they need to fight against a Mazoku, right? Unless she's ordered to, Riksfalto's never tried to kill any of us intentionally, and despite everything, she's always been straight-forward, right?"_

_"...True..."_ Yuuno broke the link and looked at everyone and then at Riksfalto. "...Just don't kill them, please?"

Riksfalto smirked at him. "No killing, but I can't guarantee I won't maim them."

Yuuno stepped away from the upcoming battlefield with Vita patting his back and wondered why all the women in his life were all violent maniacs. When he said it out loud, Vita just laughed and elbowed him lightly.

"Hey, at least it's not a romantic comedy manga, right?" Vita grinned at him as they stood by to watch the upcoming fight. "Even if your life kind of parallels some of the manga I've read. Then again, if it did for real, Signum, Shamal and myself would probably be interested in you as well."

"You're not?" Yuuno asked, fairly surprised as the battle was about to take place.

Vita rolled a strand of her hair in front of her eyes. "To be honest, Yuuno, I do like you, and I probably wouldn't mind going on a few dates with you. If it led to something more, I sure wouldn't complain." She looked at him and smiled softly before lightly punching him in the arm. "I could probably steal you away from the Takamachi sisters easily enough too." She nearly laughed as he blushed pretty hard. "But I'm not going to." she put her finger on his lips to keep him quiet, "because I respect your relationship with Nanoha, Fate and Miyuki to not do anything." She shrugged and turned back to watch as Riksfalto caught Subaru's punch with ease before throwing her through a tree. "Ouch, that had to hurt. And, Yuuno?"

"What?" He had to admit, he had never seen this side of Vita before.

Vita grinned at him. "If you end up wanting all three Takamachi sisters, let me know ahead of time, okay?" When he stared at her, she blushed softly. "What? After Chrono married Amy and Filia, I would have thought you would have gone for the same thing too."

"Uh..." Yuuno scratched his head. "Vita, I'm only nineteen, you're eighteen, we don't need to rush, do we?"

The redhead shrugged at that. "Not really, though it is fun to experiment and find out what we really want and need..." She sighed heavily. "Though, sometimes I think that dad doesn't really understand that."

"Hayate's had Reinforce for a long time, Vita..." Yuuno winced as Riksfalto smashed Fried into the ground hard enough to cause a small crater. "And there's Zwei..."

"I know..." Vita grumbled softly and crossed her arms under her breasts. "Did you know that I wanted what Reinforce has? Still do, actually."

"...You wanted to be Hayate's lover?"

Vita smirked softly. "I'll never get that in my life, though it's kind of stupid now that I look back at it."

"Not really." Yuuno said while watching the fight continue, though from the looks of things, Riksfalto wasn't trying too hard. After all, she put her sword away. Not that she needed it with how she was literally mopping the ground with Erio. "Erio! You might want let go of that spear when she grabs it and tries to use you as a squeegee!"

"Not really?" Vita snorted at him, "that's rich, coming from you."

"...Considering that I was dating Miyuki for a few years, Vita, I'd say that a notion like that doesn't bother me."

"Hey," Vita narrowed her eyes. "Speaking of Miyuki, is she still on Earth?"

"Last I heard..." Yuuno muttered, hoping that Miyuki didn't follow him to Mid-Childa. He had nothing against his girlfriend, he just wasn't sure if he could deal with Miyuki, Nanoha and Fate at the same time. Signum's constant amusement from watching him deal with his girl troubles was never a good thing.

(-)

"We're going to see Nee-chan now, Miyuki-nee?"

"Yes, Arashi," Miyuki smiled as they stepped off the ship and into Cranagan, "we're going to go see Nanoha now."

"Yay!" The young boy cheered and jumped into the air. "I can't wait to show her!"

"I bet." Miyuki sweat-dropped and hoped that this wasn't a bad time. Oh well, at least she could see Yuuno again, that was always nice.

* * *

Nanoha: Next time on Blood That Flows - StrikerS... EH! ? What do you mean nothing really interesting happens? That's always a lie!  
Fate: Of course...


	225. StrikerS Twenty Five

Blood That Flows

StrikerS Twenty-Five

Of course I own nothing.

* * *

Meanwhile...

"Thanks for meeting with us, Hayate." Quint smiled at the young commander as she, Ginga, Zest and Reinforce stood by in Hayate's office.

Hayate waved it off and smiled at her. "Not a problem." She nodded at Zest, who had a stony expression on his face. "You're a lot of fun, I see."

"I mean no disrespect for you or your organization, Hayate Yagami, however..."

"It's that mission that we had." Quint spoke up and looked at Ginga, who nodded. "You know that both Ginga and Subaru are..."

"Combat Cyborgs," Hayate nodded at Quint and looked at Ginga curiously, "you know that I personally don't care if she's a Combat Cyborg, a Dragon or anything like that, so why bring this up now?"

"Because the enemies that we've run into..." Quint took a deep breath, "are likely Combat Cyborgs as well." Hayate looked at her with shock on her face. "The two that injured Vita and Nanoha, the four that showed up in our last mission... Sein... And there's probably at least three others that I know of personally."

"Are you sure?" Hayate asked, narrowing her eyes. "So, there's ten others... Maybe more?"

"Considering that they seem to be named for numbers..." Ginga spoke up, catching Hayate's attention. "Well, Sein, Otto, Deed... Deed means twelve, doesn't it?"

"Not to mention she had a numerical symbol for twelve on her neck." Quint continued to speak to the room. "And my research..."

"Jail Scagiletti's behind this," Zest spoke up, causing Quint to sigh.

"Zest, you need to learn about proper delivery, but yes, Zest's right, Jail Scagiletti." Quint wanted to belt her former commander for ruining any suspense she had been trying to build up.

"Scagiletti..." Reinforce muttered and closed her eyes. "From what I heard, he completely disappeared, went so far underground that no one can find him." Even Vita's contacts, which, if Reinforce stopped to think about it, was rather scary, since she knew so many rather shady people, hadn't turned up anything about Jail Scagiletti in the past few years. "If this is true, then this is the first time he's made any sort of movements in years."

"I believe so," Quint nodded, "Zest and myself have unsolved issues with him, so we wish to partake in any mission that may lead us to him."

"I can authorize that on a couple of conditions," Hayate looked at Zest, "one, I wish to know just why you're interested in this and two, if any of your co-workers or subordinates are in need of help and you can give it, you are to give help. I don't want any crazy need for revenge to cloud your judgement."

"Agreeable, as for why," Zest narrowed his eyes, "there was a girl that took place in that last battle, her name is Lutecia Alphine," he gave Hayate a look that had even her shivering slightly, and the next words chilled everyone in the room, "and she is my daughter."

That, Hayate decided, was more than enough reason for anyone to want to fight against someone else.

(-)

"Ne, Signum-nee..." Rein Zwei said as she floated along-side Signum as they walked outside. "You think that there's going to be something bad happening soon?"

"I hope not, Rein," Signum narrowed her eyes as she looked out at the sky, "considering what happened to Testarossa, Scrya, Vita and that thing," Signum had a tight smirk on her face as she remembered the nick-name that she had given Nanoha, it hadn't been serious, but for some reason it just clicked, "I do think that something bad happening is likely."

"Mou..." Rein Zwei let out an exaggerated groan, "you're pretty bad, Signum-nee, can't you call Nanoha-san, Nanoha-san at least?"

"I'm ten years older than her, doesn't mean I don't have a childish side when it comes to her or any of our friends."

"Being somewhat selfish never hurts anything," a new voice spoke up and Rein grinned and zipped over to the speaker, slapping the offered palm, "then again, Signum was always selfish."

"Sure, Shamal," Signum smirked at her, "so, you ready?"

"Yes," Shamal smiled at her, "thank you for giving me the ride today."

"It's not a problem," Signum nodded as the three of them entered Signum's car, "as it stands, I was heading to the Saint Church today anyway, why are you heading there again?"

"A few supplies, nothing too much, plus Hayate wanted me to pick up some stuff that Carim had for her."

Signum nodded and looked at Zwei as the young girl took her larger child form and got into the car seat in the back. "Are you okay, Zwei?"

"I'll be fine. Even if I'm not that good at regulating magic in this form, I should be just fine. Besides, mommy says that I have to get used to being in my bigger form more often."

Shamal smiled at Zwei, "you wouldn't want to be small forever, you'll need to grow up like your mother has." She then giggled as Signum started the car up and pulled out of the parking lot. "Of course, a small Zwei is still a really cute thought." She turned and settled against her seat, grinning with her eyes closed. "A cute little Zwei who's smaller than a ripe tomato? That sounds so cute..." Plus the thought of Zwei actually trying to eat something so large compared to her was rather cute and adorable.

Had Signum not rolled her eyes at that moment, she may have noticed a pink blur zip past her car on the freeway. As it was, she never noticed anything, but for some reason, she had to fight the urge to hug herself. If only she knew why.

(-)

"So, what do you think of Cranagan?" Kuma said as he turned a corner rather fast.

"The ice cream is good." Kyrie grinned in the back seat. "Ami," she whined when her sister snorted, "why can't I be in the front seat?"

"Because I'm in the front seat." Amitie closed her eyes and leaned back in the seat. "Tell me, Kuma, what will happen to us?"

"Well, I don't know," he was uncharacteristically somber as he spoke to her, "but, from what you've said, I think I've got an idea," a grin came to his face suddenly, "and if I'm right, we won't need to work for that Mazoku for too much longer. HA HA HA!"

Amitie didn't want to admit it, but for some reason, this man, Straight Kuma, gave her hope.

Which was something she thought she had lost when she was only six years old when her father was brutally murdered in front of her and Kyrie.

(-)

Elsewhere...

Teana groaned as she tried to pick herself off of the ground. Looking around, she noticed that none of the others were better off than she was, in fact, Caro and Fried were out cold, Erio was just climbing out of a lake, Subaru had her butt literally stuck into a tree and was trying to get out, while she was just lucky enough to be covered in dirt and flowers. Looking at their opponent, Teana had the strangest sensation that she barely even tried against them.

"Have to admit, Yuuno, your standards are slipping," Riksfalto turned to look at Yuuno, irritation lacing her voice, "I mean it, these four would have been dead in two seconds back when we first met. Even that man who married Lina Inverse put up a better fight than they did!"

"YOU!" Riksfalto suddenly grinned as she turned and caught a punch in the jaw, sending her spiraling across the field through mid-air and into the parking lot, smashing into a random parked car.

Suzuka growled and cracked her knuckles while Arisa, who was behind her, sweat-dropped heavily. "Suzuka, do you like breaking cars or something? Because every time you hit her, a car tends to get broken. This isn't Street Fighter after all."

There was a laughter in the air as Riksfalto reappeared on the training ground, though it looked like her jaw was out of place. Putting a hand on it, she adjusted it back into position. "Now THAT is what I was looking for!" She pulled her sword out and grinned at Suzuka, who glared at her. "Come on! Let's have some FUN!"

The next thing that Suzuka and Riksfalto knew, they were chained up and forced to their knees. "Not right now, you two." Yuuno said as he and Vita walked forward. He canceled the binds on the two of them to let them up. "If you to tear into each other, those four won't have learned anything."

"Besides how outclassed we are?" Teana said as she finally was able to get to her feet. Chancing a glance at Subaru, the cyborg had managed to pull herself out of the tree and was rubbing her butt while making her way over to Caro and Fried, while Erio did the same. "Look at you four, she beat us so easily and yet you, Yuuno, were able to pin her down like it was nothing. Even when Subaru punched her, nothing happened, yet Suzuka could hit her to the parking lot. This was all just a matter of making fun of us, wasn't it?"

"Tea..." Subaru said softly as she watched what had to be a massive car accident happening in front of her.

"No! I'm saying it now!" Teana yelled as she looked at her instructors, Arisa, Suzuka and Riksfalto. "What's the point of taking us on, other than to humiliate us at every chance you can? Why do you need to prove that you're so superior to us all the time?"

Vita growled and was about to step in and say something but Yuuno waved her down.

"I get it, you could totally kick our butts if you wanted to, our training is just because of some sort of agreement." Teana closed her eyes, tears leaking out of them as she continued to speak, "you guys are so much more powerful than any of us could be it's just stupid and..."

"Alright, I'm tired of this." Riksfalto, who snapped out of her binds a moment ago, walked up to Teana and punched the girl so hard that she flew back several feet before sliding on her back along the ground. "You're a complete moron, aren't you?"

"Riksfalto!" Yuuno yelled at her and got in front of the Mazoku General. "That's enough."

Riksfalto snorted and took off her glasses to glare at him. "You're honestly okay with her yelling at you like that?" Yuuno shook his head and she growled. "Then why let her?"

"Because I can see where she's coming from!" He yelled back, much to her surprise, not to mention Teana, Subaru, Erio and Caro. "Ten years ago, I found a little girl who had a ton of magical potential, she quickly learned everything I had to teach her and went on to develop her own spells. Her mother was so powerful that she could destroy a city-sized object with ease and was able to teach both myself and her daughter spells that we never thought possible. One day, I looked at them in practice and asked myself why I was there, I felt like I was completely worthless and weak compared to them." Yuuno turned away from her and walked over to Teana, who was still on her back, stunned. "Which is why, Teana, I'm not mad at you for being frustrated." He held his hand out to her, smiling. "Teaching you, yes, is part of a political deal to be here." Helping her to her feet, he looked at Subaru, Erio and Caro, the latter having only woken up to hear his last bit. "The reason we're training you is to be able to fight against beings like Riksfalto."

"But every time we attacked her, it was like our spells failed to go off!" Subaru yelled and glared at Riksfalto, who turned and smirked at her.

"Magic cancellation, kiddy. If you can't handle it, you can always fight against a bunch of weak thugs." Riksfalto moved her neck back and forth. "Well then, I'll see you around." She grinned and put her sunglasses back on before disappearing completely.

"Hard to imagine that she's actually not very good at it." Vita muttered as she looked at the others. "Come inside, we need to have a meeting."

The kids all looked at each other in confusion.

(-)

A little later, in the large conference room...

Vita nodded to Hayate as she, Reinforce, Quint, Ginga and Zest had joined them. "Thanks for joining us. They met Riksfalto."

Hayate narrowed her eyes at that name. "I am NOT having that woman as our gym coach." Reinforce just laughed at her. "She's pure evil! She worked us to the bone day in and day out, just so that we would all be upset, and tossed out things that annoyed all of us! Arrgh!"

"I'm sure she is, after all, she did bring those paintball guns to school that one day and made it so that the paintballs exploded..." Reinforce smiled as she remembered Vita and Hayate coming home covered in red, green, blue, brown and white colors. It was actually quite hilarious and she still had the pictures of that event. Not to mention that Lina had sent her pictures of Fate, Nanoha and Yuuno in all sorts of paint as well. After all, one had to make sure that embarrassing moments were shared among parents. "Anyway, I think we're here for something else?"

"Yeah." Vita nodded and closed her eyes. "The Garoth Incident."

Subaru looked around as all the adults got rather silent at that. "Um... What's wrong?"

"Ten years ago," Reinforce began, "Hayate and Nanoha were kidnapped by a powerful Mazoku known as Death Bringer Garoth." A holo screen appeared on the table facing everyone as a man with shoulder length black hair in a tuxedo appeared on the screen, holding what looked to be a much younger, unconscious Nanoha in his arms. He had a Priestess as his servant," a woman with blue hair with dark tips and purple eyes grinned at the screen, she was in a standard Bureau outfit. What shocked everyone at the table was when her hair and eyes changed color.

"Fate-san?" Erio gasped and looked at the woman. "But..."

"She's not Fate-chan..." Hayate closed her eyes for a moment before opening them, sadness on her face. "She was Fate-chan's sister, Alicia Testarossa. Shortly after Garoth and Alicia kidnapped Nanoha-chan and myself, he took over the Ground Forces Headquarters and tried to use Nanoha-chan, or her mother to destroy a black crystal pillar. You may have noticed the thing in the city."

Subaru blinked and looked at her mother, who had a grim look on her face. "...But, I thought it was an ancient monument that no one knew what it was for?"

"Cover story," Quint sighed heavily. "When this... Garoth person took over the Ground Forces Headquarters, he managed to keep all of the Bureau from doing anything, it wasn't until Miss Lina, Hayate's family, Fate and Yuuno showed up that we were able to do anything." Quint frowned and blinked. "...There was someone else there, but I don't remember who exactly..."

"Chrono," Yuuno smirked and couldn't wait to let Chrono know that people had forgotten him already, "but, yeah, we went up against someone who made Riksfalto look like a wet paper rag. The only reason we survived is because he didn't want to kill us, not yet, he wanted us for something else. None of us outside of Reinforce, Hayate, Lina or Nanoha had a chance to even hurt him." The children stared in shock as Lina, in the image, created a black blade that cut the Mazoku Lord in half, only to see him reform completely fine a few moments later. "Even that was no guarantee."

"Chrono got a crazy plan to use some Lost Logia, known as the Jewel Seeds," Vita continued as the images on the screen changed to Chrono, Yuuno, Shamal and Zafira standing close to the pillar but far away from Garoth as he toyed with Lina, "to break the dimensional fabric and seal Garoth into the space between dimensions."

"But that's completely against everything that the Bureau wants!" Teana stood up, protesting. "We don't want stuff like that to happen."

"We know," Yuuno said as the screen revealed what Chrono had done. "We didn't have a choice in the matter at all."

Those who had never seen what went on paled as they saw Garoth get sucked into a black and gold pit of nothingness. Even Zest felt the urge to shiver as Garoth was sent into the hole before Chrono, Yuuno and Shamal sealed the hole away.

"We weren't created to deal with normal threats," Vita looked at Teana, "we were gathered to deal with threats that the rest of the Bureau would get crushed against. And beings like Riksfalto are what we're teaching you to fight against."

"But, they're gone, right?" Teana chuckled nervously and Hayate shook her head.

"Even if those two are gone, there are other Mazoku Lords out there. One of which introduced himself to Admiral Lindy Harlaown a few years ago." Hayate bit her lip lightly. "Even if he does not become a threat, there may be others out there that could become a threat."

"We're trying to help you so that you can fight against such beings and have a hope to live," Yuuno looked at the four younger recruits, all of which were looking rather overwhelmed by this information, "against beings like Riksfalto, you might get lucky with a well-timed blast, but against beings like Garoth... You'll need a team," he looked at Arisa and Suzuka, before looking at Quint, Zest, Reinforce and then Hayate, "as for this, well..." He looked at Hayate, who smiled at them.

"I dunno if Yuuno was going to let you have today off or not, but I figure that letting everyone have a day off to go have some fun isn't a bad idea."

Subaru looked at Hayate, and then at Yuuno, before looking at Vita, who just rubbed the back of her head and grumbled softly. "You, you mean it?"

"Eh, you guys haven't done too bad, besides, doing nothing but training is hard on the body, so, take some time off and relax." She grinned at them savagely. "Today and tomorrow, but when your days off are over, don't expect me to take it easy on you."

Seeing Vita cackle to herself caused Teana to gulp nervously.

Oh well, they had a day and a half off. Maybe that would be enough to help her relax completely?

* * *

Teana: We got a day off now.  
Subaru: Let's go have some fun!  
Erio: To town?  
Caro: Let's go!  
Teana: I wish I could relax though. Next time on Blood That Flows - StrikerS, our day off.

Okay, I'm going to warn all of you, next chapter is when the story starts to get dark. It won't be pretty.


	226. StrikerS Twenty Six

Blood That Flows

StrikerS Twenty-Six

Of course I own nothing.

Okay, like I said, this chapter is the start of why this arc is very dark.

* * *

Jail had to admit, he was rather impressed with what Quattro had found. "How did you find this?" All of his search parties had turned up negative, to see this...

"The cradle? Came across it by accident," Quattro smiled at him as she, Uno and Jail walked through the Cradle, "to think it wasn't too far from our own base... Which is probably why we couldn't find it."

Uno snorted as she looked around. "Pretty coincidental that this place is near our mountain base. Then again, who would look under a bunch of trees for a large space ship?"

Jail chuckled and looked at the place. "Well, I have to admit, this place impresses me. If everything works well..."

"You'll need the Saint Kaiser for power and piloting of this ship." Quattro said as they turned a corner towards the throne room. "Oh, doctor, I hope you don't mind, but those Megah? I've moved the majority of them into the ship itself."

Jail nodded and looked at Uno. "We're still way behind on finding the right Relics."

"Mostly because you were too busy with upgrading everyone's weapons to suit their new powers." Uno rolled her eyes at him. "Still, thanks to some stuff that Cinque found, we've gotten quite a collection. Though, I am surprised that the Bureau never interfered."

Quattro slowed down and smiled darkly. 'Master Levi only needs you two for a little while longer, of course, those Brains think that we're on their side.' She nearly laughed at that. The founders of the Bureau were probably the most corrupt beings in the whole Bureau, which was quite interesting to her. "Who knows? Maybe they're too busy having to deal with problems that keep propping up here and there. Then again, that Riot Force _did_ get their hands on that rather large stash of Lost Logia a week ago, didn't they?"

Jail waved it off. "Mostly minor trinkets and some Relics, but they didn't get the few that I needed for this ship."

Quattro didn't care one way or the other, but part of her wondered just what Levi had planned. Her master had gone through a lot of trouble to make sure that her timing on things was just right.

Oh well, it was sure to be interesting at least.

(-)

Meanwhile...

"Nanoha!" Miyuki smiled as her sister came out to greet her and Arashi. "How are you?" She hugged the girl before letting go so Arashi could hug his sister tightly.

"Pretty beat actually," Nanoha laughed softly as she rubbed Arashi's head. "Something the matter? You said on the phone that you needed to show me something when you got here, so..." Nanoha blinked as Miyuki pointed at Arashi. "...Arashi?" She stepped back when he let go of her and smiled at him. "Is there something you need to show me?"

What happened next had Nanoha flat on her ass and staring in shock.

Miyuki nodded as they both watched Arashi create a single golden ball of energy that was surrounded by a black corona. "Yeah, shocked mom too... But..." She sweat-dropped as Arashi threw it straight up and the ball exploded into fireworks. "It's pretty, but that's all he can do with it."

"Fireworks are awesome!" Arashi giggled and created several more balls of energy that went up and harmlessly exploded into fireworks.

"...Miyuki-nee, what the heck? That's not normal magic, that..." Nanoha stood up, her hair was frazzled as she looked on, wide-eyed as Arashi disappeared in a black flash, only to reappear a few feet away. "...That was mom's teleportation skill..."

Miyuki threw her hands into the air. "I have no clue, I'm not a magic person like you are. Mom can't even figure it out, he can't even cast a simple light spell, but he can use that werid Chaos power like this? The only thing she can think of is that she used a lot of Chaos magic when she was pregnant with him, but..." Miyuki trailed off as Nanoha paled. "Nanoha, what's going on?"

"I just remembered... Mom tried to use the Giga Slave back then." Nanoha couldn't recall the incantation off the top of her head and wondered if Raising Heart had the information or not, but she did recall a black ball of energy above her mother's head and the sheer terror that came from just looking at it. "And there was all those other Chaos spells she used..." Nanoha gulped and looked at Arashi as he laughed at them. "I guess he was flooded with so much Chaos magic that it's natural for him."

"That's what mom says too..." Miyuki sighed and turned to Arashi. "Stop doing that, you'll scare people."

"Sorry, Miyuki-nee," Arashi pouted, causing Miyuki to walk up to him and rub his head. "You mad at me?"

"No, I'm not." Miyuki knelt down to look at him. "Just that a lot of people will get scared if you throw around your magic like that."

"Okay," Arashi nodded before blinking and looking at Nanoha, "is Erio-nii and Caro-nee here?"

"I think so," Nanoha scratched her cheek nervously, "but I'm not sure, if you want to hang out with them, I can arrange that." She walked over to Miyuki and whispered to her older sister. "What is mom thinking?"

"She can't take the time to teach him. It's not like when you were younger, sis," Miyuki hissed back, "besides, when you were younger, there were more people around to learn magic with. Arashi doesn't have that advantage."

Nanoha twitched, she could see the logic, but still... "I can't take the time to teach him magic right now."

"You don't need to, actually," Miyuki shook her head and looked up as Arashi ran after a butterfly, "mom just wants him some place where if he uses magic he won't cause problems."

"And the first thing she thought of was sending him here?"

"Actually, you were the eighteenth option." Miyuki sighed heavily. "Nanoha, you don't need to teach Arashi anything, right now he can only do teleportation and those fireworks. Besides, mom's going to show up in a couple of weeks."

Nanoha blinked at her. "...What?"

"Mom and dad are going to come to Cranagan in a couple of weeks." Miyuki shook her head. "So, I thought I'd come and warn you about it." Nanoha just groaned and Miyuki nodded in sympathy. "Look, Nanoha, if you want, I'll take Arashi back to Earth, so far the Chaos hasn't done anything else but..."

"It's not fair really," Nanoha grumbled to herself, "I can't use Chaos like that, why does he get to?"

"Mom thinks it's because you were already developed as a magic user when your Chaos powers were awakened, so they were more powerful and dangerous than his."

Nanoha gave her sister an annoyed look. "I think mom's pulling this stuff out of her ass now."

Miyuki laughed and put an arm around Nanoha's shoulders as they walked to the building. "You and me both, sis, you and me both. So, you want us to stay or..."

"Stay here..." Nanoha shook her head. "I don't think Hayate will mind too much, there are others who have their families stationed in the building as well."

Still, Nanoha had a bad feeling about all of this. She raised an eyebrow as Arashi ran back towards her while Erio, Caro and Fried came out of the building. "Erio? Caro?"

"What's Arashi and Miyuki doing here?" Erio asked, confused, causing Miyuki to sigh. "...Did something happen to grandma?"

"No, no, no, nothing like that," Miyuki shook her head before pulling her arm off of Nanoha's shoulders to rub the back of her head, "but, ah... Are you two busy right now?" They shook their heads. "Don't suppose Arashi can hang out with you?"

"Nah, he's cool." Erio grinned and Caro nodded, smiling. "Hey, Arashi, bet I can beat you to town!"

"Hey! No fair!" Caro whined as Erio and Arashi took off. "Wait for me!" She yelled, swinging her arms up and down with Fried following them, chirping the whole time.

"...Feels like home." Nanoha laughed softly. The fact that her little brother could use Chaos power was never in doubt in her mind. What really bothered her though, was that he could use it so freely and easily. That sent all sorts of warning bells in head off. "Hey, Miyuki-nee... Has anything weird ever happened because of this?"

"Other than Arashi saying something about an exploding cat and wanting to show you this forever?" She thought about it for a moment before shaking her head, "no, why?" Miyuki blinked at Nanoha, who nodded to her.

"Thanks, but this is going to be a PAIN to explain to everyone." Nanoha hung her head and just hoped that things wouldn't get too crazy too fast.

(-)

A little later...

Stretching as she stood up, Hayate groaned as her back popped softly. "Well, I have to admit, I was surprised that Zest finally joined us, but his reasons make sense at least."

"Indeed," Reinforce smiled as she walked behind Hayate. "Though, I wish it was under better circumstances that he wished to join us. Although..."

"Excuse me," Reinforce blinked as she was interrupted by one of the staff members.

"Yes?" Reinforce looked at the girl, who couldn't be any older than seventeen at the most.

She smiled at them a bit nervously, "well, uh, you wanted to know if that weird signal appeared again, and it seems like one just formed outside of Cranagan."

Hayate frowned softly. "Probably another red herring. Who's supposed to cover it this time?" She asked, sighing heavily and wishing that she didn't have to send people to go check it out.

"That is, ah..." The girl blushed heavily and looked down, "anyone who can are well, the trainers and, ah..."

"I'll go."

"Reinforce?" Hayate turned to the taller device, blinking owlishly. "Are you sure?"

"If it is just a red herring, then at least we won't waste anyone's time," Reinforce smiled at her, "if it's something more dangerous, I can handle it. But, I'll take Zafira along with me."

Hayate slowly nodded at that, it sounded reasonable. "Sure, just... Be careful, okay?"

"Aren't I always?" Reinforce asked rhetorically as she walked away.

Watching Reinforce leave, Hayate's pupils shrank and an utterly cold feeling came over her chest. Closing her eyes, Hayate wondered what that was. Opening them again, she reached towards Reinforce, only to see that she was no longer in the hallway. "...Is it natural to have a sudden cold feeling wash over you?"

"I'm not sure, maybe you should ask Shamal when she gets back?" The staff member said, chuckling softly, "also, Captain Takamachi wishes to speak to you about allowing a couple of family members stay here for a couple of weeks."

Hayate blinked in confusion. 'Why would Nanoha-chan's family need to stay here?' Still, it couldn't hurt to find out what was going on.

(-)

Elsewhere in an undisclosed location...

A small body slowly made its way through an underground passage, her hands were chained to a single box as she tried to walk forward, her unchained hand was pressed against a wall as she, dressed in a dirty shirt, no shoes or socks, tried to move forward. Her breathing was ragged as she stumbled forward. Looking up, she saw a ladder and tried to climb up. Her whole body hurt and was numb and she wasn't sure why she was down here. All she wanted to do was get out and find someone.

As she got to the top, she pushed the grate out of the way and climbed out of the hole into the air. "Mama..." She whined, wondering where her mother was.

"Woah!" A voice spoke up, startling her and causing her to spin around, gasping at the person. She didn't recognize the person, but he had short red hair, purple eyes and didn't look that much older than she was. "Are you playing hide and seek too?" She shook her head and whimpered as he moved close to her. "My name's Arashi, what's yours?"

"Vivio..." The girl whimpered before her eyes rolled up into her head and she fell to the ground, out cold.

"Wagh!" Arashi grabbed the girl and shook her. "Hey! Come on! You're not supposed to fall down when you play hide and seek! It makes it too easy to find you!"

"There you are!" Caro cried out as she found Arashi. "You shouldn't... Who's that?" Behind her, Erio and Fried popped their heads out, looking at the situation.

"Why are you copying Fate-san and Yuuno-san?" Erio pointed at Arashi with a shaky finger. "I knew that something was up! Grandma taught all her kids how to find people and take them home with them, didn't she?"

"Kuuuuu..." Shockingly, Fried actually fell out of the air and slammed his face to the ground, groaning not only at Erio's statement, but the fact that Caro was agreeing with him.

"Nah uh!" Arashi stood up and pointed at Erio, "she just came up and then fell asleep!"

Erio blinked and looked at Caro. "Think we should call back to base?" Caro shrugged and blinked as Arashi grabbed a case and was trying to open it. "Hey! Arashi, you shouldn't..." She trailed off as the case opened and a large metal ring hovered out of the case. "...Erio-kun, call the base, I think we've got something weird here."

Erio nodded and tapped his wrist watch. "Hey, Subaru-san, Teana-san, think you can come to where we are? I think something weird's going on here."

_"Not a problem, we were kind of bored anyway."_

Erio then punched a call back to base. "Excuse me, is anyone available right now?"

_"Eh? Erio, what's wrong?"_

"Captain Vita-san, ah..." Erio wasn't afraid of Vita, he was just surprised to hear her pick up the communication link.

_"I'm not that scary, Erio. Is something the matter?"_ Vita's voice was rather amused as she spoke to him.

"Well, ah, Nanoha-san's brother found a girl, and..."

_"You know, I think there must be something to that family, picking up girls at his age? Even I'm not that bad."_

Erio's face went completely red and he shook his head. "No! It's not like that! He found her in an alleyway and she had some sort of box strapped to her wrist and there's this floating weird ring and..."

_"Alright, calm down, Nanoha and I will head out there in a few minutes, we'll be arriving by helicopter. Is the girl okay?"_

"She's out cold, but I don't think she has a family, she looks like an orphan."

_"Alright, we'll bring her and the ring back here. Vita out."_

Erio nodded and turned off his communicator as he looked at Arashi, Caro, the girl and then at the ring. "...This is going to get bad, isn't it?"

Caro nodded and looked at Erio. "Um, Erio-kun, where's your spear?"

"Huh?" The boy blinked before tapping his watch. "Shari-san and Mary-san were able to get this device to work with my spear finally, so I don't have to carry it around everywhere."

(-)

Grinning at the screen, Levi leaned back in her chair. "Quattro, make sure that you send enough of your sisters out to keep them busy."

'Yes, master.' Levi smirked as she pressed a few more buttons, causing a new screen to appear, revealing Kuma, Amitie and Kyrie as they rode in the car.

"Hello, you three, I hope that you're well." Levi smiled at them. "I have a little job for you today."

"Is it messy?" Kyrie asked, fidgeting in the back seat. "I mean, messy jobs are always so gross and..."

"Only if you want it to be." Levi smirked at them. "Not too long from now, there's going to be a little... Problem in the city proper, I'll send you some coordinates in a little bit. Deal with it as you see fit, but I need you to keep the Riot Force busy and distracted for me."

Amitie nodded at her. "Very well, leave us the coordinates and we shall deal with it. Anything we should know?"

"You'll be working with some cyborgs, Kuma's worked with some of them before." Levi grinned as she sent them some information before turning the screen off. "Now for my role in all of this." Laughing softly, she disappeared in a swirl of darkness. There was no need to wait any longer, everything was almost in place.

(-)

Several minutes later in a distant location...

"Is this the place?" Zafira asked as he and Reinforce, both of whom were out in the country, as they looked at some caves.

Nodding at the blue wolf, Reinforce walked inside. "Yes, the scanners are getting the strongest signal from these caves here." Turning off the device, she and Zafira walked into the cave. As they walked in, the light quickly left the cave, though it wasn't a problem, as Reinforce merely held her hand up and a sphere of light snapped into being. "I don't know what I was expecting."

"Bats, perhaps?" Zafira asked as they moved deeper into the cave. "...Reinforce, does it feel like the darkness is moving with us?"

Turning to look at him, Reinforce had a confused look on her face, that turned to shock and horror as she saw that the shadows were moving. "Zafira! Look out!" She snapped her left hand forward, a black beam of magic lancing out and carving into the darkness.

Growling, Zafira shifted into his human form and curled his fingers, energy building up before he lashed out. A grim smile came to his face as his attack tore into the shadows with ease. "I guess there was something to worry about."

"Don't let your guard down." Reinforce said as she blasted at the shadows. The next thing that she knew, one of the shadow tendrils snapped around her neck and pulled her back, causing her to groan in pain.

"Reinforce!" Zafira turned to her, only for a body to form between him and Reinforce. "You!" His eyes widened in shock as he stared at who it was in front of him. "You're supposed to be ARRRRGH!" He screamed as she held out a hand and fire, point blank, a powerful red blast that sent him flying back against the wall hard, before he fell to the ground, twitching in pain.

"Dead? Yes, I get that a lot." Smirking, she turned to Reinforce, who had just broke free of the tendril around her neck. "Yes, I like this."

Reinforce paused and turned, her face paling. "A...Alicia Testarossa..?"

"It's LEVI now!" Levi narrowed her eyes as dark tendrils snaked around Reinforce's arms and legs, pulling her down. "But you'll learn soon enough." She chuckled as the shadow tendrils forced their way into Reinforce's mouth and down her throat. "Oh, you'll learn... So well." Levi threw her head back and laughed as lighting coursed through Reinforce's body, eliciting muffled screams of pain from the device as her body jerked. Turning around and ignoring Reinforce's screams, Levi walked up to Zafira and put her hands on his shoulders. "I know you're still awake... Or alive, I'm not sure, so..." Her eyes flashed as she started pouring dark energy into his body, a gleeful look came to her face as he screamed from the pain that was searing him down to the bones. "I guarantee you, Zafira, that I'm a lot tougher than my clone thought I was. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

After several minutes, when he could no longer scream, Levi pulled back, smiling as she saw Zafira's smoking body. "That's that for you." Turning, she grinned as she saw Reinforce slumped, out cold. "As for you," she smiled as her tendrils were sucked back into her body, depositing Reinforce onto her shoulder. Putting an arm over Reinforce's back, Levi started to walk deeper into the cave. "You and I, Reinforce, are going to be... Such close friends." She laughed as she disappeared with the silver-haired unison device.

* * *

Nanoha: Oh great, now there's some new problems, huh?  
Vita: You act surprised.  
Nanoha: You're right, it **_is_** us after all.  
Vita: Yep. Next time on Blood That Flows - StrikerS, watch out, here we come!


	227. StrikerS Twenty Seven

Blood That Flows

StrikerS Twenty-Seven

Of course I own nothing.

* * *

Meanwhile...

Getting out of the chopper, Nanoha made her way over to the group. "Alright, so... Why is there a ring floating in the middle of the air?"

"No clue," Teana shook her head, "we don't want to touch it."

Nanoha nodded, pleased at that. "Good call. Alright, here's what's going to happen, we're going to get her onto the helicopter, I want you four to secure the area, Arashi, you're going to go with her," she knelt down next to her brother as the Forwards shifted into their barrier jackets, "it's very important that you keep her safe, okay?" Arashi nodded and went with the girl as she was put on a stretcher and loaded into the helicopter. "What about this one?"

"Here's the case it was in." Vita said as she picked up the two halves of the container. "I think if we..." She blinked as she put the bottom of the box under the ring and it stopped hovering and fell into place. "...Weird." She closed the box before taking it over to the helicopter. "Get these back to base safely, Vice!"

The pilot turned and saluted them. "Not a problem, Vita."

Nanoha nodded to Vita as the chopper took off. "Well then..." There was an explosion that happened in the streets, causing people to start running for cover. "Raising Heart!"

"Graf Eisen!" Vita yelled as they transformed into their outfits.

"Limiter Release!" They called out at the same time, a quick flash of energy later and they rushed out of the alley way, expecting the worst.

(-)

Teana was the first to notice and react to the explosion that caused several cars to turn into flaming wrecks. "Who!" Her eyes widened as she saw two figures walk through the fire before coming into view. "Nove?"

The redhead looked at Teana before looking at Subaru and narrowing her eyes. "You two really shouldn't be here." She said calmly before looking at Cinque, who was standing next to her just as calmly.

"Nove! What's going on?" Teana called out to the younger girl. "Come on, you can tell me. Why are you, Wendi and Sein fighting us now?"

Nove narrowed her eyes as she looked at Teana. "We were _never_ on your side!" She threw her hand out to the side, growling. "What made you think that we'd ever work for the Bureau? The same Bureau that makes weapons like us and then turns its agents against us!"

Teana took a step back, stunned at the outburst. "Nove, I don't..."

"Enough, Nove," Cinque said quietly, calming the redhead down almost instantly. "The fact is, we don't like the Bureau too much, for forcing our creation, and for forcing us to become what we have." Pulling out some knives, she narrowed her eye at Teana before turning her head and looking up to see Subaru on the roof top.

"You're outnumbered!" Erio yelled as he stood on a parked pickup while Caro rode on Fried's neck. "The captains are here as well, you don't have a chance against us!"

Nove smirked and looked up at the helicopter. "Maybe..." Her smirk became a grin as several pink beams started pelting the ground around them. "Maybe not!" Pointing her gun knuckles at the group, a freezing cold liquid was shot out at them, turning into vapor that instantly froze anything that it came into contact with.

"Don't try to hit them too hard." Cinque muttered as she threw a few knives into the ice. With a snap of her fingers, the knives exploded, sending metal and ice shards everywhere.

"You know..." Nanoha said as she walked forward, a protection barrier around her body, "that stuff doesn't hurt me."

"How well does it block out gas?" Nove asked as she put her hand on her right gun knuckle and turned a dial. Taking aim, she fired right in front of her as a yellow gas was launched at Nanoha at high speeds.

"Diem wind." Nanoha whispered as she held her hand up, the wind blast scattering the fumes to the breeze. Nanoha's pupils shrank when she no longer saw Nove in front of her. "Where did..?"

"Above you!" Vita called out as she sent a few flying swallows at Wendi, who was laughing while shooting them down. "Knock it off, girl, before I get mad and hurt you."

"HA!" Wendi laughed and snapped her fingers, causing a huge array to appear under Vita, who stared as it exploded upwards in a towering inferno of energy.

"Vita-chan!" Nanoha turned to look, only to blink in surprise as Nove was right in her face, grinning. "Strike..." Nanoha held a palm out in front of her.

"Sorry, not her!" Nove punched into and through her barrier and let loose another blast of those gas fumes.

"ACK!" Nanoha stepped back, coughing as her eyes watered heavily. 'What is..?' She wondered, not seeing the knives that sunk into the ground around her feet, at least until they exploded, shattering her shields and causing her to cry out in pain.

"That takes care of them," Wendi grinned, only to stare in shock as Vita flew out of her eruption to slam her head into Wendi's nose. "GAH! You!"

**"Raketenform!"**

The next thing Wendi knew, Vita was spinning around a couple of times before slamming the spiked end of that hammer into her ribs and sending her sprawling to the ground below. "I'm a LOT tougher than that, kid!"

Nanoha let out a scream and the explosion abruptly ended as she stood there panting, her eyes red and watery.

Nove growled and was about take another shot at Nanoha when the a red flame passed through in front of her. Turning, her pupils shrank as she saw Teana, Subaru, Erio, Fried, whose mouth was smoking slightly, and Caro glaring at her, Cinque and Wendi, who was still on the ground, clutching her ribs.

"We told you, you're out numbered." Vita said calmly. "Now then, just give yourselves up and we won't press charges for attacking us."

"Nove, stand back." Cinque spoke up as she moved her left hand to her eye patch. "Allow your big sister to handle them."

Nove looked at Cinque in shock. "You can't!"

Cinque smiled lightly. "I have gotten some control over this power, not much, but I can draw out just enough to cause them trouble." She was about to pull off her eye patch when Quattro's voice was heard as a large screen appeared near them all.

"My my! This just won't do!" Quattro shook her finger as she spoke to them all chidingly. "Nove, I told you, didn't I? Direct combat against superior beings is pointless, especially when they have superior numbers." Quattro chuckled while grinning. "Anyway, we're going to be shooting down that helicopter now."

"What?" Nanoha turned to look and shook her head. "Raising Heart?"

**"Dangerous power is detected."**

"What the hell, Quattro?" Nove yelled as the glasses wearing cyborg sighed heavily.

"You failed, Nove, so, we're doing this my way... We'll shoot down the chopper and send in a Megah to pick up the remains." She smiled until she saw Wendi and raised an eyebrow. "Huh, someone hurt her, well then, I probably wouldn't want to be around, oh well, tah tah..."

Nanoha frowned and took off to the air. "Vita-chan, deal with this, I've gotta protect that thing!" She rushed forward, putting on as much speed as she could. Sure, her eyes still hurt and it was a little hard to breathe, but whatever Nove had blasted her with wasn't too bad, just irritating. 'But if she had stuck one of those explosive knives into me after blasting me in the face...' Nanoha's line of thought trailed off and she had to admit, she was impressed by the vicious little redhead.

**"Flash move!"**

Zipping forward, Nanoha gasped as she saw a red and black beam the size of a Buick rushing for the chopper from the other side of the chopper. "I won't make it..." Even with as fast as she was going, she didn't know if she could make it to the chopper and block that attack.

Moments before it could hit, a large yellow beam intersected the red beam, causing it to explode harmlessly away from the chopper. Turning her head, she smiled as she saw Fate there. "Fate-chan..." She sighed in relief, though part of her wondered where Fate had been all day.

_"Sorry I'm late, I was in town at meetings, Hayate gave me a call about what's going on, and since I was close, I thought I'd help out."_

Nanoha nodded and smiled softly as she saw the helicopter fly away safely. "Alright, let's..." She blinked as a girl with red hair, green eyes, white ankle boots, a blue skirt, blue and white shirt and a blue jacket appeared in front of her. "You are?"

"Amitie Florian, your opponent," Amitie pulled out a couple of small guns, "and I'm sorry, but I don't have a choice in this matter."

Not too far from them Fate was staring at a pink haired, pink eyed girl who was wearing light pink shoes, a pink skirt, white and pink shirt and a pink jacket while holding a fairly large sword down to the side. "...You must like pink."

The girl shrugged and grinned at Fate. "Maybe, my name's Kyrie Florian, and I have to say, you look good in black, but I need to fight you for now." She giggled at Fate's weird look. "Don't worry, I don't want to kill anyone, but I've got my orders to fight you." Giggling, she grabbed the hilt of her sword and split it right down the middle. "So, come on! Let's have some fun!"

Fate narrowed her eyes. For some reason, she didn't think that this was going to be easy.

(-)

Vita grimaced as she saw the two new opponents in front of Nanoha and Fate. "Dammit," turning, she glared at Nove, Cinque and Wendi, the latter was still rubbing her ribs in irritation. "You three are still outnumbered."

"Really?" A familiar voice spoke up and Vita looked up, twitching and wondering what gods she pissed off in her past lives to get this treatment. "Because from where I'm standing here, it looks like it's five on five."

"Tre-nee..." Nove smiled as she saw Tre and Sette hovering just above them. She blinked as Mr. Snuggles jumped off of Sette and landed on her head.

_"Do not worry, we will deal with them."_

"Did that cat just speak?" Vita blinked as she looked at the thing. Such a thing wasn't too unfamiliar, but it was weird to hear a cat speak out like that.

_"Oh yes, I did,"_ Mr. Snuggles looked at Erio and narrowed his eyes, _"and you, boy, don't think I forgot about when you nearly fed me to that Dragon."_

"I believe..." Sette narrowed her eyes and gripped her blades before rushing at Vita. "That we have unfinished business!" She swung forward and her eyes widened at the result of the attack.

As did everyone else's as they saw what happened.

"Signum," Vita looked on, relieved as she saw the pink haired knight in her battle garb, Laevantein held against Sette's blades, "thank you."

Signum nodded and pushed Sette's blades away. "You and I are in need of words..." Her eyes narrowed at the cyborg as Vita flew up to meet them. "You hurt my sister the last time you fought, I did not... Appreciate seeing her cut up and bleeding."

"I see..." Sette nodded as she and Signum flew upwards. "Then perhaps we shall have to have our disagreement in a more open area?"

"Indeed." Signum nodded to Sette and closed her eyes briefly. "I am Signum Yagami, and you are?" She asked while sheathing her sword.

"My name is Sette, Signum Yagami." Sette crossed her arms over her chest.

The two stayed floating in their positions for a few moments, until a breeze caused their bangs to move slightly. Both of their eyes widened as they disappeared from sight for a moment, when they reappeared, Signum was parrying Sette's left blade with Laevantein before she shifted and slashed up and knocking Sette off balance. Taking advantage of that moment of weakness, Signum swung forward with the sheath, smacking Sette right in the nose, much to the cyborg's annoyance, which was proven when Sette lashed out with a kick, striking Signum in the stomach and forcing her back a couple of feet.

Signum grimaced and hunched over slightly as she held her blade in front of her. From what she could see, Sette didn't have much in the way of formal training with those blades, in fact, the way they were handled seemed rather awkward to the swords woman. When Sette tossed them into the air, Signum was about to yell at her for being a careless swords woman, but her protests died instantly when the blades seemed to shatter into much smaller blades.

**"Schlangeform."**

Laevantein popped off a cartridge and Signum snapped her blade up, causing it to extend and spin around her, parrying the blades with ease. Spinning her wrist a couple of times, Signum slashed forward and scattered the remaining blades to the wind.

Sette narrowed her eyes and pulled out another blade, before rushing forward and batting the chain blade to the side as she rushed in and moving up slightly so she could use more force as she swung down. Her eyes widened as Signum jerked her wrist back. Turning her head, Sette stared as the pointed tip of Laevantein came rushing right for her head. "No." Moments later, several smaller blades came rushing forward and knocked the tip off course, causing it to crash into a water tower just behind Signum. Turning, Sette narrowed her eyes at her opponent. "That was not nice." Her only response was Signum's fist landing on her cheek and sending her flying down onto the rooftops.

"It wasn't meant to be nice." Signum flexed her hand and grimaced as Laevantein went back to normal. '...What is she made of?' She wasn't the least bit surprised as Sette pushed herself to her feet and looked up at Signum, her eyes narrowed. When Sette held a hand out to her and closed it into a fist, Signum's eyes widened and she spun around to see lots of metallic flashes rush at her. She slashed upwards and side to side, sending the blades flying everywhere. Spinning around, she swung outwards and narrowed her eyes as her blade crossed with Sette's. "You have impressive skills." She stared as Sette was forcing Laevantein back towards her. Grimacing, she grabbed the hilt of her sword with both hands and pushed forward, stopping Sette's advance.

As their blades grinded against each other, causing some sparks, Signum noted one thing that she didn't like.

Sette was only using one hand.

'So she's stronger than me, at least as tough as that thing is and not too bad with her weapon.' She heard, rather than felt, the smaller blades rushing at her. "No choice, Laevantein!"

**"Böe-Modus."**

Sette's eyes widened as Signum's armor became completely metallic with pink and black flames shooting upwards on it while her weapon became silver-tinted. The shock on her face remained as Signum cut through her weapon, through her body armor and left a shallow cut on her body, sending her flying down to the rooftops.

Signum turned and slashed outwards, cutting through the smaller blades with ease. "I did not wish to kill you, that cut was only deep enough to draw blood." Still, she hoped it was enough to cause the girl to stop attacking if she knew that Signum could do a lot worse to her.

Besides, Sette didn't seem like a bad kid, just misguided, and part of Signum wanted to correct Sette's sword skills.

After all, other than those few times against Miyuki, Signum didn't get to use just pure sword skills against an opponent.

(-)

Vita narrowed her eyes at Tre. "You four, deal with them, she's mine."

**"Gigant Form."**

Tre watched as Graf Eisen's head became much larger and yellow. Narrowing her eyes, she zipped away, trying to get some space as Vita followed her. Stopping above some buildings not too far from where she left her younger sisters, Tre turned her head and she saw, with her enhanced vision, someone carrying Dieci and putting her into a pink car that was, somehow, parked on top of another building. "...How is that possible?"

"Distracted?" Vita narrowed her eyes at Tre, who looked at her and smirked.

"Not at all, just making sure that my sisters aren't in trouble." Tre bent her knees and took a fairly defensive stance with her left arm held at an angle by her side while her right arm was held upwards in front of her.

"I wouldn't worry about that," Vita pointed Graf Eisen at Tre, "even if they are fighting against us, we won't hurt them any more than we have to."

"How kind," Tre narrowed her eyes before disappearing in a purple flash, "but foolish!" Tre yelled as she drove her foot into Vita's back, getting a grunt from the redhead, who spun and slammed Graf Eisen into Tre, who managed to get her arms up to block the attack from hitting her in the head, but it wasn't enough to keep her from being knocked away from Vita and into a nearby building.

"Speak for yourself." Vita muttered softly and narrowed her eyes as Tre got to her knees and disappeared. "Dammit," she let out a grunt as she was slammed into from behind, and then a punch to her face sent her tumbling through the air, before a kick to her stomach had her gasping out in pain. Tre ended the attack by grabbing Vita's face and driving her knee into Vita's nose, breaking it with a loud crunch and a spray of blood.

"GAH! YOU!" Vita growled, tears leaking out of her eyes. No matter how tough a person was, getting their nose suddenly broken _hurt_ like a bitch. "Bolt... WAVE!" A wave of lightning magic erupted from Vita's body at that moment and she reached up to grab her nose and pull it back into position. "GAH! OWW OWW!" She had forgotten how much it _hurt_ when her nose was broken and had to be reset. She looked up and glared at Tre, who was twitching from the lightning energy around her. "You..." Vita put her hand over her chest. "If you think you're the only one with speed, you're wrong." When Tre disappeared in a purple flash, Vita glowed red softly for a moment. "Boost up!"

Tre's eyes widened as Vita suddenly appeared in front of her. "Fast..." An upwards swing of Graf Eisen had her crying out in pain and sending her spiraling through the air out of control.

Vita panted as the glow subsided and groaned. "Ugh... Lina was right, that spell really does drain you if you're not careful." Still, the speed boost was incredible. 'Just hope that was enough to...' She trailed off as she noticed Tre wasn't there anymore. "Where..?" Vita's eyes widened as she felt something rushing right at her head. Moving so that she could duck out of the way, she felt a breeze over her head as something swished by at high speeds. "What the..?" Turning, her eyes widened as she saw her hat fall to the ground... All two pieces of it.

Tre mentally frowned as she missed before turning and punching downwards, her eyes widening as Vita stopped her punch with one hand. "What?"

"That... Was my hat..." Vita growled as she squeezed Tre's fist tightly. Her hair bangs were covering her eyes as her shoulders shook slightly. "My hat... That was given to me as a gift over ten years ago... And you RUINED IT!"

Tre curled her body and turned her body so she could drive her feet into Vita's stomach. "Well, it was a stupid hat!" When her legs slammed into Vita's stomach, the redhead was forced to let go of her hand, however, that allowed Vita to grab Graf Eisen with both hands and, looking up with fire in her eyes, she slammed Tre in the side, sending her spiraling through the air again.

"Not this time!" Vita swung Graf Eisen upwards where its size increased several sizes and the handle increased in length before Vita swung down, slamming into Tre and driving her into a parked car, creating a crater in the street as she drove the cyborg down. "And STAY DOWN!"

As she recalled Graf Eisen back to normal size, Vita grumbled and rubbed the top of her head. "My hat..." She pouted heavily, it just wasn't fair, why did her hat have to suffer so much?

* * *

Erio: Why are you doing this?  
Cinque: I am left with little choice.  
Erio: It... It can't be! Next time on Blood That Flows - StrikerS.  
Cinque: It is time.


	228. StrikerS Twenty Eight

Blood That Flows

StrikerS Twenty-Eight

Of course I own nothing.

* * *

Erio looked at the cat and had the urge to gulp as the thing glared at him. "Ah... Nice kitty?"

_"You'll wish I was nice after I'm done with you."_

Erio sweat-dropped and looked at Caro. "Isn't it usually a mad scientist who says stuff like that while petting his hairless kitty?" Caro could only nod as she stared at this weird development.

Teana felt her eyes twitching, this was just stupid! "Alright, I've had..." She trailed off as several pink beams started to surround them. "Wendi..."

Wendi grinned, even though she was still rubbing her side. "Heh, glad you remembered me, Teana..."

Teana bit her bottom lip. "That's it! I've HAD it!" Holding up her right hand with Cross Mirage, her eyes seemed to glow brightly as she called up her magic power. "Typhoon Shot!" Normally the spell was meant to be fired at someone in the form of a bullet, which would either explode just in front of a target, sending him or her flying away, or it would connect with the target and expand around the person, protecting them from attacks for a short period of time.

This time, Teana was using it to disrupt Wendi's attack as well as provide cover for the group. "Subaru, now!"

Letting out a yell, Subaru rushed through the wind, an electrical spell gathered in her right hand. "Mono... Volt!" Sure, a Digger Bolt was more powerful, but rushing forward with her hand crackling with lightning was rather cool, in Subaru's opinion. Subaru's eyes widened as Nove rushed forward to meet her and raised her leg upward, causing her gauntlet-covered left leg to smack into her right arm. "Nice move, but can you keep up? Wing Road!"

Nove looked up as Subaru took off into the sky and grinned. "I think so... Airliner!"

Subaru stared as Nove not only had her own magical road to fly on, but was also able to catch up to her. "Fast..."

"Faster than you!" Nove yelled as she jumped forward and started lashing out with a multitude of kicks that Subaru was hard pressed to dodge or parry. The instant Nove touched down on her Wing Road, Subaru lashed out with an upwards kick, sending the shorter redhead backwards and back onto her Airliner.

Pulling her hand back, the gears on her gauntlet spun quickly as she punched forward, launching a sphere at Nove, who was forced to block it as Subaru was too close for the shorter girl to dodge the attack. "Revolver Cannon!" Subaru looked at the result of her attack and frowned in confusion as Nove flipped in mid air, created another Airliner and zipped forward. "Get back here!" Subaru took off after Nove as the two spun higher and higher into the air.

"Really want me, even if you know that you're too SLOW?" Nove held her arm out and released several small canisters, all of which exploded and released some sort of clouds into the air of various colors.

Subaru frowned as wind formed around her arm. "What's the point of this? Diem wind!" She smiled as the cloud dispersed, what she saw coming right at her had her smile disappear.

"A..." Nove grinned as she rushed straight down in a diving kick, "distraction! SUPER! NOVE!"

**"Protection."**

Subaru threw her hand up to create a barrier to block the attack and hoped it was enough, since she was off-balance otherwise.

"KIIIIIIICK!" Nove yelled out as she slammed her feet into and _through_ the barrier, driving her wheeled feet into Subaru's stomach and sending the two rushing towards the ground at a high speed.

Subaru grunted as her back smashed into and through several Wing Roads and Airliners before finally stopping just a few feet from the ground itself. Grimacing in pain, Subaru looked at Nove, who was bending over to look her straight in the eye. "...Why, Nove..?"

"Because I promised to protect them." She said to Subaru, her voice soft as she got off of her older sister and knelt down, taking some deep breaths as she looked away from Subaru. "Because I care about my other sisters," she turned to look at Subaru, who was pushing herself up with her elbows, "like you care about your sister... And our mom."

Before Subaru could say anything, Nove pointed her Gun Knuckle at Subaru and blasted her with a red gas that had Subaru hacking and coughing while her eyes teared up. Standing up as she watched Subaru roll around on the Airliner they were on, Nove got a rather mischievous smirk on her face as she moved Subaru to a kneeling position, before reaching under the hem of Subaru's shorts, grabbing the older girl's panties and pulling up as hard as she could, causing them to dig into Subaru's crotch and butt-cheeks while yanking her rear end high into the air.

Nove had to fight the urge to grin as Subaru screamed even louder in pain. Sein was right, this was fun.

After all, she did manage to beat her "sister" in battle.

(-)

Caro, Fried and Erio all looked at the small, silver-haired girl, well, she wasn't shorter than they were, but she was still fairly short, and the small cat. "You two are?" Erio asked while adjusting his hold on Ragudo Mezegis.

"I am Cinque," she narrowed her eye and held up a pair of knives in each hand.

_"I am the cat that you tormented for ages!"_ Mr. Snuggles's eyes glowed red as ten inch claws extended from his paws while he stood up on his hind legs. _"I must thank the doctor for this, now I know why you humans walk on two legs, it's much easier to move."_

Erio gulped as he saw those claws, they weren't normal cat claws, and that was ignoring the sheer length of them, it was almost like they were metallic in nature. "Ah..."

_"If you must know, boy... I am Mr. Snuggles!"_

Erio and Caro both stared, pale as they saw the cat somehow take an offensive fighting stance against the two of them. "...Mr. Snuggles? Suzuka's cat that kept exploding?"

_"No thanks to you and that other brat."_Mr. Snuggles suddenly launched himself into the air as Cinque threw several knives at the children.

Erio jumped to avoid the knives, he had seen what they had nearly done to Nanoha, and swung his spear upwards to block Mr. Snuggles as the cat came down at his face. "Come on! We didn't mean to keep blowing you up!" When the cat narrowed his eyes, he gulped as it suddenly flipped over his blade and unsheathed claws out of his hind legs that were aimed right at Erio's face.

"Got you!" Caro cried out as she wrapped a chain around Mr. Snuggles's mid section and pulled him away from Erio. "Get her, I'll try and calm Mr. Snuggles down."

Cinque looked at Erio as he touched down near her. "Are we done playing around? I'd ask you to leave, but you work for the Bureau, so I cannot see you leaving at all."

"Why?" Erio asked her as he pointed his weapon at her. "Why fight us?"

"I fight for their future, not my own." Cinque tossed another knife at him and stared as his body seemed to blur before disappearing all together. "Where..?" Cinque's eye widened as she felt a metal blade touch her throat lightly before pulling away a few millimeters. "Nice speed."

"I don't want to hurt you." Erio said from behind her and pressed his body against hers. "But you need to stop before I have to hurt you."

"Hurt me?" Cinque suddenly smiled, moved her head forward, cutting her throat before she threw her head backwards to slam into Erio's face and force him to stumble backwards. Turning, her throat bleeding, Cinque grabbed at her throat with her left hand and used her right hand to toss a knife right at his feet before snapping her fingers, causing an explosion that engulfed them both.

"ERIO-KUN!" Caro cried out, staring in shock as both Cinque and Erio were consumed by that explosion.

_"I hope he can heal, otherwise he might just be hurt."_ Mr. Snuggles said, causing Caro to turn to him. The cat suddenly grinned and spun, shattering the binds he was in. The cyborg cat flipped a few times before landing on his feet and sticking his paws out at Caro. _"Fried, you tried to eat me!"_

"Kurrr..." Fried growled and leaned down to snort at Mr. Snuggles.

_"...You do have a point, fine, I won't try to turn you into Dragon steaks, but you still shouldn't have tried to eat me!"_

"Kurrr..." Fried opened his mouth and let out a gout of flame at Mr. Snuggles, who jumped over it and landed on Caro's face before using that as a spring-board to launch a powerful kick at Fried, knocking the Dragon over.

"Fried!" Caro gasped out as Mr. Snuggles stood tall where he landed.

_"Oops, you missed... Almost had me there. That attack would have done the work... If I was paralyzed, deaf and blind."_

"Bad kitty!" Caro pouted as she created an array that snapped around Mr. Snuggles, where several binds snapped up and pinned the cat to the ground. She looked over to where Erio was and gasped at what she saw.

Both Cinque and Erio were bleeding from several wounds, though Erio had a barrier up and Cinque didn't even bother.

"Why?" Erio gasped as he looked at Cinque as blood dripped off of her body.

"...You think this is serious?" Before Erio could answer, Cinque pulled her hand away from her throat, causing Erio's eyes to widen in shock as he saw the flesh mending itself. "I can regenerate damage to my body." Reaching up, she pulled off her eye patch, revealing her black and golden eye to Erio. "But I doubt you can." Her eye briefly flashed as her blades took on a slight golden tinge to them. "And I doubt you can block this power."

Granted, with as little as she was using, it wasn't as powerful as what it was when she went berserk that one time, but it was still plenty powerful and could likely kill the boy if she wasn't careful.

"You can use grandma's power?" Erio couldn't believe it, he thought only Arashi, Nanoha and Lina had that power, and he only knew of the power because he knew what it felt like.

Cinque could only stare at him in shock.

(-)

Wendi grinned as she and Teana hovered in mid-air. "Well, you can fly! That's awesome!"

Teana sweat-dropped as she looked at Wendi. "Really? The fact that I can fly is awesome when practically everyone, their mother, their pet cat, their dog, their dad, and that chimp can fly?" When Wendi nodded, Teana felt an eye twitch coming. "Alright, tell me then, why is my being able to fly awesome?"

"I don't know what you mean about a chimp, but it's awesome regardless! With a skirt that short, we can get pictures of your good stuff!"

Twitching heavily, Teana's face turned completely red as Wendi grinned at her. "Wendi, just WHY do you want to see my 'good stuff' so badly? Aren't you a girl?" Wendi reminded her of Sein just a little too much.

"Just because I'm a girl doesn't mean I can't like what I see." Wendi giggled as Teana just groaned in dismay. "Besides, you're so EASY!" Wendi yelled, her eyes flashing as several pink orbs were created around her before she snapped her fingers and jerked her arm forward, causing the pink orbs to snap out at Teana.

**"Scatter Burst."**

Teana smirked as she pointed Cross Mirage and fired, several small blasts coming out of the end of her gun and slamming into the pink orbs as they rushed at her. "You do realize that since I met Subaru and Sein, I've dealt with LOTS of sexual harassment, right? To be quite honest, I was groped by Sein and Subaru so much that my butt and breasts started to lose feeling, Yuuno's device has made so many comments that I can ignore them, and the last time I was on a mission, my underwear got stolen." Teana narrowed her eyes as she saw that those pink rings were quickly reloaded with more orbs and fired at her, forcing her to keep pouring out more of her Scatter Burst.

Wendi stared as Teana kept firing and canceling her pink orb bursts with ease. "Uh huh, and, what's the point?"

"You'll have to work harder to get me off my game, Wendi."

Wendi groaned and pouted, curling into a ball and gripping her head. "Moooouuuu... What to do, what to do... I need to think!"

Teana stared at Wendi, was she _seriously_thinking about how to out-do Sein?

"I know! I know!" Wendi seemed to jump up, while in mid-air and nodded as the bursts that she had been sending out towards Teana became beams. "But I'll need to beat your sorry butt down!" She yelped as a gout of flame rushed out from Teana's guns. "Hey! I thought elemental powers were hard to use!"

Teana suddenly appeared above the gout of flame, a small smile on her face. "Not really an issue anymore."

**"Freeze Bullet."**

Normally a Freeze Bullet wasn't too fast, most people who cast it tended to only fire two, maybe three at once. If one was really skilled with the spell, they could cast a Freeze Bullet from each finger in quick succession, creating a bombardment of ice and hail that even Dragons had a hard time dealing with.

Teana was an incredibly skilled magic user who had one advantage most people that used the Freeze Bullet spell didn't have.

A gun.

What should have been a moderately fast spell of individual bullets suddenly turned into a near Gatling gun of ice bullets that fired as fast as Teana could pull the trigger, which forced Wendi to throw up her arms to cover her face to no avail as she was quickly encased in a pillar of ice. It wasn't a thin layer of ice, either, as Teana kept firing, even as the pink energy around Wendi dissipated completely.

When Teana was done, she nodded at the frozen statue of Wendi and the ice that went several feet downwards before touching the ground and keeping her in the air. "Wendi, you're under..." She stared as the ice started to crack. "...Arrest?"

Teana had to cover her face as Wendi erupted from the ice sculpture with a reptilian yell while spreading her arms and tail out. "Wendi," she looked at the redhead and gaped at what she saw...

The girl's eyes were practically glowing and her hair was floating upwards around her. That wasn't what bothered Teana. The real thing that bothered Teana was the fact that Wendi's eyes showed almost nothing but animalistic fury in them. Staring wide-eyed, Teana gulped as Wendi grabbed her head and growled and a reddish aura surrounded the girl. "Wendi, what's wrong?"

**"RAAAAAAAAAAAARRRR!"**

Teana nearly jumped as she heard that yell, it wasn't normal. In fact, Teana actually compared it to that one giant lizard in that movie that Nanoha had brought from Earth and had them watch a few weeks ago at night. 'Why am I suddenly expecting her to turn into Godzilla?' Teana thought to herself and narrowed her eyes as Wendi panted, hunched over and gripped her head, groaning. "Wendi, come on, calm down."

**"There is a danger."**

"I figured that much out myself," Teana growled at Cross Mirage, wondering what just happened to Wendi.

(-)

Quattro smirked as she watched Wendi start to lose control. She didn't know how her master had made that drink affect Wendi like it was, but she knew that Levi wasn't stupid about this. Between the resources that the Brains had and her own trickery, well... 'How will you deal with her when she goes berserk?'

Especially since aggression just made it worse for them.

(-)

Teana let out a yelp as her face was jerked to the side from a slap from Wendi's tail, sending her slamming into and through a tree and forcing her to land on her back hard. "NNNGH!" Before she could even get up, Wendi landed on top of her, slamming her body onto Teana's stomach and driving the air out of her lungs in one shot.

Wendi held up a hand that looked more like a claw than a normal hand and slammed it down, hard.

Teana's eyes widened as she saw Wendi's hand dug into the ground next to her face. The cyborg was leaning in and tears filled her red eyes. **"Teana... Help me!"**

Nodding slowly, Teana moved an arm around Wendi's shoulders and hugged the distraught girl. "Sure..." She gently put the end of Cross Mirage against Wendi's stomach. "This won't hurt, I promise."

**"Hurry!"**Wendi yelled and screwed her eyes shut as she slammed her right hand, which was still free, into Teana's left shoulder, nearly shattering it into paste.

Grimacing, Teana nearly let go of the hug. Nearly, as she completed the spell she was working on. "Mono Sleep."

Wendi jerked several times as a low-level lightning spell crashed through her body at the same time Teana worked a sleep spell into Wendi. When Wendi suddenly slumped against her and all that terrible feeling that Wendi was putting out was gone, Teana sighed in relief and moved so she could hug Wendi more fully, rocking the girl lightly. "What happened to you?" She knew she wouldn't get an answer, but Wendi didn't deserve that, even if she was an enemy.

(-)

Fate studied her opponent as the pink haired girl just grinned at her while holding two long, but thin, swords at her right side. "Never seen you before." She mentally commanded Bardiche to shift to its Zambar form.

The girl just grinned at her as she watched the axe turn into a large yellow-bladed sword. "Well, you know, probably because I've only been here for a little bit now. So, what's your name again?"

"Fate Testarossa-Inverse."

Kyrie giggled as she swayed slightly. "I like you. If I didn't have to fight you, I'd say we go find a shop and I'd help you put some lipstick on." When Fate stared at her stupidly, Kyrie started laughing so hard that she threw her head back and closed her eyes.

"...Just why do you say that?"

"No clue, but you're not a bad person," Kyrie opened her right eye and grinned some more at Fate, "too bad that I wasn't born near here, we could have been good friends, oh well."

Fate narrowed her eyes as the girl rushed at her. "I've never been one to play it safe like this." She muttered and rushed forward as well, her blade swinging forward and meeting Kyrie's smaller blades in a flurry of slashes and parries. "You're good." Fate managed to compliment her opponent as she dodged out of the way of a poke towards her face.

Kyrie kept grinning at Fate as she was forced to dodge around a downwards slash. "You're really good with that big sword too! And you're not compensating for anything at least!" The girl laughed as Fate sweat-dropped at that comment. "What? Don't you know any guys that use really big swords to compensate for lacking stuff?"

"Not really, no." Fate muttered as she flipped backwards and held her left hand out. "Plasma Bite..." A large ball of golden energy formed in front of it. "FIRE!"

Kyrie's eyes widened as the ball of energy suddenly split into hundreds of smaller lightning particles were launched from Fate's hand, spreading out in all directions before they turned in mid-air and converged on her body. "Oh poop."

Fate watched as the bits converged on her opponent, exploding and obscuring her from view for a few moments. "...I wonder if I over did it?"

**"Not likely, sir."**

Before Fate could retort, a strong wind was kicked up, clearing the smoke away and revealing Kyrie, who only had a few smudges on her face. "You're not hurt?" It was kind of surprising, even Signum admitted that she had trouble blocking that spell when they sparred.

Kyrie tilted her head back and forth, causing her neck to pop loudly. "Eh, barely felt it, nice move though," she reconnected her blades back together into its larger sword form, "but I don't think I can get past that blade without an equally large blade!" Grinning, she held her sword to the side and rushed forward again, her large blade connecting with Fate's zambar blade. "Tell me, is there anything you cannot cut?"

"What's with that question?" Fate asked as the two broke off and Kyrie spun around in mid-air and swung her sword back into her normal position, where it was pointed down by her right legs. "You're rather... Unusual."

"Thanks!" Kyrie grinned at her. "After we're done here, you wanna go get ice cream?" The girl then snapped her sword around so it was pointed at Fate and rushed in, grinning as the blonde made no effort to move at all.

At the last moment, Fate twisted slightly and ducked, avoiding the strike at her head. "Got you." She smiled at Kyrie's rather shocked look as she slashed upwards. As Fate's Zambar blade made contact with Kyrie's body, Fate grimaced as Kyrie cried out in shocked pain and was knocked backwards from the force of Fate's attack.

"Aww! You ruined my outfit!" Kyrie pouted as her skirt and shirt were torn down the middle from the force of the blow, leaving her in just a pair of light pink panties and a light pink bra as her skirt fell off of her body and her shirt hung completely open. "You know how hard it is to find a matching outfit when you're not even in your home universe?" She tapped her chin and blinked. "Huh, you know, maybe Ami and I should get new outfits... Hitting the laundromat every other day can get expensive."

Fate wasn't even listening at that point, she was just staring at Kyrie's stomach. It was hard not to.

The girl had at least four deep, jagged and faded scars and discolorations over her stomach.

"What happened?"

Kyrie blinked at Fate's shocked voice and her stunned look, wondering what was wrong, before she looked down. "Oh damn, forgot about those. Old injuries," she waved her hand at Fate, "can't be helped, though you learn not to speak back to your master when you get stabbed and burned for doing that." She swung her sword up, and, ignoring the way that her bra fell apart, letting her breasts bounce completely free, grinned as her sword started to glow pink. "Can you stop this?"

Fate might have been blushing slightly, the girl did have a nice chest and Fate had to admit that it was pleasing to look at, but she wasn't one to let her defenses drop completely. "Bardiche."

**"Jet Zamber."**

Kyrie's eyes widened as lightning crashed down on Fate's blade. "Oh! So you can do this too?" A wide grin came to her face as she swung down, a pink wave of energy snapped off from her blade as Fate took a wide swing at the pinkette.

Fate grimaced as her sword energy clashed against Kyrie's. "Strong..."

"And unlike you, I don't leave my energy connected to my blade," Fate's eyes widened as she looked over her shoulder to see Kyrie behind her. "Sorry, but I can't go against my master's wishes, you're good looking though."

**"Sonic Move."**

Kyrie stared as her sword passed through nothing. Turning, she could only stare as the flat of a yellow sword rushed right at her face. "Oh poop."

Fate took a deep breath as the flat of her Zambar blade connected with Kyrie's face, sending the girl tumbling through the air. "Please stop, I'd rather not..." She trailed off as Kyrie stopped her tumbling in mid-air and grinned at her some more. "You still wish to fight?"

"Hey," Kyrie shrugged, causing her breasts to jiggle from the motion, "don't got a choice. Either do what my master says or I'm dead. Even if life sucks, I'd rather be alive than be killed by my master and turned into an undead servant. You know how much it sucks to be a rotting corpse with all your power and unable to do anything but fight because your master keeps your body animated?"

Fate looked a touch green at that. "I'd... Rather not find out."

"Good, because it really sucks." Kyrie grumbled to herself. "I don't even want to know if I _can_ be turned into a zombie, because it would be even worse for Ami and myself." Readjusting the hold on her sword, Kyrie split it into smaller blades. "So, gotta fight."

"Even if you're almost naked?" Fate twitched as Kyrie shrugged again, causing her breasts to bounce in just the right way. Even if Fate thought that much pink was kind of gaudy, she had to admit, at least Kyrie made it look good.

"Hey, I've fought with holes in my stomach, arm nearly ripped off, one time I think I was missing a foot from it being dipped in acid, but, hey, at least I'm alive."

"That's... Kind of sad, really." Fate muttered to herself as she swung Bardiche Zambar out, a yellow circle appearing under her feet. "Then I'll need to help you."

"Really?" Kyrie laughed softly. "Save me, from what? I was created to serve the Mazoku, I've got no reason to live otherwise."

Fate narrowed her eyes as she heard that. "Well then, you shouldn't worry too much, this will only hurt for a moment."

Kyrie looked around her and paled as she saw several yellow magic circles form in the air around her. "Uh... What is..?"

"Thunder SMASHER!"

Fate winced as Kyrie screamed in pain as lighting crashed down on her body from all angles, causing her to jerk from side to side painfully. When the spell ended, Kyrie slumped and fell out of the air as she lost consciousness. "Bardiche..."

**"Yes sir, floater field activate."**

Fate nodded as several barriers were created to cushion the girl's fall before depositing Kyrie on her back and onto the ground safely. Flying down, she blushed as the girl's torn shirt flopped open, completely revealing her breasts. "...Why are all the women around me so damn pretty?" It was almost completely unfair to her.

* * *

Amitie: I guess it's our turn then.  
Nanoha: Guess so.  
Amitie: Next time on Blood That Flows - StrikerS.


	229. StrikerS Twenty Nine

Blood That Flows

StrikerS Twenty-Nine

Of course I own nothing.

I have to give out thanks to everyone who's read and reviewed this story. I just hit 500 reviews yesterday and, I gotta say, thanks everyone. It's nice knowing that people are reading and reviewing this fic. Special thanks goes to Taeniaea for giving me the 500th review.

A little bit shorter, but I think I can be forgiven for this one.

* * *

"I have to say," Amitie said while holding her left gun against her body and pointed upwards while her right gun was pointed straight at Nanoha, "I don't normally make assumptions of my opponent, but you don't seem too strong, or perhaps you're too careless?"

Nanoha shook her head slowly as she took a deep breath. "No, I'm neither." Raising Heart shifted to Excellion mode as Nanoha looked at her opponent. "My whole life, I've dealt with opponents as strong as I am or stronger, learned from the most powerful sorceress ever, and fight people who are about as powerful and skilled as I am almost daily. No, if anything, I have to hold back as much of my strength as possible when fighting against weaker opponents, you could feel her strength too. She's strong, but me? I'm a monster. I have to hold back, constantly keep myself in check, at full power, there's very few people, if anyone at all, who could still stay alive, and I don't want that."

Amitie nodded and took a deep breath. "I see. You're a good person, your friends must love you." A blue magic circle, one Nanoha had never seen before, formed under her feet. "Kyrie and I were never given the option. Weak, strong, young, old, none of that matters, the only thing that matters is who's alive when you're done with your mission. And so, I must defeat you, or face death. But, please, fight me at your full power."

Nanoha's eyes widened. "What?"

"You're still holding back, aren't you?" Amitie took a deep breath. "Please, show me your full power."

"I won't, not against someone who's human."

"Who said that I was?" Amitie yelled as she pointed both zappers and started firing at Nanoha, who held up a hand and created a barrier, blocking the shots from the zappers as she kept firing. "You're human, you think that I'm human?"

Nanoha's eyes widened as Amitie disappeared from in front of her. "Fast."

**"Sacred Cluster."**

Nanoha didn't like this spell too much, it was fairly hard to control, but still, it had better spray control than her Axel Shooter did. The only downside is that each fragment of this sphere as it broke off was potentially lethal. Nanoha's eyes narrowed as she saw flickers of movement around her. "Very fast..."

"Yep!" Nanoha looked up, only to see several shots being fired right at her. "Faster than you." Amitie stared as Nanoha disappeared, only to feel something press into her back.

"Really?" Nanoha's voice was amused as she spoke to Amitie. "True, my speed isn't as good as some of my friends, but it's still pretty good. I just prefer to not move a lot if I can help it, it lets me charge up spells, like this."

**"Divine Flame Buster."**

Amitie grunted as she turned her head, her pupils shrinking as she felt the magical build-up against her back.

(-)

"I don't like this," he grumbled as he stood on a rooftop watching the fight go down, "I knew they were strong, but to see them fight like they have been..." He was glad that he used his car's auto pilot to send that cute brown-haired cannon girl on ahead. "My next mission is to get that girl into form-fitting jeans and a nice tight shirt." She would probably look better in that than in some sort of latex body suit. After all, if her butt was that cute with the suit on, he wondered how it would look if she was wearing jeans to make it stand out.

Seeing an explosion where Amitie was fighting, he narrowed his eyes behind his sunglasses.

(-)

Amitie grunted as her barrier managed to hold off the attack, even if just barely, but she was pretty sure that her back was burned from that attack. "Pretty good."

Nanoha pointed Raising Heart at Amitie and narrowed her eyes. "You should stop, I don't wish to..." She trailed off as Amitie started laughing. "What's wrong?"

"I find this funny, actually, that you think you've beaten me..." Amitie narrowed her eyes at Nanoha. "But you haven't won... ANYTHING!" She slapped her guns against each other while charging up a quick burst of magic. "Blazar Cannon!" A large sphere shot out towards Nanoha, who pointed Raising Heart at the attack.

**"Divine Buster."**

A pink beam lashed out, striking the orb and stopping it cold. A couple of seconds later, when the energy was canceled, Nanoha's eyes widened as she saw Amitie right in front of her, both of her guns planted in Nanoha's stomach. "Sorry." Amitie whispered before pulling the triggers on her zappers. "Blazar Cannon!"

Nanoha grunted as the blast sent her back and upwards. Before she could recover, she noted that there were lots of points of light in the air around her. "You have..."

"Converging barrage!"

As she watched all the energy points suddenly converge on Nanoha and explode, Amitie shook her head. "It's too bad," she looked away and down, "I liked that girl, but orders are orders."

**"Gatling Shooter."**

Amitie's eyes widened as she heard that voice. Turning to look up, she gasped as dozens of pink orbs rushing at her at high speeds. "Gah!" A barrier formed in front of her to block the shots but found that they were both too numerous and too strong for her to block fully. Grimacing as the shots got through her barrier, Amitie was blasted several times before crashing into the ground painfully. "Nnngh... How?" She looked up and stared at what she saw.

Her opponent was in a new outfit, the dress had changed into a pair of extremely form-fitting metallic pants, white boots extended from her feet to her knees, her jacket was no longer and instead she had a sleeveless shirt, exposing her shoulders and upper arms. The center of her chest was a metal plate that had a giant red orb in the center that was partially covered by a metal plate. On her head was a visor that obscured Amitie's sight of her face. On her back was six metal wings, three on each side, pointed downwards.

"Raising Heart, let's go."

**"Alright. Neo Assault Mode ignition."**

Amitie looked at Nanoha's left arm, which had a small box near her elbow, a tube ran along her arm until it connected to what looked like the head of Raising Heart's Excellion spear head, which was split down the middle and slightly spread apart, between the head points was a thin cannon. On Nanoha's left arm, there was a blade that went from her wrist to down below her elbow. "What the hell is that?"

Amitie gasped as Nanoha rushed right at her. "My new assault mode, and your defeat." The blade on her left arm swung out and pointed straight forward as Nanoha swung down at Amitie, who could only stare as the blade got closer and closer to her.

A moment later, Nanoha frowned as her blade only struck the ground, turning, she saw Amitie being carried in a bridal-style hold in the arms of a man she had never seen before.

"Hey!" Amitie was blushing hard. "Let me go! I'll be okay!"

"I have no doubt that you'll be fine, but our job here is done." Kuma said to her before looking away and at where Fate was. Nanoha followed his gaze and saw Fate binding up her opponent. "Damn," he muttered as Fate turned to focus on them, "I could probably get your sister out of there, but I'd be captured and, well..."

"You can't leave her!" Amitie, for the first time since he had known her, was actually sounding scared.

"You aren't going anywhere." Nanoha said as she pointed her cannon at Kuma and Amitie. "Surrender now and I won't shoot." When Kuma smirked at her, she narrowed her eyes behind her visor. "If you aren't going to give up, then I'm sorry." A ball of energy formed at the end of her cannon and, shockingly, Kuma nodded at her, before spinning and taking off.

**"Master, speed has surpassed sound itself."**

"Already?" Nanoha asked as she powered down her attack, even her visor couldn't keep up with his speed. "He's even faster than Fate-chan, isn't he?"

**"Yes, my master."**

Nanoha grumbled and turned to look at Fate, flying over to her. "You okay?"

"I'm fine." Fate nodded and looked at Nanoha. "Overkill for these girls, isn't it?" A moment later, Nanoha was glowing as she turned back to normal. "Well?"

"She wanted me to go all out, I gave her what she wanted." Nanoha laughed as Fate sighed heavily.

* * *

Cinque: Time to go.  
Erio: You can't!  
Cinque: Try to stop me.  
? ? ?: Very well, I shall.  
Cinque: Next time on Blood That Flows - StrikerS, things get... Explosive.

I warn you, right now, the next chapter is **_not_** for the faint of heart. Nor for people who take offense to things easily.


	230. StrikerS Thirty

Blood That Flows

StrikerS Thirty

Of course I own nothing.

Warning, VERY dark chapter ahead.

* * *

Cinque looked at Erio as he stood there bleeding fairly freely. "...There are others?"

_"Of course there would be others with that power."_ Mr. Snuggles struggled against the binds holding him to the ground. _"How do you think I ended up on the other side of the universe and on Sette's head in the first place?"_

Erio suddenly coughed several times and had to put his hand over his mouth as blood came rushing out. "What?"

"Erio-kun!" Caro gasped as she saw the blood. She rushed over to the boy and looked at him fearfully as he fell to his knees, groaning in pain. Turning, she glared at Cinque, who was walking away from them and moving to Mr. Snuggles. "What did you do to him?"

"You know about this power," Cinque said softly, "you know how terrifying it is then. I've already hit him with some of it, and I worry that if I use too much more that I'll seriously injure him."

"Kurr!" Cinque looked as Fried stood up and growled at her.

"Fried, no!" Caro gasped, her eyes widening as Fried opened his mouth to breath fire at Cinque. She could only watch in horror as there was a swish of golden light and three knives buried themselves into Fried, two on the roof of his mouth and one into the soft flesh under his jaw. "FRIED!"

"Do not worry, I did not put any power to those." Cinque said as she charged up another knife and cut Mr. Snuggles free with ease. "He is hurting, but with some care he will be fine." She turned back to look at Caro. "I do not like fighting, it makes it hard to keep myself from losing control."

Mr. Snuggles hopped up on Cinque's shoulder as the cyborg turned away from Caro. _"Take care of them, Caro, next time, I'm going to show that boy just what I can do when I'm mad."_

"And what would that be?" A new voice had Cinque stopping and looking up to see Signum looking down at her with narrowed eyes. "Because I think that you're going to need to come with me."

"Signum!" Caro cried out, scared for Erio and Fried.

"Heal them, I shall deal with these two." Signum looked down and blinked as she didn't see Mr. Snuggles on Cinque's shoulders anymore. "...Where is that cat?"

"Looking for his master." Cinque said as she threw several knives at Signum, who held her hand out to block them with her barrier.

"No!" Caro's voice rang out as a pink beam shot out of her fingertips, shooting the knives and knocking them out of the air. "Don't block her knives! They're dangerous!"

Signum looked at Cinque and finally took notice of her left eye. "...Chaos?"

"Yes." Cinque said as her hair flashed gold for a moment and she swiped her hand upwards, dozens of knives snapped into creation from nowhere and flew at Signum, who merely dashed to the side to avoid them.

"I see." Signum said as she landed on the ground and pointed Laevantein at Cinque. "You must be defeated then."

Cinque narrowed her eyes at Signum and held her hands to the side. "Do try." A twitch of her hands brought out two more knifes, which she threw at Signum. Her eyes widened as Signum rushed in and batted the knives to the side with her weapon.

"This will only hurt a moment." Signum said as she held Laevantein up high. She wasn't going to kill the girl, that wasn't needed, but knocking her out was perfectly acceptable, even if it looked like she was about to commit murder in cold blood.

As Signum brought her hand down, her chest suddenly felt cold as Cinque smiled and raised her left hand up to grab Laevantein by its blade, stopping the hilt mere inches from hitting her on the head. "What are you doing?" Signum's eyes widened as the edge cut deeply into Cinque's hand. "Stop, or you'll lose your hand."

"I.S. Rumble Detonator." Cinque said as a gear-like circle appeared under her feet.

Before Signum could wonder what that was, her sword shook in her hand before erupting with enough force to send Signum flying away, screaming in pain. As she flew through the air, Signum groaned as she found herself twisting in mid-air, forcing her to land on her shoulder and slide down the street, before tumbling head over heels several times before crashing into a mail box.

Groaning as she slowly sat up, Signum let out a whimper of pain as she tried to assess how much damage had been done to her body. Trying to open both of her eyes only had her screaming in pain from something in her right eye. Keeping that one closed, she opened her left eye and looked down at herself. Her left arm was torn up and bleeding badly with asphalt and metal sticking to it. Her legs were badly skinned and bleeding, but she doubted anything was really wrong with them, other than some metal that was sticking out of her legs at that moment. Her right hand though...

Grimacing, Signum raised her head up and raised her left hand slowly as she called up a view screen back to base.

"This is Signum Yagami, I need a medical team to my location, stat. I'm badly injured, Laevantein's been destroyed and I'm missing most of my right hand."

"...WHAT?"

"You heard me, Lucino Lilie."

Lucino stared as she saw Signum's face on the screen, the woman was bleeding badly through several cuts on her face and neck, and there was some metal jammed into Signum's eye socket. "Sending emergency evac crews in now."

(-)

Cinque groaned as she hit the ground hard, tumbling side over side as she flew away from that blast. She looked at her left hand and groaned as she saw the bloody stump and metal wires coming out of her arm. "Never thought I'd be so happy to be so short." She muttered to herself as she started to stand up. Her outfit was torn up, both the body suit and the long coat that she wore, her hair was a mess and what was left of her hand hurt tremendously.

Cradling what was left of her hand, Cinque stumbled away, grateful that her hand wasn't bleeding too fast.

Still, her whole body hurt, and running was out of the question at that moment. Groaning painfully, she fell to her knees as what felt like liquid fire was pouring into her arm. Looking at her hand, she screamed as she saw her hand being put back together, bones, wires, and flesh. "GAH!" She had almost forgotten how _painful_ regeneration was.

Still, it didn't look like there was anyone around her. "Annnngh..." She bit her lip and slowly stood up, looking around, before finding an alley. Groaning in pain, she limped over and into the alley way, before finally collapsing when she got pretty far into it.

The last thing she wanted was to be captured while her hand was regenerating.

(-)

"Teana..."

Teana turned to see Nove standing only a few feet from her, holding an unconscious Subaru, who was still in her barrier jacket, by her panties. "Nove... What's wrong with Subaru?"

"Just some sleep gas, it'll wear off in about ten hours or so. I'll take Wendi, you can have Subaru." Nove narrowed her eyes as Teana shook her head. "Why?"

"Even if I hate it, she's under arrest." Teana looked at the way Nove was holding Subaru and grimaced slightly. "She's going to be walking funny... So, I'd say that you're under arrest for sexual harassment of a Bureau member."

Nove rolled her eyes. "If I was doing that, she'd have no shorts or underwear on and my face would be soaked, you don't see any of that, so, it's not that." She smirked as Teana blushed at her comment. "Then again, you should meet Sirius..."

"You know that guy, huh?" Vita said as she dropped down on the street to look at Nove and Teana. "I'm still good to go, you might be as well, but you should let her go. I'm still mad about my hat getting sliced up." She pointed Graf Eisen at Nove. "That super-fast sister of yours isn't going to get up any time soon."

Nove blinked at Vita. "Uh... You sure?" When Vita blinked at her in confusion, Nove scratched her chin. "Tre-nee's very tough. If you didn't tie her down, she's probably going to be up in less than ten seconds."

Vita's pupils shrank at that. "...What?" There was no way that her opponent was going to get up so fast, not after she hit Tre so hard.

"But, I just want Wendi back, I'll give you back this one if you give me back Wendi."

Teana narrowed her eyes at Nove. "Listen you..." She stopped as she felt a tap on her shoulder. Turning, her eyes widened as she saw Sein, partially phased through the street. "Sein, what are.." The next thing Teana knew, Sein's hands were on her face and the petite cyborg's lips were pressed up against hers, causing Teana's eyes to widen in shock. Mere moments later, Sein's tongue found its way into Teana's mouth, causing the girl's mind to go into complete shock.

Vita stared at that. "What the hell?"

That seemed to snap Nove out of her daze and she rushed forward and grabbed Wendi from Teana so violently that Teana's shoulder seemed to snap loudly. Wincing at the sound, she threw Wendi and Subaru over her shoulders and took off as fast as she could.

"HEY!" Vita turned and growled as she took off into the air. "Get back here with those two!"

Sein broke the kiss, smiling at Teana's stunned look. "Sorry, had to." She dropped through the ground again, leaving Teana to stare ahead, stunned, though her face was slowly turning red as her brain rebooted.

It took a few moments more, before Teana growled loudly. "DAMMIT, SEIN!"

(-)

Nove came to a screeching halt as she saw Nanoha blocking her path. "Dammit." Turning her head, she grimaced as she saw Vita behind her.

"Turn over Subaru and you'll get to come in under your own power." Nanoha said as she pointed Raising Heart at Nove. "If you don't, I will use force on you."

Before Nove could respond, a large bladed weapon passed through the air, in between Nove and Nanoha.

"I think you should leave us." Tre said as she stood in mid air, her arms crossed under her breasts, her face had a large red mark on it and it looked like she was standing in mid-air painfully. Next to her, Sette had caught the metal blade and was slightly hunched over, clutching the mark Signum gave her, and on her shoulders, Mr. Snuggles looked at them.

_"That knight that hurt Sette is likely hurt, if that explosion and screaming that I heard was any indication."_

Vita paled as she heard that. "Signum? What happened?"

Mr. Snuggles shrugged and looked back at her. _"I dunno, but she was against Cinque. Too bad she's using a metal sword, that's like a big exploding bird or something for Cinque."_

"Vita... Go make sure Signum's okay, I'll deal with these guys."

"By yourself?" Tre smirked as Vita took off, searching for Signum. "I might be hurt, but Sette and I can deal with you."

Nanoha narrowed her eyes at Tre. If it was just Tre and Sette, she could probably deal with them. Nove would be a little problematic, but she had two people, so it wasn't likely that she would help out. "Yes, I do think I'll deal the two of you by myself."

Tre just smirked and snapped her fingers. Before Nanoha could respond, a green sphere surrounded her completely. "Meet Otto..."

"Storm Overload."

Nanoha gasped and let out a scream as she was bombarded on all sides by powerful Ray Storms.

Nove looked at Tre. "What about Cinque?"

"Sein's getting her, we need to get out of here before Testarossa gets up here." Tre chanced a look down and was grateful that Fate was helping Caro heal Erio and Fried instead of coming up to help them out. "Both Testarossa and Takamachi would be too much for all of us."

"Do not worry." Otto said as she dropped in, looking at Nanoha, who was still screaming as more of her Ray Storm Overload pounded the redheaded mage. "I brought a telepad."

"If I wasn't carrying Wendi and Subaru, I'd kiss you." Nove grinned as she saw Otto blush. "Get us out of here."

"Yes." Otto said as she activated the pad, causing the four cyborg girls and one cyborg cat to disappear completely.

Moments later, the energy bombarding Nanoha ceased and the girl groaned as she slumped and slowly fell out of the air. "Nnngh... Damn sneak attacks..." What was worse was that Nanoha could tell that the attack was being held back, and it still felt like she was about to die from it.

(-)

"Got you." Sein grinned as she hugged Cinque. The grin turned into a grimace as she saw the girl's bloodied hand and its half-regenerated state. "Come on, let's get that healed."

Cinque nodded as the two of them phased through the street. "Hurts..." She whimpered as she sank into the ground.

(-)

Vita stared as she saw the damage to Signum's body. "...Signum..." She fell to her knees as Signum could only twitch slightly. "...Where was Rein?"

"Sent... Her... Back..." Signum groaned painfully. "Glad... I... Did... Don't want... her hurt like this." She coughed and groaned.

"SHUT UP!" Vita screamed at Signum, tears falling down her face. "Don't talk right now! We'll fix you right up, okay?" When Signum smiled, despite the blood on her lips, Vita growled at her. "Don't you DARE give up on me, Signum! Just stay conscious! We'll get some help here!" Her eyes widened as she saw Signum's good eye slowly shut. "NO! Don't you DARE! Don't you DARE go to sleep! Stay awake! Signum... SIGNUM!"

* * *

Levi: Oh, the fun I am going to have with you, Reinforce. Heh heh heh hahahahahaOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHO! Next time on Blood That Flows - StrikerS, read it, because things get deliciously twisted.

Believe me when I say, it gets VERY twisted in the upcoming chapters.

If future chapters don't seem as good as they have been, please bear with me, I was starting to suffer writer's fatigue as I wrote them up.


	231. StrikerS Thirty One

Blood That Flows

StrikerS Thirty-One

Of course I own nothing.

Warning, VERY twisted chapter ahead. Seriously, this is one of the least fun chapters, even with what happened in the last chapter, in the whole arc.

This chapter alone is why I bumped the rating up to M in the first place.

* * *

Elsewhere...

As she walked into her secret base, Levi chuckled to herself as she put Reinforce down on one of the examination tables. "You are something else, aren't you?" Reinforce didn't answer, not that Levi minded, since the device was still unconscious. "Something that even my master was worried about, so much so that he kidnapped your master." She snorted as light bent around her hand before forming into a dagger. "What does that matter anyway? That's old history now. But you have a secret, don't you?" Levi grinned as she put the flat of the dagger against Reinforce's throat. "Just one little twist and then I would just have to press down, and you couldn't stop me..." Levi chuckled before slipping it into Reinforce's shirt. "You're just lucky that I'm not into dead bodies like that."

As she pushed the knife through Reinforce's shirt, she raised an eyebrow as she cut through a dark colored bra. "Interesting, so you're treated that well, huh?" Snorting, she continued down, cutting through Reinforce's shirt, before starting on her pants, cutting them in half, before cutting down each pant leg. Levi grinned as she looked at her handiwork, before slapping herself on the forehead. "Whoops, forgot your arms..." A couple quick motions had Reinforce's outfit completely cut open, exposing the silver-haired woman to Levi completely. "Lovely..."

"Master Levi..." Quattro's voice came to her mind.

"What is it Quattro?" Levi snorted as she dissolved the dagger and picked up Reinforce off of the table. Carrying the nude device over to some straps that were hanging down, she grinned as she mentally commanded the straps to wrap around Reinforce's arms at her elbows, keeping her suspended in the air.

"Should I send a Megah in to deal with clean up of the Riot Force? There's only three that are there that are still active."

"Is Lutecia there?" Levi asked as she commanded two more straps to rise from the ground and wrap around Reinforce's ankles and spread her legs.

"She's with me, in the lab, why?"

Levi narrowed her eyes and smirked as she heard Quattro let out a scream. "Just what is she doing there? If she's not on the battlefield, it takes too much effort to send a Megah in."

"She," Quattro panted, before groaning, but what caught Levi's attention was that it was a groan of pleasure, "she's showing me some gratifaction."

Levi smirked as she closed her eyes. "Using her to please you, huh? Good job."

"Not that hard, you should see her..." Levi blinked as Quattro sent her a mental picture of what Lutecia was going through.

"Excellent... Two at once, huh?" Chuckling, Levi broke the connection to Quattro and focused on Reinforce. "Time to wake up..." Lightly patting Reinforce on her cheeks, Levi smirked as the device groaned and slowly opened her eyes. "Ah, good, you're finally awake."

"...What..?" Reinforce's eyes snapped open completely as she stared at Levi and her mind rebooted completely. "You!"

"Oh, I wouldn't try to use magic," Levi shook her finger as she felt Reinforce trying to access her power, "I'm still strong enough to cancel anything, and we both know without your master, you can't use your strongest spells." She smirked as she saw Reinforce stop powering up. "Good girl." She laughed as she patted Reinforce's breasts, causing the device to flush, but the anger she felt and tasted was just sweet.

"What do you want, Alicia?" Reinforce let out a sharp cry of pain as Levi squeezed her breast tightly and gave it a harsh squeeze.

"It's Levi now, you useless twit." Levi narrowed her eyes at Reinforce before letting go of her breast. "But, ah well, you're wondering what I want..." She snapped her fingers and held her hand out. Reinforce looked up and stared in mute horror as several syringes floated over to Levi. "Eat your heart out Yoda." Reinforce stared at her and Levi rolled her eyes. "I did spend enough time on Earth in my existence to see those movies, you know." Plucking a needle out of mid-air, Levi lifted Reinforce's left bare breast up and put the needle into the soft flesh and injected the fluid into Reinforce. "As for what I want..?" Levi grinned as Reinforce hissed heavily. "Several things, really... Revenge against that clone for one." After the fluid was injected fully, Levi pulled the needle out and threw it behind her, where it crashed against the far wall. "For another thing, I want revenge on this whole reality for everything that's happened." Levi grabbed another needle and did the same thing to Reinforce's right bare breast.

Reinforce grunted and squirmed. "What else? And what are you doing to me?" She grunted as Levi chuckled and walked around behind her.

"What else? My dear, you are curious, aren't you?" Levi chuckled and ran her hands along Reinforce's butt, down to her legs and up again, grinning as she saw Reinforce's rear bounce just slightly. "You're quite sexy, for someone who used to be human."

"What?" Reinforce asked, before yelping as a needle was sunk into each butt-cheek at the same time.

"Oh, you don't know?" Levi smirked as she injected more of the weird fluid into Reinforce. "There are no Unison Devices from before Ancient Belka. However, the Tome of the Night Sky, later the Book of Darkness, comes from Al Hazard... But, my master said that when he turned the Tome of the Night Sky into the Book of Darkness, it had a silver-haired woman that was its control point. That was you, wasn't it?" Levi asked while pulling the needles out of Reinforce's rear end.

"So... What if I was?" Reinforce panted as Levi walked around her, chuckling softly.

"That means... And I might be wrong, but..." Levi looked up and smirked at her. "You were once human. A human who gave up her humanity to be turned into a Unison Device to fight against my master from so long ago."

"So..." Reinforce panted, wondering why her body felt weird at that moment. "What good does that do you?"

"Oh, nothing, except that it is possible," Levi slinked up to Reinforce and leaned her head onto Reinforce's left bare breast. "And if it's possible..." A leer came to the blue-haired Mazoku's face as she stuck her tongue out and licked Reinforce's nipple. "Mmm.." Levi grinned as Reinforce shuddered in revulsion. "If it's possible..." Levi smirked as she stepped away, looking up and down Reinforce's body. "I want to know..." She snapped her fingers and the remaining needles returned to the table and several tubes came down out of the ceiling. "Just _how _to turn people into Unison Devices."

Reinforce's eyes widened as more tubes dropped down near her head. "What are you..?" She looked at the fact that these ones had suction cups on them rather nervously.

"Alas," Levi floated up and put the suction cups on Reinforce's temples, "I'm afraid," Levi smirked as two more tubes dropped down with suction cups on them, "you probably won't survive what I have planned."

Reinforce tried to ignore the way that the suction cups were attached to her breasts. "What do you mean? If you want to kill me, then just do it."

Levi rolled her eyes and walked behind Reinforce. "If I did that, I wouldn't get your delicious data..." She gave Reinforce's butt a harsh slap, causing Reinforce to yelp in pain. "And now, my dear... I could go fast, but doing so would kill you, and I don't want that, so..."

Reinforce hissed as she felt a tube get pushed into her from behind. "Stuff.. Isn't supposed... To go into that place." She gasped as Levi slapped her ass again.

"Quiet you." Levi chuckled at her. "If you're wondering what I'm doing, it'll become quite obvious... Soon enough." She laughed as Reinforce gasped and twitched. "I need your data, which means I need to drain it from you." Levi walked out in front of Reinforce and sat down on a chair, grinning as a screen popped up in front of her. "My dear, Reinforce, I'll be stripping you of your data now... But, as I said before, if I went quickly, you'd be dead, and I don't want that..." Levi chuckled as she heard Reinforce groan painfully. "But, this is much _slower_ and far more painful to you. And when you're done... Your mind will be completely blank, my personal servant... And a new power source for the start of my new army."

Levi grinned, her eyes shining brightly as she held her hands in front of her, her fingers were slightly curled, as if she had a ball in them. "This world, and all worlds..." An image of people walking down the street were slowly replaced by hundreds of Megahs in their place in her mind. "Will be MINE!"

A soft chuckle came to her lips, before she couldn't hold back any more and her shoulders started to shake as the soft chuckle became a soft laugh and Levi put her hand on her forehead as her laughter picked up in volume and intensity. Eventually, Levi lost it completely and threw her head back and let out an extremely loud laugh from deep inside of her body.

"You suck." Reinforce muttered, causing Levi to stop laughing. "You do a horrible Iori Yagami impression."

Levi glared at Reinforce, who grinned at her. "Just for that..." She walked up to Reinforce and put a hand on her belly. "I think I'm going to have... _So_ much fun with you." The glare on her face disappeared as she smirked. "Maybe I'll turn you into my personal pleasure toy before I turn you into a new power source?"

As Levi felt Reinforce's belly and slowly moved her hands down, the device closed her eyes and tried to keep a tear from escaping her eyes. 'I'm sorry, Hayate, I wasn't strong enough.' She just hoped that she could see her family again.

That was all she could hope for at this moment.

* * *

Subaru: Wh.. Where am I?  
Nove: About time you woke up.  
Subaru: Oh no... Next time on Blood That Flows - StrikerS, the fallout begins.  
Nove: Read it, because things get interesting.


	232. StrikerS Thirty Two

Blood That Flows

StrikerS Thirty-Two

Of course I own nothing.

* * *

Elsewhere...

Groaning as she smelled something unusual, Subaru opened her eyes and groaned. "What happened?" She tried to sit up but found it impossible for a few reasons.

One, she was strapped to a table with metal locks over her wrists, keeping her arms pinned down at her sides, metal locks on her ankles, which forced her to laying flat on the table, and a large metal lock over her stomach, pinning her down. Two, her head was still dizzy and she was having a hard time thinking clearly. Three, her crotch and ass hurt, like she had suffered an Atomic Wedgie for hours. And finally...

"Why am I naked?"

"Had to make sure that you didn't have anything on you that could cause a problem." A familiar female voice said to her.

"Nove!" Subaru turned her head to see Nove sitting at a nearby table. "What's going on? Where am I?"

"I don't know." Nove said softly. "I was going to give you to Teana and take Wendi from her, but I ended up taking you with, and I'm not sure why I even bothered." In Nove's hands was a container of some sort and she took a drink from it. "You're at the secret headquarters of your worst enemy."

"I knew it! You're working for that bulldog that tore Gin-nee's pants that time!" Nove turned to look at Subaru weirdly. "I knew that dog was evil, but trying to kill me like this..."

"...You're an idiot." Nove grumbled as Subaru laughed at her. "Just what was up with that!"

Subaru sweat-dropped as Nove came closer to her. "Ah, trying to not freak out about the fact that I'm naked and helpless right now?" She tried to move her arms and legs but found it to be impossible. "What is this stuff?"

"You're not breaking out, those things can hold Sette when she loses her temper." Nove reached in and flicked Subaru on the forehead. "And trust me, you aren't anywhere near as strong as she is." When Subaru continued to struggle, Nove crossed her arms and turned around to sit on the table. "I just don't see it. I don't see how it can be true." Nove turned her head and blinked in surprise as Uno came into the room. "Un-nee, what are you doing here?"

"Just checking on our guest, and Nove, if you want to leave a butt-imprint on her arm, just keep sitting on it. Though, if you have to sit on her, I'd think her breasts would be more comfortable." Uno smirked as Nove jumped off of the table, blushing hard. "Now then, miss Subaru Nakajima..." She narrowed her eyes at the nude cyborg. "Quite frankly, I don't give a damn about you. Type Zero cyborg or not, I could hack your mind, wipe out everything that makes you who you are and have you be nothing more than an emotionless fighter." Snapping her fingers, Uno gave a tight smile as a headband with three wires popping out of it lowered from the ceiling. "Wouldn't be hard. Complete personality wipe while I dig in your head for memories." She snapped the headband onto Subaru's forehead and smiled at the girl's terrified look. "Imagine if you will, no personality, your I.S. active and attacking your former friends... Your sister... And your mother."

"Un-nee, what are you..?" Nove looked at Uno with some fear on her face, not only because of Uno's rather harsh behaivor, but also because she was afraid that Uno would do that to Subaru.

"Do you really think any of us can trust her? The instant she's free, she'll attack the two of us, run naked through the base until she finds an exit and then leave." Uno tapped her chin. "Though, I'm sure that Wendi and Sein would love to see her running naked, she is rather cute." She cleared her throat and started typing at a keyboard that appeared in front of her. "Anyway, time to do some data, personality and history draining from you." When Subaru whimpered, Uno smiled and shook her head. "Don't worry, it will only hurt for a second, then you won't feel anything anymore."

"Un-nee! Stop it!" Uno looked at Nove, before gasping as Nove jumped up and kicked her right in the face, sending her crashing against the wall. "Don't you dare hurt my sister like that!"

"S...Sister?" Subaru blinked in confusion, though she was thankful for Nove for saving her. "Wait, you were..."

"Good kick, Nove." Uno stood up and rubbed her jaw. "That hurt, you know." She grumbled as she walked back towards the table and raised an eyebrow as Nove took a defensive stance in front of Subaru. "Calm down, Nove. I was just testing you."

"Huh?" Nove blinked as Uno chuckled. "Un-nee! It's not funny! You nearly..."

"I know, I wanted to see your reaction." Uno smirked at her. "Though, I didn't expect you to kick me in the face. Anyway, Subaru Nakajima, meet your younger sister, Nove."

Subaru looked at Nove, and then at Uno, and frowned in confusion. "I don't see it."

"Yes, yes, well..." Uno smirked at Subaru. "I could let you up, before Sein comes in here. If you can't fight back, who knows how far she'll go?" She laughed as Nove and Subaru had identical knowing expressions on their faces. "Or maybe you'd like that?" Subaru shook her head and Uno shrugged at that. "A pity," she reached into her coat jacket and pulled out a blue outfit, "it may be a bit small, but it should fit you."

"Um..." Subaru looked at it. "It's one of those outfits you guys wear, right?"

"Eh, an older one," Uno shrugged at Subaru, "so, you can either put it on and look like you belong, stick around here for a little while, or I'll just have Quattro do to you what I was going to do."

"You can't, Un-nee!"

Uno took a deep breath and looked at Nove. "Nove, I'm not making this threat because it's a good thing, I'm doing this because it's needed to keep all of you safe and alive. After all, what's to stop her from leaving here and sending a signal to the Bureau to have them come in and finish things off?"

"I wouldn't..." Subaru gulped at the look Uno gave her. "But I..."

"Every time we were looking for certain Lost Logia to help Miss Lu's mother, you and your Riot Force was there, stopping us." Uno narrowed her eyes, anger on her face. "Ever since we cut ties to the brains, we knew that the Bureau would come for us. You really think I'm going to let the Bureau kill my little sisters because they're so dangerous?" Subaru gulped as Uno grabbed the table and shook with fury. "I would rather die than let my sisters be put on trial and then eliminated for the crime of being created on the Bureau's orders!"

"I don't know what you're talking about!" Subaru protested, whimpering. "I was on a day off and we found a little girl with a Lost Logia, then Nove and someone else showed up and things went crazy. I swear!" Tears were leaking out of her eyes as Uno glared at her.

"You don't know who that girl is, do you?" Subaru shook her head quickly and Uno snorted before pulling out a small remote and pushing a button. "Nove, if she tries to run..."

"Don't worry, I can stop her." Nove grinned as Uno gave Subaru the outfit.

Uno nodded as Subaru put the outfit on. "Now, hold still..." She pulled out a collar and slipped it around Subaru's neck, before locking it into place with a click. "That's an explosive shock collar." Uno smirked at Subaru. "You thought I trusted you? You're an idiot. Try and leave or attack anyone, you'll be shocked. Try and use magic, you'll be shocked. Try to do a combination of those, it'll explode and take your head off."

Subaru gulped and nodded. "I'll be good." She turned to walk away and yelped as Uno slapped her butt.

"I have to admit," Uno smirked as she looked at Subaru, "a slightly tighter outfit is more flattering, even though it shows off a lot more detail. Now get out of here!"

Subaru nodded and followed behind Nove, her steps hesitant and meek.

Uno sighed softly and closed her eyes. "Sorry, Nove, didn't mean to scare your sister like that, but I can't trust the Bureau, at all."

(-)

Jail smiled as he saw Subaru and Nove a minute later. "Ah, Nove! How are you? And this must be your sister, Subaru then?" He blinked as Subaru nodded rather meekly. "Something wrong?"

"Explosive shock collar." Nove grumbled softly. "Plus Un-nee got mad at her." Jail nodded as he heard that and looked at Subaru, who looked down. What he did next shocked Subaru, but not Nove. In fact, Nove almost expected Jail to do what he did next.

The scientist took a step forward and pulled Subaru into a hug. "Calm down, Subaru." He rubbed her back and smirked as she stiffened in the hug. "Uno is very protective of her younger sisters, and we do have good reason to be afraid of the Bureau right now." He sighed softly as he held the distraught cyborg, who was slowly relaxing in his hug. "I just wish I knew why you were trying to stop us from perfecting our ability to fight against Mazoku."

Subaru blinked and pulled back, looking up at him in confusion. "...What are you talking about? The Riot Force that I work for was designed to train mages to be able to fight against Mazoku."

Jail and Nove both stared at Subaru in shock.

(-)

Back at the Riot Force, Caro could only look around as she sat outside of the operating room.

"Hurry up! We're losing her!"

"Oh gods! Her eye!"

"Hold him still, dammit!"

"Caro!" She gasped and turned her head to see Teana, her left arm in a sling, walking up to her. "What are you doing here?" When Caro couldn't give her a real answer, Teana rolled her eyes, grabbed Caro's arm and pulled her away from the operating room. "Come on, standing too close to that place will make you worry too much."

"What about your arm?" Caro asked as she was dragged away. "I can..."

"Don't," Teana shook her head, "I was told to let the bones set for at least two days before they fully fix it." When Caro tried to protest, Teana sighed heavily. "Look, my bones were almost nothing but paste, and too much healing is bad for the body, okay?" Caro nodded slowly. "Besides, my bones are back in place properly and they just need to recover."

"I wish I..."

"Hold it." Teana turned and knelt down to look Caro in the eye. "You're going to wish you could have done more to help Signum, right?" Caro nodded at her. "Stop that, right now." Caro's eyes widened and Teana sighed heavily. "Listen, from what I understand, you were busy helping Erio out, right?" Caro nodded slowly. "Tell me, Caro, when facing a situation where your comrades are injured, what is the correct course of action? Making sure that you tend to injuries or going after fleeing criminals?"

"Ano... I always thought we should secure our enemies first, to prevent the enemy from doing more harm?"

Teana smiled lightly. "While this is true, Caro, tell me, were you alone when helping Erio and Fried?" Caro shook her head and Teana nodded. "Yeah, Signum was there too. In your situation, I would have tried to heal Erio and help Fried as well. Besides, Signum told you to heal Erio, right?"

"Uh huh..." Caro nodded and looked down, blushing. "I guess, I... I'm upset that I couldn't do more to help her." She blushed harder as Teana rubbed the top of her head. "Teana-san..."

"Don't worry about it, Caro. Right now, let's just hope for a speedy recovery for everyone, okay?" Caro nodded, mollified at that. "Besides, Fried's okay now, right?" Caro smiled softly, her Dragon was back in its smaller form, resting now after being healed from the knives stuck in its mouth.

"What about you?" Caro stopped smiling as she looked at Teana. "Subaru is..."

Teana sighed heavily, sadness on her face before she smiled softly. "I know, but I think she's okay. I don't know why, but I'm sure that she'll be okay. She's too stupid to get hurt."

Caro sweat-dropped at hearing that. "Um... You keep complaining about her, do you not like her?"

Teana sweat-dropped at the question. "There are times I want to smack her with Cross Mirage and shoot her when she's being an idiot or a pervert, but..." Teana sighed heavily and shook her head, "when she's really cheerful it's hard to be mad at her, and she's always encouraging me and wanting me to do my best, and..." Teana suddenly felt her eyes burning as tears filled her eyes, "dammit, that stupid, stupid girl," she slammed her good fist into the ground, "dammit, Subaru! Why'd you have to get kidnapped? Huh? You just had to get beaten, didn't you? You were always the stronger of us, why? WHY?"

Caro couldn't think of anything to say, so she just wrapped her arms around Teana, "GUH!" her eyes widened as Teana's hugged her so tightly with her good arm that it drove the air out of her lungs. Even if Teana was letting the negative emotions out of her system, it was probably going to be hard for Caro to remain concious for much longer.

Especially with the way her vision was starting to go dark. 'Can't... Breathe... Need... Help... Yuuno-papa...' Her mind called out in desperation.

(-)

Peeking into Hayate's office, Shari winced as she saw Hayate pacing back and forth. "Commander..?" She hedged as she knocked on the door. "I'm sorry, but you wanted to know if something happened to that Unison Device we have..."

Hayate stopped pacing and sighed, turning to her and nodding. "Go on."

"I'm sorry, but, we lost her." Shari bit her lip and wrung her hands together. "I really am sorry! We tried to save her, did everything we could, but... She just... Dissolved and turned to dust before our eyes," tears came to Shari's face, "she looked so scared and screamed as she dissolved and... I'm sorry!"

Hayate sighed heavily and shook her head. "No, don't be, you didn't kill her. Is there anything else?"

"Uh, we found most of Laevantein." Shari was almost bowled over when Hayate grabbed her shoulders tightly. "Ah... It's in a lot of pieces, but we can probably salvage the core components. I think that the A.I. is mostly intact, but I need to look at it more closely."

"There is that," Hayate sighed, and blinked as Shari looked away, "what's wrong?"

"There's not much of the body that's left. Even if I salvage as much as possible, I don't think I can rebuild it to what it was before."

"...Do what you can, okay?" Hayate nodded to Shari and let go of her shoulders. "Ugh, I'm worried... Signum was so badly injured... Laevantein's been destroyed... And Reinforce and Zafira have been gone for hours now."

Shari stared at Hayate. "Um, hours? Haven't they called back?" Hayate shook her head. "Um..."

"Zest and Zelgadis were dispatched to check up on them." Hayate wrung her hands together. "I just..." There was a sudden beeping and Hayate turned as a screen appeared in front of her. "Zest! This is Commander Yagami, what did you find?"

"Not good," Zest spoke gravely to her. "We found Zafira, alone, out cold and badly injured." Hayate stared, her eyes widening as her body had a cold chill fill her. "No sign of Reinforce, but there was a struggle here."

"...What?"

"Zelgadis is working on healing him, but it may be too late." Zest shook his head. "I will call you with an update, regardless of what happened, Zest out."

When the screen turned off, Hayate grabbed her chest and grimaced, stumbling back as her breathing became labored. "Nnnngh..."

"Hayate..." Shari watched as Hayate fell to her knees. "Hayate!" Rushing over, she grabbed Hayate and called up a screen to the medical staff. "If anyone can get to Commander Yagami's office, now would be a good time, she suddenly clutched her chest and is on her knees in pain." She gasped as Hayate slipped out of her grasp. "Correct that, she's out cold."

A little while later later, Hayate groaned as she opened her eyes. "...What happened?" Above her was Shari and a doctor were looking at her, Shari in concern and the doctor in relief. She didn't know the doctor's name and guessed that he was one of the people Shamal had come over to learn new healing spells. Hayate sat up and blinked as a blanket was draped over her body. Her eyes widened when it flopped off, revealing that she was in just her bra.

"You're okay," the doctor smiled at her and put a hand on her shoulder. "You just had an extreme anxiety attack. If it had been any worse, your heart would have stopped." Hayate stared at him and he shook his head. "Commander, I know that you're young and that you worry about things, but please, take it easy and rest for the rest of today." He patted her shoulder. "I would hate to find out that you died so young."

Hayate nodded and grabbed the blanket. "Um, why take my clothes off?"

"Had to check on your heart, hard to do with your outfit in the way." The doctor stood up. "I mean it though, Commander Yagami, take it easy for the day."

"Sure, doc." Hayate groaned and put her hand over her eyes. 'What else can happen today?' She wondered to herself.

* * *

Shamal: So, now, how about we talk?  
? ? ?: About what?  
Shamal: Anything really. Next time on Blood That Flows - StrikerS, read it, because I need more screen time.  
? ? ?: That's the only reason?  
Shamal: Breaking the fourth wall is fun.


	233. StrikerS Thirty Three

Blood That Flows

StrikerS Thirty-Three

Of course I own nothing.

* * *

Later that day...

"Nanoha," Yuuno nodded to the girl as he sat down in the cafeteria, "how are you?"

"Other than feeling sick, I'm fine." Nanoha smiled at him. "How tired are you?"

"Pretty tired, and," Yuuno blinked as he noticed the small bunny in Nanoha's hands, "what's that for?"

"That little girl that my brother found," Nanoha smiled at him, "I figured if she might need a little friend. Um, how's Signum and Erio?" When Yuuno stood up, she shook her head, "you don't need to go with."

"I'd rather come with you, the walk will do me some good."

Nanoha smiled as grabbed his arm as he stood up, before walking to the girl's room. "I'm glad, you're better with kids than I am." She giggled as Yuuno blushed heavily. "I hope that everyone's okay."

"They're alive," Yuuno took a deep breath, "if Rein hadn't unisoned with Shamal, we probably wouldn't have been able to save Signum. We had to remove what was left of her right hand though." He nodded as Nanoha grimaced heavily. "Yeah, it wasn't pleasant to look at, same with her eye."

Nanoha looked at him in confusion. "Can't we fix her eye and hand with healing magic?"

"Unless you know a healing spell that can regrow lost limbs, no," Yuuno sighed as they continued to walk down the hallway, "even Resurrection can only heal what's there. Her hand was gone, and her eye... I don't know if she'll ever be able to see out of her right eye ever again."

Nanoha bit her lip lightly and nodded. She couldn't even begin to imagine how it was for Signum at that moment. "What about Erio?"

"He's fine, Caro did most of the work before he got back, Fate's been with him in his room right now. What about you? You said you were feeling sick."

Nanoha nodded at that. "Whatever that girl," Nanoha would have sworn what she saw was a boy, but from Yuuno's description, Otto had to be a girl, "hit me with, it's really screwed me up. I'll be fine, I'm sure, but I'm just feeling out of it right now."

Yuuno nodded as they walked into the room where that girl was at. He blinked when he saw Arashi in the room talking to her. "Hello," he smiled as the girl turned to look at him, somewhat fearfully.

Letting go of his arm, Nanoha walked up to the bed and smiled at the tiny blonde girl. One thing that surprised her was that the girl had one red and one green eye. "Hi," she said softly and smiled, even as the girl whimpered, "what's your name?"

"Vivio..." The girl looked almost ready to cry and Nanoha held up the small stuffed bunny for her.

Seeing the girl gasp and look at the bunny, Nanoha held it forward for her. "Hi, Vivio, my name is Nanoha," when Vivio took it and hugged the thing tightly, tears forming in her eyes, Nanoha had to fight the urge to hug the little girl herself. "What were you doing out there?" Her voice was still soft as Vivio sniffled while hugging the bunny.

"Mama... Where's mama?"

Nanoha gave Vivio a sad smile. "I don't know where your mama is, Vivio." The girl whimpered heavily and tears welled up in her eyes. "Vivio, how about you stay here?" The girl looked at Nanoha, who had moved closer to her. "I'll help you find your mama, okay? But, um, until then, I can look after you."

"Wow, sis, you're going to be her mama?" Arashi blinked and Nanoha looked at him in confusion before tapping her chin.

"Uh..." She looked at Vivio and saw the girl trembling softly. "For now, I guess, yes, I will be her mama for now."

The next thing Nanoha knew, Vivio threw herself at Nanoha and was hugging the older woman as tightly as she could while sobbing out mama. Nanoha closed her eyes and rocked back and forth, patting Vivio on the back gently and whispering that it would be okay.

Though, as she looked at Yuuno, she had a sudden image of herself, Yuuno and Fate as chibis, holding onto smaller versions of Vivio, Caro and Erio and her chibi self sticking her tongue out and going "I finally have one too!"

'...Where did that come from?'

(-)

Shamal wiped her forehead and smiled at Zwei. "Thank you for your help, Zwei." The girl nodded and sighed. "What's wrong?"

"I wish sis had me go with her, I could have saved her hand..."

"Zwei..." Shamal tapped Zwei on her head. "Signum didn't know that was going to happen. And if you were with Signum, you could have been badly hurt as well," Zwei whimpered heavily, "why don't you go and make sure that Signum is okay? It might be good if she sees you when she wakes up, okay?"

Zwei nodded and zipped off, causing Shamal to sigh heavily. "What a day..." She groaned and blinked as one of the security officers came up to her. "Is there a problem?"

"The prisoner is awake, ma'am, you may want to have a talk with her."

Shamal blinked several times. "I'm a doctor and psychologist, not an interrogator."

"Trust me, ma'am, you should talk to her first."

Shamal could only look on in confusion.

(-)

"Here you go, ma'am." The officer led Shamal into the holding cell. As she walked in, Shamal had to fight the urge to shiver as she felt her magic suddenly cut off from her. It had been a needed safety precaution, to find a way to make a room completely shut off magic, even if unwillingly.

Of course, such a thing wasn't easy to make, and creating weapons to seal away a person's magic wasn't practical, not yet. Though Mary had stated that she could probably have it done in another ten to fifteen years if she wasn't disturbed.

The room itself was pretty simple in design, a toilet in one corner, a sink not too far from it, a small bed across the room and nothing else except for the pink haired person on top of the bed.

"Oh!" She noticed Shamal for the first time and sat up. "My name's Kyrie Florian, and I gotta say, you guys are a _lot_ nicer than my last captors were. I mean, a new pair of panties and bra?" Kyrie pulled her shirt up, revealing those scars on her stomach, though she did show off a white bra underneath. "And a shirt, pants and socks?" Kyrie dropped her shirt and crawled to her knees. "If you wanted to seduce me, you could have just said 'spread your legs', it would have been much easier than getting me new clothes... And a bed... A bed! Oh my god!" Kyrie bounced on her knees, causing her breasts to wobble slightly as she bounced on the bed. "This is awesome! And you guys have meal plans?" Kyrie clasped her hands together, her eyes sparkling with happiness. "If you want, I'll be your slave forever!"

"I can see why they had me come in." Shamal shook her head. "So, Kyrie... My name is Shamal Yagami, and, I just want to talk with you."

"Aww..." Kyrie pouted and stopped bouncing. "I was expecting a bunch of guys to come in here while I can't use magic and I don't have my weapon and use my body to satisfy them." She blinked as Shamal blushed. "What? Isn't that normal? A pretty young girl gets captured and the men go in while she's naked, take their pants off and do stuff to the girl until she can't walk and won't fight back?"

"So, when did that happen to you?" Shamal walked over to the bed and sat down next to Kyrie, who sat down normally and pulled her knees up to her chest.

"Hmm... Let's see, dad was murdered when I was four... And then hmm... I think it was about five years later..." She blinked and closed her eyes, muttering something. "Hmm... There was that time on Ginbes III, and then on Menucel and on Slenser... Yeah, five years later, so I was nine."

"Kyrie, how old are you now?"

Kyrie blinked at the question and scratched her head. "Uh... Seventeen, maybe... Amitie's older than I am, I think she's nineteen, maybe... I dunno. Not really important knowing that." Kyrie smiled at Shamal. "After all, it's more important to enjoy yourself, right? I mean, if you're not killing people because of your master, you're probably sleeping with them, right? Well, maybe not on this world, it's really peaceful, but then again, Kuma didn't know about Mazoku. I wonder why."

"Mazoku?" Shamal blinked at her. "There's a Mazoku here?"

"Maybe, but I don't know. I mean, isn't everyone with magic a slave to a Mazoku or Shinzoku and forced to fight each other?" Shamal slowly shook her head and Kyrie blinked. "Huh, because that's the way it is where I'm from." Her stomach gurgled lightly and Kyrie blinked. "Uh... Sorry, guess I'm pretty hungry."

"I'll have some food brought down to you."

"Cool!" Kyrie grinned at her. "I've had some ice cream and... A hoagie, yeah, a hoagie, since I got to this universe. Gotta admit, I'm surprised I'm hungry so soon, I ate like three days ago. Then again, I usually use my magic to regulate how fast my body digests food, and I can't..."

"Stop," Shamal sighed as she looked at Kyrie, "is this all true?"

Kyrie sweat-dropped at the question, "if I lie, you'll get upset and you'll likely chain me to the wall and then whip me, right? So, why would I lie? It never helps to lie. My masters never liked it when I lied... Or when I talked back... Or asked questions really."

"I see," Shamal said softly and put her hand on Kyrie's shoulder, "those things you said, that you asked if we do... The rape, the starving, the torture... We would never do those things to you." The next thing Shamal knew, Kyrie was hugging her. "Kyrie?"

"Mmmm! You're all so awesome! What if Amitie comes for me? I can't tell her no, she'll be worried about me and..."

"Let's worry about that later." Shamal smiled as Kyrie let go. "For now, let's talk about some other stuff, okay?"

"Shamal, you can talk about how you want me to warm your bed, I don't care." Kyrie smiled happily. "This universe rocks."

Shamal sighed softly and knew she was going to hate it when she found out just what kind of horrors Kyrie had gone through in her life. "You're not from this universe then?"

Kyrie shook her head. "Nah uh... Amitie and I are from the universe where Death Fog and the White Cloud Dragon were enemies."

'Well, isn't that perfect? Now there's people from the Dark, Red, and White universes on this one.' Shamal thought to herself. She didn't know what was going to happen next, but she knew one thing...

It would be interesting.

(-)

Elsewhere...

"Something wrong?" Kuma asked as he and Amitie rode along in his car. The girl he had rescued back at the battle and sent off in his car had left the car in the woods somewhere. Kuma may not have remembered her name, but he could remember how cute she was, plus that large cannon she had was fairly intimidating to him. Then again, seeing her blush like she did, it almost made him put her in the back seat and force her to stay in the car as well. She was easily as cute as that girl, Tiyana was.

It was almost a shame that he had to program the car to let her out and come and meet up with him and Amitie. Then again, Kuma had lost all feeling in his legs from running for so long and was having trouble just moving his body normally.

Amitie turned and glared at him. "You ask what's wrong? You left my sister behind!" She pulled out her gun and pointed it at him. "I'm telling you, right now, you better turn around and go back for her or so help me..."

"Go back to get her, get beaten and arrested?" Kuma asked as he looked ahead, completely unaffected by the gun she was pointing at his face. "And, unlike you, I'm sure that your sister is fine."

"No, she's not." Amitie trembled and winced. "Nnnngh, what's..."

"You've got at least one broken rib from blocking that magic attack back there." Kuma said as he pulled his car to a stop. The doors to the car opened up and Amitie blinked at where they were.

"...What the?" She saw the large building that Kuma had pulled up to, but didn't know the significance of it. "What's this for?"

Kuma stretched as he stuck his legs out of the car and forced himself to stand up. "An outdoor hot springs, miss Anita."

"It's Amitie." She grumbled as she got out. "You can call me Amita or Ami, but not Anita." Holstering her weapons, she glared at him as he hobbled towards the steps, "and why are we at a hot spring?"

"I own it." Kuma smirked at her as he stumbled forward. "But it's so far out of town that it never sees business. Which works out for me, actually. I like the mercenary work." He grimaced as he fell forward, collapsing to the ground and rolling to a stop at the bottom of the stairs. "Well, damn, I knew I shouldn't have gone so fast for so long." He looked up as a hand was offered to him. "Thanks."

"Don't mention it." Amitie muttered as she helped him up the stairs. "So, how'd you know that my rib was busted?" Her eyes widened when he took his shades off and put them on her face. "What the heck?"

Kuma smiled softly as they made their way inside. "Those glasses double as a data collection visor. It lets me see things far ahead of me so I can adjust my trajectory when making a run, zoom in on small details from at least forty kilometers away, see a person's physical condition if they're not too far away, block out annoyingly bright lights, like the sun on a cloudless day, scan a person and get an idea of how strong their magic is, there's a clock that tells me the time of day on any world and they work great at making me look awesome."

"That's... Pretty cool." Amitie nodded as he took the glasses back and put them on. "So, where to next?"

"I'll show you. We're going to soak in the hot springs." Amitie nodded and Kuma grabbed a towel as they walked down the hallway. "Though, there is another reason that we came here."

"Of course." Amitie nodded, not the least bit surprised. "So, you want it in the changing room or should we do it in the water itself?"

Kuma stared at her, blinking a few times. "Ah, that's not what I meant, missy. What I meant was, there's clean clothes for you here." Amitie stared at him. "You probably haven't noticed, but you haven't changed your clothes much since you got here. I figure that you'd like to have a clean pair of underwear on at least."

"You have women's underwear?"

"My mother ran a clothing store before she died." Kuma shook his head. "Sad thing is, it was just after I opened this place up. And I couldn't stand the thought of people buying the clothes just because we had to sell everything, so I stole everything and brought the clothes here."

Amitie shook her head. "So, what's so good about these hot springs?"

Kuma chuckled as they got to the changing rooms. "My dear, when you get in, you'll find out."

Amitie could only blink in wonder.

A little later...

Kuma sighed as he lowered his body into the water. "Nnnngh..." The hot water always felt really good on his legs after he pushed himself too hard. For once, he wasn't wearing his sunglasses as he took a deep breath of the steamy air. "Feels good."

"I agree." Kuma blinked several times and sat up, staring as Amitie was walking towards him in the hot springs. What made him stare wasn't that she was walking towards him, it was the fact that she was completely naked. "...What?"

"We do have modesty towels." Kuma wasn't going to stop looking, she was quite lovely.

Amitie shrugged, her breasts bouncing as she slid under the water and sighed as she felt her damaged ribs tingle. "Nnngh... Wow... What's in this water?"

"I don't know." Kuma shook his head and looked at her. "So, how come you don't care if I see you naked?"

"Look," Amitie narrowed her eyes at him, "you've been a nice guy, and I don't mind that, but the truth is, if you wanted to use either Kyrie or myself for your own personal pleasure, neither of us could have stopped you. Sure, we might have driven you off once or twice, but you'd find a way to take us if you wanted to." She turned and slid up to him, straddling his waist and putting her hands on his shoulders. "So, what is it? You finally give in and want to have me? You want me like this? Or maybe bent over the side so you don't have to look at me as you mount me from behind?" Kuma could only stare at her and she laughed at him. "I don't have any reason to fight against you. At least men lose interest after they're done using me."

Kuma just stared at her, and he would admit, her naked body on top of his was tempting, very tempting, but he just couldn't. "Is Kyrie just as messed up as you are?"

"Kyrie snapped a long time ago," Amitie shook her head, "she can only smile and be cheerful for being alive." Amitie lowered her head and shook lightly, "she doesn't care what someone does to her, she wouldn't care if her captors chopped her arms and legs off of her, she'd still smile."

"That's... I don't..." Kuma stuttered as Amitie looked at him, anger in her eyes.

"You don't understand, that's right. She hasn't cried, gotten angry, sad or anything for almost half her life! All she does is smile, nod her head and ask for more. That's why I'm worried! I'm worried that they'll have her do something horrible and then she'll end up dead!" She squeezed his shoulders tightly. "Don't you get it, Kuma? Kyrie doesn't care what's done to her. If I wasn't there..." Amitie shuddered before growling at him. "If I wasn't in her life, she'd be dead by now, I _have_ to save her! I have to! Just let me go!"

Kuma put his hands on her shoulders and pulled her down so she was laying on top of him completely. "You know that I can't let you go just to get captured." He could feel her shaking, whether it was out of anger, frustration or sadness, he couldn't tell. "Without a plan, you'll never succeed at all. I'll help you free your sister, but right now, you need to relax and recover." She nodded against him and hugged him, not moving her body.

After a few moments, Amitie looked at his face and gave him a small smirk. "Couldn't help it, huh?"

"I am a guy, and you are a very lovely young lady."

She snorted and closed her eyes. "If you want me to take care of that, let me know..." Her breathing started to slow down. "I'm kind of tired right now."

Kuma nodded and rubbed her back, careful to only touch her back. He mentally cursed as she moved slightly. 'This is a horrible torture.' He whimpered as tears fell out of his eyes.

He knew he could have just asked her to deal with it, but considering what she told him, he didn't have the heart for it. Taking a deep breath to calm down, he gave her a hug, causing her to groan while asleep. "I won't let Bevi use you like you've been used in the past." He whispered to her.

Oddly enough, Amitie had a small smile creep onto her face as she slept.


	234. StrikerS Thirty Four

Blood That Flows

StrikerS Thirty-Four

Of course I own nothing.

* * *

Later that night...

Nanoha sat in front of a computer screen, looking the data from the last battle over that Raising Heart had collected. Most of the information wasn't too interesting, just estimates of the strength that each fighter on the field had.

Though, she had to admit, that vicious little redhead really did intrigue her.

"Mama?" A young voice spoke up, causing Nanoha to look up at the bed as Vivio sat up, looking around in confusion. "Mama? Mama!"

Nanoha quickly got up and made her way over to the bed, sitting down next to Vivio. "Hey, Vivio, what..?" She blinked as Vivio whimpered and hugged her tightly. "Vivio?"

"I'm scared..." The girl sobbed softly. "Bad dream."

Nanoha smiled warmly and picked the girl up before putting Vivio on her lap. "Shh, mama's here," she whispered softly while rubbing Vivio's back and rocking back and forth, "bad nightmares can't hurt you anymore."

Vivio whimpered but soon settled down. The images of a man standing over her and laughing evilly faded away as Nanoha hummed a soft tune.

(-)

The next day...

Subaru looked at Nove as the two of them walked down the hallway of Jail's base. "Um... He, uh... I think I broke him." She flinched at the glare Nove gave her. "Hey, come on, how was I supposed to know that's what you guys were doing?"

"I tell you, it makes no sense!" Nove growled as she balled her hands into fists. "Why would the Bureau do the same thing that the doctor's doing?"

"Um, we're kind of an experimental group," Subaru chuckled nervously as Nove glared at her, "but why are you all going after those Lost Logia?"

Nove stopped and looked at her sister, before turning and opening a door. "In here, I'll show you why we're after the Relics... At least one of them."

Subaru blinked and stared in shock as the answer became apparent. "...A naked woman?"

"Her name is Megane Alphine." A new voice spoke up and Subaru noticed, for the first time, the silver-haired cyborg in the room. "Someone that I injured heavily years ago."

"Cinque..." Nove was about to move to her but her older sister held a hand up. "What's wrong?"

"I've... I did it again. When I fought that pink haired knight... I was fighting to keep myself from losing control the whole time against her, but still, I..." Cinque drew in a shuddering breath. "I still used _that_ power during that fight."

"You fought against Signum?" Subaru stared at Cinque. "But you're still in one piece." Subaru remembered her first one-on-one spar against Signum. The gash that she took from one of Signum's strikes was so bad that she was afraid that she would have died right then and there.

"I lost my hand in the fight, then I regrew it." Cinque took a deep breath and shook her head. "I was too busy fighting off the urge to destroy everything."

"Ano... Did Signum use any magic on you at all?" Cinque shook her head and Subaru blinked owlishly. "You were really lucky then. She could have turned you into fried chicken from a distance."

"She's lucky she didn't try to then." Cinque narrowed her eye at Subaru. "I was having a hard time keeping myself in check..." She took a deep breath and shook her head. "I don't doubt that she could have beaten me, probably killed me, but if she had tried to use offensive magic on me, I would have lost complete control and that Dragon, the summoner and the two knights would have died in the process." Cinque looked at the floor, shame on her face as her body trembled. "That's what happened to Megane Alphine, and why we have her daughter. Even if we could fix her, I could never repay any debt that I owe her."

Nove glared at Subaru and walked over to Cinque, hugging the smaller cyborg. "Shhh... Cinque, you didn't lose control, you're okay, nothing bad happened, I'm sure."

"It's more... Debt... I owe so much." Cinque hugged Nove and took a shuddering breath. "Nove, how can I repay everyone?"

Nove closed her eyes and looked at Cinque. "You might need to do what you're afraid of the most," Cinque looked at her and they both looked at Megane before turning to look at each other again, "you're going to have to use that power again, but try to use it to save her." Cinque fidgeted in place and looked away. "Dammit, Cinque!" Nove grabbed her shoulders to make Cinque look at her directly. "I love you, but you're really pissing me off right now! You're the only one who can fix her, so either do it yourself or you can let her rot, either way, stop looking at her and being sad. Just _do_ something, anything!" She pushed Cinque away and turned to look at Subaru. "If you don't do something, then you can never achieve anything. If you decide to at least try, get Un-nee to make it easier to get to her."

Cinque could only stare as Nove and Subaru left the lab. Turning her head, she looked at Megane and gulped softly. 'Can I use this power for more than just... Death?' She asked herself as she looked at her trembling hands. It was so terrifying. Nove couldn't understand it. Only Dieci could understand it like she could. Using that power was like being consumed in a sea of infinite darkness and the coast was nowhere in sight. The mere thought of using it scared her. Reaching up to her right eye, Cinque pulled her eye patch off and looked at Megane, gasping as she saw the black and gold energy surrounding the older woman. "...You understand it too, don't you?"

Cinque fell to her knees and buried her face in her hands as tears fell out of her face. "I was an idiot. I'm so sorry. I was so afraid of it... So terrified of what I could do that I never... Never thought what it was like for you, you've been immersed since that day, haven't you?" She looked up and a screen popped up in front of her. "Uno... I need your help."

Uno just looked at her in confusion, but nodded.

(-)

"Nove," both Nove and Subaru turned to see Tre walking up to them, she narrowed her eyes at Subaru, "there's still going to be training today, even if your _sister_," Tre snorted at that, "wants to watch, she's welcome to, but if not, she'll need to be locked up in your room."

"I'll be there." Nove nodded and Tre brushed past them without a word.

"...She's not nice, is she?" Subaru looked at Nove, who snorted at her. "What?"

"She doesn't like the Bureau anymore than any of us do." Nove sighed heavily. "Though, she hates it more for a different reason." Subaru blinked several times. "Do you know why Cinque has an eye-patch?" She looked at Subaru, who shook her head slowly. "During one of their earlier missions together, Cinque, Tre, Sein and Quattro ran into a Bureau group and they ended up fighting. Due was part of that group and nearly died, and Cinque lost her right eye in that fight. Tre was badly injured as well. But she was more mad about the fact that Cinque and Due were hurt rather than herself." Nove turned to watch Tre walk away and sighed heavily. "Come on, you wanna watch?"

"Sure..." Subaru followed Nove, wondering just why she was putting up with everything.

Part of Subaru knew why, even if she wouldn't admit it.

She was curious about who her sister was living with, and what kind of people they were.

(-)

"Uno..." Jail spoke up, his voice was distant and sounded old. "What have I done?" No one answered him as no one was in the room with him. Jail was looking up, his eyes unfocused as he leaned back in his chair. "All this time, I was preparing them to fight an enemy so that the world could survive, but, was I wrong? Why didn't we know about this Riot Force? Why didn't we know what it was for?" He stopped leaning back and slumped down in his seat, head hanging low as his arms rested on his legs. "What have I been doing all this time?" He groaned and grabbed his head as a memory came to him, unbidden.

***Flash***

"Mazoku scum!" One of the men around him yelled before firing a weapon at the Mazoku, who laughed as it blasted through his body, doing nothing. "Dammit!"

"You know that won't work, let me!" Jail, no, it wasn't Jail, he wasn't called that back then, his precursor turned to see a woman in a skin-tight black outfit, glowing wings on her back, a sash around her mid-section, a shield on her right hand and a spear in her left, on her chest was a red gem protected by a metal case. Her head was protected by a metal helmet as she looked at the Mazoku that were threatening their lives. "This Knight Valkyrie Armor will end all of you! Raising Heart, let's go."

**"Alright, Divine Slasher."**

The Mazoku laughed, until a white circle appeared under the woman's feet. "Begone, now!" Gripping the spear with both hands, she rushed in at the group of Mazoku and stabbed forth, "sword," she cried out, her spear turning into a long, single-edge sword that she used to cut down the enemies with ease.

"Dammit! When Lord Garoth hears about this, you'll be, GAH!"

The Mazoku never got to finish as the sword turned into a large, single tube cannon, that rested on the woman's arm, evaporated the Mazoku's body in a single shot.

Jail's precursor could only watch as the woman undid the helmet and take it off, letting her long, silver hair to flow freely down her back. Turning, she smiled at him, her eyes showing nothing but good cheer. "I told you, didn't I, father? Between the Knight Valkyrie Armor, what will happen to me and the Tome of the Night Sky, and also if we get the secret weapon complete, even the mighty Garoth will fall."

He nodded to her. "Yes, that's right."

The weapon would be finished in ten days. If they could just get that much time, they would win.

***End Flash***

"We never got that time," Jail muttered to himself and grabbed his head. "Garoth wiped us out within the week."

He looked to the side and saw a screen as a 3-D model of a ship rotated on it. "The Saint's Cradle." But they had lost the Saint Kaiser, "do I even need it anymore?" He stood up and walked over to the screen and typed in some information. "The real prize, Al Hazard, I know where you are now." The only problem was, getting to Al Hazard. "The cradle could do it, easily."

Jail just hung his head, sighing heavily. For the first time in ten years, he was uncertain about all of his plans.

(-)

"Yagami..." Zest looked at the screen, seeing Hayate looking at him, worry in her eyes. "We have Zafira, even with Zelgadis's healing, he's in bad shape. We'll be doing an emergency transfer in, have an emergency team on standby."

Hayate nodded and made a mental call to several of the doctors. "Go on, I'll make sure that there's no problems with you transferring."

Zest nodded as the screen turned off and Hayate fought the urge to shudder as she got behind her desk and started typing in data into her computer.

_"Hayate..."_ Reinforce's voice came to her mind, weaker than she had ever heard Reinforce's voice.

Hayate stopped, her pupils shrinking as a cold feeling came over her. "...What's going on? Reinforce? Reinforce, can you hear me?"

Her only answer was an echo of pain, excitement and a sensation of loss. "What's going on?" Hayate slammed her hands on her desk, anger and frustration building up in her.

(-)

"You should be in bed, Ginga," the long-haired girl looked up to see her mother with a cup of hot liquid, likely coffee, in her hands walk up to her. "Then again, I probably should be as well." Sitting down at the table, Quint looked at Ginga. "Well? After what happened yesterday, only you and Caro are in any real shape to do any training today."

"I'm worried about Subaru, mom," Ginga looked at her, worry written on her face. "What am I supposed to do? If I had been there..."

"Then I might have lost all three of my daughters." Quint spoke up, stopping her rant. "That girl, Nove... She is your sister." Ginga's stunned look told her a lot at that moment. "We'll get Subaru back," Quint smiled lightly, "my daughters, all of them, aren't so weak that any of them would be taken out so easily." Quint winked at Ginga, "besides, I think this might be good for her."

"But, what if Jail does something to her?" Ginga slammed her hands on the table, causing it to groan, "what's to stop him from turning her into a weapon?"

"I admit, that possibility crossed my mind several times." Quint sighed softly and looked at her coffee, "and it worries me, because if anyone knows how Combat Cyborgs work, it's Jail. Yeah, your sister could be working for him, dead, or in pieces while conscious and..." Quint took a deep breath and closed her eyes. "I don't want to think about it, and neither should you. For now, let's just focus on what we can do."

"Which is..?" Ginga blinked as Quint grinned at her. "Mom?"

"We're going to come up with some plans and moves to deal with Jail's cyborgs. Your old woman still has a few moves I haven't taught you yet."

Ginga gulped at the look in Quint's eyes. Part of her wondered just how messed up the training was going to be. "Like what?"

"You and Subaru focus on your hands too much, I think I should teach you some of the leg-work." Granted, Quint thought that Nove would benefit more from this than Ginga or Subaru ever would. "I think I can get Nanoha to let me work with you more directly for a while."

Ginga paled at her mother's grin. Sure, her mother was awesome, nice and wonderful...

But she took her Strike and Shooting Arts seriously. The last time she asked for personal training for special techniques from Quint, Ginga had been knocked out cold and required three days of recovery time before she even tried to learn those moves again.

Of course, that had been without the benefit of specialized healing magic. She doubted that she was going to get the same time to relax this time around.

(-)

Cracking an eye open as her alarm went off, Nanoha reached over and hit the button to turn it off. Sitting up and stretching her arms above her head to get any stiffness out of her back, she blinked as she felt a body touching her. She looked at the other occupant in her bed and blinked, if Fate wasn't curled up against her, who was?

Peeling the blanket back, her eyes softened as she saw Vivio hugging and cuddling against her. Gently peeling the girl off of her, she picked Vivio up and put her next to Fate, smiling brightly as Vivio turned over and hugged Fate, who rolled slightly in her sleep and hugged Vivio back. 'Cute.' She thought to herself as she went to get dressed.

As Nanoha changed her clothes and got ready for the day, she looked at a small box on her dresser top. Her eyes narrowed as she thought about the contents within. "Mom, what would you do, right now?" She asked herself as she put her hair into its side ponytail. "I need your help, mom. Everything's falling apart around me, and I don't think more power can..." She stopped and looked at the box again. "...More power for me won't work," a grin came to her face as she grabbed the box, "but there is someone who'll make more use of this than I can."

As Nanoha walked out of her room, part of her wondered if this was the right thing to do. These items had been in her family for nearly three decades by now.

(-)

Shari looked at the remains of Laevantein and grimaced. Even if they put it back together, at least half of the blade and some of the hilt had been completely destroyed from that explosion. She looked at one of the few pieces that had survived mostly intact, though, it was melted down something fierce. "Well, it's not too hard to fix a cartridge chamber." She muttered and turned to look at the few pieces that were floating in a stasis field. "Damn, I'm surprised you managed to survive, Laevantein." Sure, the body was destroyed, but the core A.I. was mostly intact from what she could see.

Mostly, because other than that last fight, most of what it had in its data banks for the past year was gone. "Good thing we have back-ups." Shari shook her head and blinked as a message appeared on screen. "What the..?" Her eyes widened as she realized what the message was saying. "Are you sure? I mean, I'm no weapon smith, but that might take awhile to do for us, even if Mary and her crack-pot crew was here with the best Device Meisters on Cranagan."

**"Ja."**

Shari smiled at the device. "You care for Signum that much, huh?" When the device confirmed what she suspected, Shari found herself nodding and making several calls at once. "You do realize that what you're asking me to do is borderline illegal, right?" Shari snorted at that. "You don't care, and, really, I hope it works."

After all, if it did, it would help Signum more than ever.

If Laevantein could smile, it would. After all, it wouldn't let Signum down, even if it meant that it had to break a few laws in the process.

(-)

As she stood outside of the operating area, Hayate could only stare in helplessness as she saw Zafira on that table, fighting for his life while several medics worked on healing him. "You couldn't get him in sooner?" She asked Zelgadis softly as they watched Shamal, her hair was white, not from magic drain, but from unisoning with Rein Zwei.

"Trust me, I didn't dare move him until just now. I don't know much about anatomy, but I'm pretty sure that the fact that his body was smoking slightly was a bad thing." Zelgadis looked at Hayate as she squeezed her hands into fists. "Now what? I don't know if he'll survive."

When Hayate glared at him, Zelgadis found himself taking a step back. The young woman wasn't the most intimidating person he had ever met, hell, her glare actually made her look somewhat cute, but then again, he knew that she had magic at least on par with Lina's and making someone who had access to lots of different pain-inducing spells and pissing off someone who could flatten cities with ease was not really conductive to living a long and healthy life. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be rude about it."

"...I know someone who can look into his mind." Hayate turned away and walked out of the room, her eyes felt hot, burning and the sheer anger and frustration on her face kept anyone, even Vita, from speaking to her as she made her way to her office and locked the doors. Taking a deep breath, she called up a view screen and put it on audio-only. "Verossa, this is Hayate, I need you to come down here."

"What's wrong?"

"It's Zafira... He's been badly hurt," what she was going to say next nearly made her cry, "and I don't know if he'll survive much longer."

"I'll be down in three minutes." The communication ended there and Hayate sat down in her chair and spun it so that she wouldn't have to look at the door.

She wouldn't cry, not yet. She would refuse to cry. "Zafira, when I find out who hurt you like that, I'll introduce them to such pain that they'll wish they were never born. And if they hurt Reinforce at all..." She trailed off, squeezing the arms of her chair tightly as a magical aura slowly flickered into life around her. "I swear it."

* * *

Nanoha: I thought I'd find you here.  
Teana: Um, yes, what can I do for you?  
Nanoha: Next time on Blood That Flows - StrikerS, read it, or things might explode.


	235. StrikerS Thirty Five

Blood That Flows

StrikerS Thirty-Five

Of course I own nothing.

Another chapter that's not exactly sunshine and roses.

* * *

Outside in the training field...

As she watched Teana shoot some targets with her one good arm, Nanoha chuckled softly. "Teana..." The girl turned to look at her. "You know that you have the day off so everyone can recover properly, right?"

"I just wanted to practice my aim, that's all, nothing strenuous at all."

Nanoha nodded, smiling at her. "That's admirable, actually." She walked up to the shorter girl and nodded. "Teana, could you put your Barrier Jacket on for me?"

Blinking, Teana wondered what Nanoha had in mind, before she finally noticed a box in Nanoha's hand. "Uh, sure." A moment later, she was wearing her black skirt, white jacket, her hair was done up in twin pony tails, there were four belts around her waist and on her feet were white boots. "What's that for?" Her eyes widened as Nanoha opened the box, revealing four red gemstones. "Woah, they're pretty, what are they?"

"They're called the Demon's Blood Talismans." Nanoha put the box down. "My mother had them, and she passed them onto me, but I haven't used them in years. Teana... I want you to have them."

Teana looked at them, shock on her face. "But, I... Why? What are they for?"

"Magic Amplification. With this, even if your magic was sealed away, you could draw upon your magic and use it." Nanoha smiled as Teana's eyes widened almost comically. "My mother gave them to me to help me enhance and control my magic when I was younger. I've gotten past that point, and I don't need the boost anymore. So, I figured you could use them."

"...Because I'm weak?" Teana was a little bitter about the implications and blinked as Nanoha shook her head. "Then why?"

"Teana, if you compare yourself to me, you're not going to be strong." Nanoha knew there was no reason to beat around the bush this time. "But if you compare yourself to most of the Bureau, you're going to be very strong," when Teana gave her a confused look, Nanoha just chuckled softly. "If you were to go to nearly any division or group in the Bureau, you'd be one of the best members they have easily. But I'm not giving you these talismans because I think you're weak. I'm giving them to you... Because you've earned them."

"Even... Even after what happened with Sein and..?" Teana was stopped when Nanoha put a finger on her lips, causing the younger girl to blush heavily.

"Whatever your relationship is with that girl, I don't know. If you two are friends, enemies, lovers, or something else, I don't know, I'm not going to pry. No one here ever thought bad about you for what happened." Nanoha pulled her hand back. "Tell me, Teana, will you accept these?"

Teana looked at Nanoha, then at the Talismans and bit her lower lip. "How do you use them?"

Nanoha smiled and pulled them out of the box. "Teana Lanster, these are very old items," Nanoha hooked one to each of Teana's four belts, "and very powerful. They contain the power of Dark Star, Ruby Eyes, Death Fog and Chaotic Blue, the four most powerful and evil demonic creatures to exist." After attaching them to Teana's belt, Nanoha stood up and took a step back. "I want you to know, however, using them does not mean you will turn evil." Teana nodded and Nanoha pointed at the target range. "Turn around and repeat these words to activate them."

Teana nodded and turned around, wondering what she was supposed to do.

"Lords of Darkness of the Four Worlds," Nanoha began softly.

"Lords of Darkness of the Four Worlds," Teana repeated and blinked as she felt magic starting to surge through her. 'What the heck?'

"Grant me all the power you possess." Nanoha finished the chant.

"Grant me all the power you possess." Teana's eyes widened stupidly as the four talismans suddenly glowed brightly and more magic than she had ever felt flowed through her. "Woah..."

"Now Teana, try firing something." Nanoha smiled as Teana nodded and held Cross Mirage in front of her and a circle formed under her feet.

Teana stared in shock at how fast the spell she was attempting to fire gathered in front of her. "Phantom... BLAZER!" Pulling the trigger, Teana was nearly blown off of her feet from the kick-back and was thankful Nanoha grabbed her from behind. What shocked her though, besides how fast she was able to charge up her strongest, albeit slowest spell, was the sheer size of the blast radius.

"Reminds me of when I first used them and fired a Divine Buster." Nanoha chuckled as the spell wore off, leaving a deep and wide trench in its wake. "Teana, cancel the amplification."

Teana nodded and slumped to her knees, not out of exhaustion, but out of shock. "That was incredible! That was... So powerful," Teana stood up and turned to Nanoha as the talismans powered down, "Nanoha, how... Something like this... I..." She blinked as Nanoha put a hand on her good shoulder.

"Teana, I've watched you, you're still a little hot-headed, still a little stubborn, but you've got a good head on your shoulders," the younger girl blushed heavily, "that's why, I want to teach you a special technique." Teana blinked several times. "I don't know why, but I have a bad feeling something big is coming soon, but... I think I might be trying to teach this to you too soon."

"...You were going to teach it to me anyway?" Teana stared as Nanoha nodded at her.

"Yeah, it's not easy, but I'm sure that you can learn it."

Teana just blinked and tilted her head, but nodded. "Sure."

(-)

Elsewhere...

Reinforce gasped, her eyes wide as she looked straight forward while her body shook.

Levi chuckled heavily as she looked at Reinforce. "My dear Reinforce, you liked that one, huh?" Seeing the device blush and try to look away, Levi just laughed and smirked at her. "I have to admit," Levi leered at Reinforce's naked body from where she was sitting, "you're quite tasty." Levi licked her lips, "especially when you reached your peak." She laughed as shame, humiliation and anger washed off of Reinforce. "And your emotions are pretty tasty as well."

"You're sick," Reinforce panted as she twitched.

"Aww..." Levi mock-whined and walked up to Reinforce, pouting softly. "What? You can't tell me that you didn't enjoy it, I felt you hit release." Reaching up, Levi squeezed Reinforce's breasts and enjoyed how they felt in her hands. "Really, how do you enjoy your time with that girl? She loves groping breasts from what I've seen and heard."

"Hayate doesn't force herself on me," Reinforce growled at Levi and groaned as the tube in her ass suddenly vibrated violently, "st, stop it!"

"Hmm? Oh, that?" Levi shook her head, "no... I need your data, my dear, and I notice that I get more data if your mind is preoccupied with something else, so, I'm going to have to do something rather fun for me, and not-so-fun for you."

"What are you..?" Reinforce stared at what Levi did next. "That's just wrong." Especially since women typically didn't have _that_ sort of equipment coming out from between their legs. At least normally.

"What? Don't like it?" Levi chuckled as she looked down at her handy-work. "Lutecia never complained when I did this to her."

Reinforce shuddered as she looked at Levi. "If I ever let that kind of part into my body, it would have to be attached to Hayate and..." Her eyes widened as Levi smirked and her body seemed to shrink slightly, hair changing to brown and becoming much shorter and her clothing disappeared. "St..Stop it!"

"What's the matter, Reinforce?" Levi said, using Hayate's naked body and voice, "I thought you loved me?"

"You're not Hayate!" Reinforce thrashed, trying to get away from Levi. "Don't!" Her eyes widened as she saw what Levi was doing next.

"Don't worry, Reinforce," 'Hayate' said, smiling at Reinforce gently, "it'll only be uncomfortable at first, since you're not used to the stretching sensation yet."

Reinforce just whimpered, before letting out a scream in pain as Levi, using Hayate's body, showed her how futile resistance really was.

(-)

Hayate screwed her eyes shut. 'What is this pain?' She asked, grimacing as she could feel it through her body. "Reinforce," she whispered softly and blinked as she heard a knocking at the door, unlocking it, she leaned back in her chair, which was still facing away from the door, "come in."

"Hayate," she heard Verossa speak up as he walked into the room, "Zafira... He doesn't look good, I did find out what happened though, and, uh..." He started to sweat as Hayate turned to look at him, her eyes narrowed, "you need to see this."

Hayate watched as Verossa pulled out a flat data device, his hand started to glow and an image was projected into the air. "...No way..." She whispered as she saw who it was. "She's dead." When the image ended, Hayate trembled and looked down into her lap. "Get... Get me Fate. NOW!" She glared as she looked up at Verossa, who was sent scrambling out of the room as fast as he could. 'How did she survive? How? And what does she want with Reinforce?'

It was almost fifteen minutes later when Fate stood in front of her, dressed in her usual outfit. "You wished to see me, Hayate?" Behind her, Verossa gulped as he saw Hayate's eyes smoldering with anger.

"Tell me, Fate... Do you remember what happened to Alicia?"

Fate blinked several times. "I stabbed her and used a Nemesis Zambar Breaker on her, why?" A chill came over her as Hayate snapped her fingers and said Verossa's name. Her eyes widened as she saw what Verossa had gleamed from Zafira's memories. "...That's impossible. How? I destroyed her when I was nine. Mother was there, Alicia could have come back to kill both of us if she was still alive, how did..?"

"You injured her, badly..." Hayate whispered softly, gripping her chair arms tightly as she tried to hold back her anger, "but she was only injured, not dead. And now," Hayate stood up and for some reason, Fate and Verossa both felt like they were three inches tall, "ten years later, she comes back, kidnaps Reinforce and damn near kills Zafira and who knows what else?"

"Hayate, I..."

"Get out!" Hayate snapped at Fate and Verossa, "both of you, OUT!"

They both nodded and quickly left the room. When the door closed behind them, Hayate sat down and trembled before giving up and crossing her arms on the desk and burying her face against them, allowing her to muffle her sobs as the emotions were too much for her to deal with.

(-)

"Fate, she's..." Verossa started and Fate held up a hand to silence him.

"I know," she said softly, "if something happened to Erio, Nanoha, or Yuuno like that, I would be like that as well. I'm not mad at her, but I need to do something now."

Verossa could only watch as Fate walked off. "Don't do anything stupid."

Fate stopped, turned and smiled at him. "I don't even know where she is, and if she's been hiding out for ten years, Alicia's not stupid enough to come after me directly. But I think that I need to talk to some people."

Verossa nodded and sighed heavily. "Who is Alicia?" What Fate said next completely floored him.

"My sister."

(-)

"Signum..." Reinforce Zwei, in her larger form, making her look like a normal-sized child, whimpered as she saw her oldest sister laying on the bed, a bandage wrap on her right arm where her wrist was supposed to be, a white bandage over her right eye. "Come on, speak to me."

"I'm not dead," Signum opened her left eye to look at Zwei, "how long was I out?"

"...You got out of surgery yesterday." Zwei said softly from her position on the floor. "Signum-nee... Why didn't you have me come with? Why didn't you use barriers? What happened?"

"Who said I didn't use barriers?" Signum grunted and lifted her right arm up, before growling and slamming it down. "Why do you think I'm alive? I didn't have time to make a very strong barrier, it was only strong enough to keep the stuff from getting too deep into me. Didn't think to guard my face very well though."

Zwei whimpered and jumped on the bed, hugging Signum. "Why didn't you take me with you? I could have helped you."

Signum could only move her arm across Zwei's back, hugging the small girl. She didn't have an answer for her.

"Glad to see that you're awake." Signum looked at the door as Vita walked in. One thing that she noticed right away was that Vita wasn't happy. While that wasn't uncommon, it seemed unusual for her in the current situation. "Zafira's injured," Vita nodded as Signum's eye widened, "we don't know if he'll make it."

"Do we know who did it?" Signum didn't like it when Vita closed her eyes and bit her lower lip. "I'm not going to like this, am I?"

"No, you won't," Vita looked at Zwei, who was looking at her with worry and confusion. "Zwei, I'm sorry, but... Mom's missing as well," Zwei gasped and trembled at hearing that, "Zafira's injuries, mom's kidnapping... Was done by the same person..."

"Who?" Signum knew she wasn't going to like what she heard next.

"Our past has caught up to us again," Vita grumbled, "Alicia's back, I just heard from Fate."

"What?" Signum sat up and groaned as her eye and arm throbbed painfully. "Testarossa killed her sister ten years ago."

Vita and Signum ignored the way that Zwei gasped at hearing that. "I know, Signum, but apparently Alicia was a lot tougher than most Mazoku are."

"Fate's sister is a Mazoku?" Zwei asked, heavily confused. "But Fate's not a Mazoku, how can she have a sister that's a Mazoku, unless Precia was a Mazoku, but then how did she die? Or maybe Precia faked her death and Fate's a Mazoku and she plans to eat us when we sleep?"

"Oh, if Fate's going to eat anyone, it'll be either Nanoha or Yuuno," Vita smirked at Zwei, "or Arisa, but then again, I think Arisa'll eat Fate first." When Zwei gasped and her eyes widened, Vita actually started laughing at her. "Don't worry, Fate's not a Mazoku. Alicia... She's Fate's sister, but, when Alicia died a long time ago, she was turned into a Mazoku by a powerful enemy of ours. Ten years ago, Fate and Alicia fought against each other... And we thought Alicia was killed by Fate."

"And now she comes back and injures Zafira and takes Reinforce?" Signum narrowed her eye. "Dammit, if I had seen this sooner..."

"None of us saw any of this coming, Signum." Vita turned to walk out of the room. "I need to vent."

"Vita, you're not going to..."

Vita stopped and turned to glare at Signum. "Right now, I feel like I'm going to explode, Signum, I either need to smash something to dust or have someone help me pound my frustration out. And I don't care if I have to smash some training dummies or break a few beds with partners right now."

Zwei blinked in confusion, wondering what the distinction between the two was.

(-)

"Mama!" Nanoha turned from her training with Teana to see Vivio running towards her. Smiling, she waved at the small girl.

"Vivio!" Nanoha was happy to see the girl running at her, dressed in a cute little skirt and shirt outfit. "Be careful!"

"Okay!" Vivio called back, before her foot hit a wet patch of grass, causing her to slip and fall flat on her face with a loud splat. Nanoha and Teana both stared in surprise at the little girl. Vivio pushed herself up slowly and tears welled up in her eyes. "Maaaamaaaa!" The tiny blonde girl whined out.

Nanoha walked over to Vivio and knelt down to pick the girl up as she sniffled and whimpered from her fall. "Hey, Vivio... You're a big girl, right?" She lifted the girl up and bounced Vivio in her arms gently. "Besides, I think you hurt the grass more." Vivio sniffled and looked at Nanoha in confusion before following Nanoha's hand, which was pointing at the ground. "See? The grass only made you go splat, you made the grass go smoosh." Vivio giggled and Nanoha smiled and hugged the small girl. "See? You're tough, right?" Vivio nodded, giggling as Nanoha tickled her. "And tough girls can get up on their own, right?"

"Uh huh." Nanoha held Vivio out in front of her before pulling her close and rubbing her nose to Vivio's, getting another giggle from the girl. A moment later, Nanoha put Vivio on the ground and held out her hand. "I'll be a tough girl for mama."

Nanoha smiled and looked up as she saw Arashi and Caro coming towards them. "You two okay?"

"Fate-san wants a meeting with you and Yuuno-san. Erio-kun's already there."

Nanoha nodded and looked at Arashi. "Sorry, can you watch Vivio for me?"

"Sure!" The boy smiled and looked at Vivio. "Come on, let's go have some fun!" He pouted as Vivio whimpered, grabbed Nanoha's leg and hid behind it.

Nanoha smiled and knelt down to look at Vivio. "Come on, Vivio, he's just my little brother." She winked at Vivio and kissed the girl on the forehead. "He'll be a lot of fun." She winked at Vivio. "Be a good girl for mama?"

Vivio nodded at her. "Okay, mama..."

Nanoha stood up and smiled at her as her brother led Vivio back towards the building. "Alright, I'm going to..." She blinked as Teana and Caro both smiled at her. "...What?"

Teana shook her head. "Nothing, but we need to be at the meeting as well." Nanoha narrowed her eyes before sighing and following Teana and Caro. Sometimes Nanoha thought that there was some weird joke going on in the universe and she was one of the few people that didn't understand it.

(-)

Subaru sat in the control room of the training area and looked at the two people that were watching the controls. She hadn't said a word to them, mostly because she didn't want them to get upset at her for some reason.

The first one, Agito, bothered her simply because she was so temperamental, even if she was tiny. The second one, Due, bothered her as well. The short blonde had a look in her eye that made Subaru think that Due was going to pull a knife out of somewhere and then use it to stab her over and over a hundred times and lick the blade clean when she was done.

Trying to ignore them, Subaru watched the training session as Nove, Wendi and Sette fought against Dieci, Tre, Otto and Deed. At first, she was worried about how vicious the fight seemed to be, but as she watched, she could only stare in shock at how much punishment Nove's other family could dish out and take in one sparring session. It only made sense why they were able to tear into each other so violently, if they were that tough.

One thing that surprised Subaru was when Nove got blasted into a wall by Dieci the fight they were having stopped almost instantly and Tre had stopped to check on Nove, forcing her to sit out until she felt better and made Deed swap sides. "I never thought..."

"What?" Due turned her head to look at Subaru, who gulped as Due narrowed her eyes. "Never thought that we cared for each other? That a bunch of criminals could care about anything other than themselves?"

"I... I didn't mean it like that," Subaru sweat-dropped as Due snorted at her, "sorry, I'm just nervous, I mean, this shock collar..."

"Exploding shock collar." Due smirked at Subaru, who looked away, "none of us trust you, and frankly, I'm surprised Nove would stop Uno from wiping your mind." Slinking up to Subaru, Due pressed her body against Subaru, who was backed up against the wall. "Let me get one thing straight with you, Bureau scum, if anything happens to my sisters, I'm holding you accountable."

Subaru nodded and tried to focus on Due's breasts pushing hers up and not on the fact that Due had somehow gotten a metal claw and was using that to carress her cheek.

Due smirked as she ran her palm against Subaru's face. "Too bad you're so cute. You look so much like Nove, it's almost unfair."

"So... You wouldn't hurt me?" Subaru gasped as Due suddenly grabbed her stomach and squeezed. "Nnngh!"

"You're cute, you'd probably be able to have several children if you lived that long," Due narrowed her eyes at Subaru, "but don't think I wouldn't kill you if something happened to any of my sisters," she curled her fingers and Subaru gasped as she felt the metal start to cut into her skin, drawing some blood.

Subaru nodded and gulped as Due pulled her hand away from Subaru, licking the blood off of the blades. "Right, right."

Agito snorted at that. _"You don't hate her, Due, why try to scare her? She can't do anything to us, even if we decide to kill her."_

_"Just showing her who's in charge. She is cute though."_

Agito just rolled her eyes. 'I am surrounded by perverts.' She grumbled mentally.

(-)

"Fate-chan..." Nanoha nodded to the blonde as she saw Yuuno and Erio in room as well. "What's wrong? What's with this meeting?"

Fate took a deep breath. "When I found out about Reinforce missing and Zafira hurt, I made some calls, but that's not why we're here." She held up Bardiche. "Bardiche, show them."

**"Yes sir."**

An image popped up in the middle of the table, causing Nanoha to pale visibly. "Impossible..."

In the image was someone she wished to never see again. Not after the torment that she suffered during that time.

Fate nodded as she looked at Nanoha, knowing what was going through her mind. "My sister, Alicia, is alive.

(-)

The door to the office opened up and Hayate sat up, looking up and glaring at the person who dared to enter her office. "Vita, what are you doing?" Behind her, several members of the staff walked in behind her, followed by Verossa. "Verossa?"

"I'm sorry, Hayate," Vita said, taking a deep breath. She hated this, she wanted to be smashing something, or grabbing someone and tying them to the bed and screwing their brains out, not giving this news to Hayate. "But, due to recent events, it's been decided that you need to step down as commander of the Riot Force."

"What?" Hayate stood up, glaring at Vita. "Just what do you mean?"

"She means," a new voice spoke up and Hayate stared as someone she didn't expect, walked into the room, "that you, Hayate Yagami, are too emotionally clouded to make sound decisions."

"Chrono-kun, what are..?"

"I was asked by Fate to take over the Riot Force in the interm." Chrono said softly. "As of this moment, Hayate Yagami, I am now the commanding officer of the Riot Force."

Hayate stared at Chrono, her body twitching. "You..."

"Dad, please..." Vita spoke up, "you aren't like this normally. You need to step down. Mom's missing, Signum's hurt, Zafira's in critical condition. Can you really think clearly with all of this?"

"Would you be any different if it was your family, Chrono?"

Chrono shook his head at her question. "Not at all, Hayate." He walked up to the desk and stood on the other side of her. "And, with all due respect, Commander, I do out-rank you. I'm pulling rank so that someone can make sure that orders are made that would put your forces in danger." He softened his tone of voice and spoke to her softly. "Hayate, tell me, could you live with yourself if you gave an order in your current state of mind that led to Vita, Rein Zwei, Nanoha, Fate or Yuuno getting seriously hurt or killed in action?"

Hayate lowered her head and her shoulders shook. "Low blow, Chrono. Low, fucking, blow."

Chrono stepped around the desk and nodded to Vita, who moved up to the desk to move Hayate out of the room. "I won't stop you from going on any missions, Hayate, but if you do, you need to listen to orders, understand?"

Hayate nodded as Vita took her out of the room.

Turning to the staff, he narrowed his eyes. "All of you, get out." A moment later, everyone in the room was out, leaving him alone. Chrono turned to look outside and took a deep breath. "I hate this." He grumbled to himself.

* * *

Vita: Hayate... I'm sorry. I couldn't let you do something you'd regret. Next time on Blood That Flows - StrikerS.

Yes, I was really horrible to Hayate here.


	236. StrikerS Thirty Six

Blood That Flows

StrikerS Thirty-Six

Of course I own nothing.

* * *

It was about thirty minutes later that Verossa found Vita standing outside of a room. "Vita..?" His eyes widened as he saw the bruise on her cheek. "What happened?" He hoped that Hayate didn't lash out at Vita, it didn't seem like her to do something like that, but then again, Hayate had been extremely angry.

"Banged my head pulling Hayate into her room." Vita grumbled and sighed, wincing as she heard a loud thump coming from Hayate's room. "She's not happy at all of this."

Verossa nodded and put a hand on her shoulder. "Hey, how about you? Are you okay?" He gulped when she glared at him. "Guess not."

"My sister is hurt, my mother's missing and my brother's damn near dead, of COURSE I'm not okay." The next thing Verossa knew, Vita was hugging him. "I need to vent." She blushed as Verossa picked her up. "What the?"

"Where's your room?" Verossa smiled at her as she pointed to a room just down the hallway. "Hope you don't mind me assuming I can help." His eyes widened as she growled at him. "Uh..."

"Shut up, get in that room and I hope, for your sake, that you've got no other appointments for the day." He shook his head. "Good, because otherwise, you would have missed them all."

Verossa mentally shrugged, he was sure that no one would be too upset.

(-)

Shari wiped some sweat from her forehead as she looked at her handiwork. "This is going to take awhile..."

"I understand why you called for me." Mary muttered as she and two other technicians went to work around the lab. "Between Laevantein, its request, this new sword, there's a lot you need help with."

"Yes, well, I'm not good enough to handle all of this by myself." Shari grumbled as she got back to work on finishing up Laevantein's request. "I mean, is what I'm doing even legal?"

"Don't worry about that," Mary grinned at her, "legal or not, we're exploring the realms of magic and science! This is all for the pursuit of science!"

"For science!" The other two lab techs said while raising their hands into the air.

Shari nodded and got back to the project. "How's Laevantein's new body coming along?"

"Not too bad, actually, I'd be done sooner, but..." Mary grinned as she looked over the sword that the prisoner had brought with her. "This isn't anything I've ever seen before. I'm not sure how to put it, but, never mind that," Mary grinned as it was done being analyzed. "Anyway, this is pretty neat, not as strong as the Blast Sword was, but I think we can probably use this to make future weapons." Heck, the next time Raising Heart needed a tune-up or maintenance done to it, she was going to strip the device of all its armor and replace it with this stuff.

"She's got that gleam in her eyes again." One of the technicians pointed out. "Someone's going to die."

"Oh please, no one's died from my experiments yet." Mary snorted and glared at them. "Let's get to work."

Shari just shook her head and fought the urge to laugh. After all, Mary wouldn't be Mary without comments like that. Besides, with what Laevantein wanted done with its original body, Shari was almost certain Signum wouldn't complain...

Well, too much.

As she held up the half-completed project in her hand, Shari narrowed her eyes and hoped they were doing the right thing.

"You know..." Mary grinned as she looked at the blade that Kyrie girl had. "You know how Laevantein can combine with its sheath to become a bow?" Without even waiting for Shari to answer, Mary continued, "what if we did that for Laevantein?"

"Huh?" Shari turned and stared at what Mary had in mind. "...How would the cartridges escape?"

Mary tapped her chin. "I'm not sure. It'll take awhile to get this done properly though, so, let's just work on making Laevantein's body to the way it was originally before we do any upgrades."

"Fate might get jealous," Shari chuckled softly, "she's had the market cornered on large swords for awhile now." Oh well, it would be interesting to see what would happen next.

(-)

Subaru had left the training control room a few minutes ago. She wasn't thinking of running away or anything stupid like that, not as long as that collar was on her neck. Due didn't care if she left, just so long as she didn't go into any rooms unsupervised. "I hope mom and Gin-nee aren't too worrieEEK!" Subaru jumped as she felt a hand grab her butt, spinning around, her eyes widened as she saw Sein there. "Sein?"

The petite cyborg grinned at Subaru. "You know, I could get that collar off of you easily enough." She put her hand against Subaru's belly. "Wouldn't be too hard, I've gotten Tre-nee out of her clothes so easily, I could probably do it to you too."

Subaru tried to ignore the way that Sein was rubbing her belly. "Sein, why are you," Subaru panted softly as Sein's hand phased through the fabric and started rubbing her belly directly.

"Remember that night we shared the same bed in the academy?" Sein whispered to Subaru. "Remember how good I made you feel?" Subaru nodded, whimpering as her body wouldn't let her forget either. "I'm sorry that I lied to you and Teana for so long, but I wasn't there to be your friends." She smirked as her other hand slipped behind Subaru and phased through the suit she was wearing to rub Subaru's rear end directly. "Tell me, Subaru, did you miss this?"

Subaru panted and nodded, whimpering as Sein pulled her hands away from her. "Why... Why stop?"

Sein sighed heavily. "Come on, I actually wanted to talk with you." Subaru nodded and cursed the fact that Sein just _had _to remember just how to turn her on from their time at the academy together. "I won't lie anymore, Subaru, I was never on your side, I was a spy for Jail Scagiletti and the only reason I even bothered sleeping with you those times is because I was pent up and needed release," Sein turned and narrowed her eyes at Subaru, "so, yes, I only used you to satisfy my own needs."

"...You're lying." Subaru said, causing Sein's eyes to widen. "I don't doubt you were using me back at the academy, and you probably used Tea too... But, we were your friends. I covered for you all the time at the academy, and Tea joined in when we pulled those pranks on the people that teased you after you arrived, remember?" Sein turned away, blushing and muttering that it wasn't real. "I think it was," Subaru walked over to Sein and hugged her from behind, "if it wasn't real, you could slip away, right now, I wouldn't stop you."

Sein balled her hands into fists, before sighing and hanging her head. "Why can't you hate me? It would be easier if you hated me. Then I... I wouldn't have to care about the fact that you and Teana are my..." She trembled and fell to her knees, pulling Subaru down with her. The two ended up in a heap with Sein under Subaru, shivering and whimpering. "...Why'd I have to make friends with you and Teana? Why are you so cute and why is she so beautiful? And why can't you two be on my side?"

"I don't know," Subaru said softly as she let go of Sein and sat up. "I wanna know why Nove kidnapped me... Why everyone hates me, and why you left us."

"My job was done." Sein muttered as she sat up next to Subaru, the two of them leaned back against the wall, both rather somber. "And why are you so thoughtful? You usually just jump in yelling loudly or something."

Subaru laughed lightly and tugged on her collar. "This collar makes it hard to just be random. I'm worried that it'll blow up or something. I don't even want to try my combat cyborg..." Subaru slapped a hand over her mouth and blushed. 'Dammit, that's supposed to be a secret!'

"You do realize that we're all combat cyborgs, right?" Sein said flatly and patted Subaru on her thighs. "We know you're a Type Zero cyborg, you and your sister, Ginga." Looking at Subaru as she blushed softly, Sein mentally groaned and wished that she was in the academy again. At least there she was far enough away from Tre that she didn't feel guilty about sharing her bed with Subaru. "You're too dammed cute, you know that?" She phased through the floor before Subaru could ask her what the heck she meant, leaving a flustered and confused cyborg behind.

"...Dammit, Sein." Subaru grumbled as she stood up and walked down the hallway. "Is anything good going to come out of this?"

(-)

Uno looked at Cinque, and then at Megane, who was still in the tube. "Are you sure you want to?" Cinque pulled off her eye patch in response and Uno rolled her eyes. "Of course, no hesitation on your part. You're just as bad as Wendi, you know that?" Uno turned to the control panel and started the sequence to open up the tube. "Just press on ahead, no worry about the fact that if you screw up, she's going to die horribly and it'll be a mess to clean up." She glanced at Cinque out of the corner of her eye and sighed as Cinque's expression didn't waver. "Alright, but I'm not taking any blame with Lu if you screw this up."

"That's fine." Cinque said softly as she closed her eyes as the tube opened and Uno took Megane out of the tube and put her flat on the table.

"There's not much time." Uno said as the scanners around Megane started beeping. "Cinque, she's dying here, if you don't..." Uno trailed off as Cinque's hair glowed gold for a moment. The short cyborg then opened her eyes and both pupils were flashing gold as she walked over to the table and put her hands on Megane's body.

Cinque took a deep breath and hoped that this would work, she had no idea what she was doing. "This is my mistake, my problem... I will..." She fought back the urge to scream as the energy started to wash out of Megane and onto her. "I will..." She could see the golden glow in Megane's body start to recede. "I will..." She closed her eyes and groaned as the energy started to overwhelm her. "I WILL SURVIVE!" She screamed loudly, a large flash of golden energy surrounded the two and Uno had to cover her face with her hands and look away from the sudden surge.

"Nnnn...GAH!" Uno let out a scream as she was thrown across the room violently. "Dammit, what the hell?" She looked at Cinque and stared as the girl hovered in the air, a golden corona of energy around her. "Cinque?"

**"Un...nee... I'm sorry... I... I need to get out of here..."**

"Just hold on." Uno pulled up a data screen and opened several doors. "Just fly through the open doors, it'll lead you straight outside!" Cinque barely nodded before turning and zipping off, leaving golden flecks of energy behind. "...What the fuck is going on here?" Uno growled and worked on hacking the Bureau's scanners. There was no doubt in her mind that they likely picked that surge up, the best she could do was make them look somewhere _other_ than where their base was, or where Cinque was.

After all, the last thing she wanted was Cinque to murder a bunch of people by accident. Uno didn't care about those other people, but she knew that Cinque would never forgive herself for killing people by accident.

Uno never bothered looking at Megane's read out. If she had, she would have noticed a slow, but steady, increase to the woman's health with every passing moment.

(-)

It was nearly an hour later when Cinque found herself in a mountain valley, on her knees as her energy finally dissipated fully. "Nnngh... I'm going to be sick..."

"Interesting," a female voice spoke up and Cinque gasped and turned her head to see a woman standing above her, "you have mother's power, huh?" The woman was wearing blue pants and a blue tank top over her modest chest. Her long, blue hair was done up in a ponytail off the back of her head, she had long bangs over her left eye. Her right eye was green and her skin was fair as she smiled at Cinque. "My name is Uri."

"Uri?" Cinque blinked at her. "I'm sorry, I don't..."

"Don't worry about it, dear." Uri smiled as she knelt down. "You seem upset about something." She blinked as she saw the girl's eye. "Oh, you do have mother's power."

"You keep saying mother, I don't.." She blinked as Uri put a hand on her lips.

"It's best you don't understand right now, little one." Uri shook her head. "I was looking for something when I felt your power. Are you sure that you're okay?"

Cinque shook her head and turned away. "No... I..." Cinque slumped and looked down. "I don't know.. I just did something really good, I helped someone, but... I could have done it sooner, why didn't I?"

Uri blinked and tilted her head. "I'm not sure, I wasn't there. Why don't you explain what happened?" Cinque shook her head slowly and Uri nodded. "Very well, I won't make you talk. You just relax, okay? Sadly, I need to go, but whatever what bothering you, remember this, you did a good thing, even if it took a long time to do it."

"I could have done it sooner, but, I didn't, and her daughter..." Cinque blinked as Uri disappeared from view. "What the?"

"I can't help you, girl, I have to do my own things, but if you need to find redemption, perhaps you should talk to the one you wronged."

Cinque just stared, wondering what the heck she just saw. "...Was she a Shinzoku?" At least, Cinque hoped so.

Still, she wondered, why didn't she heal Megane sooner?

_"You were afraid, you idiot!"_

"I know." Cinque closed her eyes and tried to fight off her own inner mind.

_"Yeah, you could have healed her. But you were so afraid that you couldn't do it."_

"I know! I know!" Cinque put her hands over her ears and shook her head.

_"And now that you have healed her, you think that she'll be thankful to you? What about Lutecia?"_

"Stop it! Stop it!" Cinque fell to her knees before curling into a ball and crying. "I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry..."

(-)

Nanoha groaned and rubbed her forehead. 'Chaos? Who's using Chaos?' She shook her head as she walked into the head office. "Hello, Admiral."

"At ease, Nanoha." Chrono smiled lightly. "Listen, for now, I'm taking over, until things calm down with Hayate." Nanoha nodded. "Now then, tell me, these enemies that you've run into over the past few missions, what are your thoughts on them."

"Powerful, aggressive, dangerous, quite like Fate-chan or Hayate's family were back in the day, but I don't think that they're evil, manipulated by someone, maybe, but I think they're all good kids, they just need their heads screwed on straight."

Chrono nodded to her. "What about the loss of Subaru?"

"A mistake on my part, I underestimated the girl that captured her, she was a lot stronger than I thought and I held back almost needlessly." Chrono narrowed his eyes at her. "I do admit my fault in that, none of us have ever fought enemies who use such tricky techniques and tactics before."

"I see, very well, my next order is this to you, Nanoha." He took a deep breath, he figured she wouldn't like his next orders. "Frankly, this order disgusts me as well, but the High Admirals have drawn the line with the near death of Zafira and Signum and the MIA status of Reinforce and Subaru. As of this moment, the SOP on any confrontation with those cyborgs and their allies is to use all available resources to the utmost extreme, especially if they put civilians or TSAB officers at vital risk."

Nanoha's eyes widened as she looked at him. "Are you saying that..."

"Yes, Riot Division Six and aiding forces have been granted free rights to employ lethal force if the situation demands it." He narrowed his eyes at her. "I'm saying this once, Nanoha. You are to bring them down using any, and I mean _any_ means neccessary." He continued before she could get a word in edge wise. "Dismissed."

Nanoha nodded and turned, leaving him alone a moment later.

"I'm sorry, Nanoha, but I have no choice here. And I refuse to see anymore allies hurt." He took a deep breath. "I just wish that there was another way."

(-)

Kyrie sat up as her cell door opened up. "Hi, Shamal!" She grinned and sat cross-legged on the bed. "I have to admit, it was nice taking a shower. I usually just clean up when it rains or by jumping in a river." She wiggled on the bed and leered at the blonde as the door closed behind her. "Thanks for getting me new underwear too! I didn't think that there was underwear so... Smooth!"

"It's called silk." Shamal smiled and walked over to the bed to sit down. "So, Kyrie, who hired you to work against us?"

Kyrie pouted and pulled her knees up to her chest. "Talking about your master is a bad idea, Shamal.. I saw someone who did that once." She shook her head. "Nah uh, not going to tell, no! Don't want my face to melt off!" She grabbed her head. "No, stop! Stop! Nah uh! No! Stop, not talking! Stop!"

"Kyrie!" Shamal grabbed the girl and pulled her into her lap, hugging her. "Shhh... Shhh..." Shamal rocked back and forth slowly as Kyrie trembled in her arms. "It's okay. Shhh..." She rubbed the girl's back as Kyrie hugged her, hiccuping and burying her face into Shamal's chest. "I'm sorry, I didn't realize."

"No wanna talk... Don't get hurt... Keep quiet, they won't... No, stop..." Kyrie's eyes were wide, but dull. "No... AHHHH!" She suddenly jerked, as if struck from behind. "Master! Please!" Kyrie spun in Shamal's grasp, falling to the floor. "No! Not there, not there! NNNGAAAAHHHH!" She grabbed her stomach, right where the scars on her body were at. "Please stop! I'm a good girl! I'm a good girl!" Tears welled up in her eyes and she bucked violently on the floor. "Please stop, master! It hurts! It hurts so much! I'll never, I'll never do it again!"

Shamal watched, horrified as she saw Kyrie's reactions. "...What kind of..." She grabbed Kyrie by her shoulders and sat her up. "Kyrie, forgive me."

There was a loud slapping sound, and Kyrie fell to her back, grasping her cheek and looking ahead stupidly. "...What happened?"

Shamal sighed softly and picked Kyrie up. "You started to freak out, Kyrie." Shamal sat on the bed, still holding Kyrie. "I won't make you talk about your master, Kyrie." The girl trembled and buried her face against Shamal's chest. "It was really bad, huh?" Kyrie sniffled and nodded against her. "Is that why you smile all the time?"

"I don't like thinking about the past, it hurts." Kyrie whimpered and hugged Shamal tighter. "I'm so cold... I miss Amitie... I miss Kuma..."

Shamal just held Kyrie, rocking back and forth while fighting the urge to cry herself.

(-)

"Mama?" Vivio blinked as Nanoha came into the room that she and Arashi were playing in. "Mama, you sad?"

Nanoha knelt down and hugged Vivio tightly. "A little."

Vivio pouted as she heard that. "Don't be sad, mama." Nanoha pulled away slightly, blinking at that and Vivio patted her on the top of the head. "Mama shouldn't be sad."

Nanoha smiled and hugged Vivio again. "Thank you, Vivio. I'll stop being sad for you." When Vivio giggled, Nanoha closed her eyes. _"Caro."_

_"Yeah, auntie?"_

Nanoha blinked and a warm feeling filled her as she heard that. _"Thank you, but, you said you had something important to tell me about the girl that hurt Signum?"_

_"Oh! Right! I almost forgot! She has yours and grandma's weird power!"_

_"Weird pow.."_ Nanoha's eyes widened and her face paled. _"...Thank you, Caro-chan..."_

_"Okay, Auntie."_

Nanoha cut the communication with Caro and contacted Chrono. _"I normally would say this face-to-face, but I don't want people listening in."_

_"What is it, Nanoha?"_

_"The girl that injured Signum... She was able to use Chaos power."_

_"You're sure?"_

_"Positive, Chrono-kun."_

_"That explains a lot, and begs the question how it happened. Thank you."_ Nanoha nodded as she cut off communications with Chrono.

(-)

Chrono closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "This is going to be a pain in the ass. Alicia's back and someone has _that_ power? What else is going to happen?"

(-)

Levi smirked as she watched Reinforce twitch and whimper. "Oh please, the fluids I used were merely for show, to let you have that _wonderful_ sensation of being filled even more." She nearly laughed as said fluids came leaking out of Reinforce and landed on the floor with a plop.

Reinforce groaned and glared at Levi. "You..."

_"Reinforce!"_

Reinforce gasped as she heard Hayate's voice. "Hay...ate..."

_"Hey, mom."_

"Vita..." Reinforce groaned softly.

_"Mommy!"_

"Zwei..."

"Still holding onto your memories of your family." Levi rolled her eyes as she looked at the data and smirked. "Seems like you don't have much left of them though, do you? In three days, you'll be nothing more than a blank slate, my dear..." She laughed as Reinforce growled at her. "You're going to be so... Lovely to have as a slave." She smirked at Reinforce. "Maybe I can give Lutecia the proper equipment and have the two of you make a few Unison devices for a bunch of new Megahs?"

"No... I won't... I won't LET YOU!"

Levi's eyes widened as Reinforce's arms suddenly became tentacles that shot out and slammed her into the wall. "GAH!" She twitched as a sudden surge of pain rushed through her into the Astral plane. "What... What's going on?" She screamed, her own ability to use her power was suddenly stifled by whatever Reinforce was doing to her.

"GAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!" Reinforce screamed, the tentacles dissipating as the cups on her breasts and temples activated, sending a pulse of power into her, causing her to spasm and fall over, unconscious.

Levi panted heavily, her hand on her chest as she saw Reinforce's currently unconscious body face-down on the floor. "You broke the straps?" But with Reinforce's legs still strapped up and the device still in her ass, it made for a very interesting view. "You bitch." Levi walked over to Reinforce and pulled the device out of her ass before pulling her out of the stirrups, letting her collapse to the floor. "I can't believe this! I wanted to go slow with you. I did! I was going to do it with lots of pleasure for the both of us... Now I'm just going to steal everything in your brain." Seeing Reinforce's bare ass pointed at her, Levi growled at the unconscious device. "But first..." A multi-headed whip of dark energy formed in her hands. "I'm going to take my frustration out on your hide."

The next several minutes were filled with a horrible crackling sound as the energy connected with Reinforce's rear end, leaving welts and tearing into the tender flesh there, drawing some blood out of there as well.

"You will pay, Reinforce." Levi banished the whip and picked up Reinforce before tossing her into a tube. "This tube will keep you suppressed." She smirked as she pushed a button, causing it to get filled with a liquid and an energy field covered Reinforce. "You'll pay..." Levi panted before walking over to the computer to analyze the data she had. "But first, I need to know what that was."

Levi put her hand over the holes that Reinforce put in her body and stared at how slow they were recovering. "That bitch... I will make her pay for this!"

Still, she needed to know what happened. She didn't want to experience that again. As she looked at the data she had, she growled at the fact it would take at least two days to break down fully.

'This could be problematic.' She thought to herself.

* * *

Signum: What is this? Shari? Is this a joke?  
Shari: Not at all. Next time on Blood That Flows - StrikerS.


	237. StrikerS Thirty Seven

Blood That Flows

StrikerS Thirty-Seven

Of course I own nothing.

Hope you all had a good Easter.

* * *

Yuuno was facing one of the worst problems known to any man. It wasn't a problem that any man would like to deal with if they could help it.

"Miyuki..." Yuuno trailed off as his first girlfriend smiled at him. "I know we haven't talked much, but, you know, insanity and all..."

She crossed her arms under her breasts and leaned against the wall, giving him a small grin. "I've been here for less than two days, Yuuno and you've hardly said anything to me," she adjusted the glasses on her face, "one might think that you're avoiding me or something."

Yuuno gave her a disgruntled look. "I wasn't trying to, I'm just," he sighed and shook his head, "no, I was avoiding you, but it wasn't on purpose, with Signum and Zafira like they are, and other problems we have right now."

"I know." Miyuki smiled, uncrossed her arm and walked over to him, giving him a hug. "I know. Things have been crazy since I arrived." She smiled as Yuuno nodded and hugged her back. It didn't last long before they separated. "I can wait for you a few more days." She winked at him. "After all, I waited for almost six years before giving you a birthday present you couldn't forget." Miyuki laughed as Yuuno blushed hard. "I hope you've been treating the girls right."

Yuuno nodded to her. "You know I wouldn't abuse my trust with them."

**"Boss has to worry about the other problem."**

Miyuki laughed as Yuuno blushed hard. "Any of the girls around you using you?"

"Well, there is one..." Yuuno trailed off, causing Miyuki to frown at him suddenly. "Yeah, she's quite demanding and I never get to ask for anything in return from her."

"Who is she?" Miyuki said, her voice tight and angry. "I'll make her..."

"Yuuno-papa!" Yuuno smiled and turned, kneeling down to catch Caro in a hug. "Mmmmm! Love you!"

Yuuno hugged her back. "Love you too, Caro," he stood up while hugging her and looked at Miyuki, "Caro's that girl." He laughed as Miyuki suddenly face-faulted and Caro looked at him in confusion. "It's okay, Caro." He put her down and she giggled. "So, how are everyone?"

"Erio-kun's fine, Vivio and Arashi were having fun playing hide and seek with him and Nanoha-san. Then Fate-san got them all to get supper." She held her hand up. "Come on, papa, let's go get some food too."

"Sure." Yuuno looked at Miyuki and held his arm out to her. "Want to come with?"

"Sure." She smiled and took his arm and walked with him. As she watched Caro giggling and pulling them along, she felt a warm feeling fill her. 'It's almost like we're a family together.' As they got close to the cafeteria, she blinked as she saw Arashi, Erio, Fate and Nanoha at the door, the latter was holding Vivio in her arms. '...No, now we're a family together.'

No matter what their futures held for each other and any personal relationships they had, they were family. They had been for years. Even if things had changed between them personally, they were family.

Sometimes, it was nice to be reminded of that fact.

(-)

Groaning as she woke up, Signum looked at the door. "...Shari, why'd you wake me up?" When Shari pointed down, she looked and her eye softened as she saw Reinforce Zwei sleeping on her bed with her. "She should have left," Signum looked at Shari, "so, why'd you come here?"

"Well, a few pieces of good news, one, we fixed Laevantein." She pulled out a sheathed sword, before unsheathing it. "See, good as new... Well, it is new."

"That was... Fast. Mary's taken a lot longer than that for Raising Heart in the past."

Shari rolled her eyes. "You'd be surprised at the amount of lab techs we've had in there, it wasn't hard to make the body, and the cartridge chamber was easy enough to fix. Hell, we could have had it done in two hours if we didn't get distracted by other stuff. What took so long was making sure that we could get its A.I. situated in properly." Signum nodded to her. "Another good thing is, well, I heard from a nurse that you're almost healed, right?"

"Other than my eye and my hand, yes." Signum snorted at Shari. "I've got nerve damage in my eye, they're not sure if I'll ever be able to see out of it properly ever again, and they had to remove what was left of my hand down to the wrist, why do you ask?" Signum held up her bandaged stump of an arm.

Shari walked over to the bed and put a small bundle into Signum's left hand. "Open it up." She smiled as Signum did just that.

"This," Signum stared at the item, before growling and holding it high above her head. "What kind of sick joke is this? If I wasn't injured, I'd..."

"Before you complete that thought and throw that, you should know what it is." Signum glared at her, but Shari just grinned at Signum, despite how tired she felt. "That's all that's left of Laevantein." She put the sheathed version on the bed next to Signum. "It was Laevantein's wish to become that. Now tell me, Signum, can you refuse your partner? Who's been with you for centuries?"

Signum stared and slowly lowered her arm down. "...Laevantein? Is this true? Is this really all that's left of your original body?"

**"Ja."**

Signum lowered her head and found that she was doing something that she hadn't done in a long time...

She was crying. "Laevantein, you... Why?"

Shari smiled and patted Signum's back as Zwei slowly sat up and rubbed her eyes to get the sleep out of them. "Because, Signum, Laevantein cares for you, and decided that if it can't fight in its original body anymore, it should help you out more directly." She watched as Signum looked at the item, then at Laevantein, before finally looking at her bandaged stump of an arm. "Signum, if you go through with this..."

"Do it." Signum looked at Shari. "I don't care, if Laevantein can give up what's left of its body to help me out, I can't turn that down."

Zwei blinked and looked at the metal bundle Signum held up and gasped, her eyes wide as she saw it open up. "That is..."

"I'll let the medical staff know what we're going to do, this won't be easy." Shari rubbed her eyes as she grabbed the item, wrapped it back up and walked out of the room. "We can't do anything about your eye though." Signum nodded and Zwei looked at Signum out of concern.

"Will you be okay?"

Signum looked at her and gave her a small smile. "Maybe. I might have to wear an eye-patch for the rest of my life, but I should be okay." She looked down at her sword. "Laevantein, thank you."

**"Kein Ärger."**

(-)

"I see..." He nodded at what Chrono was telling him. "I'm not happy about this, Admiral..."

"Believe me, General Gaiz," Chrono interrupted him, "I would have rather it not come to this, but all things considered, I would rather take over than let her emotions cloud her judgement."

"I understand that," Regius narrowed his eyes at Chrono, "I wish you would have run it by me first," he grumbled, annoyed by the way that the Admiral had done things.

"Again, my apologies for this, I wouldn't have done it if I had a choice." Chrono looked at Regius with his eyes narrowed. "I'm sure that your scanners picked up a large discharge of magic energy far from here, correct?"

"Couldn't pin-point it, but yes..." Regius looked at another screen that popped up. "This wasn't normal, you think it could have been..?" He trailed off as Chrono nodded. "Very well. Tell me, Admiral, what is going on right now?"

"A Mazoku we thought dead ten years ago has returned," Regius paled, his eyes widening as memories of ten years ago flashed into his head, "thankfully, not the one who took over the Ground Forces, but rather, his underling."

"Still, troubling. I can put the word..." He stopped and shook his head. "No, not yet, we don't know where this Mazoku is, do we?" One thing that bothered him was that he didn't think that Jail would ever be in league with a Mazoku. Why would he change that?

Unless he had been killed and replaced by the Mazoku. That bothered him just as much as the thought of Jail working with a Mazoku, however, the thought of the brains working with a Mazoku unknowingly was terrifying beyond belief.

(-)

"Uno," Jail walked into the medical lab and blinked as he saw Megane on the medical table, "why is she out of her tube? And why is she wearing the blue spandex?"

"Well, the spandex will keep her from getting sick for one and for two," Uno smirked at him, "she fills it out almost as good as Sette does. As for why, look!" She pointed to the computer excitedly and bounced up and down. "I can't believe it! Cinque's as nuts as the rest of them are and she used some crazy luck or something, but Megane's getting better."

Jail sweat-dropped heavily. "I've never seen you this excited before."

"Hmph!" Uno crossed her arms under her breasts. "Maybe if I wasn't your direct clone, I'd be interested in other things. I mean, really, would it have been too much to ask for you to give me a libido half the size of your ego?"

"You've been hanging around Sein too long." Jail deadpanned and Uno shrugged at him.

"I'm the one who cleans their suits and sheets, and Tre and Sein always make _such_ a mess together, you think I wouldn't be curious about that?" Uno narrowed her eyes at him. "So, what did you want?"

"Ah! I almost forgot!" Jail smirked at her. "I realized something. I don't need the Saint's Cradle anymore." She stared at him in shock. "The bigger prize," Jail held his hands up, his fingers twitching in excitement, "is Al Hazard. That is what I really want."

Uno nodded slowly. "So, what are we going to do? It's pretty far away."

Jail grinned at her savagely. "I may not need the Saint's Cradle, but I do need a ship, and I'm sure that the Bureau has _plenty_ of ships capable of going off into deep space."

"Oh sure, we're going to go up to the Bureau and say 'hey, sorry about being criminals and all, can we have a space ship to go look for Al Hazard?' and they'll gladly let us!" Uno narrowed her eyes at him. "Get real, this isn't some sappy children's story, there's no way that we're going to..."

"Steal one." Jail grinned at her. "But I need to talk to all of your sisters first."

Uno nodded, wondering what Jail had planned. "Cinque's gone at the moment."

"Oh," Jail blinked, sighing heavily, "drat! Oh well, I'll have to wait for her." Jail cupped his chin with his right hand and chuckled heavily. "I've done a lot of horrible things in my life, but I know, I just know, if I have Al Hazard, I can make things right again."

Outside the door, unseen to Jail and Uno, was Lutecia, who blinked as she listened in on the conversation. Turning, she walked back to Quattro's lab as fast as she could. Her master would want to know about this.

(-)

Cinque looked up at the rock face and grimaced. "How am I supposed to get out of here? Fly?" She could use her knives and climb out, or make the mountain explode, but she'd either get tired or get hurt in the process. "Dang it." She turned around and leaned against the wall and pulled her legs up against her. "Just how did I get..." She trailed off and looked down. Her eyes widened as she saw that she wasn't on the ground anymore. "...I can fly?" Gingerly, Cinque pushed away from the wall and stared as she didn't fall down. "So..." She looked up and found herself flying upwards. "...I can fly..." A smile graced her face. "I can FLY!"

Sure, it was weird not having her feet on the ground and moving, but this was awesome. "...Now I know how the others feel all the time." Still, the speed wasn't too fast, not compared to the others who could move through the air at least. Oh well, it wasn't like she was going to get caught up in some sort of tournament on the way back to the base where she'd be forced to fight in just because of some arbitrary reason.

(-)

_"Hey, Master..."_

Levi opened her eyes from where she was leaning back against the chain. "What is it, Quattro?" She glared at Reinforce, who was unconscious in her tube. "I'm a little busy trying to break some data down."

_"Forgive me, but it seems that Jail's changed his plans."_

Levi's eyes widened and she sat up fully. "What? What do you mean? What plans?"

_"It seems that he doesn't need the Saint's Cradle."_

Levi snarled, her pupils shrinking as she slammed a fist onto the counter-top next to her. "Impossible. I thought you did all that you could to make ensure that he'd go after that little clone!"

_"Seems that Nove brought back something that we didn't expect."_

"Get rid of it then." Levi growled as Quattro sighed in her mind. "What?"

_"Too late, Jail's made up his mind about something and I don't think he's going to need the Cradle anymore."_

Levi was about to snap and destroy something when a thought came to her. "...Then we'll need to do something about it." A dark smirk came to her face and her eyes flashed. "I think it's time that Jail learns his real place in this world."

_"What about the Cradle?"_

Levi just smirked at the question. "I have my own plans for that." She looked at the computer screen and narrowed her eyes. "My plans, that I have constructed, no Jail, you will not disrupt them so easily."

(-)

Amitie, in a robe that just barely covered her thighs, looked at Kuma and nodded to him before going back to target practice. "Kyrie was always better than me when we swapped weapons." She spun her guns in her hands and fired a few shots at various targets. "I do have a move that could have stopped her, I think..."

"But you were saving that for something special, right?"

Amitie sighed at Kuma's question and holstered her weapons. "If Levi hadn't pulled us here, I would have given everything, even my life, if it meant that Kyrie could live without a Mazoku master."

"Could you leave her alone though?" Kuma asked as he sat down. "I don't want to butt in where I'm not welcome, but I don't think you could do that, not to her." Amitie sighed heavily and looked down. "You know... The Bureau has lots of rehabilitation programs for people who've had a hard life." Kuma looked up at the sky as the sun started to set. "When this is done, I could get you and Kyrie into it. You'd have to work with the Bureau and answer their questions though."

Amitie winced and looked down. "I dunno... I don't..."

"Just cooperate with them as best you can about what's going on then." Kuma stretched his legs out and sighed heavily. "I'll be good as new in a day, so, Anita..." He sweat-dropped as she pointed her gun at him. "...Ami, right."

"Better." Amitie put her gun down. "What do you want now?"

"I was wondering where you were going to sleep." Amitie blinked at Kuma's question. "I've got plenty of open rooms after all."

Amitie stared and looked away, blushing hard. "Um... I dunno, is there a room you suggest?"

Kuma shrugged at her. "Try room eight, it's near the hot springs, if you feel the need to take another bath in the morning." He sighed as she got up, nodded and left. Kuma just closed his eyes and tried to relax. '...To think that I might actually have to use _that_soon.'

It wasn't something that he liked to think about, but he was almost certain it was going to be needed soon.

* * *

Subaru: To think that you have a bath this large.  
Sein: We're not savages. A good bath feels nice.  
Subaru: Yeah, it does...  
Sein: Oi! Come on! Baths are fun! Next time on Blood That Flows - StrikerS, bath time, whee!


	238. StrikerS Thirty Eight

Blood That Flows

StrikerS Thirty-Eight

Of course I own nothing.

* * *

Subaru blanched slightly at the glare she was getting from Nove's sisters as she entered the bathing room. "Um... Sorry, I was just..."

"Knock it off," Tre said as she leaned back against the side of the bath, "you know the rules, everyone, no matter how angry we are at each other, we don't let that bother us when we're taking a bath." Tre looked at Subaru and snorted. "Even if she is a Bureau dog, this is still bath time."

The others nodded and settled down as Subaru slipped into the bath quietly. She looked at Deed and Otto and couldn't help but notice the tail that the flat-chested girl had. "Um..."

"What?" Otto asked, giving her an almost angry look.

"Neat tail."

Otto blinked, that hadn't been the response she was expecting. "You, you think so?" She held her golden-brown tail up as Subaru nodded and smiled at her.

"Yeah. I've never seen a tail like that before, it looks really cool." Subaru's eyes widened as she felt something snake around her ankle, before pulling, causing her head to go under the water and her rear end to get pulled up above water.

"What about mine?" Wendi pouted and let go of Subaru's ankle, allowing the girl to get her head above water. "Don't I have a cool tail too?"

Nove narrowed her eyes and grabbed Wendi's tail, yanking up hard and causing her sister to yelp and fall face-first into the water as Nove held her rear end up above the water. "How'd you like that?" Nove asked as she let go of Wendi's tail.

Wendi turned and narrowed her eyes at Nove. "Oh, you think that just because you don't have a tail you can grab me by mine?"

"Calm down, both of you," Tre narrowed her eyes at Wendi and Nove, "or I'll hold both of you under the water until you behave." She snorted and leaned back again, twitching as she felt a familiar pair of hands on her breasts. "...Sein, let go right now."

"Aww..." Sein phased through the wall next to Tre and leaned her head on Tre's shoulder. "What's wrong with a little skin-ship?"

_"Personally, I think Tre's breasts are too firm."_ Mr. Snuggles said from his position on Sette's shoulder. _"Now Sette has the right mix of firm and softness for this kitty."_

Sette smiled and reached up to scratch his head. Oddly enough, there was a soft blush on her face as she did that. "Mr. Snuggles, please, do not talk like that in front of others."

"Is this normal?" Subaru looked at Otto, who shook her head. "...Oh."

"It is usually more lively." Otto gave her a small smile. "...Though, tell me, why does the Bureau hate us?" Subaru blinked several times. "They send such powerful enemies after us, the doctor just wanted us to find Lost Logia." Otto looked down while petting her tail. "He told us, we were created because the Bureau needed strong people to fight for it."

Subaru could only stare at her and looked around, watching as Sette said something to her pet cat and Tre dunked Sein for some reason while Wendi teased Nove, who went completely red at whatever was said. "...Really?"

"Yes," Deed spoke up from her position next to Dieci, the other cyborg was leaning back, her eyes closed and enjoying the hot water. "All of us were made to be weapons, nothing more."

Subaru frowned at that. "But... Gin-nee and I are like all of you too, and we have a family, with mom, dad, and Aston and Cecilia, my younger siblings. You aren't just weapons," Subaru blushed as Otto, Deed and even Dieci looked at her curiously, "I mean, you don't seem like weapons to me."

"That sounds nice," Otto said softly as she pulled her knees up to her chin and looked across the large bath tub, "but it will not happen... I have got a tail, look at Deed's arms, she and Sette have scales on their arms, Wendi has a tail too, none of us are normal, even for cyborgs. Quattro found files with help from Un-nee, all of us have seen what happens to freaks." Otto looked at Subaru, sadness in her eyes. "They are eliminated, there is no place for freaks, after all."

Subaru stared, before growling. "BULLSHIT!" She screamed, catching everyone's attention. "I don't care if the lot of you are considered freaks by the Bureau!" She swung her arm to the side and stood up above Otto. "I won't let them hurt any of you for no reason at all! You're all human! It doesn't matter!" Subaru balled her hands into fists. "I won't let... You're not bad."

"Very sweet," Tre spoke up, "but you should sit down before you fall down." She smirked at Subaru as the short-haired girl sat down. "But even if you're right, can you actually keep the Bureau from eliminating us?"

Subaru was quiet for only three seconds before nodding at Tre. "I promise, I won't allow it. If I have to, I'll find a way for all of you to be safe."

"We're going to fight your friends again," Tre spoke to her, catching the others attentions, "the doctor explained to me that he has one more mission, and this time we're going to purposely attack and get the Riot Force's attention. Tell me, if someone gets hurt again, can you say that you can keep us safe?"

"Everyone deserves a chance to live their life," Subaru looked down, "none of you deserve anymore pain in your lives. Unless you kill someone, I think I can help you."

Tre didn't say anything, she just closed her eyes and thought about what Subaru said. Several minutes of pure silence later, Tre stood up and left the bath. "...I admit, dog, the thought of having a life sounds nice. Try not to make promises you can't keep in the future though."

Tre did hope it was true, though. Not for herself, she didn't care about herself too much, but her younger sisters, all of them, deserved better than her.

If only that thought didn't feel hollow and leave a sharp pain in her chest.

As she walked out of the bath area, Tre raised an eyebrow as she saw Cinque, completely naked, in the changing area. "When did you get back?"

"About ten minutes ago." Cinque said while keeping her right eye closed.

"Did you get taller?" Tre blinked as she looked at Cinque, before looking down and raising an eyebrow. "Since when could you fly?"

"Apparently I learned how not long ago." Cinque rubbed the back of her head. "But, uh... How do I get down?"

Tre smirked and put a hand on Cinque's head, pushing her down. "Like that." She smirked as Cinque blushed hard. "It's not too hard, try not to let it go to your head."

Cinque nodded and entered the bathing area, she was sweaty and she was sure that she smelled, a bath would just be perfect for her.

(-)

The next morning...

Jail grinned as he looked at everyone around the table. "I take it that Tre already told you what my plan is, right?"

Agito growled from her position on Due's head. "You told all of them, but I was busy, so I don't know what's going on."

"Yes, yes, we all know." Quattro rolled her eyes. "Anyway, doctor, Lutecia's currently sleeping, and our other 'guest'..." Quattro looked at Nove, who rolled her eyes, "seems to be missing."

"She's currently unable to do anything." Uno shook her head. "Anyway, doctor, please explain to them."

Jail nodded and looked at everyone, a serious expression on his face. "I won't force you to take part of this mission, but it would be better if you did." Everyone stared at him, in shock. "This mission, I need all of you to go into Cranagan, and attack, drawing out the Riot Force, and getting the full attention of the Bureau."

"What about you?" Dieci asked, concerned, was he abandoning them?

"The doctor and I," Uno looked at them and sighed, "we will be leaving, the reason we ask if you wish to do the mission is because, those who don't, will be coming with us, but it would make it harder to make an escape from Cranagan."

"What is your plan, doctor?" Tre looked at Jail, who grinned at her. "Why do I not like the thought of being a distraction?"

"Because Uno and I are going to steal a ship." Jail held up a hand when Due started to ask about the Saint's Cradle. "I don't need it anymore, I just need a ship that can get into deep space." He sighed as the girls looked at him nervously. "I'm not leaving you forever, but I will be gone, so, those who do this mission..."

"I will," Nove spoke up, "Is there anything you want me to do?"

"You think you're doing a mission like this alone?" Wendi looked at Nove. "Anywhere you go, I'm following you, remember?"

"I can't leave them alone," Cinque said, her eye patch over her right eye again, "and I wish to see that knight and summoner again, I have questions for them."

Dieci sighed and hung her head. "If you go, you're going to need heavy firepower."

Otto and Deed looked at each other and nodded, before looking at Sette and Tre. "What about you two?" Deed asked them. "Otto and I will go with."

"You know that by going, you're going to get captured, right?" Uno sighed as the younger girls all nodded. "You just want to see if Subaru can keep her promise. Ugh, I swear, all my baby sisters are idiot!"

"I wish to fight as well." Sette said, surprising everyone. "Mr. Snuggles and I can fight and give you time to escape."

Sein looked down and sighed. "I'm not much of a fighter, but I can at least get people out of danger if things get out of..." She looked up as Jail interrupted her by saying her name. "Yes?" Her eyes widened as he tossed her something. Looking at it, her eyes widened. "This is..."

"Nemesis Heart," Jail nodded to her.

"The Knight Valkryie Armor?" Sein gasped as she looked at him. "Why me?"

"We won't need it, if you're going to stay here and cause problems for the Bureau, you might need it." Uno smirked at her and looked at Tre and Due. "What about you two?"

"I'm doing neither." Due said, causing people to look at her. "I've got something else I need to do, so, I'm not going to be fighting, nor am I going to escape to the stars." She held up a hand. "Agito and I have to do something, so, sorry, this ain't going to work for us, excuse me." Due got up and she and Agito left the room.

Quattro snorted and looked at them. "I think I'll go with you two, might be fun to see Al Hazard," she adjusted her glasses, "plus I have no desire to give the Bureau anything." She looked at Tre. "What about you? I'm sure if they need a pool drain, they can just have you sit on an open drain to plug it right up."

Tre twitched and glared at Quattro. "You know, I think I'll lead the attack. There's a few people I need to beat down."

"Such a barbarian." Quattro mock-gasped. "Though, I suppose for you, violence does have a certain... Appeal to it."

_"Good work, Quattro,"_Levi said in the back of her head.

"Very well then," Jail turned away from them as a screen at the front of the table turned on, "at about noon tomorrow, there will be a lot of ships at the airport, not to mention that the Air Force is having several ships in for repairs and crew changes." He looked back at them, "it will be dangerous, extremely dangerous. If you wish to do this mission..."

"We already said we will," Tre scoffed, "don't doubt us, doctor. So, tomorrow, huh?" It was going to be dangerous and violent, but maybe it would be interesting.

(-)

Levi opened her eyes as she thought about what Quattro sent to her. "That bastard, changing everything like this..." She got up and paced back and forth. "This is going to be a problem," she took a deep breath as a thought came to her. "Quattro..."

_"Yes, master?"_

"Tomorrow, we're going to have to deal with a few things, make sure to get Lutecia to where we need her." Levi grinned and looked at Reinforce. "Even if I can't make use of this worthless Unison Device, I've got most of her mind now." A growl came from Levi's throat. "She deserves everything that I'm doing to her. For her role in ending my master, the fact that she dared to go against me, she will pay." A dark aura surrounded her body as she thought about what she was going to do.

_"Master, what about those things that we collected from that planet?"_

"You mean Earth?" Levi snorted at Quattro's question. "Pretty easy to get that stuff, it didn't even take me a month to get them all." Levi started chuckling as she looked at her hands as the image of round objects with yellow triangle stickers and red lines spreading out, forming a circle on it. Her fingers twitched as she grinned savagely. "If all else fails, I can turn this whole world into a wasteland in one shot."

_"What about tomorrow, master? What should we do about Jail?"_

"Don't worry," Levi put a hand on her face and gripped it, chuckling sinisterly, "just leave everything to me. This will take care of so much so fast. Have you been using the Relics like I told you to?"

_"Of course I have."_

Levi twitched at the thought of all the death and destruction that was to come tomorrow.

Her eyes glowed as the light itself seemed to darken around her face. "Tomorrow then, everything will be **_mine!_**"

(-)

"Daddy..." Rein Zwei, in her larger child form, looked at Hayate, who was still in bed. "Come on, daddy..." Her eyes widened as Hayate sat up, a haggard look on her face. "We'll find mommy, I know it. And Signum will be okay."

Hayate didn't answer, she only looked down.

"Zaffy might survive, daddy." Rein Zwei smiled, trying to get her father's attention. "Shamal says that if he can make it through tonight, he might just live." Hayate didn't respond to her. "Daddy, please say something..." Zwei balled her hands into fists and looked down. "Shamal's busy, Signum's getting operated on right now, Zaffy's hurt, Vita smelled funny but then started blowing stuff up and now she's training Erio, Caro, Teana and Ginga again. Vivio's fun, but she's... Please, daddy, talk to me." Zwei whimpered softly. "Teana's shoulder is healed now. We're all going to be really strong, but we need you, daddy."

Tears welled up in Zwei's eyes and she closed them before doing something she never thought she'd be doing in her life. "FINE!" She yelled at Hayate. "Just stay like that, then! Mommy would never stay like that!" Tears started to fall down her face as she trembled. "I miss my family, it's all falling apart and I can't stop it. Daddy, please..." Zwei fell to her knees, "I need you."

(-)

At an undisclosed location, there was an important meeting taking place...

**"When do you think our informant will deal with Jail?"**

_"Let's not push it. She did contact us yesterday that she would be dealing with Jail soon."_

"Soon is taking too long."

_"We gave her complete reign to deal with him and his cyborgs."_

**"I'm more interested in those giant robots that she used to nearly kill off the Riot Force. Could you imagine if we had those as our bodies? We wouldn't have to hide ever again."**

"Gentlemen, don't worry, when this is done, Levi said she won't bother us anymore."

_"If Jail will be finished, then it is a good thing."_

The three brains continued their conversation while they waited and watched.

It was all they could do since they gave up their bodies years ago.

* * *

Tre: Finally... It's time...  
Sein: Our final show-down.  
Quattro: Indeed.

Yeah, getting close to wrapping this arc up.


	239. StrikerS Thirty Nine

Blood That Flows

StrikerS Thirty-Nine

Of course I own nothing.

* * *

The next day...

Tre narrowed her eyes as she sat on a rooftop. "What time is it?"

A screen popped up near her. "Almost time, Tre-nee." Sein, decked out in the Knight Valkyrie Armor, saluted her. "I feel almost unbeatable in this."

"Don't let it go to your head, Sein." Tre looked at her. "We don't want to kill anyone if we can help it. I have a feeling that the Bureau's not going to be very friendly this time around."

"I hope that they're not too mad." A new screen popped up, revealing Cinque, "if they are, I'll take responsibility for it."

"Knock it off." Tre snorted at her. "We got another few minutes before we make a move."

"Right." Cinque and Sein nodded as their screens turned off.

Tre felt the urge to shudder for some reason. "Something's not right."

(-)

Jail nodded as he met up with Quattro, Uno was right behind him. "Are we ready?" When Quattro nodded, he grinned as she stepped in line, just in front of him. "This will be a glorious day. When all is said and done," he couldn't keep himself from laughing softly, "yes, when all is said and done, then everything I've done will be proven right."

"I agree," Quattro said as she continued to walk in front of Jail, "just one little problem with that." Before Jail could ask, there was a flash of light, before a squelching sound filled the hallway, causing Uno and Jail to stare in shock. Uno because she couldn't believe what she was seeing and Jail...

Because Quattro was holding a blade of pure light and energy and stabbing it through his chest.

"Quattro, what arRRRGH!" Uno cried out as something pierced her from behind. Looking down, she saw a similar blade shoved through her body. "...What?" Turning her head, her face paled, both from the blood loss and the fact that another Quattro materialized behind her. "...Who?"

"That would be the real Quattro who's stabbing you, Uno..." The Quattro in front of Jail smirked as she suddenly gained some height, her hair lengthened, darkened, changing from brown to blue. "Although," she took her glasses off, revealing purple-red eyes to Jail, "I am in Quattro's body."

"W...Who?" Jail asked as she smirked at him.

"My name? It's Levi, Jail." She swung her arm out, tearing his side out and causing him to collapse to the floor in a spray of blood. "Heh heh heh," she smirked as Quattro slashed upwards, tearing through Uno's shoulder and causing her to fall to her knees in shock, "there's a saying, about keeping your enemies closer than your friends. You were so obsessed about fighting against Mazoku that you never noticed me possessing and corrupting Quattro," she looked at Quattro, who grinned at her. "Then again, it wasn't hard, her soul was just so easy to twist into my image."

Jail clutched at his side, groaning in pain. "...They... They will stop you."

"Oh, you mean those cyborgs of yours?" Levi snorted. "Maybe, but the ones with the Dragon DNA in them, I've tweaked them, they can't hurt me at all." She gave him a grin. "I learned during my time here, dear... Doctor..." She waggled a finger. "Think about it, for so many years, I've been living with you, corrupting Quattro, I turned Lutecia into my little... Pet," she looked at Levi, "is Lutecia where she should be?"

Quattro smirked at Levi. "Wasn't hard, she's in the Cradle right now."

"Good." Levi grabbed Jail's bleeding body and then grabbed Uno. "I'll just dispose of these two worthless... Peons." She blinked as Quattro walked off. "Where are you off to?"

"To pay respects to Lutecia's mother..." Quattro smirked at Levi. "I think I'll just... Play with her for a few minutes, before ending her."

Levi just grinned at that. "I need to..." Her eyes darkened for a moment as she carried the two bleeding bodies out of the area, "take care of something as well."

(-)

Quattro smirked as she walked into the lab and saw Megane on the table, still out cold. "To think... Lutecia just wanted to see you again. Oh well, she won't want anything anymore soon." Quattro walked up to Megane and snorted at her. "You're completely used up, you know that? You wouldn't even be useful for our plan at all." Quattro snapped her arm out and a blade appeared in it. "Oh well." She raised the blade up high. "Before I kill you though," Quattro grinned and leaned in close to Megane, "your daughter was one hot and tight piece of ass, I enjoyed taking her all the time."

Quattro couldn't explain what happened next, it was so sudden and shocking that her mind couldn't process it.

"You..." Megane's eyes snapped open while her hand snapped up and around Quattro's throat, squeezing her neck hard, "hurt," a magical aura surrounded Megane's body as adrenaline poured through her body, "my daughter," Megane sat up, pushing Quattro down to her knees, "like THAT?" Megane's other hand went to the top of Quattro's head and a moment later, there was an incredibly loud and sickening crack that filled the air as Quattro's body fell to the ground, completely limp.

Megane panted while looking down at Quattro's body, a snarl on her lips. "I might not have been a fighter, and I'm weak still, but you do _not_ hurt my little girl and brag about it. If I ever find her..."

Groaning, Megane wondered several things, where Lutecia was, how long she had been out, where she was, and why was she in a latex space suit?

(-)

Levi frowned as she felt Quattro's soul return to the body. "What the hell?"

'It's that woman, Megane, she killed me!' Quattro snapped out angrily.

Levi smirked at that. "Don't worry too much, Quattro, I'll fix you up in a moment." She kicked a door open and grinned as she saw who was in it. "Looking for someone, Due?"

The blonde cyborg spun around and stared at the Mazoku. "Who?"

Levi chuckled heavily. "If you're looking for Lutecia, don't bother," she narrowed her eyes at the shape shifter as Due took several steps back, "she's been moved to my safe house, you aren't ever going to save her..."

"...What's with the blood?" Due hoped that Agito was far away at that moment.

"Oh dear, Uno and Jail were so... Worthless, I just had to eliminate them, I just disposed of the bodies." Levi started laughing at Due. "If you must know, my dear," a dark aura enveloped her body, "I'm the Mazoku threat that Jail warned you about for all these years!"

Due's eyes widened and her face paled as a black ball of energy formed and twisted in Levi's hands. "And quite frankly, my dear, I hate you and all your sisters, now die!"

(-)

A few minutes later, Levi was walking down the hallway of the Saint's Cradle before closing her eyes. "Alright, Quattro, it's time." A giant black ball of energy formed in front of her, before a small white ball of energy erupted from Levi's body and entered the black ball of energy.

A moment later, Levi smirked as she saw her handiwork. "Excellent. You're now a full-out Mazoku, Quattro, and my Priest."

Quattro looked completely normal, save for the fact that her eyes were glowing red and her hair had white stripes in it. "...Glad to finally get my reward, my master." Quattro grinned and looked around the Cradle.

Levi smirked at that. "Get Lutecia ready for what's to come next." The Mazoku chuckled heavily. "Between those worthless cyborgs and the Megahs, no one will notice what will happen next." Levi threw her head back and started laughing heavily. "Yeeeeahahahahahahaheeeees! Now! Everything that exists, everything here! It WILL BE MINE!"

Quattro nodded, her eyes narrowed as she grinned at Levi. "So true, master, so true. Soon, we shall both get what's coming to us."

All she needed to do was wait a little more.

(-)

"It's time." Dieci whispered and pointed her cannon at a building in the distance. Charging up a powerful shot, she knew that she had to make it large so that her sisters could see it easily from wherever they were at in the city. "Heavy Barret... Fire."

She was certain that the building was empty, or at least very few people in it, she had scoped it out earlier and hadn't seen anything that would indicate that there was many people in it at all. It was probably some sort of warehouse.

When the building was hit, there was an explosion that filled the air, followed by a loud cry of hundreds of animals that were instantly slaughtered from Dieci's attack.

"MOOOOOOOOOoooooooo!"

Dieci's eyes widened, her jaw dropped, as did her cannon from her limp fingers and she turned blue in the face. "...Why were there cows in the middle of the city?"

If Dieci had seen the other side of the building, she would have understood. After all, a cattle slaughter plant would have cows in it, even in the middle of the city.

(-)

Chrono looked at the Riot Force in front of him. "This mission will hopefully be the last any of us have to partake against the current foe." A screen appeared in front of him. "As you can all see, our enemies are spread out across the city." He narrowed his eyes as he and the rest of the Riot Force watched the destruction of various property. "So far, in the past few minutes, your opponents have limited themselves to destroying property and no reports of any injuries have been seen, other than terrified people. Even so, remember that they are all extremely dangerous."

"SIR!" Lucino yelled as she looked up from her screen. "There's a major summoning sigal forming above the city." She turned back to her screen and paled. "Oh... My god. It's... Those things... Those robots, they're back."

Chrono fought back the urge to swear. Hayate just had to still be out of it and Signum had to be recovering from some sort of surgery at that moment too. "Seeing as those women haven't been attacking people, we will put these as our priority right now. How many are there?"

Lucino trembled as she got the data. "There are... Twelve, no... Thirteen of these robots out there right now."

"Sir!" Nanoha spoke up, getting Chrono to look at her. "I know that it may be a lot to say this, but we will need to take them on as individuals, not as a group."

"Forget it." Chrono shook his head. "Those monsters are so powerful that a group was barely able to handle one, taking on one by yourself would be suicide."

"With all due respect, Admiral," Nanoha narrowed her eyes at Chrono, who stared her in slight shock, "what held us back the first time we fought them was a lack of knowledge about them. In addition, none of those there were able to cut loose like they would normally be able to. If we are alone, we could easily cut loose and handle them, I'm sure."

Chrono could see the logic in that, but he still had reservations about this.

"If we go in a group," Nanoha continued, "there will be much worry about collateral damage to our allies." Her eyes narrowed, but she was silently pleading with him to see reason. "You were there, Chrono, when we took on Dark Star and Shabranigdo, you know how strong we are. Let us fight as powerfully as we can."

Chrono closed his eyes, before nodding slightly. "Very well, go ahead, go all out. I don't like this though."

"The longer we talk, the worse things will get!" Nanoha turned to look at the rest of the group. "Once we're out there, you'll be mostly on your own, for those of us who have done stuff like this before, just remember that when you get done with your robot, see if you can get to someone else and help them out." The older members nodded and Nanoha looked at the younger group that worked under her in training. "I know that all of you might be nervous, we're down several people right now, but remember this, we've been training you for situations like this. Remember your training and keep a clear head, and all of you will be fine."

"Before you leave," a new male voice spoke up as a large man in a brown uniform walked into the room, shocking several people, "it will please all of you to know that, as of this moment, the Riot Force no longer has to manually release its limiters, I released them on the way over."

"General Gaiz." Chrono looked at the man, stunned.

"I supported this Riot Force for exactly this reason, Admiral." Regius nodded and looked at everyone. "So, go out there, hold nothing back, but try not to destroy the city." They nodded and Regius stepped to the side. "So, get out there!"

A moment later, the group had left, leaving Regius to look at Chrono. "I would hope that those cyborgs won't be eliminated," Regius spoke to him, "after all, they would be very useful in the Bureau's ranks, don't you agree?"

Chrono snorted at him. "Trust me, I don't wish them dead, either, but with people injured and missing, none of our bosses will take the risk anymore."

"And yet, you never gave a kill on sight order." Regius smirked at him. "I must be getting soft in my old age," Chrono and Lucino blinked at that as Regius looked at the screen, "when I was younger, I might have had an execution order in place for those cyborgs, instead, I want to see what they can do with themselves."

He had a feeling that if Jail hadn't been in the position he was forced into, those girls might have been a powerful force to fight on the Bureau's side.

(-)

"Mama?" Vivio and Arashi stood next to Suzuka as Nanoha came up to them. "Are you going?"

Nanoha knelt down and smiled at Vivio. "Mama needs to go do something, but I'll be okay." She hugged Vivio when the girl ran to her. "Your mama will be fine." Vivio nodded, whimpering and Nanoha pulled back and held out her pinky finger. "You be a good girl for Suzuka-chan and Arashi, okay?"

Vivio hooked her pinky around Nanoha's and they shook. Nanoha smiled and gave Vivio a kiss on the forehead before looking at Suzuka and Arashi. "Thanks, Suzuka-chan."

"Hey, I'm mostly here to be a bodyguard for the people in this building anyway." Suzuka chuckled softly. "All I got is dumb muscle."

Nanoha smirked and stood up. "Thanks again, and Vivio," she looked at the small girl that she had grown attached to, "be strong for mama, okay?"

Vivio nodded at her and hugged her stuffed bunny. "Uh huh! Vivio's a big girl!"

"Yes you are." Nanoha smiled as she took off. "Thanks again, Suzuka-chan!" She waved while running off.

(-)

In the hospital wing of the Riot Force, Signum was awake and looking at her newly operated on arm, moving and rotating it from side to side.

"Well?" Shari smiled at her. "How is it?"

"Feels like you put several knives into my arm at the same time." Signum muttered and winced as her arm throbbed. "How long until I'm good again?"

"Well, you'll need to adjust to it, plus therapy and some other..." Shari trailed off at Signum's annoyed look. "As for the eye, well, I got you something, well, had one of my staff get you something, but I think it looks rather neat and you might like it." Shari smiled at Signum. "Close your eye."

Signum did just that, wondering what was going on." A moment later, she felt something being put around her head. "Shari, what are you doing?"

"One second, okay, open your eye now!" Shari smiled as she held up a mirror for Signum, who opened her eye and stared at what she saw on her face. "I thought that a medical bandage for an eye-patch wasn't good enough for you. A leather eye-patch is far more bad-ass, don't you agree?"

"...What's with the small metal plate in the middle?"

"Extra protection for your damaged eye, until we can fix it."

Signum gently touched it with her left hand and nodded. "The eye-patch is rather large, but," a small grin came to her face, "I admit, I like this more than I probably should."

If anyone was to ask Signum why she liked it, she would just blame Hayate.

* * *

Vita: Gah! You! I remember you! Rematch time, you bastards!  
Zwei: Next time on Blood That Flows - StrikerS, let's go!


	240. StrikerS Forty

Blood That Flows

StrikerS Forty

Of course I own nothing.

This will be a shorter chapter.

* * *

Vita and Rein Zwei were the first two to find a Megah in the middle of the city. "Well then, looks like..." Vita's eyes widened as she saw something she never wanted to see again. "No..."

Zwei stared, horrified by what she was seeing.

Around the Megah's feet, where several torn up and bleeding bodies of people who didn't get out of the way fast enough.

Vita growled as she saw the Megah pointing its cannon at a fleeing car. "Zwei!"

"Unison!"

"IN!" Vita and Zwei yelled at the same time, turning Vita's hair orange and her eyes a brilliant blue in color and her red outfit became white. Vita then rushed forward, Graf Eisen in its Gigant form. They would not let anymore people get hurt.

As they rushed at the Megah, it suddenly spun around and fired a powerful energy blast right at Vita, who held her hand out, a red triangle forming in front of her, blocking the attack, but forcing her to stop as it was a lot stronger than she remembered it being.

"Vita!" Zwei's voice was heard in her mind. "Does it look different?"

"Yeah," Vita grumbled softly. "It's those damned things it has on its arms, legs and torso." When the beam stopped firing, Vita dropped her shield, only to gasp as several arrow-like things were fired at her in a wide spray, she quickly created another barrier, only to blink as they all missed her. "...What was that for?"

"BEHIND!"

Rein's warning came a second too late as Vita was struck by at least eight arrows in her back and legs. "GAH!" Vita groaned as she felt the arrow heads tear into her muscles. Closing her eyes, she worked on forcing them out of her body before they became a problem. "At least they can't explode. But they tore through my armor so easily..."

A moment later, all of the arrows exploded, sending Vita to the ground with a scream of pain. "Zwei, you okay?" Vita groaned as she struggled to get up from that last attack. "Zwei?"

"I'm fine." Zwei said to her sister as Vita pulled herself to her feet. "How did it know how to do that?"

Vita grabbed Graf Eisen and looked at the Megah as it charged up another attack. "It's a lot more dangerous than the first one we fought was." Vita created a barrier in front of her as the Megah fired another shot. What shocked her though, was that the beam wasn't aimed at her, but rather the building behind her. Turning, Vita stared in shock as the building exploded, sending shrapnel in all directions. "Damn!" Vita held up both hands to block attacks from both sides and wondered just how the hell this thing knew how to be so effective.

"Above!" Vita looked up at Zwei's warning and stared as a giant foot was just above her. "Damn!" Quickly dropping her shields, Vita ignored the debris that pelted her and quickly zipped away from the Megah as it stomped down right where she was.

**"Schwalbefliegen!"**

Vita created a large metal ball in front of her and swung back with Graf Eisen when the Megah suddenly put on a burst of speed that it hadn't shown before, extended its blade and swung at her head. "Damn!" She swung Graf Eisen forward, hitting the blade and knocking it off course, only to stare as the Megah's left hand came in and punched her in the torso.

Vita's eyes were wide as her body, mind and physics seemed to need a moment to assert themselves. And just as fast as the sheer pain entered Vita's body, the moment was over and Vita was sent barreling down the street at rocket speeds, smashing into several cars before hitting a building and smashing through the wall, but stopping as she crashed into a desk.

"Ho...llly... shiii...ittt..." Vita managed to get out in a very broken and pained tone of voice. She was almost certain that a few of her organs had been crushed by that single blow.

Though, she wondered just how that thing could have gotten so dangerous so fast.

(-)

Levi smirked as she looked at the chair Lutecia was strapped to. The girl was conscious, though just barely, a helmet donned her head and a Belkan triangle was under her feet. "To think that between the data that I got, thanks to Uno's help, on the Riot Force, the video surveillance of their fights, and Lutecia's insect summons, I can effectively negate any advantage they might have."

A dark grin came to her face as she turned back to watch the fights unfold. "Any idiot can collect data, but a genius applies it properly."

(-)

"Unison Out!" Zwei gasped as she popped out of Vita's body, the redhead was twitching and groaning in pain. "Hold on! Resurrection!"

Zwei was hurting badly as well, but if she could get Vita back to fighting strength before the Megah attacked again, they'd have a chance. A light filled the room and Zwei turned to look as a large white beam was sent straight at them. "Too late."

Outside, the Megah looked on as it saw its deadly beam strike fast and true. Taking several steps forward, it intended to check on the damage it had done and confirm the death of the enemy.

A moment later, a large metal ball was flying straight at the Megah, who unsheathed its blade and slashed the ball in half, sending the fragments to the ground in an explosive mass.

Walking out of the smoking building, Vita panted, her body felt like crap and she thought she was about to die on the spot, but still... "You okay, Rein?" She asked her sister, who was unisoned with her again. It had been sheer luck that Rein's spell had fixed her enough to grab Zwei and roll out of the way of that beam, even so, she was pretty sure that she was going to suffer a major burn from that attack.

"I'm fine!" Rein said from inside of Vita. "I'll work on healing us, you just fight that thing!"

Vita nodded and looked at Graf Eisen, which was again in Gigant Form. "Ready, buddy?"

**"Böe-Modus."**

Vita threw her hands out to the side and let loose a yell as her white outfit became a metallic blue in color. "Round two." Vita pointed Graf Eisen at the Megah, "and this time, you won't be blowing me up!"

* * *

Arisa: Oh great, it's my turn now? This isn't going to be fun. Next time on Blood That Flows - StrikerS. Time to go!


	241. StrikerS Forty One

Blood That Flows

StrikerS Forty-One

Of course I own nothing.

* * *

Arisa didn't find her current opponent in the traditional sense of running across it on the street.

It found her.

Arisa could only stare in shock as a Megah suddenly burst through a parking garage and reach towards her. Glaring at it, Arisa created a sword out of fire, or tried to, as she found that she couldn't get the flames in her hands to do anything more than flicker to life. "Dammit!" She dropped to the ground and rushed away, noting that she was going slower than she was used to. "What's going on?" She looked over her shoulder and stared in shock at how small her wings were. "Explains a lot." Concentrating for a moment, her wings re-ignited and she zipped down the street, spinning around to see the Megah looking at her, but not doing anything.

"Really?" Arisa narrowed her eyes as she condensed water into her hand, which then turned into a mace of solid ice. "Let's see you block this." Flying up above the Megah, Arisa smirked as it continued to look at her. "Sucker!" She pointed an open palm at the ground and smirked as it shook and rumbled, causing the Megah to lose its balance and fall to a knee. "Now, die!"

Several stone spikes were launched at the Megah from various angles and Arisa smirked, if all the Megahs were this easy, they wouldn't...

Her thoughts trailed off as the Megah suddenly ignited boosters on its hands, it's knee and foot and shot into the air so fast that she could only stare while the spikes she launched slammed into each other harmlessly. Looking up, Arisa's eyes widened as the thing fired a quick beam at her. "Crap!" Holding up her palm, she created a thick wall of ice in front of her and stared as the beam slammed into it, causing visible cracks to appear after one hit. Dropping out of the sky, Arisa closed her eyes and tried to think of what to do next.

Just before she hit the ground, she flipped over, landed on her feet and looked up, staring as several energy arrows were flying at her. "Damn!" Flying backwards, she gasped as the arrows suddenly stopped inches from the ground, turned towards her and zipped along right after her. Growling, Arisa threw her ice mace at them, once it was close enough, she snapped her fingers and nodded as it exploded into a wall of ice that looked like a frozen wave of water. Ignoring the explosions those arrows did, she looked up and blinked as she didn't see the Megah anymore. "Where is..."

A shadow loomed over her and she turned around, paling as she saw an open hand grab her. "DAMN!" Arisa couldn't focus as the hand squeezed on her tightly, forcing her to scream as pressure was put on her body.

_"Unlike us, you have the soul of the Supreme Dragon God in you."_

Arisa had no idea why she was thinking about Vrabazard at a moment like that, but at least it was a distraction from the pain she was feeling.

_"You aren't limited to elements like the people who use our power are. Even the Knight of Cephied did more than just that. What you can do is up to you to discover."_

As the Megah's thumb pressed against Arisa's face and started to push her neck back in an effort to break it, Arisa growled. 'Easy for you to say, you stupid lava dragon...'

The Megah's hand suddenly erupted as a corona of energy surrounded Arisa. She was hunched over, before looking at the Megah, her eyes glowing silver-white. Holding up a hand, a brilliant ball of energy materialized, ignoring the AMS that surrounded the Megah.

Screaming in defiance, Arisa snapped her hand forward, slamming the ball of energy against the Megah's torso, causing an explosion that sent Arisa flying backwards, bouncing off the ground several times before coming to a stop next to a television shop. The glow faded from her eyes and she looked at the Megah, noting that it didn't have a head anymore. "Good..." At least she wouldn't have to worry about that one. Oddly enough, the thing didn't fall over, but since it wasn't moving, Arisa wasn't going to worry about it.

Though, she had a different problem at that moment, namely that she couldn't get her body to move at all. "What the hell is going on now?" At first she was worried that she was paralyzed, but she was able to get her toes to curl, if even slightly. "If someone says 'wiggle your big toe' right now, I'll get mad." She muttered to herself and then groaned, wishing that she hadn't seen all of Kill Bill just the other day. 'Stupid American movies.'

(-)

Fate found a Megah by the pier and narrowed her eyes as it blasted a ship to dust. "Bardiche, Rubin Blitz Mode."

**"Get set."**

Fate closed her eyes as her body was encased in light and cloth wrapped around her legs, body and arms, tightening and hardening around her body, becoming solid, instead of cloth-like. It wrapped around her neck to the underside of her jaw, her body armor was still black, but the armor on her arms, legs and neck was red. A thin blade formed in both hands and Fate narrowed her eyes at the Megah, who took notice of her. "I don't have time for you."

Rushing in, everything around Fate became a blur as she crossed the distance in a moment. There was a loud flash of light and Fate found herself having to close her eyes and look away from the Megah, driving her off course. When Fate could see again, she noticed that she was over the ocean. Turning around, she stared at the distance she had covered. "...Dammit, Alicia, do you know all of our powers or something?" There was no doubt in her mind that her sister was behind this sudden attack. Still, if Alicia had planned to counter each of their abilities, it wouldn't be easy. "Especially if it blinds me again."

Fate closed her eyes and took a breath, "Bardiche, visor, no light."

**"Yes, sir."**

A moment later, a visor covered Fate's eyes, blocking out all light and blinding her. "Alright, let's do this."

**"Forward and to the left."**

Fate smiled and rushed forward, doing just what Bardiche was instructing her to do. "You'll be my eyes, Bardiche, I can't trust myself right now."

**"Yes, sir. Above, two hundred meters."**

Adjusting her course, Fate raced upwards with a yell and smiled as her blades connected with something, what, she wasn't sure, but it was something.

**"Sir, cannon is unoccupied."**

Fate's eyes widened at that and fell backwards, shuddering as she felt a powerful blast of heat pass through where she was a moment ago. "Are they getting faster?"

**"Negative, sir. Anticipation."**

Fate suddenly felt cold at that. "Alicia, what kind of monsters have you made now?" If these machines could anticipate their movements, then things were about to get very ugly, very fast. "Bardiche, undo visor and use Sonic Zambar."

**"Yes sir, Sonic Zambar, get set."**

Fate gasped as the visor disappeared and she could see again. "Alright, ugly," Fate looked up at the Megah as it charged up a cannon blast, "try this." She slapped the two blades together, forming a very long, but thin sword out of energy in her hands.

Unlike Fate's other Zambar forms, this one wasn't quite as thick and intimidating. In fact, the blade looked more like an incredibly long katana. Fate pointed her Sonic Zambar at the Megah as it fired at her. By the time that the blast made it to Fate, she was already gone, zipping away from the blast and appearing above the Megah for only a brief moment, before she moved again, this time, ending up on the opposite side of it. "You are already dead." She whispered softly as she canceled her Sonic Zambar mode.

The Megah made no recognition that it was hurt...

Until it turned towards Fate and found its arms, legs, torso and head were chopped up into several pieces, causing it to fall to the ground harmlessly.

Fate turned and looked at her handiwork. "I'm sorry, I couldn't take the chance you would delay me too much."

(-)

Levi watched the fights that Arisa and Fate had and smirked. "Do you two think that it's that simple?" She snapped her fingers and laughed at what happened next. "You aren't going to win this one, girls."

Still, it was too soon to celebrate, she needed to remember that she didn't need to win, not yet.

(-)

Arisa's first thought that something was wrong was when one of those weird Gadget Drones appeared in the air. She thought it might have tried to come after her, which wouldn't be good in her current state. Her eyes widened as it landed on the Megah's head and extended its tentacles down into the Megah. "...This isn't good, is it?"

When the Megah took a step towards her, she whimpered, this wasn't going to be good, she knew it.

(-)

A sudden beam attack slammed into Fate from the side, sending her crashing into a building painfully. As she slid to the ground, Fate became painfully aware of the fact that her side had no armor on it anymore. Still, if she hadn't been wearing any armor, she might have been dead. Grimacing at the lack of defenses her hyper speed modes gave her, Fate turned to look what happened and stared as the air rippled, revealing a hidden Megah. "...She gave them cloaking? Bardiche, warn the others."

**"Yes sir."**

Forcing herself to her feet, Fate glared at the Megah and held out Bardiche in front of her. "I won't lose to you again!"

Fate's only warning that something bad was going to happen was when the Megah's eyes suddenly flashed and she found herself wrapped up with some sort of cable tentacles. "...I'm not into this kind of stuff!" Fate blurted out suddenly as two Gadget Drones seemed to materialize around her, binding her tightly. "...What the heck?"

As she struggled to get free, and those damn cable tentacles were holding tight, Fate saw the Megah charging up another attack, "Bardiche... Mega Brand, under my feet, now!"

**"Yes sir."**

Fate closed her eyes and bit her lip as an explosion engulfed her, sending her and the ground upwards and tearing the cables apart. "NNNAGH!" Fate flexed her arms and legs, breaking out of the cables and throwing up a barrier in front of her to block the energy attack.

One thing was certain, these things were a lot more dangerous than she thought they could be.

* * *

Nanoha: I'm not even in the next chapter. What the heck? Next time on Blood That Flows - StrikerS, read what goes on, it's exciting.


	242. StrikerS Forty Two

Blood That Flows

StrikerS Forty-Two

Of course I own nothing.

* * *

"Why are the Megahs attacking?" Cinque asked herself and called up a screen. "Sein, do you see what I see?"

"You mean the Megahs attacking?" Sein asked as she she looked away from the screen. "I don't know know myself, maybe Qua-nee sent them to help us distract the Bureau?" She chuckled at that. "Would work, don't you think?"

A new screen popped up and Cinque stared, wide-eyed at the person in the screen. "I know what's going on."

"Due?" Cinque gasped as she saw the blonde who was clutching her side while stumbling through the forest. "What happened?"

"Doctor... Uno... Both dead..." Due panted, causing Cinque to pale horribly. "Doctor... The Doctor was right! There was a Mazoku this whole time. I bet she's the reason for the Megahs too!"

Tre popped up on another screen, her eyes narrowed. "Then we can't trust that the Megahs won't attack us as well."

Mr. Snuggles popped up on another screen. _"No kidding, those things are attacking people freely."_

Sette looked at the screen, her eyes narrowed. "We should help the Bureau."

"Wendi and I are a step ahead of you." Nove said on another screen. "I just saw mom fighting one of them, heading to give cover."

Tre nodded and looked at the screens in front of her. "Very well... My only order is, don't die."

"Right!" Everyone yelled at once as the screens turned off, save for Due's.

"Will you okay Due?" Tre looked at her older sister with concern.

Due grinned at her painfully and nodded. "I just hope that Agito's okay, but don't worry about me. Even if I'm killed, I won't die. Just go, I'll be fine."

Tre looked at Due and nodded, before taking off in a flash of purple light.

(-)

Teana panted as she flew behind a building and grimace. "Okay, those things are a lot faster than I remember and it's not letting me charge any attacks." Thankfully the conflict had, so far, only been her trying to blow up the ground around the Megah, a few Freeze Bullets and even a new Fire Bullet spell.

That stupid barrier around the Megah made it impossible for anything shy of her Blazar Cannon to actually get through.

Of course, the problem was, trying to charge up any attacks was almost impossible. Every time she tried to do something beyond a simple snap spell, the thing was rushing at her. "Wait a minute, if I can't use a big spell, then a bunch of smaller spells, but..." She touched the talismans on her belts. "Alright, let's go! Levitation!" As she flew away, she chanted the spell to activate the talismans, before turning and pointing above the Megah with both guns. "Aqua Bullet!"

The Megah stopped moving as water fell out of the sky in a torrent, flooding the streets, buildings and the Megah. It looked at Teana and ignited its boosters to get off the ground.

"Too slow! Thunder Bullet!" Teana snapped another quick spell into the water and grinned as the water, buildings and even the Megah lit up spectacularly from the lightning spell that crashed through them. "Well, that wasn't..." She trailed off and gasped as the Megah, instead of shutting down like she expected it to, instead pointed its cannon at her and charged up an attack, which had an unusual effect of drawing the lightning to the energy ball. "Okay, that's just cheating!"

**"Protection."**

Teana grimaced as the blast of energy and lightning slammed into her barrier, forcing her back through the air. "Well, fuck me." She muttered as she saw her barrier cracking into pieces, leaving her completely vulnerable. Before the blast hit her, she felt a hand on her ankle pull her down and out of the blast's attack.

"If you make that offer again, I might just take you up on it." A familiar voice spoke up while arms wrapped around her midsection and Teana looked over her shoulder, staring in shock at Sein. "Hey, long time no see."

"You..." Teana growled at her. "I outta..."

Sein sweat-dropped heavily. "Lanster, please... Let's deal with the Megah first."

**"Incoming message from Bardiche."**

**"Warning, enemies have cloaking technology, be advised that there may be more than what you see."**

Teana and Sein both looked at Cross Mirage, before looking at the Megah, then at each other and nodding. Teana could beat Sein up at any time, but the Megah had to come first, as did any others that might have been around. "That thing won't let me charge any attacks up, think you can help keep it off balance so I can get something?"

Sein grinned at Teana. "Not a problem, Nemesis Heart, let's go." Her device flashed and Sein rushed forward, the circular device on her left arm expanding into a round shield that she used to block a beam attack, before twisting and zipping in again as the device in her right hand became a giant hammer that she used to smash the Megah in the face in an upwards attack with such force that the Megah took a stumbling step backwards before falling flat on its back.

Sein grinned as her weapon went back to normal size. "How do you like that? No magic at all! What are you..?" Her eyes widened as not only did the Megah get back up, but a second one seemed to appear walking towards her with its cannon pointed forward. "DAMN!" Sein extended her shield and grunted as a powerful blast sent her flying backwards.

Teana took a deep breath and concentrated. "Sein! Give me a little more time!" She was standing on a building that was fairly high and away from the Megah. "Keep them from getting me!"

Sein looked at her and nodded as she noticed Teana's magic circle. "Give 'em hell, Tea!"

Teana blinked and smiled softly. That was the first time she recalled Sein calling her by her first name. "Can a full-power Phantom Blazer get through two of those things, Cross Mirage?"

**"Chance of success, less than sixty percent."**

Teana nodded, well, if that wouldn't work... "Let's go, Cross Mirage."

**"Load Cartridge."**

"Now, Lords of Darkness of the Four Worlds, please!  
Grant me all the power you possess!"

Teana closed her eyes as she started to glow with magical power, from both the talismans and the cartridges being spent. Teana looked up and narrowed her eyes. "I swore an oath, to my dead brother, that the Lanster Shooting Arts were not worthless. And now, you'll see it, the ultimate shooting technique passed on to me from my teacher!"

**"Starlight Breaker."**

The air itself seemed to glow as magic started pooling around Teana and condensing in front of her. "Screw you and your anti-magic field... Screw all of this!"

Sein grimaced as she held her hands in front of her. Even if the Knight Valkyrie Armor really was unbreakable, the heat and pressure from the energy beam was still awesome and dangerous. "Teana, whatever you're planning, do it now!"

Teana closed her eyes as more and more energy focused in front of her. "Almost... Now! Sein, move!"

Sein looked over her shoulder and stared, wide-eyed at the incredibly large ball of energy in front of Teana. "Moving, moving, moving!" Sein dropped straight down and through the ground.

"Staaaaarrrrr lllllliiiiiiiighhht!" Teana dragged out as she pulled the triggers on her gun. "BREEEAAAAAKKKKERRR!"

The sheer size of the energy blast was enormous, so much so that buildings on both sides of the street were crumbling as the edges of the magic crashed through them. Teana found herself on her back from the sheer kick-back of the magic and stared up at the sky in wonder. "...No wonder Nanoha said to never use those things with cartridges at the same time."

Pulling herself to her feet, Teana's jaw dropped as she saw the results of her attack, even though the buildings were heavily damaged, and one building in the far back was completely destroyed, but that wasn't what caused her jaw to drop.

Of the two Megahs, only their legs remained.

"Woah!" Sein said as she phased through the roof next to Teana. "What was..."

The next thing Sein knew, she was on her back, rubbing her cheek as Teana glared at her with her hand balled into a fist. "That was for breaking my ankle." She helped Sein to her feet, only to punch her in the stomach hard enough to cause Sein to gasp for air. "That was for making people think that Subaru and I were traitors and spies!" Teana had tears forming in her eyes before she slapped Sein on her cheek pretty hard. "That was for kissing me in battle."

Sein groaned and looked at Teana, nodding slowly. "Okay, I deserved those and," Sein's eyes widened as Teana suddenly grabbed her head and kissed her on the lips for a few seconds. "...Uh..."

"That was for saving my life." Teana said to her, a soft blush on her face as she pointed Cross Mirage at Sein's head. "You're under arrest for criminal activity, by the way."

Sein just whimpered and hung her head. This just wasn't her day.

* * *

Quint: So, it's my turn then? Very well, I'll show you what I can do. Next time on Blood That Flows - StrikerS.


	243. StrikerS Forty Three

Blood That Flows

StrikerS Forty-Three

Of course I own nothing.

* * *

Quint growled as she punched forward, blocking another attack from the Megah as it shot dozens of glowing arrows at her. Crossing her arms, Quint jumped back and panted heavily. "If I could just get closer..." The damn thing had learned from their previous encounters, she knew it, but it seemed to know her moves before she could do them. Crouching down, she slapped an open palm on the ground, causing the street to flip up and block the arrows. Ginga was, at that moment, making sure to help evacuate people. Quint knew her daughter was strong, possibly stronger than she was, but Ginga was still Quint's daughter, and she just couldn't stand the thought of her daughter fighting and possibly dying if Quint wasn't willing to do so herself.

Quint jumped back as a blade cut through the road, revealing the Megah as it charged up its cannon to fire a blast at the woman. "Dammit..." She held up her hand, creating a barrier and gasped as it started to fizzle almost as soon as it was created. "That Anti-Magic..." She stared, wide-eyed as the blast charged up and fired only a couple of feet away from her body.

The next thing Quint knew, a hand was on her leg and pulling her out of the way of the blast. "You shouldn't get so close to that thing, mom."

"Ginga." Quint sighed in relief as Ginga let go and they both raced on their own Wing Roads away from the Megah. "What did I tell you?"

Ginga smirked at her. "There are other Bureau members around, they're handling it, I can help you, one of us can keep it distracted and the other one can charge up attacks and lay into it."

Before Quint could say anything, a blue gas covered the Megah, leaving the two of them chilled as the air temperature suddenly dropped to almost below freezing in an instant. When the gas cleared, the Megah was covered in a layer of clear ice.

"You need to take that thing out in one hit, otherwise it'll keep coming back for more." A familiar voice said that had Ginga turning around, a happy look on her face.

"Subaru!" Ginga's expression changed from elation to anger in an instant. "You!" She growled at who she saw. "Nove, what are you here for?"

"To help you!" Nove yelled back at Ginga as Quint looked at them both, sighing. "Look, that Megah's too strong for us to take on, even if we team up, that AMS keeps you two from doing much and I might be able to get through the thing with my I.S., but I can't break it by myself."

Before Ginga could reply, Quint put a hand on Ginga's shoulder and nodded to Nove. "Sure, what's the plan?" There was a loud cracking noise and Quint, Nove and Ginga all looked at the Megah as it started to break free from the ice.

"You guys know how to do a super kick?" Ginga looked at her in confusion, but Quint nodded, a grin on her face.

"I used one to win my final DSAA tournament," Quint looked at Ginga, who had recognition dawn on her.

"Yeah, but from above." Nove jerked her head behind her. "Get on my Airliner, it's not affected by the AMS like your Wing Road is, plus it's faster."

"I'm still mad at you for Subaru." Ginga muttered as she followed Nove into the air, she, Quint and Nove spun around the frozen Megah, going higher and higher into the air, before Nove suddenly stopped and raced down, her feet extended outwards towards the Megah's body.

"SUPER!" Nove began as she rocketed down towards the Megah's cannon arm.

"NAKAJIMA!" Ginga continued as she aimed her body for the other side, her fist leading the way instead of her feet, as, unlike Nove, she didn't have revovler gauntlets on her feet.

"CRASH!" Quint finished as she dove down right after her daughters, aiming right for the center of the Megah.

The ice around the Megah shattered into pieces just as Nove's kick crashed into and through its right arm, before it could react, Ginga's punch tore through its left arm like it was nothing and Quint slammed into its head, destroying that part of the body in an instant.

Nove looked at the Megah and watched as it fell over without its head or arms. "...Wow, that..." The next thing she knew, a gauntlet crashed into her face, sending her crashing to the ground. "Oww!"

"Where's Subaru?" Ginga grabbed Nove's outfit right above her breasts to lift her up and look her right in the eyes. "What did you do to my sister?"

"Ginga!" Quint grabbed her daughter by her shoulder. "Let her go, right now."

"No!" Ginga shook her mother off and glared at Nove, tears in her eyes. "You hurt my baby sister, you kidnapped her, who knows what else you did with her?" She started shaking Nove, who, for some reason, wasn't putting up any resistance to what Ginga was doing to her. "Well?"

"Enough of this." Quint grabbed Ginga's ear and twisted, causing the girl to scream and fall to her knees while letting go of Nove. She let go of Ginga's ear and looked at the two of them. "Are you done, Ginga?" The girl muttered something, but nodded, "and you, Nove, what did you do with Subaru?"

"She's fine!" Nove waved her hands in front of her. "I swear! She was fine the last time I saw her." Nove looked away, anger on her face. "Dunno why I came out here."

"...You know, don't you?" Quint said, causing Nove to nod and Ginga to blink in confusion. "Ginga, meet your younger sister, Nove. Nove, I'm glad you came here, I'm worried about Subaru too though."

Ginga stared at Nove, wide-eyed. "...Mom, does dad know about this?"

Quint chuckled and held up her hand, about to answer, when a blue-white beam tore through her body. Gasping, Quint fell to the ground, clutching at the hole in her torso. She was thankful it wasn't too big, otherwise she'd be in real danger of dying on the spot, but even so, it was a major shock.

"MOM!" Both Ginga and Nove yelled at the same time and gasped as another Megah seemingly materialized behind Quint.

"Ginga, get mom out of her! I'll deal with the Megah." Nove yelled at Ginga as she rushed up at the Megah. "You... GRAAAAH!" Several yellow balls of energy formed around Nove as she rushed in, tears forming in her eyes while she tried to keep the Megah's attention.

"Come on, mom." Ginga grabbed her mother and took a look at Nove, before nodding. "Good luck."

**"Wing Road!"**

Ginga was thankful to Blitz Calibur as she took off while cradling her mother against her. "Come on, mom, don't die on me."

"Not... Not trying to." Quint was clutching at her stomach, trying to stop the bleeding. "I'm sorry, Ginga... I really am. I should've..." She groaned painfully as her vision started to swim. "I don't know... How I can..."

"Just keep quiet, I'll get you help!" Ginga really, really wished that she knew some spells beyond basic healing at that moment. "This is Ginga Nakajima to any rescue chopper, I need an emergency evac, stat! Lock in on Blitz Calibur and rendezvous ASAP!"

"On my way."

"Just hold on mom, you'll be okay." Ginga looked at her mother, who was quickly going pale in her arms.

(-)

Nove let out a scream as she was hit by the Megah, causing her to fall to the ground, where she bounced off of it painfully. "Nnngh," she looked at the Megah and growled while getting to her feet, tears forming in her eyes, "you... I finally get to meet my mother properly and you take her away from me?" A gear symbol formed under her feet as she grabbed her Gun Knuckle and adjusted the controls on it. "This is one thing I never wanted to use, ever, but, I'm not going to forgive you, EVER!" Letting out a yell, she rushed for the Megah again, moving to the side as it slashed down, and using her Airliner to rush up the thing's left leg, when she got to the hip area, she rushed to the right to avoid a swatting hand. When Nove got to the Megah's chest, she jumped off and landed on the right hand that tried to swat her. "You'll PAY!" She rolled along the side of the cannon, hitting it several times with her fists before racing up to the Megah's head and stopping right in front of where its mouth was and pointing her Gun Knuckle right at it.

"Tell me, can you robots feel fear?" Nove's face was red with rage as she glared at it. "BECAUSE YOU SHOULD!" She punched forward and yelled as she fired several energy blasts and bombs into the Megah's mouth. "Now DIE!" At that moment, several explosions happened at once, leading up from the Megah's leg, across its torso, to its arm cannon and up its arm to its head.

Nove let out a scream as the head was consumed by a large fireball that took the head and upper torso apart with ease. Groaning as she slid across the ground, she looked up at the Megah as it continued to explode and fall apart. "Don't like those bombs..." Nove shuddered as she struggled to get up, a blast of that magnitude shook her pretty good, she didn't know what the hell C4 was, but the Doctor had somehow made her Gun Knuckle capable of making bombs that, while small, had the force of three pounds of C4 each.

Nove blinked as a box landed on her as she tried to stand up. "...What the..?" Her eyes widened and adrenaline surged through her body as she recognized what it was. "I have to hurry." Turning, she called up Airliner and rushed to where Ginga had taken off as fast as she could.

Even if it wouldn't do much, she wanted to try and help the Unison Device that was trapped inside the box before the support for it ran out.

(-)

Ginga sighed as she saw the chopper open its back up. "Help her!" In the chopper, waiting for her, was Shamal. "Shamal-sensei, mom, she's..."

"Just get her on the table, do what I tell you and we might be able to save her."

Ginga nodded and put her mother on the table.

"Get that blood tube into her arm, now!" Shamal ordered as she put her hand over the wound and concentrated, calling up a fire spell, which she wasn't too good at, but it was needed at that moment. When Quint groaned out painfully, Shamal nodded, at least she was still alive. "Hold her." Shamal rolled Quint to her side Ginga grabbed the older woman as Shamal repeated the process on her back, sealing the wound painfully. "I'm sorry, Nakajima... I have to do it this way."

"Nnngh... Fine..." Quint groaned as Ginga tore the sleeve to her Barrier Jacket off, dabbed her arm and got the needle into Quint's veins to pump some blood into her.

"Never thought I'd be so happy to have enhanced vision." Ginga muttered as Shamal worked on healing Quint.

"Uh, ma'am," the pilot said as he looked into the back, "we got an incoming, looks like one of those enemies that we're supposed to..."

"Let her on." Ginga said, much to the pilot's surprise. "Just do it already!"

The pilot nodded, wondering what that was all about. A moment later, Nove stepped onto the chopper, panting softly. "Mom, is she..?"

"I'm doing what I can for her." Shamal said and looked at the box Nove had. "What's that?"

Nove opened it up and Shamal and Ginga both stared at the small, white haired, Unison Device inside. "This is," Nove took a step forward, but slipped on some spilled blood, causing her to stagger and knock the device out of the box and send it tumbling through the air and onto Quint.

Before either Shamal or Ginga could react, the device glowed and disappeared. What was shocking to Ginga and Shamal was that Quint's hair turned a bright green in the process.

Quint groaned and Shamal shook her head, getting back to work on healing Quint. The questions of what happened could wait until after they had saved Quint's life.

Nove just stared and shook her head, 'just like Agito and Due.' She hoped they were both okay.

* * *

Yuuno: So, it's my turn. Alright. Let's go, next time on Blood That Flows - StrikerS.


	244. StrikerS Forty Four

Blood That Flows

StrikerS Forty-Four

Of course I own nothing.

* * *

Yuuno grunted as he blocked another energy blast. "Thoth!"

**"Sorry, boss, looks like there's three of them."**

Yuuno grimaced as those Megahs continued to blast him. "Wait, three, how come..?" When a shadow came overhead, he looked up and understood instantly. "Dammit!" As strong as his shields were, he could feel them weakening just from being around the Megah, he wasn't sure if he could block this one.

**"Boss, it looks like we're about to get stomped."**

"Thanks, Thoth." Yuuno grumbled and took a gamble, he didn't know if it would work, but he had to get out from between the Megahs. Concentrating, his whole body glowed orange as the Megah stomped down. The instant that the foot hit the barrier, Yuuno had them erupt outwards and he raced out, grimacing at how slow he was moving. "Great, that anti-magic stuff is almost crippling me here!" Sure, he was moving faster than he could run, but it was almost painfully slow compared to what he was used to.

**"Even Hybrid and Holy magic's getting disrupted boss."**

Yuuno grimaced at that and spun around, snapping his wrists forward and sending out a gout of fire at the robots. He grunted as he saw the flames get batted aside by a Megah with its blade. "Dammit." If it was one, he was sure he could win, three was a different story.

The next thing Yuuno knew, three green beams slammed into the bodies of the Megahs, causing them to stumble backwards from the force. Turning, Yuuno stared as Otto walked up to him.

"If you have trouble with them, my Ray Storm is unaffected by their AMS." Otto said softly and looked at him. "If you wish, I shall help you."

Yuuno looked at her, part of him wondered just what she was playing at, but another part of him was grateful for the help. "I've got a spell that might work, but that anti-magic barrier makes it hard..."

"Overload it." Otto said and got in front of Yuuno. "If you wish, I can be your shield."

Yuuno put a hand on her shoulder as the Megahs recovered. "That's nice, but I'm more of a shield myself." He smiled as she blushed softly. "Can you destroy them?" She nodded and he narrowed his eyes while grinning. "Let's go then."

"I... I can take them out in one attack, but, I have not mastered it..." Otto said as she floated upwards, "I do not..."

"Hey, then don't worry about it." Yuuno floated up as well and narrowed his eyes as the Megahs started to step away from each other. "Any suggestions, Thoth?"

**"No offense, boss, but if you aren't using Holy or Astral magic, your offense is a little limited in this situation. Unless you intend to put a blanket over their heads, knock them on their backs and drop a giant rock on them or something."**

"Thoth, that..." Yuuno blinked and a grin came to him. "You'll need to take at least one out, ready?" Otto nodded as Yuuno clapped his hands together. "Dark Mist!"

A dark fog quickly covered the area, rising up above the Megahs, covering the streets and buildings, blocking out all sight, except for the bubbles that surrounded the Megahs. One of the Megah walked forward, slowly, and found that the fog moved along with it, quickly filling in the spots that the Megah left in its wake.

After a few steps forward, the Megah found Otto standing on the ground, lightning crackling from her body as wind spun and spiraled around her. "I might not have complete control over this, but I should be able to take you down." Her pupils slitted and her tail stood on end as a white ball of energy formed in her hands. "I will not..." She gasped heavily. "Let you..." She growled, her eyes narrowing at the Megah. "Hurt ANYONE!"

Otto thrust her palm forward and the ball of white-hot energy hummed in the air before shrinking slightly and then erupting forward. "Nova... Storm!"

Otto had to close her eyes from the bright flash of light that happened with her attack as a stream of super hot plasma energy erupted forward, connecting with the machine and vaporizing it instantly. Groaning from the heat and pressure of her own attack, Otto fell to her knees as she felt her strength leaving her body at once. 'What... Why does this always happen?' She asked as her eyes rolled up into the back of her head and she fell to the ground, unconscious.

High above the fog, Yuuno didn't see what was going on down below as rocks hovered around him while lightning crackled around him. "Let's go, Thoth..."

**"Okay, boss, hope we don't crush the cutie down there with this."**

"I know." Yuuno nodded as the rocks came together. "Now... Arc Brass!" He had no idea why this was an Earth-based spell when the thing dropped lightning from the sky. Yuuno wasn't aiming at the Megahs directly, since he knew that their blasted anti-magic barrier would stop almost anything that he tried.

However, if he chained spells together, he had a feeling that chaining the Arc Brass into his next spell, he might be able to stop them. "Veegas Gaia!" Normally, the spell needed a hand on the ground to make it work, but he hoped that it would work.

When he saw a Megah suddenly fall backwards, Yuuno grinned and balled his hand into a fist, causing the rocks that were floating around him to start packing together. "Let's do it Thoth!"

**"Goodness, greatness, great rocks of fire!"**

Yuuno grinned and held his hand above his head, where the rock was floating before he created a funnel pillar of fire to encase the rock.. "As Nanoha would say, Zenryoku Zenkai." Swinging his arm down, the flaming rock flew out of the sky and slammed into the Megah's body with such force that several cars were tossed up and buildings shook from the force of impact, the fog itself was dispersed due to the heat from the flames on the rock.

As for the Megah that his rock hit?

"That is one dead robot." Yuuno muttered as he saw the Megah's body and head were replaced by the smoldering rock.

**"Boss! The girl!"**

Yuuno looked down and stared as the last Megah was about to stomp down on Otto, who was just starting to recover from whatever she did to the first Megah. He growled as a green circle appeared under his feet. "HEY! UGLY!" The Megah turned to look at him as Yuuno pointing both hands straight down and shot down. "Try taking ME ON!"

As Yuuno shot down, he began to chant a spell that he learned once, but had never bothered to use.

_"Infinite earth,_  
_mother who nurtures all life,_  
_let thy power gather in my hand!_  
_VLAVE HOWL!"_

As Yuuno's hands touched the ground, he watched as the street ahead of him turned into lava as he cast the strongest Earth spell possible.

**"Boss, as awesome as this is, what about the girl? She's too cute to let her get die from this."**

"Think I'd let her die?" Yuuno asked rhetorically as a chain snapped out from a building, wrapped around Otto and pulled her out of the way of the oncoming lava.

As for the Megah, it fell forward, sinking into the lava quickly as its body was melted down. It pointed its cannon at Yuuno and charged up a blast that quickly fizzled as its torso, arms and head sank into the lava and melted to nothing.

"...That was rather fast, even for lava."

**"Mixing Holy and Spirit Magic together makes things pretty fast, boss." **Yuuno sweat-dropped and wondered when he did that.** "What about that girl?"**

Yuuno nodded and flew after Otto, who was looking somewhat out of it from where she was pinned against the wall. "You okay?" He couldn't help but notice how ragged her gloves and body suit were.

Otto nodded and smiled at him. "I should not have used that Nova Storm," she looked down at the chains on her body and tugged at them, "can you let me down?"

"Sure." Yuuno canceled the binds and grabbed Otto as she fell forward. "Can't fly?"

"Tired." Otto put her head on his shoulder. "Gimme ten minutes, I'll be okay."

**"Hey, boss, she's slipping, might want to adjust your hold on her."**

Yuuno rolled his eyes and slipped an arm under Otto's legs, holding her up against his body better. "Sheesh, what the heck did you use on that robot?"

(-)

Elsewhere...

"This is as far as I'm going." He looked at her as she got out of the car. "Are you sure?" He sighed when she nodded. "Fine, but I can't help you if you get into trouble."

"Kuma, I..." Amitie looked at him, before suddenly hopping back in and leaning over to hug him. "Thank you." He was kind of surprised by the hug she was giving him. "For looking after me. For helping Kyrie and myself when we got here." She let go and stepped out of the car again. "And thank you, for not taking advantage of me."

"Amita..." Kuma looked at her and took off his sunglasses. "What I said earlier, I mean it, you need more help than I can give you. At the least, before you do something wrong, ask to see your sister, the Bureau's willing to help if you state your goals clearly, so long as it's not unreasonable." He sighed when she turned away. "Just promise me that you won't fight without saying your goals first."

Amitie nodded and took off into the air, causing Kuma to groan as her blue skirt flashed upwards. "She just had to wear a thong today, huh?" He grumbled to himself as he hit the electronic door closer on his car and took off. "Sorry, Amita, I've got something that I need to take care of, I'd help you otherwise." Kuma put his sunglasses on and raced off towards the distance.

Amitie took a deep breath as she landed near the building of the Riot Force. This was crazy, stupid, weird and just plain nuts. 'Kyrie, you better be okay, you stupid...' Her thoughts trailed off as she saw a young woman with a long braid walking out to meet her. "Uh... Hello?" Oddly enough, the girl wasn't in any uniform at all. "Am I at the wrong building?"

"If you mean, are you at the Riot Force, no, you're at the right building." The woman looked at her with her eyes narrowed. "However, considering the timing of everything, a lot of people are kind of nervous right now. In fact, most of the people inside are likely to shoot first and ask questions later right now. Now then... I'm willing to bet that the reason you make them so nervous is because you were in a previous fight with some of them, huh?"

Amitie nodded at the girl. "Yes, my sister was captured by this Riot Force."

The girl nodded and turned around. "I don't have any authorization to arrest you, let you in or anything like that, so, all I can say is, she's probably still here, though you might want to talk to one of the people in charge before they'll let you see her."

Amitie hung her head. "I'm worried about her, I need to see her, I don't care what happens to me, I just need to see her!"

The girl stopped and turned back to look at her, her eyes showing understanding as she nodded. "Fine."

(-)

"Tut, tut..." Levi rolled her eyes as she saw what was going on. "To think I'm losing so many of my forces, oh well..." A grin came to her face as she watched the fights. "Distracting, isn't it?" She turned to Lutecia, who had her eyes closed while her body twitched and moved as she tried to get free of her binds and be allowed to pass out from the pain. "Lutecia..." Levi knelt down and caressed Lutecia's cheek. "Come on, you're not done yet. Prove to your master that you're useful."

Lutecia's body twitched and she let out a whimper and a groan as sweat rolled down her face as she stressed her summoning abilities even more as ten Megahs left at the same time.

Levi chuckled as she saw the helmet and electrodes on Lutecia's head do their work, keeping her conscious and able to work. She created a new screen and smirked as she saw Quattro finishing up the preparations on Reinforce. "Quattro, I need to get our last guest, I'm sure that you can hold things down here for about ten minutes."

"Of course." Quattro nodded and watched as Levi disappeared. "Now, master, I wonder..." Quattro looked at the control panel and a small grin came to her face as she pushed a button and watched as a red light turned green and looked at Reinforce. "It won't be enough, but I wonder just what will happen next, eh, Re~in~force?" Quattro sing-songed to the bound device.

(-)

Chrono stood up and stared in shock as the Riot Force was suddenly surrounded by ten of those giant robots at once. "Dammit!" Hitting some buttons, he announced a complete lock-down on the facility before grabbing his device and jumping out of the window. "Miyuki." Chrono saw the eldest Takamachi daughter already outside and nodded to her before looking at Amitie. "Normally, I'd arrest you, but right now, I need your help."

"My sister." Amitie pulled her guns out, spun them in her hands a few times and pointed at the Megah in front of her. "If you let my sister out and give Kyrie her sword, she'd be a big help."

Chrono frowned at her. "I can't..."

"Please, if we're together, we're a lot harder to beat."

Chrono bit his lip before bringing a hand up to his ear. "The prisoner in the detention block, let her out, get her some armor and her weapon, yes, I'm sure, we need all the fire power we can get out here!"

Miyuki unclipped the Sword of Light and lit it up. "Well then, there's only three of us right now, let's rock."

(-)

Shari opened the door to Signum's room and stared in shock. "...She's gone?" Shari growled as she saw that not only was Signum gone, but the window was open, leaving no doubt how she got out. "Damn idiot! She hasn't healed properly yet!" The worst part was, Shari didn't know how long Signum had been gone.

Pulling up a screen, Shari frowned as the homing device that she installed into Laevantein, just in case something like this happened, showed Signum all the way into the city by now. "...Just freaking great! What else can happen right now?"

"Commander Hayate! She's gone!" A nurse yelled from just down the hallway.

Shari pulled her glasses off and slapped the palm of her hand against her face. "I just _had_ to ask, didn't I?" After pulling her hand away from her face and putting her glasses back on her face, Shari grumbled. "Oh great gods of irony, please tell me, is there anything else you'd like to spring on us today?"

(-)

Suzuka looked at Arashi and Vivio and knelt down. "I need you two to stay here, okay?" The children nodded and Suzuka looked at Arashi. "You be brave and keep Vivio safe, okay?"

"Sure!" Arashi saluted her as she stood up. "What are you doing?"

Suzuka smiled at Arashi and pulled out a fairly large hammer from somewhere. "Let's just say that it's time that I get my act together." Getting out of the room, she closed the door, turned towards an open window and ran for it at top speeds. Jumping onto the sill, she smirked as she saw a Megah look right at her. "I'm your worst nightmare, I don't got magic that you can negate!" She threw the hammer straight at the Megah before jumping out after it and landing on the Megah's cannon hand as it batted the hammer away. "Elevator going down!" Suzuka punched the Megah on the wrist, shattering it with ease and detaching it from the body. "First floor!"

(-)

Quattro frowned as she saw that. "There was no magic in that," her eyes widened and she pressed a button to order all of the Megah that saw her to focus energy attacks on her. After all, if there was no magic, that punk couldn't get close.

Right?

Quattro watched and grimaced as she saw that wasn't the case as the girl was fast and agile enough to avoid attacks and got close enough to the Megah to do something that shocked the hell out of Quattro.

"She's THROWING IT?" Quattro couldn't believe it, that thing had to be at least five hundred times that purple-haired girl's weight. "She's THROWING it into ANOTHER Megah?" Quattro shuddered and was suddenly glad that she was a Mazoku. If she had been a cyborg, that girl could have turned her into a pretzel with ease.

(-)

Arisa looked up as the Megah lifted its foot. "...So, this is how I die? Unable to move and that thing about to squish me, huh? Sorry, Caro, looks like I'm not coming back, look after Yuuno for me, huh?" After all, someone had to make sure that idiot didn't end up in a bad situation.

There was a grinding and tearing noise and Arisa stared as the leg above her seemed to split in half after coming apart at the knee of the Megah. "What?"

"Thank you for damaging it." A familiar voice said and Arisa could only stare as she saw Signum hovering in mid-air above her. "In my current condition, I doubt I could beat it if it hadn't been damaged."

"Signum!" Arisa smiled before blinking. "You... You have two hands? But I thought your right hand was destroyed? And why are you wearing a glove over it?"

Signum looked down at her as she touched down on the ground. Sheathing Laevantein, she pulled the glove off and Arisa stared at the metal hand. "Cybernetic prosthetic hand, made from the left-overs of Laevantein's original body," Signum narrowed her eyes at Arisa as she put her glove back on, "it doesn't make me any stronger, and if you say 'use the Force, Luke', I _will_ make you pay in a way that is not enjoyable for you in the slightest."

"I'm just wondering how it was done so fast." Arisa finally felt strength returning to her body, little by little. At this rate, she'd be able to sit up in an hour.

"It's not hard. I worked with several people on Earth with prosthetic limbs, this is just more advanced." Signum turned to look at the Megah, which was crouching and pointing its cannon at her. "Well then, magic might be a little hard to use, right?" Grabbing at her right shoulder with her left hand, Signum pulled something off and gave the Megah a grin. "Light come forth." Sure, she might not have had any sight on the right side of her face, and her depth perception was shot to hell and back, but she was pretty sure that she could take this thing on.

When the Megah tried to swat at her, Signum rushed in, chopping overhead, cutting into the Megah's left arm. She jumped up and swung down with Laevantein, cutting through the Megah's cannon arm with ease. "What did Shari and Mary put into you, Laevantein?"

"Look out!" Arisa yelled as she saw the Megah still trying to move towards Signum. Her eyes widened as Signum, without looking, made a spinning cut with the Shine Sword, tearing the Megah's head off and causing the body to fall to the ground harmlessly. "...Never mind then."

Signum sheathed Laevantein and put the Shine Sword away. "Actually, that wasn't..." She stopped as a screen popped up in front of her. "...Shari, what..?"

"Do you know how STUPID YOU ARE?" Shari screamed at Signum through the screen. "Your body hasn't healed from the multiple surguries yet! On top of that, the hand hasn't settled in properly yet! If you put it under too much stress you'll break it! And then where will you be?"

Signum turned to look at the broken Megah. "...Would cutting a giant robot up be considered too much stress?"

"It depends, did you use Laevantein's snake form?" When Signum shook her head, Shari sighed heavily. "Good, that's good, if you had, you would have snapped your hand right off." When Signum grimaced, Shari blinked and tapped her chin. "Well, maybe, but best not to risk it right now. I don't recommend any heavy fighting right now." Shari looked to the side and frowned. "Uh, you'll have to excuse me..."

The screen turned off and Signum wondered what that was about.

(-)

Shari grimaced as she dropped to the ground as the wall exploded inwards. Looking up, she gulped as a Megah stared right at her. "...I wish you weren't so evil, I'd LOVE to study you." There was a swish and Shari stared as a teenaged girl in a training outfit with a large sword ran down the hallway and swung outwards, slamming into the Megah's head and knocking it back. "...That was..?"

"Ooooh!" Kyrie purred as she pushed her sword into the optical sensor of the Megah. "Aren't you a big boy?" An evil grin came to her face as she pulled the sword out, kicked the Megah in the face twice, jumped onto the top of its head and bounced off of it. "Sorry, but you aren't my type." She giggled as she landed on the grass and stabbed her sword into the ground. "Do you like gravity, Mr. robot? Because it doesn't like you." She laughed as a sigal appeared under the Megah, causing it to suddenly go sky-high. "Whee! Lookie! I bet you can see your house from up there!" She shrugged, causing her breasts to bounce as a large stone spike erupted from the ground, heading right up after the Megah. "What goes up, comes down, right?"

Kyrie giggled as the Megah suddenly reversed directions and was skewered between its legs and up through its head. "Now you'll never be a real boy."

"Kyrie!" The girl turned and was suddenly hugged by her sister. "Oh gods, you okay!"

"Ami!" Kyrie hugged her sister tightly and jumped up and down. "Missed you so much! But they got great food! And I got new clothes, a bed and none of them tried to force me to do anything other than talk to them, but they were really nice about it."

Amitie let go of the hug and smiled before turning to the Megah that she tricked into following her. "Shall we?"

"Oooh!" Kyrie purred while gripping her sword. "Florian Death Blossoms! This'll be fun! Been a long time since we used it on a large enemy though."

Amitie nodded and smiled at that as Kyrie took off right at the Megah, slamming into it's body with her blade and slashing at it from many, many different angles. Amitie, on the other hand, seemingly disappeared, putting as much speed on as possible while creating large balls of magical energy to surround the Megah. "It's got an anti-magic barrier!"

"What barrier?" Kyrie grinned as the Gadget Drones that were latched to the Megah fell apart, causing the bubble that surrounded it to pop loudly while Kyrie shot into the air.

"Good!" Amitie pulled the trigger on her guns, causing hundreds of blasts to rocket forward into the robot from all angles while Kyrie held up her sword, a giant ball of energy forming above her.

"Deadly Blossom Storm!" Kyrie grinned as the giant sphere landed on the Megah, before exploding, sending pieces of the giant robot everywhere. "That was fun." Kyrie landed on the ground and smiled at Amitie. "Where's Kuma?"

"He had something to do," Amitie looked at the other Megahs and grinned at them, "there's not a thing that can stand up to the two of us together."

* * *

Chrono: So, it's our turn, is it? Next time on Blood That Flows - StrikerS. Wait, who the? What are you doing here?  
? ? ?: Here to fight.


	245. StrikerS Forty Five

Blood That Flows

StrikerS Forty-Five

Of course I own nothing.

* * *

"Freeze it!" Chrono commanded Durandall as ice formed around two Megahs. "Miyuki, how are you handling things?" He turned to look and nodded as he saw her carving apart a Megah with ease. "That's good." He narrowed his eyes as he looked around, he had just taken two Megahs out, Miyuki took one out, Suzuka had taken at least two out, and it looked like those two girls had taken at least one out. "There's at least three left, where..?" He looked up and paled instantly as he saw three Megahs hovering in mid-air while charging up their attacks and pointing at the building. "Dammit!" Even one of those blasts could be deadly.

Before the blasts could fire, several white beams shot out, smashing through the Anti-Magic Barrier and exploding against the Megahs. Turning, Chrono stared as he saw Hayate standing in mid-air, several circles in front of her as she cast Hræsvelgr. When the rings disappeared, Chrono thought maybe it was over, but when he saw Hayate hold up her staff and a black sphere form above and between the Megahs, who were still stunned from Hayate's first attack, Chrono felt like finding a bunker, or at least Yuuno, because Hayate's next attack didn't discriminate friend from foe. "Hayate! Wait!"

Hayate glared at the Megahs as she completed her spell. "Diabolic Emission."

Chrono growled and created a barrier and watched as the black energy expanded and consumed the Megahs. 'Damn spatial attacks.' He stared as Hayate's attack, when it exploded, exploded upwards to the sky.

"You were expecting that my attack would flatten you as well, Admiral?" Hayate asked as she floated down next to him.

Chrono turned and was about to chew her out when he saw how haggard her appearance was. "...Have you recovered?"

"Not fully, but I can finally sense Reinforce, she's hidden, but I know she's alive." Hayate closed her eyes and took a deep breath as she pointed her staff at the city. "I know it's coming from that way."

"Then go." Hayate looked at Chrono, who put a hand on her shoulder. "You're still the commander of the Riot Force, Hayate. Though, I admit, I was worried that you had broken down completely."

She stared at him in confusion. "Sure, I was mad at you and other stuff, but I've spent the last few days searching for Reinforce in my room."

"That's what you were doing?" Miyuki yelled at Hayate as she came up to the commander. "We all thought you were comatose!" She powered down the Sword of Light and grabbed Hayate by her shirt, lifting the girl up. "I don't know if you know this, Hayate Yagami, but your daughter ran out of your room, crying just yesterday because you wouldn't answer her." Hayate looked away, shame clear on her face. "What do you have to say about that?"

"I never knew..." Hayate muttered softly, before turning her head to look at Miyuki. "How was I supposed to know when I don't even know what day it is right now?"

Miyuki let go of Hayate as Suzuka, Kyrie and Amitie came up to them. "Still doesn't excuse what you did." She looked at the other three and nodded to them.

"There's none left on the other side." Amitie spoke up and looked at Chrono and Hayate. "Um... I heard from Kyrie that she was taken care of while here. Thank you."

Chrono nodded to her, he didn't even have to imagine how bad it was, Shamal had said that all he had to do was watch some movies where the worst things imaginable that could happen in prison and he'd have some idea what the two had gone through. "You and your sister are still under arrest for attacking Bureau members, however, if you would be willing to talk and cooperate with us fully in our investigation over the current events, I guarantee that you won't have to go to prison."

Amitie sighed softly and nodded. "Just promise me that you won't harm Kyrie."

"Admiral," Hayate looked at Chrono, "you deal with those two, I've got something to take care of." Chrono nodded and Hayate took off towards the city as fast as she could.

Chrono looked at the the sisters. "For now, we'll let you two stay out, but only because there might be more of those things."

The two nodded to him, though Kyrie winked at him. "Hmm, you're not bad looking, and you aren't mean either. I've done a lot worse for captors before."

Chrono sighed heavily and shook his head. "I'm married to two wonderful women." He gulped as her grin seemed to increase in size.

"Oooh! A threesome every night! You're a lucky, and kinky man." Kyrie purred at Chrono, who was sweating heavily. "Too bad you're married, I might have taken you on a few dates."

'She... She's like a female version of Thoth.' Both Chrono and Miyuki thought at the same time. Chrono was suddenly thankful for Hayate's foul mood lately. He couldn't imagine what would happen if Hayate, Thoth and this girl were left alone for more than ten seconds.

One thing was for certain, it wouldn't be pretty.

(-)

Vita growled as she was blasted in the back by another Megah. "You..." If she hadn't been hurt, this would be easy to handle, even if it was two on one like it was, but she was hurt and every time she turned her attention to one, the other one was on her instantly. "ENOUGH!" Vita let out a scream as she rushed to the one that was shooting at her from behind. She grinned as the other one came rushing in, turning around, she shot up and dropped her hammer straight down on the Megah, forcing it to block with the flat of its blade. "That won't work!" She screamed as her hammer smashed through the blade and connected to the chest of the Megah. "Now you can.." Vita looked down as a small cable wrapped around her mid-section. "You have GOT to be kidding! You didn't have this before!" Vita gasped hard as she was yanked away by the Megah behind her. Turning, she stared and growled as the Megah that was reeling her in from a cable cord on its left hand. "Don't tell me that you guys build new weapons on the fly?"

"Vita!" Rein's voice yelled and Vita looked at the Megah in front of her as it charged up an energy blast.

Vita growled as she tried to get free. "Dammit! You..." She hissed before staring as she heard a humming noise that turned into what sounded like shattering glass. Vita knew that sound. "Just great, what..." She trailed off as she saw the Megah in front of her suddenly get skewered by thousands of smaller blades all across its body. There was a flash in front of her and the cords were shredded to pieces.

_"Don't worry, Sette and I can handle these things."_

Vita looked at her breasts as that weird cat stood on them. "...Aren't you Suzuka's cat?"

Mr. Snuggles jut gave her a smirk. _"I used to be, but enough of that, the Megah behind us is going to be a real bitch here pretty soon."_

Vita turned and growled as she saw it powering up another attack. Growling, she was about to move when a purple flash suddenly slammed the Megah over and over from various angles before a loud groan was given out and it fell to the ground in pieces. "...You two..? I could have handled things here!"

"We know." Tre nodded to her as Sette finished up the Megah that had injured her earlier. "However, the longer that this fight dragged on, the worse off you would be." Vita twitched while looking at her. "Think of us as bodyguards for you so you can recover."

_"Besides, this isn't right. We'll explain later."_

"Fine." Vita muttered as she looked at Sette, who walked up to her calmly. "I'm still upset about you destroying my hat," she raised an eyebrow at Tre, who shrugged at her.

"It got fixed, but I'll make sure not to call it stupid in the future." Tre muttered and yelped as she was introduced to the ground by Graf Eisen. "...Note to self, the redhead has a constant state of PMS."

"What did you say?" Vita yelled at Tre, who looked up at her and frowned back.

"You heard me, you over-stacked redhead."

Sette blinked and looked at Mr. Snuggles, who had jumped over to her. "...They seem to be getting along well."

Mr. Snuggles nodded as Vita and Tre glared at the both of them. "WE ARE NOT!"

Sette nodded and put Mr. Snuggles on her shoulder. "It is good to see that Tre can make friends easily."

(-)

Fate zipped out of the way of another dozen arrow attacks. "Cannon bite!" A ball of energy formed in front of her hand before snapping forward and splintering into dozens of smaller energy blasts that pelted the arrows, destroying them instantly. Turning towards the Megah, Fate zipped to the side as it blasted at her. She turned slightly, panting as the length of time in her Rubin Blitz mode was starting to catch up to her. "I'll have to..." She trailed off, staring in shock at the burning cars and buildings. "Bardiche, were there people still around?"

**"Yes sir, very likely where the blast hit."**

Fate squeezed her eyes shut and glared at the Megah. "Let's get that thing off of that building and into the air."

**"No life signs detected in the building."**

Fate nodded and created an energy blade, which she threw at the building the Megah was perched on. "Mega... Brand!" She snapped her fingers, causing the building to explode and the Megah to soar high into the air. "Time to end this."

**"Yes sir."**

_"Master of the Dark Sky, you who dwell upon the Azure Abyss._  
_Oh, ruler of the paths of Life and Death._  
_May the souls of those that oppose us be swept_  
_upon the maelstrom of thy wrath!_  
_Let the fools who stand before me be destroyed, by the power you and I possess."_

Fate glared at the Megah as it stared to adjust itself in midair. "You won't survive this." She pointed Bardiche, which was glowing blue and crackling with lightning, at the Megah. "Goodbye, this is for all the people you killed.

_"Nemesis Breaker!"_

A blue beam lanced out, smashing into and through the Megah's anti-magic barrier with ease, before erupting into a ball of destructive energy.

When the smoke cleared, Fate sighed as she saw nothing left of the Megah. "I'm sorry, I wish I had been faster." Her barrier jacket reverted to normal as she floated down to the street.

"Wow! That was strong!" Fate gasped as she saw Wendi and Deed looking at her. "Tore that Megah up like it was nothing!"

"You two," Fate gripped Bardiche and blinked as Wendi grinned and waved her hands from side to side.

"We're on your side now!"

"If you were worried about the people in those buildings and cars, rest assured," Deed gave a small bow to Fate, "Wendi and I were able to move all remaining people out of the buildings and vehicles before the Megah shot them."

Fate blinked and gave a small smile to them. "Thank you."

(-)

Erio grunted as he and Caro faced off against five different Megahs total. "Caro, can you summon Leviathan?"

She shook her head. "No, we're not close enough to the water. I'm sorry, I only have Fried and Voltaire." She patted Fried's head affectionately. "Don't worry, Fried, you're strong enough to deal with them."

The Dragon purred as the Megahs seemed to just stand there, not moving.

"Think they shut down?" Erio asked, partially hoping so, the last time he had fought against a Megah, it had nearly killed him and Fate and had injured Yuuno all so fast. He didn't relish the thought of facing off against five of them without heavy back-up...

Like his grandmother, Nanoha or Fate, any of them would have been really good for back-up. Heck, he'd take Yuuno as back-up... Well, almost, the blonde was a nice guy, but Yuuno still bothered him for some reason.

The five suddenly started moving in random directions, one shot straight up into the air while two others backed off and one moved in while the final one stood still. The one that moved towards them unsheathed a blade that forced Erio to jump off of Fried while Fried and Caro took off in another direction. Erio's eyes widened as he saw what was going on. "Caro! Watch out! It's a trap!" He called forth Ragudo Mezzagis at full strength as the Megah that was close to them turned on him and swung at him. Growling, his energy blade crossed with the Megah's blade and he could only stare as the blade was holding him off. "What the heck? You weren't..." He yelped as a cable cord suddenly wrapped around his stomach and pulled him back. Looking over his shoulder, his face twitched as another Megah was pulling him towards it.

"Erio-kun!" Caro gasped as she saw the two robots charging up their attacks and whimpered. "No..." Images flashed through her head of her friends, her family, of everyone she loved hurt and dying. "No... You can't..."

"Thunder... FLASH!" Erio called out, lightning crashing around him and traveling through the cable to the Megah that had him bound, causing it to jerk and let go of him in a moment. Before he could recover, a giant fist slammed into his body, causing him to gasp out in pain as he felt several bones break from that hit, which sent him flying through several buildings and crash onto the ground several blocks away, where he lay, twitching.

The Megah that punched Erio turned to look at Caro, who was holding up a barrier blocking the two Megahs in front of her while her Dragon looked to the side and let out a burst of flame towards another Megah.

The one watching aimed its cannon at Caro and began to charge energy in its cannon for a few seconds before firing at the Dragon and his summoner.

Caro let out a scream as she and Fried were blasted with a single beam, sending them crashing to the ground with a painful thud.

Fried had returned to his smaller form and Caro, her hat was missing, her cape was almost non-existent and her dress was destroyed up to her knees, slowly pulled herself up and looked at the Megahs, her vision swimming as she saw them charging their attacks. "Why..?"

She winced and screwed her eyes shut, hoping that the end wouldn't be painful. "Arisa-mama... Erio-kun... Yuuno-papa, I'm sorry."

A sudden flash filled the sky and Caro looked up, gasping as the Megah in front of her was missing its head and toppled over. "What?" The next thing Caro knew she and Fried were being pulled out of the area. "You!" She gasped as she saw the silver-haired girl save her and Fried from the Megahs.

"Yes, I'm sorry that I took so long to get here, Dieci's covering for us, but are you okay?"

"Erio-kun got hurt too." Caro whimpered out and groaned as Cinque set her down on a building not too far from the Megahs.

"I know, I'll check on him too." Cinque turned and watched as Dieci fired another shot at the Megah, only for the remaining four to dodge it completely. "...They're learning far faster than they should be able to. Quattro said that they couldn't learn too fast."

Caro looked at Cinque in confusion, wondering what she meant by that.

"You stay here and recover, Dieci and I will take them on." Cinque pulled out some knives. "I have no doubt they know about my abilities, and won't let me get close, but you need to take care, recover and then make sure that your friend is okay."

* * *

Hayate: I'm not in the next chapter, but I am back. Next time on Blood That Flows - StrikerS.

Sorry about not updating yesterday.


	246. StrikerS Forty Six

Blood That Flows

StrikerS Forty-Six

Of course I own nothing.

Sorry for not updating for awhile, I've been busy in life.

* * *

Nanoha looked at the Megah in front of her as it fell to the ground, missing its torso. She panted lightly before smirking to herself. An Excellion Freeze Buster followed by a Hyperion Cannon was all that was needed, of course, actually _hitting_ the blasted Megah was something else entirely. It tended to duck behind buildings and then fire at her through the building when she hadn't fully recovered yet.

**"Master!"**

Nanoha quickly created a barrier to all sides around her and was thankful for Raising Heart's warning as four blasts connected to her shields in one go. "This isn't good. Raising Heart, let's show them some real power."

**"Alright, Neo Assault Mode."**

Nanoha grinned as her outfit changed, the dress became a pair of extremely form-fitting metallic pants, white boots extended from her feet to her knees, her jacket disappeared and was replaced by a sleeveless shirt, exposing her shoulders and upper arms. The center of her chest was a metal plate that had a giant red orb in the center that was partially covered by a metal plate. On her head was a visor that covered her face and gave her important data of everything on the battle field at once. On her back was six metal wings, three on each side, pointed downwards.

Nanoha's left arm, which had a small box near her elbow had a tube ran along her arm until it connected to what looked like the head of Raising Heart's Excellion spear head, which was split down the middle and slightly spread apart, between the head points was a thin cannon. On Nanoha's left arm, there was a blade that went from her wrist to down below her elbow.

**"Protection Enhanced."**

Nanoha flexed her arms out and shot straight up, ignoring the beams as they rained on her barrier. "Alright, let's see if you can keep up with this!"

**"Gatling Buster."**

A ball of energy formed at the tip of the cannon, before shooting out dozens upon dozens of energy balls tore through the air, smashing into the Anti-Magic Barrier and exploding against the Megah in front of her. "Raising Heart... Let's show them some real cannon firepower."

**"Alright, full cannon mode."**

Nanoha grinned as the spear head hissed and widened, allowing magical energy to crackle between the two halves and look almost like lightning. "Divine... CANNON!" She smirked as the energy rushed out and smashed through the Megah, tearing it to pieces.

A shadow loomed over her and Nanoha turned to see a Megah above her, swinging its arm down. Growling, Nanoha brought her cannon arm up to block the attack, which forced her to the ground. "Sorry," she grinned at the Megah as the blade on her right arm snapped out, twisting her body, she cut through the Megah's blade with ease, causing it to fall to the ground harmlessly, "but parts of Neo Assault Mode are made out of Blaster metal, you aren't quite as tough as that."

The next thing Nanoha knew, the Megah's left hand grabbed her and was squeezing down on her body, causing her to groan as her hands were in an awkward position to get free. "Nice move, this hurts..." She grunted heavily as more pressure was applied to her. "Too bad, my wings are also made out of Blaster Metal." Nanoha grinned as the wings on her back suddenly shot up, slicing the Megah's hand into pieces. "I can't believe that I needed to do that!" Nanoha grumbled as she jumped off of the Megah's falling hand and got free of its Anti-Magic Barrier. "Can't believe that Mary's bitching about getting Blaster Metal to reinforce your frame and the Neo Assault Mode paid off."

**"We owe an apology."**

Nanoha nodded and held her arm in front of her. "Sorry, but I've got a better cannon here. Supreme Buster!" A quick, concentrated burst of magical energy tore the second Megah's head off and Nanoha looked at the others in the area. "Nice try, but like this, you won't escape so easily." Grinning, she smirked as energy started to collect in front of her. "Hyper... CANNON!" A powerful blast of pink energy shot out, which got ahead of the Megahs, watching that, Nanoha smirked as it suddenly exploded without warning, sending out a wave of destruction that quickly consumed two of the Megahs in one shot, leaving just one left.

"I need to thank Hayate-chan for the inspiration." Nanoha smirked and looked at the final Megah, which was stopped, before splitting in half. "What the..?" She stared as Zest, bruised, beaten up, and bloody, stood on the ground where the final Megah rest. "What happened to you?" She asked as she landed next to him.

"A surprise attack from behind before I activated my Blast Mode." He twitched slightly. "It is a good thing that these things cannot stand up to a Full Drive Blast Mode attack."

Nanoha winced at that. "At least you're alive, even if it hurts." He nodded to her, grateful as well.

(-)

Caro could only watch as remaining three Megah seemed to be able to anticipate everything that Dieci or Cinque could do ahead of time. She turned to see the path Erio took and bit her lip. "No more... I should have done this sooner..." Balling her hands into fists, a giant summon sigal appeared at her feet as she called forth her strongest summon possible. "Dragon Mount Summon..."

When the sky seemed to light up with fire, Cinque, the Megahs and Dieci all stopped to stare at what was going on.

"VOLTAIRE!"

Cinque stared and dropped her knives to the floor as an incredibly _huge_ black Dragon with four wings suddenly appeared out of the sky. "Otto, Deed, Wendi and Sette are related to something like _that_?"

(-)

"DEAR MOTHER OF ALL EVIL GODS, WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?" Quattro screamed as she saw the giant Dragon in the screen and shuddered as her very being was screaming at her to either run away or attempt to kill it painfully.

As she watched it destroy the remaining Megahs with ease, Quattro shuddered and couldn't even imagine how the hell someone was supposed to fight against something that powerful.

"Ah, Quattro..." Quattro turned to see Levi looking at the screen with narrowed eyes. "I return, and I have our final guest of honor."

Quattro nodded and looked at the unconscious girl in Levi's arm, "...Master, what happened to your other arm?"

"A little brat with golden power caught me by surprise." Levi grumbled and shook her arm. "If I had more time, I would have ripped him apart, but I'm in a hurry." She handed the small girl over to Quattro. "Give me a few minutes, get her into the throne room, I need to start this damn cradle up already."

"So, we're just going to brute force the relic into her then?" Levi nodded at Quattro's question.

"I have no need for her after the Relic's in her. I just need someone to start the ship up." Levi walked off as a grin came to her face. "The Saint's Cradle... The weapon of a lost age, now back to destroy everything." Levi started laughing heavily as her arm and hand slowly pulled themselves together.

Now there was nothing that could stop her plans from going off.

(-)

"Huh..." He blinked as he looked around the area. "A teleportation matrix to go from one secret base to another?"

Oh well, if there was one thing that interested Kuma as much as pretty women, it was a mystery.

(-)

Kuma looked around the base as he continued to walk down the hallway. "Interesting." The hallways were rather wide, enough to allow an entire army through the place with ease.

Sighing, Kuma tapped his sunglasses and watched as the display changed on them. "If I try looking for anyone, it'll take too long." He muttered to himself as he scanned the hallways. His eyes widened as he detected a few signals in the building. "Strange, oh well, don't have time to waste." Boots formed around his feet and up to his knees as he zipped down the hallway towards the strongest of the signals. When he found a door in the way, he didn't even bother stopping for it, he just launched a kick at the door and nodded as it broke off of its hinges before falling down. "Never made doors strong enough to hold me out."

"You!" The room's lone occupant stared and pointed at him. "You're that guy that Tea was complaining about!"

Kuma saluted her. "How is miss Tiyana these days?"

"It's Teana," Subaru muttered, "and I wouldn't know, I've been a prisoner here for a few days now." She tugged at her collar and grumbled. "Wish I could get this damn thing off." She had even tried to access her Combat Cyborg mode, but apparently the damn collar interpreted that as a hostile action and gave her such a shock that she was knocked out instantly.

There was a snap in the air and Subaru stared at the flash that passed right next to her face. "What are you doing?" He smirked at her while holding his leg up and knee bent downwards, a moment later, there was a click before the collar fell off of her neck. "You... How did you do that?"

Putting his foot on the ground, Kuma just continued to smirk. "Speed can do a lot, young missy." he turned and started to leave the room, Subaru following right behind him. "Anyway, I need to see if my employer is here, she owes me money."

"That's the only reason you're here?" Subaru asked while running after him. "Just to see if your boss is here? What about rescuing anyone that's here?"

Kuma turned and gave her a look while frowning. "Listen, girl, I'm a mercenary. In my line of work, doing more than just your job leads to problems," he turned and shoved his hands into his pockets while walking down the hallway, "like those two girls," he shook his head at that. "Never mind, but the point is, coming to care about stuff other than money is dangerous for a mercenary." Kuma stopped at another door and kicked it down, staring at what he saw. "...Is there some fashion in wearing skin-tight spandex or something? I appreciate how it shows off your curves, but I'm not sure it's the best clothes to wear."

Subaru pushed past him to see a woman with long, purple hair wearing a skin-tight blue body suit. "You look familiar." Subaru muttered before running in and grabbing the woman, who was holding her body up against one of the tables, before she fell. "Careful, I got you."

"Huh?" The woman blinked several times as she looked at Subaru. "Quint? When did you cut your hair?"

Subaru blinked several times. "Um, my name's Subaru, not Quint, that's my mom." When the woman gasped and stared at her wide-eyed. "What?"

"Subaru? But the last time I saw you, you were a tiny little girl!" A worried expression came to her face as something occurred to her. "What year is this?"

"0075, why?" Subaru tilted her head as the woman trembled in her arms. "Something wrong?"

"Eight years? I've been out of action for eight years?" She balled her hands into fists. "Dammit! Where's Lutecia? What's been going on? Just where am I?"

"Uh... I don't know, I think something weird and we're at the base of Jail Scagiletti." Subaru answered in order. "I'd get us out of here, but I'd like to find my device first and," she stared as the woman opened her hand up. "Mach Calibur!" She looked at the woman. "Who are you?"

"Megane Alphine, I'm a friend of your family, Subaru Nakajima." Megane smiled and gave Subaru her device. "It was just laying on the table, it said 'get me to Subaru Nakajima' when I touched it."

"As nice as this is, and I hate to break up any conversation you lovely ladies are having, I need to find my employer." He frowned as he looked through his display. "Weird, anyway, I need to find her, and if she's not here, I don't know where she'd be."

"Um," Subaru picked up Megane in a bridal style hold as she took Mach Calibur from the older woman, "I heard Uno and Tre talking about the Saint's Cradle. It kind of sounded like it was pretty close to here."

Kuma nodded to her. "I need to find the door outside first. Unless you know the way?" Subaru shook her head and Kuma groaned and glared at her. "What kind of hostage doesn't know where the front door is?"

"One who woke up naked on a table?" Subaru sighed as she activated Mach Calibur and transformed into a far more familiar outfit. "This is much better."

"I agree, you look better in shorts." Kuma crossed his arms and looked down the hallway. "I don't suppose that it knows the way out?"

**"To the right, largest doors in the hallway."**

Kuma stared at Subaru's ankle and nodded, "thank you, let's get out of here."

A few moments later, the three of them found themselves outside in the forest. Kuma was tapping his glasses and looked at a bunch of trees not too far from the base Jail had been using. "Alright, this is where we split ways." He turned and saluted Subaru. "It was fun, Subalu. If you see miss Tiyana, let her know that I'd be interested in meeting her again."

Before Subaru could correct him, Kuma leaned back and fell off the cliff. Staring, Subaru rushed to the edge, only to watch in shock as the man spun in mid air and turned his free fall into a dive before taking off like a cannon shot. "...He is fast."

Megane nodded to her. "Yeah, can we go now? I just hope that Lutecia's okay."

Subaru nodded and smiled as she called up her Wing Road with no problem. "I missed this."

* * *

Caro: We're back! Yes! Huh? Oh, uh oh, looks like more trouble is coming our way.  
Erio: When doesn't more trouble come our way?  
Caro: Next time on Blood That Flows - StrikerS, read it, because stuff is going down! BOOM!  
Erio: Please don't sound out the sound effects for people.


	247. StrikerS Forty Seven

Blood That Flows

StrikerS Forty-Seven

Of course I own nothing.

Sorry about last week, between a new game and looking for work, I wasn't getting much done.

* * *

"Caro!" The short pink-haired girl turned and smiled as she saw Fate coming towards them with two cyborgs in front of her. "Where is everyone else?"

"Here." Signum said as she, Arisa, Vita, Tre and Sette walked up to them. "You two promised to talk as soon as we all met up."

Tre nodded and twitched as Vita poked her in the back with Graf Eisen. "I wish you'd stop doing that."

"Why? You're going to get a lot of this in prison."

"Knock it off, Vita." Yuuno said as he touched down, carrying Otto. Behind him, Nanoha and Zest came up to the group.

Fate stared at Nanoha. "You're in your Assault Mode?" She nodded to Fate. "Must have been a hard fight."

"Not really, but every time I thought I had a lock-on, the machines would move, and if I adjusted, they moved where I wasn't aiming, it was annoying." Nanoha grumbled as Teana and Sein, the latter being pushed forward by Teana, walked up to them. "Where's Quint and Ginga?"

A screen popped up in front of them. "Quint got badly hurt," Shamal was wiping some sweat off of her face, "but she'll make it, however, she's completely done with any more fighting for the day."

Nanoha nodded at that. "And Ginga?"

"Ginga and Nove left, Nove wanted to make sure that her sisters were okay and Ginga won't let Nove out of her sight." Shamal giggled softly. "It was actually kind of cute, like two sisters arguing or something."

The screen turned off and Signum looked at Tre. "All your sisters that were out are together, so, talk."

"We were all set up," Tre said, crossing her arms under her breasts, "apparently a Mazoku killed off Jail and Uno and unleashed the Megahs."

"Megahs?"

Sette nodded at Signum's question. "Those robots are called Megahs. When it was revealed that the Doctor and Uno were killed by the Mazoku, we came to help, as those Megah are a product of the Doctor's work."

A shadow covered them before a final newcomer landed near them. "Damn! I lost the feeling." Hayate grumbled and looked at the others and Voltaire, who was standing there, looking around for other threats. "Uh..."

"Dad..." Vita looked at Hayate, anger filling her, partly from herself but mostly from Rein Zwei. "What do you mean?"

Hayate sighed heavily. "I sensed Reinforce... I was going to her, but I lost the sensation a little bit ago." If only she knew where the feeling came from originally.

"Mom's alive?" Vita was surprised, but happy. At least that was one good thing that came out of this.

Before any more conversation could be made, a large screen popped up in front of all of them, revealing a blue-haired, purple eyed woman in a black outfit looking at them while smirking. "Well, well, well, looks like you all survived together, how... Quaint."

"Alicia..." Fate said softly as she stared at her sister. "What are you planning?"

"Tut, tut, tut, little clone." Levi waggled her finger as she looked at them. "The Riot Force and the Numbers, both of whom are completely worthless before me." Levi snapped her fingers and smirked as a rumbling sound was heard in the distance. "You hear that? It's the sound of your deaths. The Saint's Cradle is rising." Levi snapped her fingers again and the video feed split into three split screens. "Just so you don't get any crazy ideas about trying to blow it out of the sky with those nasty powers of yours."

"Reinforce!" Hayate gasped in shock as she saw her beloved family member in some sort of tube, naked and unconscious.

"Lutecia..." Cinque mumbled softly and glared at the screen. "What did you do to her?"

"Vivio!" Nanoha gasped and stared at the screen. "Vivio!"

"Oh, they can't hear you." Levi smirked as the screen focused on her again. "As for Reinforce, I'm almost done with her. Of course, when I am, she'll either be dead or a perfect little tool for me." She laughed at Hayate, Vita and Signum's angry looks. "Oh my, Signum, it must suck that you're now a weak and helpless human, huh? After all, you're _so_ much weaker as a human than when you were a program, am I right?"

Signum twitched, but then gave her a small smirk. "Maybe I'm just a flesh and blood human, but you know what? Being human doesn't make me weak. I find that I'm stronger for it."

Levi snorted and looked at Nanoha. "You're welcome to try and get her. The Saint's Cradle will be taking off into the air in about ten seconds, so, you'll be able to find us quickly. Of course, she's not really responding to much after Quattro gave her that Relic."

Nanoha growled and fought the urge to blast the screen in front of her.

"What about Lutecia!" Wendi yelled at Levi. "What did you do to her and Quattro?"

Levi laughed at the irate cyborg. "Quattro's been my host body for years now. And now she's my willing servant. As for Lutecia, I have to admit, turning her into a perfect little toy in every way possible was almost too much to hope for. She's quite adept at pleasing me however I need it." She tapped her chin as a piece of information came to her. "Oh yes, one last thing, Wendi, Otto, Deed, Sette, if you four try to come to the cradle, I'll activate a little surprise that's been inside your bodies for years now."

**"Hey! Boss is the only one who's supposed to leave surprises like that in girls! What did you do!"**

"Ignoring the commentary, let's just say that if you four try..." Levi grinned at them as the room behind her shook. "I wonder how you'll feel about going completely berserk and attacking both friend and foe."

"Alicia," Fate began but was interrupted as her sister glared at her.

"It's LEVI now, you stupid clone!" Levi balled her hands into fists. "And, no matter what you do today, I will win!"

"So you say." Tre narrowed her eyes at the Mazoku. "But I think we'll stop you." For some reason, Tre didn't like that grin on her face.

"There are... A couple hundred Gadget Drones located throughout the city," Levi was practically purring at the group, "and they're all... Set to self destruct if they come near humans now." She laughed as the group visibly paled. "And, when I get this to the sky, I'm going to launch more, fliers, the fat ones, the thin ones... All of them are fused with Relics and all of them are going to be," she looked at her nails while rubbing her fingers against each other, "causing lots of mayhem. Even with that big Dragon, do you think you can stop all the Gadget Drones from rushing in and killing thousands of people?" She threw her head back and laughed hard. "You're welcome to try and stop me, or save the people! What you choose to do is up to you." Levi turned and was about to walk away, before stopping and looking back at the screen. "One last thing you should know, I've created an AMS, similar to what you fought against the Megahs, around the Saint Cradle. But, unlike the AMS you're used to, this will totally kill off any magic that tries to get close to the ship. Good luck trying to board!"

The screen turned off as she laughed at them.

(-)

A few minutes later, Nanoha, Fate, Hayate, Tre and Sein were flying through the air. Convincing Teana to let Sein have her device back had been a pain, but Fate had said that if Sein escaped, she would take the blame for it. Tre had been a little easier, Vita had seemed to want to get away from Hayate as soon as possible and start searching for Gadget Drones on the ground.

As they raced through the sky, Nanoha stared as they came across a very large ship as it raised in the sky. "Did Lucas come from Ancient Belka?" If he had seen the Saint's Cradle, it would make a lot of sense where he got his ship design for those movies.

Tre and Sein looked at her in confusion while Fate just groaned and shook her head.

"Stop making pop culture references." Hayate grumbled as they got closer to the bubble around the ship. "Even if we shot through it from above, we'd be completely normal if we landed on it."

"And you'd suffocate from the lack of oxygen." Tre grabbed Fate and Nanoha and glowed purple while Sein grabbed Hayate from behind. "Ride Impulse!"

As they watched Tre, Nanoha and Fate disappear into a purple flash that passed through the AMS and into the Cradle with ease. "How are we doing this?" Hayate asked as she felt the air start to get static-like and her magic was starting to actually be hard to hold onto properly.

"Like this!" Sein grinned as a gear symbol formed under her feet. "Deep Diver!"

Hayate was wondering what Sein was planning as they zipped into the Saint's Cradle and passed right through the walls harmlessly. When they came out and tumbled on the floor, Hayate blinked as she could feel her magic again. "Seems that the AMS is only around the ship."

"My sister's a Mazoku," Fate looked at the cradle and narrowed her eyes as she looked at the hallways, "you remember what mom said about them? If they think they're weak, they are weak, so she wouldn't try to weaken us any further."

"What are you doing?" Nanoha asked as Tre and Sein started to walk off.

"To find Quattro, I need to talk to her." Tre grumbled and looked back at the three of them. "The Mazoku is your sister, Testarossa, the key to this ship is your daughter, correct?" Nanoha nodded and Tre focused on Hayate. "And there's someone of your family here, correct? As much as she angered me with her comments, Quattro is still my sister, I need to talk to her."

"I'm going to see if I can find Lutecia." Sein said as she looked at the Aces. "But, I'm also going to look for Quattro too. I've got some stuff to do."

"Hold on." Nanoha walked up to Sein and looked at Raising Heart, which was in its normal staff form. "Raising Heart, if you would."

**"Alright."**

Sein blinked and gasped as a pink line went from Raising to Nemesis Heart. "What?"

When the pink beam was done, Nanoha smiled at her. "It's dangerous to go alone, take that with you." Tre just snorted and continued down the hallway, Sein following after her.

"What did you do?" Fate asked Nanoha, who just smiled at her. "Nanoha?"

"Fate-chan, Hayate-chan, before we go, I just wanted to say one thing," Nanoha smiled at the two, who looked at her in confusion, "regardless of how we got our power, how we were born, or what's happened to us since we were children, the three of us have always been friends, even when we fought against each other, or had bad days, we always knew what was going on and had each other's backs." She held up a fist and grinned. "So, let's come back home today in one piece, okay?"

The two of them made their own fists and nodded.

* * *

Levi: Well then, it's time to begin. The final fight begins now. Ha ha ha! Next time on Blood That Flows - StrikerS, I'm in charge!


	248. StrikerS Forty Eight

Blood That Flows

StrikerS Forty-Eight

Of course I own nothing.

* * *

Levi sighed as she watched the interaction between her clone and those other two. "Pathetic, really..." Another screen popped up and Levi smirked as she saw Tre and Sein walking down the hallways. "Quattro... Your sisters are here for you, you might want to greet them, I'll deal with the mages."

"Of course, my master." Quattro smirked as her screen turned off.

"Now then..." Levi snorted as the three Aces split into different directions. "Fate, Fate, Fate..." She tsked, her eyes flashing and grinned when she saw the desired effect. "That'll keep you busy until I'm ready to deal with you." Vivio wasn't going to be a problem, since the full power of the Relic would kick in the instant that someone tried to move the girl from the throne. "I wonder if that little devil can beat the Saint Kaiser."

She grinned as she saw Hayate getting close to where Reinforce was. "But first... Time to twist the knife." Levi vanished from the room she was in.

(-)

Hayate gasped as she saw Reinforce, her Reinforce, in a tube, completely naked and unconscious. "Reinforce..."

"Oh dear," Hayate turned and gasped as she saw Levi right behind her. Quickly backing up, Levi smirked as the doors behind her closed and locked into place. "Now, now..." Levi disappeared before getting behind Hayate and gently stroking her cheek. "I'm not here to fight you."

Hayate fought the urge to shudder as Levi floated upwards. "You... You're not?" Levi just smirked at Hayate as the tube suddenly opened at the top and Reinforce was levitated out.

"Why should **I **fight you, Hay~a~te?" Levi sing-songed as some sort of clamp dropped out of the ceiling and surrounded Reinforce's neck, "when there's a willing participant right here?"

"REINFORCE!" Hayate screamed as she heard a drilling sound.

"Don't worry, she's fine, I wouldn't dream about marring her that way." Levi grinned at Hayate as the clamps pulled off of Reinforce's neck, revealing a metal collar and what looked like two giant screws partially sticking out of it. "Now then..." She snapped her fingers and Reinforce was engulfed in black energy for a moment. When the energy dissipated, she was covered in a familiar outfit. "I think the outfit she had as the Book of Darkness is appropriate..." Levi ruffled the wings that were coming out of Reinforce's head and two red lines covered each of Reinforce's cheeks. "Don't you?" Turning to Reinforce, Levi smirked as she felt the shock and disbelief coming from Hayate. "Oh, Book of Darkness, your master wishes for you to destroy that small girl down there, you can do that, right?"

Reinforce's eyes snapped open and she looked down at Hayate, a black triangle forming under her feet. "Yes, my master."

Levi saluted Hayate as she disappeared. "Now have fun with her, Book of Darkness."

"Very well, my master."

"REINFORCE!" Hayate screamed as Reinforce descended on her.

(-)

"Quattro!" Sein yelled as she and Tre came across the glasses wearing Mazoku, who was standing next to Lutecia's bound form. "What's going on? Why are you in league with a Mazoku?"

Quattro smirked at her sisters. "What's going on? Years ago, Master Levi came to me and promised me power beyond power if I submitted to her will." Quattro flexed her fingers and dark energy crackled between them. "I have to admit, she kept her promise. This power is more than I could ever have had as a cyborg."

Tre snarled and pulled something from her belt. "Traitor... You betrayed all of us!"

"Don't get your panties in a twist, though, with the size of your ass, it's probably not too hard." Quattro smirked at Tre, "really now, Tre, we both know that you've gained weight since I was possessed by my master, after all, it all went to your ass."

Sein narrowed her eyes as Tre seemed to falter slightly. "So what? At least Tre isn't a craven coward!"

"Big words coming from you." Quattro rolled her eyes and gently stroked Lutecia's cheek. "While you were busy with your little training games or fun in the bedroom, my master and I were planning for this day. Miss Lutecia here, she's a perfect little slave. I had such fun using her for my own gains."

"You," Tre growled as she caught on to what Quattro was saying, "sick," her hands shook as she gripped the item in it more tightly, "BITCH! LIGHT COME FORTH!" Tre might not have been very skilled with a sword, as she have never used them before, but she was thankful that Signum had given her the Shine Sword before they had left.

Quattro raised an eyebrow at Tre. "A Shine Sword, huh? And Sein's in the Knight Valkyrie Armor as well." She sighed and stood up fully. "I guess..." Quattro walked away from Lutecia, looking down and shaking her head, "that I'll," she turned her head and grinned at Tre and Sein, "have to kill you two, just like I killed Uno."

The looks of shocked rage on Sein and Tre was just delicious to the newly created Mazoku.

(-)

Nanoha narrowed her eyes as she found a rather large door. "Vivio, if you're there, don't worry, mama's coming for you." Pointing Raising Heart at the door, she blew it open with a quick Divine Buster, which kicked up a lot of dust in the process. As she entered the room and cleared the dust, she found a very large room, easily two, maybe three stories tall, 'almost like space inside the ship is being warped or something,' she thought to herself as she noticed the throne on the other end of the room. Sitting in the throne was a small blonde girl in a white over-sized shirt as she looked down, apparently asleep. "Vivio." Nanoha rushed up to the throne and gently picked her up. "Come on, we're getting out of..." She trailed off as Vivio suddenly let out a scream and a burst of power sent Nanoha flying across the throne room so fast that she slammed into the wall before she could correct herself.

Shaking the cobwebs from her head, Nanoha stared as Vivio let out a groan and her body started to grow. Nanoha stared as the six year old girl suddenly aged twelve years in only a few moments, becoming taller than nearly any woman Nanoha had ever seen in her life. Her long, blonde hair was done up in a style similar to what Nanoha preferred to wear, with the pony tail hanging off the left side of her head that was tied off by a deep blue hair braid. She was wearing an almost pitch-black outfit with some metal blue plates just under her breasts, a hip-cape that was held in place by a combination of belts and metal plates over the sides of her hips, a short, black jacket that covered her arms completely. Nanoha blinked as she noticed the shoulders of Vivio's outfit was almost exactly like hers, on Vivio's feet was a pair of black and purple shoes with a blue gem just over where the tongue of her shoes would be. On Vivio's hands were black gloves with a round metal plate with a blue orb on it. Metal plates covered Vivio's knuckles as she looked at Nanoha with a cool expression.

"Vivio..." Nanoha smiled at her. "It's me, mama..."

"You are not..." A multicolored triangle formed under her feet. "My mama!"

Nanoha stared as she felt Vivio's power quickly rise. "This isn't good." She muttered to herself. "Vivio! I'm coming to save you!"

(-)

Levi laughed as she called up a screen to watch Nanoha and Vivio start their fight. "Oh yes," she smirked as Nanoha was batted away, "after all, the Saint Kaiser was someone master Garoth had personally killed. If she had given birth to that child she carried, the resulting bloodline would have wielded power that would have been able to challenge my master's own." Another screen showed Fate as she flew down a long hallway. "What's the matter, little clone? Can't get to me?" A little spacial warping and Fate was stuck in near infinite loop that would hold her until Levi was ready for her.

"But for now..." She grinned and watched Quattro take on her former sisters. "This will be good."

(-)

Quattro grinned as she snapped out a blade of light and energy, parrying the thrust forward by Tre, she grabbed the taller woman's arm and pulled down and slammed the hilt of her created blade into Tre's face, forcing Tre to the floor from Quattro's enhanced strength. The brown-haired Mazoku twisted out of the way as Sein tried to stab her through the floor. "Nice try." She kicked Sein in the chest and grinned at the crunch that was heard as Sein took off like a rocket into the ceiling of the room. "Pathetic."

"Not as much as you!" Quattro looked at Tre and grinned as Tre disappeared into a purple blur and shot into the air, hit the ceiling and rushed at Quattro's unprotected back.

When Quattro suddenly turned and grabbed her wrists, stopping her cold, Tre could only stare in shock as Quattro grinned and drove her remaining fist into Tre's face, sending her to the ground. Grunting as she landed, Tre looked up, only to see Quattro sitting on her chest. "You know, all this time, I was wrong about one thing, your large breasts are good for something," a savage grin came to Quattro's face as she leaned down and grabbed Tre's head, punching the taller cyborg in the face over and over again with her other hand. "You're so PATHETIC!" Quattro laughed several times, before blinking as she felt Tre's ankles grab her head and pull hard. Quattro's instincts, still used to being human, caused her to go flying across the room.

"Pathetic, huh? Maybe." Tre stood up and rubbed the blood that was flowing on her face away. "Maybe I'm just someone who has no future. Tre narrowed her eyes and took a defensive stance as Quattro dusted herself off. "But, the doctor gave me these blades, he gave us both life, and I won't let him down, even if he's not here anymore." Her wing blades shifted from purple to white in color. "And I'll cut you down."

Quattro smirked at Tre. "Really? I'd like to see you try."

"Ride..." Tre's eyes widened as Quattro seemed to disappear, before reappearing in front of her, the shorter Mazoku's hand was squeezing down on her throat tightly.

"All this time, Jail was trying so hard to protect against Mazoku, and you're the best that he could come up with." Quattro smirked as her fingers dug into Tre's neck. "So vulnerable right now, dear sister." Quattro pulled Tre in close to whisper to her. "I always hated how you were able to casually flaunt a body like that and I had to be possessed by my master to get anywhere near a body like yours.

Tre snarled at Quattro and pulled her arms back in an attempt to hit Quattro. The cyborg let out a gurgled grunt as the fingers dug into her neck and Quattro used her free hand to punch Tre in the stomach so hard that blood was forced into Tre's mouth.

"So... Weak." Quattro threw Tre to the ground in disdain and smirked as she saw Tre trying to reach for something that was near her. "Ah, the Shine Sword." Quattro laughed and kicked the blade out of Tre's reach before stepping on Tre's hips so hard that a loud and sickening crunch filled the room. "Hahaha haha haha!" Quattro threw her head back as she laughed and kicked Tre in the chest, causing her to scream as her ribs were broken easily from that attack. "And you thought that knock-off of the Knight Valkyrie Armor could protect you?"

Walking over to where the Shine Sword settled on the ground, Quattro levitated it up so she could grab it. "First you, then Sein." She looked around the room and smirked as she looked at Lutecia, who was still out of it. "Oh, miss Lu..." Quattro warped over to Lutecia and gently caressed the girl's face. "You've done such a good job, all those people, they're evil and if you kill all of them, then you'll get a good reward."

Quattro laughed softly as Lutecia let out a moan and leaned her head back as her body twitched. "Yes, do it, Lutecia, kill as many people as possible!"

"The doctor wouldn't want that!" Quattro turned as a spear lunged through the wall, stabbing her in the face and causing her head to erupt in black ink.

Sein glared at Quattro's body as it started to fall apart. "The doctor wanted us to live our lives! He just needed our help!" Sein looked at Tre and ran over to her as Tre clutched her side. "You okay?"

"I feel like..."

"Dying?" Sein's eyes widened and she turned around, only to have Quattro phase her left fist into Sein's stomach. "How interesting, I think you should die too." Sein let out a scream of pain as Quattro pumped dark energy into her body. "Really, you two thought you could handle Mazoku on your own?"

Quattro's laughs mixed with Sein's screams of pain as the petite cyborg twitched and spasmed in pain. "How is it, Sein? The worst pain you've ever felt, isn't it?" Sein's screams tapered off after only a few moments and Quattro snorted, pulling her hand out of Sein's body and watched as the cyborg fell to the ground, twitching in pain. "Really? You cut my meal short because you passed out?"

Quattro raised a foot up and dropped it down on Sein's prone body, watching, in some shock, as Tre pushed Sein out of the way, taking the blow for her. When Tre let out a scream of pain, Quattro snorted. "You could have saved your back, Tre, but now, I'm going to have to break more than just a few bones."

Tre let out another scream as Quattro stepped down on her right shoulder, shattering it, before she repeated the process on Tre's left arm, snapping it easily. "Hurts, hmm? That armor just isn't enough against my strength!"

Quattro snapped her fingers and held her hand out as the Shine Sword shot across the room to her hand. "Now then..." She lit up the Shine Sword and held it above her head. "Time to die."

"Quattro," she stopped, lowered her arms slowly and turned to see Levi there, grinning at her, "while I understand the pleasure of causing so much pain, I'm afraid you'll have to kill them off now."

Quattro frowned, before an idea came to her. "Master, why don't you have the honors? After all, they were supposed to be able to fight against you, right?"

"Why, Quattro, how nice." Levi walked over to Tre, who could only twitch miserably as she looked up at Levi. "Now then," a large black sphere of energy formed in her hand, "time for you to die."

"Yes, I agree." Quattro said.

What happened next had Levi staring down in shock.

"Time for _you_ to die, my master!" Quattro growled as she poured all the energy she could into the Shine Sword as she used it to stab Levi from behind, the end of the sword sticking out from between Levi's breasts, the shining blade was coated in black energy. "Even if I was beating them, they are still my sisters, and I don't expect to be forgiven for what I did to Uno, Tre and Sein. I don't need that, but one thing I've always **hated**, master, is the fact that you took over my body by force and nearly killed me!"

Levi let out a scream of pain as Quattro let out a war cry and forced the sword to slash outwards, tearing Levi's side wide open. Quattro smirked as Levi screamed while her body disappeared. "Pathetic, master..." She blinked as the Shine Sword suddenly shut off before shrugging and throwing it to the side. "Tre, Sein, are you..."

Quattro gasped as a hand erupted from her chest. "Wh...What?"

"You think you can betray me and get away with it, Quattro?" Levi said as she reformed in the room, her appearance was haggard and she panted heavily while her side leaked out energy. "I made you, and now... I'LL UNMAKE YOU!"

Quattro screamed as her body turned into a swirl, similar to a drain as she was sucked into Levi again.

Levi twitched as Quattro was reabsorbed. "...That bitch, she used most of her power in that one strike to get rid of me." Levi grabbed her side as she realized it would take some time to recover, at least a few minutes. "That..." She trailed off as something occurred to her. "...Where are you, Sein?"

There was a click from behind her and Levi's eyes widened as she moved her eyes to look to the side. "...Sein?"

"Even if she was a Mazoku, even if she was evil, Quattro was still my sister. Now, take a gift Nanoha-san gave to me and Nemesis Heart." Sein's appearance was haggard, her hair out of place and her body was twitching while she panted heavily and fought to stay standing up.

Levi turned to see a tube with an onrushing pink energy heading her way. "What?"

"Divine... BUSTER!" Sein screamed as the cannon on her right arm fired a large and powerful blast of Holy-tainted Magic into Levi's face, sending her across the room and through at least two walls before Levi crashed to the ground in an explosion. Sein nodded in satisfaction before falling to her knees and groaning in pain. "That... Hurt..." She just hoped that Levi was down for the count from that attack.

* * *

Hayate: Why? Why, Reinforce? We finally found each other again.  
Reinforce: Enemies to my master must die.  
Hayate: I'll save you. I'll undo what happened to you and save your life. Next time on Blood That Flows - StrikerS, I swear it!

Bet none of you saw that coming.


	249. StrikerS Forty Nine

Blood That Flows

StrikerS Forty-Nine

Of course I own nothing.

When you're reading this, find "Snow Rain" on Youtube and listen to it while reading this.

I used that song while writing this part.

* * *

Hayate grunted as Reinforce's punch slammed into her barrier with such force that it shattered in one hit. Hayate's eyes widened as a knee was driven into her stomach so hard that the air was driven out of her lungs. Hayate stumbled back and stared as Reinforce didn't give her a chance to recover as the silver haired device lashed out with a punch that struck Hayate in the cheek and sent her bouncing across the room. "NNnngh..." Hayate looked at Reinforce as she stood there, looking at her emotionlessly. "Why?"

_"Hayate," Reinforce muttered as Hayate cuddled against her in bed. "Come on, time to get up for school."_

_"Nah uh... You're comfy," Hayate muttered as she buried her face into Reinforce's breasts._

_Sighing, Reinforce reached down and pulled on Hayate's panties, pulling them up and getting a yelp from Hayate as she sat up and adjusted her underwear. "It got you up."_

_"Mouu... I'm either going to have to buy thongs or sleep naked." Hayate grumbled as she got out of bed and twitched at how her underwear was still uncomfortable._

_Reinforce blushed as she looked at the teenage girl. "...I wouldn't mind seeing you in a thong."_

"Reinforce," Hayate murmured as she stood up. "I'll save you." A small circle formed in front of her as she took a deep breath. "I won't let you down."

Reinforce narrowed her eyes and rushed forward, pulling her arm back and punching forward at Hayate, who wasn't there as she zipped to the side. "Why do you keep calling me that?" Reinforce asked as she stood to her full, and rather impressive, height. "I am the Book of Darkness."

"No you aren't!" Hayate yelled as a white triangle formed under her feet. "Don't you remember, Reinforce? I took that name away and gave you your new name!" When Reinforce raised her right hand balled it into a fist, Hayate shuddered and charged up her own attack. "Fine then! I won't lose! I can't lose! Claiomh Solais!" Hayate snapped her staff down and a blue-white beam of magic lashed out at Reinforce, who held up a hand to block the attack.

"Is that all?" Reinforce asked and stared at the book in Hayate's hands. "That is..." Before she could continue, she closed her eyes, bit her lip and groaned as her body shook. When they opened up, there was no recognition or emotion in them anymore.

"Fire Flash!" Several basketball sized spheres of fire erupted from the Tome of the Night Sky out towards Reinforce, who narrowed her eyes and stomped a foot on the ground, a wall of ice erupted out of the ground and dissipated the fire in an instant. Reinforce crossed her arms over her chest before thrusting them out, shattering the ice and creating four dark spheres around her in an instant.

Reinforce's eyes widened as she saw the five white rings in front of Hayate as she charged up her spell. "Nightmare." Reinforce whispered and held her hand out as the spheres erupted out towards Hayate, who countered with her Hræsvelgr spell.

The effects of the two spells colliding with each other was remarkable as they exploded outwards in a corona of black and white energy, lashing out at the two Belkan users and sending them crashing to the far ends of the room.

Hayate shook her head and looked at Reinforce, who, despite that, looked completely unaffected. "Please, don't you remember me?"

Reinforce drew her right arm across her body and snapped her fingers as several thousands of points of light erupted around her body. "Scatter, you points of light, rend the skies and my enemy like blades, Zenbonzaru." As Reinforce called up that spell, she noticed that Hayate was holding her hand up to create a barrier in an attempt to block whatever was going to come her way. Reinforce snapped her fingers again before pointing at Hayate and the points of light suddenly shot across the room so fast that Hayate was caught flat-footed as her barrier was shattered like glass, and her legs, arms, shoulders and even stomach were pierced with dozens upon dozens of small energy beams.

As her body shook from the impacts, Hayate could only stare with wide eyes as her mouth was forced open and a mixture of saliva and blood escaped it. She let out a cry of pain as she fell to the floor, blood dribbling out of each wound.

Reinforce took one step forward, before grunting as her magic pulsed, sending her to her knees and forcing her to grab her head as her eyes widened as an image came to her.

_"Zwei, be careful." She sighed as she watched her daughter, in her full-sized form, running through the mud puddles and make a mess out of herself. "What am I going to do with you?"_

_"This is fun!" Zwei grinned at her before slipping and falling to her butt and kicking up mud, covering herself with it. "...I fell."_

_"Yes, yes you did." She sighed as Zwei got up and ran around the yard with her arms spread, pretending to be an airplane and making fake sounds. She shook her head and sighed softly, glad that her daughter was able to live in such a peaceful time._

Reinforce snarled and stood up as the bolts on her neck let out another whine of noise. "What are you trying to do to me?" She looked at Hayate, who was forcing herself to a sitting position. "Enough of your games." Reinforce balled her right hand into a fist as black energy spiraled around it. "My name is... The Book of Darkness, and you are my enemy."

"Reinforce." Hayate flew up to get back to her feet. "Please, remember me." Her eyes watered as she saw the energy spiraling around Reinforce's fist. "You don't, do you?"

"You are my master's enemy, that is all I need to know." Reinforce rushed across the room at high speed, letting out a yell in the process.

"I'm sorry, then." Hayate murmured as she charged up her spell. "A.C.S. Driver!" Her body became covered in energy as she rushed forward, Schwertkreuz, her staff with a golden cross, was held under her, pointing forward as though it was a spear. When Reinforce got close, she lashed out with her punch, which connected with Hayate's staff, creating an explosion that sent Hayate crashing to the ground where she bounced a couple of times before sliding to a stop against the wall. Looking up, she gasped as Reinforce came out of the dust cloud, looking more dangerous than ever.

It may have had something to do with the fact that Reinforce's right arm was now looking more like a tentacle that reached down to her legs. "You are... My enemy..." Reinforce pointed her tentacle arm at Hayate, who gasped as the tentacles shot out quickly and wrapped around her legs, arms, around her chest and stomach, binding her. "I am... The Book of Darkness..." Dark lightning crackled around Reinforce's left arm. "Fall, into the Void of Darkness, and disappear."

Hayate could only stare as Reinforce rushed at her. "Reinforce... I... I..." Reinforce was upon her in a moment, her arm crackling with energy as she punched forward. "I love you, Reinforce." For an instant, Hayate thought she saw Reinforce's eyes widen with recognition, before they hardened again.

Hayate closed her eyes and waited for the end to come.

As her fist sailed forward, Reinforce could swear that everything was moving in slow motion. When Hayate closed her eyes, she was suddenly replaced by a small girl in a wheel chair who curled up to her, a wolf, and a redheaded girl who was just as small while a tall pink-haired woman and a blonde woman sat behind them. In the small girl's lap was a tiny, blue-eyed version of herself.

When a loud crack and explosion happened, Hayate cringed, fearing the worst. When she felt no pain, she opened her eyes to see Reinforce looking at her, her left arm extended fully and embedded into the wall behind her. "Reinforce?" She asked softly.

"You did something to me, didn't you?" Reinforce asked as the tentacles on Hayate's body started to tighten and wind around her, causing Hayate to cry out in pain. "I have memories that I shouldn't have."

"M...Memories?" Hayate asked, before Reinforce pulled her arm out of the wall and tossed Hayate away, her right arm remained in its tentacle form as she watched Hayate bounce across the floor, her hat falling off of her head in the process. "Please! Tell me! What memories?"

"False memories that you obviously implanted." Reinforce held her left hand up high, her index and middle finger extended, before slowly lowering it down, a red line followed her fingers downwards. "Let this be your end."

Hayate pointed Schwertkreuz at Reinforce. "Red Dagger!" Dozens of red daggers shot out from Hayate's staff and she gasped as they erupted when they got close to Reinforce, who now had her fingers pointing down and was raising them up, but this time to her right side slowly.

"A spell of that level will fail to overcome this, you will fall into nothing."

Hayate narrowed her eyes and fought the urge to cry as she held her staff up and a triangle appeared under her feet. "Then... Astral... Shattering..." A black ball of energy formed in front of it as Reinforce had, by this time, drawn her hand straight across to her left side and was moving it downwards towards her right foot. "BREAK!" Hayate swung her staff down and the ball shot forward, before splitting into eight smaller balls and each one rushing forward, smashing into the aria that Reinforce was creating, shattering it and causing the final ball to slam into the device's stomach and driving her against the wall.

Reinforce shook her head and stared as Hayate created a triangle aria in front of her while holding her staff high in the air as magic started to spike. "...You're a Belkan Mage Knight?" Reinforce hunched over and her hair covered her eyes as her shoulders shook. "Now I see. That's why you could put those false memories into my mind." A black triangle appeared under her feet as a black sphere formed in her left hand. Reinforce looked up and rushed forward, the ball of energy crackling and pulsing as she did so.

"I'm sorry, Reinforce... Whistle! Echo of lasting closure! Ragnarok!" Hayate swung her staff out as a large white beam rushed at Reinforce, who slid to a stop and thrust her hand out at it.

"Diabolic Emission."

Hayate watched as the two spells connected, before shrinking to a pinpoint and erupting into a dome of white colored energy that consumed the entire room for a moment and sending Hayate crashing into the far wall while Reinforce was slammed onto the ground.

Reinforce grunted as she struggled to stand up. "I am... The Book of Darkness, I will..." Reinforce let out a groan as she forced herself to her feet. As she stood up, Reinforce was forced to hunch over as she panted and groaned while her skin seemed to sizzle from that last attack. "I will..." She had to bite her teeth as the screws in her neck made a drilling noise and her body shook as whatever was in it forced her to keep standing and fighting.

Groaning and making noises that no one could understand, Reinforce shuddered, held her tentacle arm out and shot the tentacles out at Hayate again, or at least, where Hayate used to be as they slammed into the wall harmlessly. Recalling the tentacles, Reinforce looked around the room, before a strange white light filled the air. Turning and looking up, Reinforce stared at the sphere in front of Hayate.

"Now, Reinforce, let me show you what you took from Nanoha-chan and taught your daughter and myself!" Hayate glared down at Reinforce, who stared in shock. Before Reinforce could move, she found herself wrapped up in binds around her arms and legs. "Bind overture!" Hayate cried out as more binds wrapped around Reinforce's thighs and torso, pinning her tight. "And Overload!" Hayate nodded as binds wrapped around the bolts on Reinforce's neck, pulling back, but not ripping it off. "Reinforce, this power that I learned glows with an awesome power, the white light tells me to defeat you, just like you taught me! Take this! All my sorrow! My pain! And all of my love for you!"

Reinforce could only stare in shock as the ball of energy got bigger and bigger as more and more magic pooled into it.

_**"STARLIGHT BREAKER!"**_

When Hayate swung her staff down, there was a single moment of pure silence, before the ball erupted into a torrent of white energy that slammed into Reinforce, putting a huge dent into the floor as the device cried out in pain as she was bombarded with more magic that she thought was possible. The metal clamps around her neck started to crack and splinter into pieces.

"Now! Break through! Go! Go! GOOOO!" Hayate screamed as the energy continued to cascade down on Reinforce.

When the energy finally dissipated, Reinforce was laying on her back, completely naked, the remnants of the metal bolts lay scattered on the ground.

"Reinforce!" Hayate flew to the tall device and gasped at how still she was. "Come on! Reinforce..." Tears welled up in her eyes as Reinforce made no motions at all. Hayate grabbed her left hand, since her right one was still, for some reason, a tentacle, "please, Reinforce." She squeezed the hand between hers. "Get up..." Tears started to leak out of Hayate's eyes. "Come on, Reinforce... I love you. Get up. This works in the movies! Come on!" When Reinforce's hand slipped limply out of Hayate's grasp, she started crying hard, "no! You can't die! I'm your mistress! I'm your lover!" Hayate grabbed Reinforce in a tight hug, sobbing hard. "You're my wife! Don't you dare... Don't you DARE LEAVE ME ALONE!"

After several minutes, Hayate slumped, Reinforce wasn't responding at all. "REINFOOOOORRRCCCCEEEE!" Hayate screamed out to the heavens, letting her sorrow be known to all that could hear her. Hayate hugged Reinforce tightly, trembling and sobbing as her tears fell onto Reinforce's hair, splashing onto it and soaking it.

**"Unisono macht neu starten."**

Hayate gasped as she heard the Tome of the Night Sky speak those words and watched as Reinforce's body suddenly glowed white, before shrinking and disappearing. "Rein..." She felt a shiver run down her spine as she felt the familiar power of Reinforce unisoning with her.

Hayate grabbed her book and hugged it tightly, rocking back and forth as she continued to cry, this time out of happiness.

* * *

Teana: We're up?  
Dieci: Seems that way.  
Teana: Well, let's stop things from getting out of control then.  
Dieci: Yes.


	250. StrikerS Fifty

Blood That Flows

StrikerS Fifty

Of course I own nothing.

* * *

Meanwhile...

Teana looked at Dieci as the two of them stood on a rooftop, scanning for anything that might indicate hidden Gadget Drones. It would have been pretty hard, had the cyborgs not been there helping, since apparently their eyes were good enough to pick up on things that no normal human could hope to see. "I have to say," Dieci turned to look at her, "I like that bow in your hair, it really works for you."

Teana blinked as Dieci turned away, blushing hard. "What?" When Dieci shook her head, Teana sighed and turned to look out at the city as Dieci's sisters were spreading out and helping the ground forces deal with the Gadget Drones that were hidden. "Do you see any more?"

Dieci shook her head and looked at Voltaire as he stomped on several of the large ball Gadget Drones. "No, I..." She trailed off as something came over the horizon. "That is a big ship."

Teana stared, wide-eyed and had Cross Mirage call up a scope so she could get a better look at it. "...It's huge... Wait, what the..?"

"The fliers." Dieci muttered as she saw them flying out of the ship. "...And the others..."

A screen popped up next to Dieci, showing Vita's face, the girl was a bit dirty and had a slightly worried expression on her face. "Hey, can you tell me how many of those things there are?"

Dieci nodded and did a quick count. "There's..." She blinked as Voltaire let out a roar and a Dragon blast of energy, destroying a majority of the Gadget Drones in an instant. "...One thousand and six."

"Please tell me that your numbers aren't upside down." Vita grumbled, before staring in shock as even more Gadget Drones were rushing out faster than even Voltaire could destroy them. "Damn, anyone got a massive spell? The summon needs backup!"

The next thing that anyone knew, a giant purple sigal appeared in the sky, and a _huge _white insect with dark arms and a dark torso dropped from the sky. It took one look at Voltaire, before turning its attentions on the Gadget Drones as they fell and swung its arms out, kicking up a wind that tore into a vast majority of the remaining Gadget Drones.

"What the..?" Dieci blinked and turned as Teana gasped and pointed something out. Turning, her eyes widened as she saw Subaru carrying two people, one on her back and one in her arms.

"Subaru! Due!" Dieci gasped as she saw the blonde on Subaru's back. A smile came to her face as Due looked hurt, but okay. A few moments later and Subaru rushed to the rooftop, sliding to a stop in front of Dieci and Teana.

"Sorry it took so long," Subaru smiled as Due climbed off of her back. "I had to pick up Due from the forest." Putting Megane down, she blushed as Teana walked up to her, growling. "Uh, Tea..."

"Oh, I get it now," Teana narrowed her eyes and pinched Subaru's cheeks, pulling on them and causing tears to come to Subaru's eyes in response as Teana stretched the skin as far as she could, "while all of us were worried out of our skulls that something happened to you, you were having the time of your life with Dieci and her sisters, huh?"

"It wafphint liphe tphat!"

Due and Dieci both sweat-dropped as they saw Teana torment Subaru like that. Megane, even though she was sitting down, was laughing softly. "...What's so funny?" Due asked as she looked at Megane.

"Oh, just remembering when Quint and I were younger, that's all." Megane looked out at Hakutenou and nodded as he and Voltaire worked together on the majority of the drones. "Um, miss, if you're done tormenting Subaru, I think she'd be better help out there with the others than here."

Teana let go of Subaru's cheeks and turned away, huffing. "Fine, but I swear, Subaru," she turned back to glare at her friend, "you do something stupid like disappear or get hurt and I won't forgive you."

Subaru grinned and saluted Teana. "Missed you too, Tea." The girl suddenly blushed and stuttered as Subaru took off on her Wing Road.

Teana looked at Due, who was smirking at her. "What?" When Due just grinned, Teana twitched heavily. "Ugh... Why do I even bother?"

(-)

Ginga stared as several of the larger Gadget Drones were aiming at a rather out-of-way hotel. Well, out of the way as it was pretty far from most of the shopping and industrial centers. Picking up speed, she cursed as she saw that there was no way she could possibly...

Stop the giant ball of fire that was sent at the machines, followed by a large lightning bolt. "What?"

"OI! You take one little nap and it's like the Terminator happened or something!" An irate female voice yelled and Ginga stared as a woman about her height, maybe a little taller, with long red hair, walked out of the hotel, rubbing her eyes. "Ugh, I swear! If you guys have something called Skynet I'm going to just start blowing everything up around here." She blinked and looked at the Saint's Cradle and two large summons as they caused several smaller machines to explode around it. "...When did I walk into a bad crossover movie with Godzilla and Star Wars?"

Ginga stopped in the air just above the woman and waved nervously. "Uh, you are..?"

"Lina Takamachi." She looked at the Wing Road and nodded at it. "Neat trick, though."

"Takamachi..." Ginga blinked and stared wide-eyed at the woman. "Are you related to Nanoha Takamachi?"

Lina grinned at Ginga. "You know my daughter? That's cool. I came here this morning and was going to see her, but, man, jet lag sucks. So, I thought I'd take a nap, and when I woke up, it's like the rise of the machines or something." She blinked as Ginga looked a bit nervous. "...What?"

"Um, your daughter's currently on that ship, fighting, and, uh... Those robots are set to explode if they get near anyone, and, would you mind helping us out?"

Stretching, Lina tilted her head to the side and shrugged. "Eh, normally I'd let the Bureau fight its own battles, but, smashing robots?" A savage grin came to her face and Ginga almost felt like wetting her pants for some reason. "Sounds awesome, I'm in!"

Ginga sweat-dropped and wondered how someone so... Excitable and flighty could be Nanoha's mother. After all, Nanoha was a _lot _more serious than this woman was.

Oh well, anyone who could blow up the gadget drones like she did couldn't be all bad.

(-)

Signum was beginning to regret giving that cyborg her Shine Sword. Not that she was having trouble fighting against the Gadget Drones, but the Shine Sword did produce light, which created some interesting shadows. She looked at her fake hand and balled it into a fist several times as she swung Laevantein in her left hand, cutting through a rather large and fat gadget drone with ease.

Signum might not have been left handed, but she could use it for fighting if she needed to.

Her good eye widened as several fireballs raced through the air and slammed into some oncoming Gadget Drones. Turning her head, she raised an eyebrow at the small redheaded, demon-like girl that was smirking at her. "Impressive, though if they had any sort of defense, you wouldn't be able to do much against them."

The small device snorted at her. "My name's Agito, the mistress of fire, and at least I have both of my eyes." Signum twitched as Agito huffed and crossed her arms. "Actually, I'm here to help you."

"Really?" Signum drolled out as she turned to look at another four Gadget Drones heading her way. "The way I hear it, you were helping the cyborgs fight against the Bureau, why should I get you to help me?"

"I don't know, maybe because I can act as a second set of eyes for you? Or maybe it's the fact that we're not enemies anymore?" Agito floated next to Signum and narrowed her eyes. "You're a Belkan Knight, right?" Signum looked at her out of the corner of her eye. "I don't know why, but I want to help you."

"Even in my past lives, Unison Devices were rare, and I certainly was never in line to get one."

Agito stared as Laevantein popped a cartridge and Signum swung her sword in a large arc, causing a spiraling wave of flame to rush out and consume the Gadget Drones.

"Huh, that was actually stronger than I remember," Signum looked at Agito and narrowed her eye. "If you wish to help me out, then swear fealty." Agito blinked at her. "Do you, Agito, swear with your whole body and soul that you will work with me to defeat the enemies that stand in our way?"

Agito smirked at Signum. "I will, provided that you swear, on your life, that you will never betray me. I want a master to be proud of, not one that'll use me and throw me away."

Signum nodded. "Very well." She held up her hand and Agito slapped it, glowing brightly as she unisoned with Signum. Looking around, she gasped as she could see on her right side. "Agito?"

"Like I said, I'm an extra set of eyes, if you can't see, I can make it possible for you." Signum could feel Agito's grin. "Come on, I want to make sure that you're really worthy of my power."

Signum snorted but nodded, glad to have her depth perception back, even if it was only temporary. "Fine, but don't complain to me if you can't keep up."

Agito grinned at that. "Fine, let's see who's worthy of who here!"

Signum nodded as the flaming wings on her back seemed to increase in power as she took off into the air. If she could have seen herself at that moment, she would have made a comment about being around Fate and Arisa too much. "What made you choose me?" Signum asked as she and Agito tore through the small amounts of fliers that were heading towards the highways.

"I saw you use fire, and," for some reason, Signum could swear that Agito was blushing, "you don't seem like a bad person, and as a Unison Device, I'm incomplete without a master."

Signum nodded and an image of Hayate flashed through her mind. "...I know what you mean."

(-)

"Alphine," Zest said as he saw Megane on the same rooftop as Due, Teana and Dieci, "she's alive..." His eyes widened as he felt a hand on his back, turning he blinked as he saw Yuuno smiling at him. "Scrya?"

"Go see her, between the two summons and all of us, there's not much that needs to be done other than wait for our friends to get out of the cradle."

"You're sure?" Zest asked him and the blond nodded while looking at Hakutenou. "What is it?"

"If she summoned that thing, I'm glad that I never made her mad when I was a kid, I would have been squished." Yuuno laughed softly, causing Zest to snort. "Besides, I'm sure that you have stuff you want to talk to her about."

He looked at Yuuno in shock and the young man rubbed the back of his head, chuckling nervously. "I, uh... Was kind of curious about your old companions, so I looked into the system, someone put down that Megane's daughter was yours."

Zest shook his head and turned away from him. "I'd suggest not doing that in the future, boy, but, thank you."

Yuuno turned to look at the Saint's Cradle and took a deep breath. "Come back to us, everyone, please. I don't think we could stand to be left alone again."

* * *

Levi: GAH! I can't believe this! I can't believe that things could go so wrong! Oh well, I'll... Wait, what are you doing here?  
? ? ?: What's the matter?  
Levi: Next time on Blood That Flows - StrikerS.


	251. StrikerS Fifty One

Blood That Flows

StrikerS Fifty-One

Of course I own nothing.

* * *

Back on the Saint's Cradle...

Levi groaned as she got up, her face was blackened, her side was healed, but still hurt, her arms both felt like falling off and her whole body hurt. "...That spell..." She growled as she stood up, staggering. "I can't believe that bitch had that spell!" Divine Buster, she remembered that spell, one of the few Mid-Childa spells that actually could hurt her.

"Well, well, well, miss Bevi," a familiar male voice spoke up and the Mazoku turned to see...

"Straight Kuma." Levi grumbled as she looked at him. He was grinning at her from behind his glasses, his outfit looked as weird as ever, being that weird purple jacket and pants combination. One thing that surprised her was that he was wearing those boots of his. "What are you doing here?"

"Oh, just thought I'd stop in and pick up my payment." Kuma grinned at the incredulous look he was given. "What? You thought that I'd watch those two ladies for free?"

"You could have taken your payment out of their bodies, I'm quite certain they wouldn't have cared if you used them for stuff like that." Levi dead-panned, unable to believe that he'd want money _now _of all times.

"I admit, the thought crossed my mind a couple of times, with the way they flash their underwear all the time, and don't care if I see them naked or not. But part of the mercenary rule is money first, business second, and anything else can be done on your own time." Kuma adjusted his glasses on his face. "So tell me, boss... You got my money or not?"

"Here's your payment, you asshole." Levi snapped her left hand out, dark lightning snapping out at Kuma as it covered the hallway. "Really, asking me for money right now..." Her eyes widened and she looked up to see a foot coming down at her. "What?" She held up her right hand to block the downward strike and cancelled her magic to block the follow-up roundhouse kick at her head.

"Impressive." Kuma wasn't lying either, he had never met anyone who could actually block his attacks when he didn't give them any warning.

"I'm a Mazoku, my eyes and reflexes are better than you think." A dark aura surrounded her and lightning snapped out at Kuma, who jumped away from Levi. "Your level of ability, just isn't enough for me to worry about." She smirked at him. "I could have taken those kicks with ease, but I thought I'd humor you, without any real power behind them, you're nothing to me."

Kuma chuckled as he back flipped a couple of times. "I have to admit, turning on you really wasn't because I wanted the money." He was standing on one foot while raising and lowering her other foot, tapping his toes on the ground lightly before swapping what his feet were doing. "Those two girls you brought here." Levi blinked at him. "I admit, I'm a failure as a mercenary. I actually started to care for those two crazy girls, and the more I found out, the more it hurt me. So, I'm here to actually free them, from you."

Levi snorted and was about to say something when she saw his body change, a pink and white body armor replaced his clothes, his feet became more armored, his hands had large gloves on them, large because of the large blue-green gems on the backs of his wrists, and his head was completely enclosed in a helmet. "What the hell?" It really looked like the combination of a motorcycle and an ice sprinter's outfit, just without any wheels on it.

"It's like you said, Levi," Kuma said, his voice deadly serious as he looked at her, "I've held my real power back for a long time. A C rank knight doesn't matter much to the Bureau. We're a dime a dozen. But when I put my boots on, like you said, my power is suddenly AA in strength, but even then, I've been holding back." Kuma got into a sprinter's position on the floor and Levi had a sudden realization that something bad was about to happen. "However, when I use my real power... I'm S plus!"

"Enough with your jabbering! Time to die!" Levi held her hand up, charging up magic. "As fast as you are, I can still see you coming!"

"Really?" Kuma smirked under his helmet. "Try to stop this then."

"Gladly!" Levi pointed her hand at Kuma. "Di..."

"Load Cartridge!" Kuma shouted as the backs of his shoes gave off a hiss, his body seemed to lower to the ground slightly as two shells, one from each boot, were kicked up and Kuma seemingly disappeared, before reappearing, his foot planted into Levi's stomach up to his knee. The look of shocked surprise on her face was almost hilarious, which lasted less than a tenth of a second before Levi was sent rocketing down the hallway and bouncing off the walls and floors.

Kuma lowered his leg and did a couple of hops on the floor before rushing right after her as fast as he could.

Levi groaned as she bounced a couple more times before landing on her feet and sliding back. That attack had _hurt_. '...An Astral attack?' How did he even..?

Her train of thought was derailed as a punch slammed into her so fast that even with her eyes, she couldn't see it coming. Slamming into a far wall, Levi pulled herself out of the crater she was in and glared at Kuma. "Interesting." She panted, her stomach and face were burning softly. "To think you held back that much power."

"I've never had a need to show it before, but now, Levi, it's time for you to die."

Kuma's only warning something was wrong was Levi's smirk as he got in close. When his foot passed through where her face was and instead crashed into the wall behind Levi, he could only wonder what the heck happened. He let loose a cry of shocked pain as she held up her hand and a blue pulse of energy sent him flying away from her.

"I bet you're wondering what happened," Levi chuckled as she crossed her arms in front of her and slowly walked towards him, "your speed is incredible, I admit, but there's something I can do that you can't do very well," she sneered as he lifted his head to look at her, "spacial manipulation. Just a defensive mechanism, really, nothing too special. Normally I wouldn't bother as I'd cancel any spell that could hurt me, but," she narrowed her eyes as he flipped up into a standing position, "I don't know how it's possible, but that stupid armor of yours allows you to actually hurt me, so..." She snapped her hand down and a blue wave rushed at Kuma, who crossed his arms in front of him as the wave crashed into him and sent him flying backwards down the hallway.

Levi disappeared before reappearing in front of Kuma's path and grabbing him out of his free flying. "Pathetic, really, as fast as you are, you still can't do much of anything else." She grinned at him. "Just like everyone else."

"What?" Kuma asked her.

Levi rolled her eyes. "It's all about data, you idiot. All the combat abilities of that Riot Force, the Cyborgs, even you. I learn, apply it, and use it to guarantee my victory. And I will succeed. Even if not now, I will in the future." She chuckled as she felt his confusion. "Once I break down the data that I stole from Reinforce, I will be able to completely my ultimate plan."

"And then what? You'll rule the universe?"

Levi laughed at him. "The universe, no, that isn't my goal, I'll rule everything I want to, but the whole universe? Waste of time. People will either submit and live in despair, or I will strip them of everything and take their power and turn them into my Megah army. If you were wondering, my Megahs? I sent most of them ahead." The shock that was radiating off of him was delicious. "Oh yes, my plans will continue, far into the future, but as for you, you're useless to me."

"Really?" Levi's eyes widened as Kuma suddenly spun, put his feet on her shoulders and pushed away from her, back flipping several times before sliding into that same sprinter stance as before. "I think it's time to end this."

Levi snorted as a blue ring formed around her right hand, and blue ball of energy started to crackle around her finger-tips. "You're right, it is time to end this... Aurora..." Her eyes widened as a blue-green triangle formed under Kuma. "What the..?"

"I said it before, Levi," Kuma was chuckling under his helmet, "that I've overcome my pure weaknesses." His whole body glowed with power. "Now it's time for you to see what I can really do when I'm mad. Load Cartridge!"

"Aurora destruction!" Levi snapped her right hand out at Kuma and twitched as the pulsing wave missed Kuma as he jumped high into the air. "Really?" She raised an eyebrow at him as a trail of blue-green energy went from the ground to his feet. "A punch?" Levi snorted as Kuma came down with his fist extended. "I'll take you out right now!" She screamed as she rushed up to meet him, black energy crackling in her left hand. "You will die!"

As they got close, Kuma smirked under his helmet. "Got'cha." Levi's eyes widened as Kuma seemed to stand up from a diving punch, before sticking his right leg out. "RAPID SPIN DEATH BULLET!" His sudden spinning quickly encased him in a stream of blue-green energy. Levi's shocked expression lasted less than a second before his kick landed right between her breasts, sending her sailing down the hallway, screaming as she was consumed by a ball of Astral energy.

When Kuma landed from that attack, he grunted and looked down as he felt some sort of magic near his body. On his chest was a black sphere that was shimmering and shaking. 'Oh crap.' Kuma winced as the energy exploded, sending him flying back, where he hit the ground and did several flips before slamming into the far wall. Twitching, he slid down the wall and landed on his knees, panting as his magic was forcibly cancelled and his armor started to disappear around him. "Ugh... Idiot, you need to pay more attention when doing that attack." He fell forward, and the last images in his mind as consciousness faded were of the two girls that he had come to know. 'Miss Amitie, miss Kyrie, I hope you're both okay.'

* * *

Nanoha: Vivio... I'm going to save you. I promise. Next time on Blood That Flows - StrikerS, I won't break this promise.  
Vivio: You, I shall stop you.


	252. StrikerS Fifty Two

Blood That Flows

StrikerS Fifty-Two

Of course I own nothing.

* * *

Nanoha grimaced as she pulled herself out of another crater in the wall. 'Okay, so she's faster than I am and hits like a mack truck.' A trickle of blood escaped her mouth and she nearly chuckled at the girl. 'Mom and dad would be so proud of their granddaughter.' "Vivio, please," Nanoha tried to reason with the girl again, "tell me, what's going on?"

Narrowing her eyes, Vivio slid into a stance. "You're working for him, aren't you?" A flash of memory came to her, as her eyes unfocused for a moment. "That evil man..."

Nanoha blinked several times as Vivio shivered, before focusing on her again. "Vivio, I..."

"Tell your master to leave!" Vivio screamed as she rushed forward, missing as Nanoha used a Flash Move to get behind Vivio. Turning her head, the blonde's eyes widened at the open palm pointed right at her.

"Strike Smasher!" A quick burst of magic snapped out from her wrist, slamming into Vivio and sending her into the wall, deepening the crater. "Now, what did you mean about that evil man?"

Nanoha's eyes widened as Vivio put her hands against the wall and pushed out, lashing out at her stomach with a kick. Grabbing Vivio's ankle, Nanoha spun, causing the younger girl to scream in surprise as Nanoha threw her to the ground. She watched as Vivio righted herself in mid-air and nodded as she pointed Raising Heart at Vivio. "She's tough."

Looking up at Nanoha, Vivio twitched as she saw the smile grace Nanoha's features. Shuddering, she grabbed her head as it throbbed and several memories came to her at once. 'There was a man standing over me, wasn't there? No, it wasn't a man, it was, something else, so powerful...' The image in her head was replaced by a woman with the same grin as the man gave her, and the same dark power. "NNNNGAAAAHHHH!" Screaming, a Belkan triangle formed under Vivio's feet as she looked at Nanoha, tears falling out of her eyes. "NO!"

Nanoha stared as Vivio shot straight up into the air and held her hand out as a ball of energy formed in front of her. When fire spiraled around the sphere, Nanoha started to sweat-drop as Vivio punched forward, a gout of white-hot fire shot straight at Nanoha, who held up a barrier to block the attack. At least now she knew why Fate had complained every time she shot her sister with this spell, the thing was _not _fun to be on the receiving end of. 'Why is it that my spells keep getting stolen?' When the attack ended, Nanoha lowered her hand and took a deep breath, before looking down and staring. "Raising Heart..." When her device flashed and her dress was repaired, Nanoha nodded and looked at Vivio, who was in a defensive stance.

'Well, that did suck.' Nanoha muttered as she ran through her spells mentally. "Thank you, Raising Heart, I didn't like the thought of fighting in my underwear."

**"Let Fate do that."**

Nanoha looked up as Vivio held her hand up and small orbs formed at the tips of her fingers, shooting at Nanoha who countered with a barrage of Divine Shooters. "Vivio, please, I'm trying to help you." When Vivio clutched her head again, Nanoha frowned, wondering what was going on with Vivio. It was the reason she hadn't tried to unleash any real spells against the girl yet.

"Mama... Where is... Vivio's... Mama?" Vivio groaned and shook her head rapidly side to side. "No! Stay away! No! Mama! HELP!"

Vivio threw her arms back and screamed as her Belkan triangle formed under her feet again, but this time, it was pitch black in color.

"What the?" Nanoha gasped as metal flew out from various points around the room and started to latch onto Vivio, becoming metal boots, armor around her hips and over her crotch, a square metal bikini top, metal gauntlets over her hands and arms up to her elbows, along with a metal helmet that revealed her mouth, but nothing else, especially with that thick visor over her eyes. Nanoha was about to say something about how stupid it looked, when more metal flew out and covered her abdomen and legs, leaving her joints unarmored. "What is this?"

An image of Levi appeared in the room, grinning. "Ah, so you forced the Kaiser Armor to activate."

"Alicia!" Nanoha growled at the image. "What are you..?"

"It's quite an interesting device, the Saint's Armor, increase the effects about thirty fold and cut off all sensory information to the person, other than where their enemies are." Levi went on, as if she didn't hear Nanoha. "Then again, I have to thank Jail, if not for his research on the Knight Valkyrie Armor, my own work on the Megah and, of course, the Relics, I couldn't have created this weapon. Oh, and I almost forgot, it was also done due to research into your Assault and Neo Assault Modes, I'm sure that you can appreciate what a power armor can do for a person." Levi closed her eyes and waved. "Well, it's time for me to keep killing your friends. If I wasn't busy with that, I wouldn't have bothered with this message."

"...troy..." Vivio said softly, seemingly calmed down. "...stroy..." Nanoha gulped as the armored Vivio looked at her. "DESTROY!"

The next thing Nanoha knew, Vivio's fist was buried deep into her stomach, causing Nanoha's tongue to hang out of her mouth as her Barrier Jacket's defenses seemed to fail. "Vi...vi...o..." Nanoha gasped out, her eyes widening as a ball of energy formed around Vivio's fist.

"Divine... Buster!" Vivio screamed as a multi-colored ball of energy blasted Nanoha away from her.

**"Neo Assault Mode Drive Ignition."**

Vivio looked at Nanoha, seemingly startled as Nanoha was now sporting a new armor on her body, a visor over her eyes, a blade on her right arm and a thin cannon with Raising Heart's Spear head over her left hand, Raising Heart was nestled between her breasts in a metal plate and the wings on her back were pointed downwards.

"If I was honest, Vivio..." Nanoha held her left hand up, extending her blade out fully as she looked at her armored opponent, "there are times that I wish that I was normal, or less powerful. Not for myself, I like how my life has been. But it seems that my power has drawn powerful enemies towards me and my friends. The stronger I get, the worse it seems to get, but if I didn't get strong, then I know that I and my friends, we would all die if I didn't get stronger."

Nanoha pointed her blade at Vivio. "I will never ask you to do anything you don't want to, Vivio. But..." A pink circle formed under her feet as her blade glowed softly. "I can't let you go, Vivio." When Vivio rushed in, Nanoha grabbed her armored fist and planted her foot into Vivio's stomach, forcing her back. "Tell me what you see! Let me help you!"

Vivio didn't answer her as energy crackled around her body. In her mind, she could see that horrifying image, that man, that evil man and what he could do. It was all she could see anymore.

When Vivio punched forward, a torrent of magic erupting from her fists, Nanoha narrowed her eyes and slashed upwards, cutting through the magic stream and disrupting it easily. Holding up her left arm, she fired a pink magic blast at Vivio, who was merely pushed back by the energy before letting out a grunt and flexing her body to disrupt the magic.

"This... Could take awhile." Nanoha grumbled to herself.

Grunting as she was knocked back, Nanoha looked at her right arm, which was hanging limply by her side. "Okay, so she really is better than I am at melee." Data came across her visor and Nanoha nodded as she shifted her body so that her damaged arm was away from Vivio. Nanoha held up her cannon arm and fired a blast at Vivio who merely held up a hand to block the attack.

Lowering her barrier, the next thing Vivio knew was Nanoha's left hand was covering her face and dragging her along before Nanoha stopped and threw Vivio into the wall, followed by a magic blast that erupted on contact. "Divine..." Nanoha muttered as energy charged up in front of her. "Freeze..." The energy turned blue-white as the air in front of Nanoha cooled down tremendously. "Buster!"

An ice cold blast struck out, encasing Vivio in a dome of ice in an instant. Nanoha wasn't surprised when she saw cracks forming in the ice a moment later. 'Why does freezing stuff never work, anyway?' Oh well, she expected that, and she had a plan. After all, ice could do more than just hold someone down for a few moments.

Vivio broke out of the ice with a scream and a blast of cold vapor in the air. "GRAH!"

"Freeze bullet!" Nanoha cried out, shooting dozens of quick ice blasts at Vivio, who held up a hand to block them. Nanoha shot straight up and pointed her cannon arm down again. "Freeze bullet!" When Vivio held up her hand to block that, she used a flash move to get to the left of Vivio and firing more freeze bullets at her head, causing the girl's head to jerk to the side several times before ice encased her helmet completely.

Vivio staggered and punched at the ice several times, breaking it off and turning to look at Nanoha, who shot several rings out at her. Vivio flew into the air to avoid them and gasped as her arms and legs suddenly became bound.

**"Restrict Lock."**

Nanoha rushed in, the spear head glowing pink as she did so. "This isn't designed for melee, but it still has an edge to it, so, don't move, Vivio."

The next thing that Vivio knew, Nanoha had stabbed the tip of the weapon into the center of Vivio's helmet. For several moments, there was no movement from either Nanoha or Vivio, but soon, a cracking sound was heard and Nanoha nodded as the helmet split down the middle, breaking in half and revealing Vivio's scared face. "Vivio," Nanoha pulled her weapon away from Vivio's face, "please, talk to me."

Vivio groaned and screamed, snapping out of the binds and knocking Nanoha away as she grabbed her head. "No! Stay away! Leave me alone! Stop! Who are you?" Vivio screamed as her power lashed out angrily around her. "Stop it! STOP IT! NOOOO!"

"VIVIO!" Nanoha screamed at the distraught girl before doing something that she never thought she'd ever do to her daughter.

There was a loud cracking sound in the air and Vivio found herself on her side, rubbing her cheek and Nanoha was standing above her, her hand trembling, but at least Vivio had finally stopped screaming, even if she was looking more shocked than hurt.

Nanoha twitched, her hand was hurting pretty bad from that slap. 'Sheesh! What is this girl made of?' She thought to herself before kneeling down to smile at Vivio. "Vivio," Nanoha mentally recalled the visor on her face to move up so she could reveal her face to the young girl completely. "Please, I don't want to hurt you, what happened?"

"Mama?" Vivio trembled and grabbed her head. "It's happening again... Garoth... He's here! I can feel him! Mama!" Vivio shook her head and groaned. "No, not him! No!"

Before Nanoha could reply, the ship lurched forward, causing Nanoha to slide back. A new screen popped up in the room and Levi's face appeared on it. Though, Nanoha was rather shocked at how her body seemed rather torn up. "Well, well, I hope you two have been having fun." Vivio screamed and pointed at Levi with a trembling finger. "Ah, so you knew what I was, probably a ghost echo from when my master, Garoth, killed the last Saint Kaiser, huh, little clone girl?"

"What do you want, Alicia?" Nanoha narrowed her eyes at the Mazoku, who merely growled at her.

"Just to let you know that I'm tired of you, and since I no longer need her to fight for me." Levi snapped her fingers and Vivio gasped, and looked down in shock. "I've decided to kill everyone and everything on the planet. But I'll be nice and let you get out of here with Vivio..." Levi sneered at Nanoha. "Of course..." Nanoha turned to look and gasped as Vivio was starting to turn red and discomfort crossed her face. "You're going to take a corpse as I squeeze her to death with that armor."

"You..." Nanoha growled and looked at Vivio, before nodding to herself and pointing her cannon arm at the screen, destroying it with a single shot. "Vivio," the girl groaned and looked at her, "do you trust me?" The girl whimpered and nodded as she stood up and screamed while blood started to leak out of her arms.

"Mama... Help me... It's stabbing me."

Nanoha nodded and flew up and backwards. "I never thought to use this on a person, but, I don't have time for anything else..."

_"Remember, Nanoha..." Lina looked at her daughter seriously. "It's neither good nor evil. It's creation and destruction. While it's mostly used for destruction, remember what happened to the Wolkenritter and to Quint. The power can do a lot, and I think it depends on what you want to use it for."_

"I trust you, mom..." Nanoha whispered as a circle appeared under her feet. "Vivio... Hold still." Vivio nodded and gasped as Nanoha's visor covered her face again, when Nanoha let out a scream, the armor covering Raising Heart slid up as did her wings as the circle under Nanoha's feet changed from pink to gold with black lightning surrounding her. **"Vivio..."**

Despite how evil the voice sounded, the fact it was said so softly was somehow comforting. Vivio nodded, whimpering as she saw the wings suddenly shoot off of Nanoha's back, split open and pin her arms and legs against the wall.

**"Just hold still, Vivio..."** Nanoha said as magic collected in front of her. **"Please, just trust me."** Vivio nodded and Nanoha took a deep breath, hoping that this would work as well. **"Let's go... Chaos Star... BREAKER!"**

In an instant, a giant golden ball of energy formed in front of Nanoha's cannon as black lightning crackled around it. **"SHOOT!"**

Vivio closed her eyes and waited for the worst as the golden light crashed down on her body. She let out a scream as the energy completely overwhelmed her defenses with ease.

Nanoha had to look away, she never wanted to use it on a human, ever. 'Please survive, Vivio. Please.'

When the attack abated, Nanoha threw her arm up into the air. **"Raising Heart, now!"**

**"Alright, Chaos purge!"**

There was a flash of energy and Nanoha found herself back in her Exceed mode, Raising Heart Excellion in her left hand as she looked at the, thankfully small, crater Vivio was in. "Vivio..." Nanoha floated to the edge to see the results of her attack. "Vivio..." Her eyes widened as she saw the girl, her little girl, in a dirty shirt and nothing else, laying face down around a bunch of scrap metal. "Vivio!"

"No!" Vivio called out, causing Nanoha to gasp and tremble. "Stay back!"

Nanoha found her eyes started to burn the instant that she heard that. "Vivio, I..." When Vivio started to stand up, she looked at Nanoha sadly. "Vivio is... Vivio isn't a real girl, is she, mama?" Pulling herself up was a struggle, considering how much her body hurt at that moment. "Vivio is... Just a weapon." The girl looked down, whimpering. "Mama... You... You don't want me, do you? Those two... They said that I was just a weapon, and now, Vivio is broken."

"Vivio..." Nanoha said softly and gasped as Vivio screamed at her to not move. "Please..."

"Why?" Vivio's shoulders shook as she cried. "Vivio just wanted to be normal, why was I born to be..?"

"Stop it!" Nanoha screamed out, causing Vivio to gasp and look at her. "Don't listen to them!" Tears were flowing freely from Nanoha's face as she looked at the girl. "You aren't a weapon. You're the little girl who hates her green foods, who climbs into bed with me when she has a bad dream, you're Vivio... My precious little Vivio." Vivio sniffled and whimpered. "Because weapons can't cry, Vivio..." Nanoha held out her left arm and smiled. "And even if you were a weapon, Vivio... I don't care, you're still my little Vivio."

"Mama!" Vivio suddenly cried out and ran for Nanoha, grabbing the woman's left hand and getting pulled into a tight hug. "Mama! Mama!"

"Shhh!" Nanoha could feel Vivio crying against her, and honestly, she was crying as well. "Mama's here, it'll be okay." Nanoha was just thankful that the Chaos magic didn't kill Vivio, though how that was possible, she wasn't sure and just chalked it up to the fact that Chaos magic did whatever the hell it wanted to do.

* * *

Levi: Guh, I won't be stopped, not easily. No, this has only just begun. Next time on Blood That Flows - StrikerS...  
? ? ?: Are you sure that you can't be stopped?


	253. StrikerS Fifty Three

Blood That Flows

StrikerS Fifty-Three

Of course I own nothing.

* * *

Sein pulled herself to her knees and crawled over to Tre. "You okay?" She touched Tre's shoulder and stared as Tre suddenly cried out in pain. "Tre?"

"I'm alive, dammit, it hurts." Tre shuddered from her broken bones. "I think my back's broken too." Sein's eyes widened as she touched Tre's back gently. "GAH! Fuck! That hurts!" Tre looked at Sein and growled. "Dammit, don't worry about me, get Lutecia and get the hell out of here!"

"But, Tre..." Sein whimpered as Tre rolled over. "Stop, you'll hurt yourself!"

Tre ignored the pain and grabbed Sein by her collar, pulled her down and kissed her on the lips, much to the petite girl's surprise. "Forget about me," Tre said as she broke the kiss, "my life's done. You said it yourself, your mission was to get Lutecia and talk to Quattro. Don't let Lutecia suffer anymore."

"But..." Sein whimpered as Tre glared at her.

"Get Lutecia out of here, if there's still a chance, come back for me, but get her to safety first." Tre was fighting a real urge to scream in pain, she really shouldn't have moved from her position, the pain was so intense that it was taking all her effort to avoid screaming or fainting.

Sein looked almost ready to cry, but nodded and stood up. Grabbing her cannon on the ground, she willed it to a small knife as she limped over to Lutecia and cut the shackles on her wrists and ankles. "Okay, Lutecia, this won't hurt..." Sein grabbed the helmet and pulled it off, pulling the electrodes off of her forehead in the process.

Or tried to as a sudden surge of electricity caused Sein to let go with a painful yelp while Lutecia spasmed and let out a scream of pain. "Dammit!" Sein cursed, grabbed Lutecia and used her Deep Diver to jump through the chair, the walls and back into the room. "I got you, Lutecia." The girl was spasming and twitching in her arms. "Come on, Lu..." She could only look on helplessly as Lutecia moaned out painfully while spasming. "Lu!"

There was a crackle of energy and Sein turned and paled as she saw Levi reform in the room. Even if the Mazoku was twitching and looking like someone who suffered a chemical burn across her whole body from piping hot acid, the fact that she was still alive scared Sein tremendously.

"I..." Levi panted heavily and twitched as she looked up at Sein. "Can't believe... That he... Held back something like that... Just... To use... Against me!" She screamed, her magic lashing out at the air around her. "This is inconceivable!" Levi took a deep breath and took stock of her surroundings, before noticing a twitching and spasming Lutecia in Sein's arms. "Oh ho?" Levi threw her head back and laughed at Sein. "You're a stupid idiot, aren't you? You actually removed her from the system without shutting it down properly?"

"What?" Sein asked, looking as Lutecia twitched and spasmed. "What are you saying?"

Levi tapped her head and grinned, though her grin looked horrible with how burned Levi's face was. "Her brain was connected to a network, kiddo... If you didn't shut off the network properly and disconnect her mind, she's going to suffer some brain damage, even I don't know the extent of what's going to happen to her. She might just be in a coma for awhile, she might lose all her memories, or she might be completely brain dead. But then again, you would have had to have been in the control room to do that, and that's way on the other side of the Cradle." Seeing Sein glare at her, Levi held out her arm. "But enough of that. I owe you some pain for that Divine Buster to the face, you worthless cyborg." Levi's left eye was wide open as her right eye twitched while a demented grin came to her face. "First you, then I think I'll go back and kill off Kuma, and finally..."

Levi's speech was interrupted as her arm suddenly dropped off of her body and fell to the floor. "...GRAAAAHHHH!" Levi screamed as unholy pain shot through her body. Clutching her arm and turning, she glared at who she saw. "HOW? I put you in a spacial trap!"

"You did." Fate said as she looked at the Mazoku with narrowed eyes, Bardiche Zambar was held out in front of her while pointing at Levi. "You made two mistakes. First, even if you messed with my sense of time, you didn't do anything to Bardiche. And secondly," the Zambar Blade turned from yellow to almost clear, "you made me mad, Alicia..."

"My name is LEVI!" The Mazoku screamed at Fate. "You stupid... Stupid... GRAAAAHHHH!" A dark aura surrounded Levi as large red, bone-like wings ripped out of her back and her face seemingly dissolved into a skull while her arms and legs were covered in a red haze. "I've never shown my monster form to anyone, DIE!" Levi held her hand out and her bone wings changed into spikes that rushed at Fate.

Fate casually sliced through the both of them, causing Levi to scream as marks appeared on her face, going from her cheeks up to the bridge of her nose and causing Levi to scream as she fell back, clutching at her face. "Mother's dimension magic really is quite effective, isn't it, sister?"

"Stop..." Levi growled as she glared at Fate while panting. "Stop calling me your sister! I NEVER HAD A SISTER!"

Fate sighed and pointed her weapon at Levi. "Just give up, Alicia. You've lost. Even now, Hayate likely has Reinforce back and Nanoha's secured Vivio, you're all that's left."

Levi screamed as her black tentacles shot out from her aura at Fate, who held out her hand, a white ball of energy forming in front of her. "Dimension... Smasher!"

Levi stared in shock as the white lightning smashed through her attack and slammed into her, sending her flying backwards, where she crashed onto the floor painfully, twitching. "...I see..." Levi sat up and growled at Fate. "If I have to, I'll cheat!" Levi stood up and threw her arm to the side, a large screen forming behind her. "Do you recognize this, you stupid clone?" Levi grinned savagely as Fate slowly started to pale. "The most powerful mass weapon ever created, from that primitive Earth... Just one could decimate a city like Cranagan with ease. Now imagine what several _thousand_ of these radioactive bombs can do at once!"

Fate was still staring with wide eyes as Levi disappeared. "I'll be nice and let you escape instead of detonating them inside the cradle. Of course, even if you escape the ship, the whole planet is going to die!"

Fate stumbled as the ship seemed to lurch. "What... What did you do? Alicia!"

"Boy, you just don't learn, do you?" Levi said as she appeared on a new screen. "My name is Levi now. But, if you must know... I'm over-clocking the engines and forcing this ship to rise to the stars faster." She smirked as Fate gave her a wary look. "Did you know, dear clone, that this ship reaches its full power when the two moons are in a special orbit?" Levi pointed up a the sky. "Once this ship gets between them, it'll have all the power it needs to wipe out Cranagan on its own... But, imagine what will happen when it's power is added to the force of the nuclear bombs that are stored within!"

Levi threw her head back and started laughing sinisterly. "You're all going to have to die! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Fate could only stare in repressed anger as she finally realized something that she knew deep down, but didn't want to accept.

Her sister really was dead to her now.

* * *

Fate: We need to get out of here. Nanoha!  
Nanoha: What's going on?  
Fate: Find out next time on Blood That Flows - StrikerS.  
Nanoha: Now that's just not fair!


	254. StrikerS Fifty Four

Blood That Flows

StrikerS Fifty-Four

Of course I own nothing.

* * *

"Nanoha!" The redhead turned to see Fate, holding Tre in a fireman's carry, and Sein, holding Lutecia gently, rush into the room. "We need to hurry and get out of here!" When Nanoha nodded and took a step, Fate noticed how limply Nanoha's right arm was hanging down. "Hold on, let me get that."

When Fate grabbed it and pushed upwards with a loud pop, Nanoha let out a cry of pain as her dislocated arm was fixed. "GAH! Fate-chan, that hurt!" Nanoha complained bitterly and rolled her shoulder, glad that it was back in its socket. "What's going on?" She asked as she, Fate and Sein flew out of the throne room as fast as they could, well, Fate was going a little slow, mostly because she was still looking for Hayate.

"This ship has nuclear bombs on it." Fate said, causing Nanoha's eyes to widen as her skin instantly paled. "A LOT of nuclear bombs, if what Levi said was true."

"You're calling her Levi?" Nanoha asked, slightly surprised. "But isn't she..?"

"My sister died before I was born, Nanoha, all that's left is a Mazoku." Fate said, bitterness filling her voice.

(-)

Meanwhile, outside...

"Zel!" A familiar female voice yelled in delight, causing the man to turn and smile as he saw Lina walking over to him. "So, this is where you were hiding the whole time?"

Zelgadis rolled his eyes at the barb. "I was not hiding, as you call it, I was helping the injured people out." He smirked at her. "Even though that boy, Yuuno, knows good healing spells, he's more use on the battle field than for healing. As for me, I felt that I could be of more use helping people who got injured after the robots showed up." Lina nodded, giving him a soft smile. "How about you? When did you get here?"

"This morning, actually." Lina stretched her arms above her head. "I was going to visit Nanoha and tell her some information, but I got tired from the trip, so I crashed at a hotel and only woke up when all the fun was already done with."

Zelgadis sweat-dropped at the answer. "For some reason, that sounds like you." When Lina giggled, he shook his head at her. "You know..." He tilted his head and looked at her in confusion. "Lina, has anyone ever told you that you don't look like you're in your late thirties?"

"I'm forty-one." Lina grumbled softly. "Why?"

"That's my point, Lina... You're forty-one, but you don't look that old. Tell me, do you know how old Rezo was when you killed him?"

"Not really." Lina looked up and put her finger over her lips while thinking about it. "I mean, if he was your great-grandfather, then he had to be at least sixty, but he didn't look that old and..."

"He was over a century old, Lina, I think he was about one hundred twenty-five or so..." Zelgadis shook his head. "And yet, he looked as old as you are right now." Lina raised an eyebrow at that. "It could just mean that you're aging very graciously, that's all."

Lina crossed her arms under her chest and smirked at him. "Nice save..."

Before Zelgadis could continue, there was a voice in all of their heads that they recognized as Fate's voice. _"Attention, everyone! We've got some serious trouble! Before you ask, this thing, this Saint's Cradle that's in the air right now, is loaded with a lot of weapons, called nuclear bombs. The person operating the ship intends to drop them straight onto the planet, eliminating everyone. If anyone has a method for dealing with this kind of situation, now would be the time to use it."_

Lina and Zelgadis looked at each other, Zelgadis in confusion and Lina in concern. "Zel, I... I need to get into the air... Now."

Zelgadis nodded at that. "Go, I have a feeling that I know what you've got planned, I just hope it works."

"Me too." Lina nodded as she turned and flew into the air.

(-)

Suzuka and Miyuki were trembling as Kyrie gleefully explained what she heard. "Nuclear? Oh dear gods... We're all going to die... There's not a weapon on Earth more powerful." Miyuki was trembling more than Suzuka, she had more years in school and had more time build up a rather intense fear and hatred of those kind of weapons.

"Don't..." Chrono spoke up, a small grin on his face, "be so quick to judge." He chuckled, his eyes narrowed in thought. "I actually planned for something like this."

"HUH?" Suzuka, Miyuki, Kyrie and Amitie said at the same time.

"I never ruled out the thought of a strike from space..." Chrono chuckled and looked up into the sky. "So, I planned ahead and called in an old family friend to do something for me."

The four girls looked at each other and wondered just what Chrono had in mind.

(-)

"Admiral..." Randy looked behind him. "We have a visual on a ship leaving the planet's atmosphere."

"Good." She smirked and told him to open a hailing channel. "This is Admiral Leti Lowran of the Time Space Administration Bureau aboard the Arthra Zwei, I suggest that you prepare to lose your ship." A box was floating in front of her. "We have you locked on with our primary weapon, the Arc en Ciel and we will fire as soon as this message is over."

(-)

Levi stared as she heard the message. "How..? How have they outmaneuvered me so badly?" She screeched and slammed her fist through the computer. Growling, she ran her fingers over the console as fast as she could while listening to the rest of the message.

_"I believe this is more than enough time. Arc en Ciel, fire!"_

Levi growled and pushed a button. "HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I STILL WIN!" She laughed as she faded from the room.

Leti watched as the Arc en Ciel's beam tore through the upper atmosphere of Mid-Childa. "What the?" Her eyes widened as the Saint's Cradle seemingly disappeared from sight. "What the hell?"

"Ma'am!" Randy called out, his eyes wide as he saw the Saint's Cradle reappear closer to the planet, "I don't believe it, a short-range teleportation."

"Short range? Leti cried out as she saw the ship was pointed downwards and rushing to the ground. "That was over eighty kilometers!" Growling, she looked at the staff on hand. "Get the Arc en Ciel back online! We don't have much time!"

"We're trying ma'am!"

(-)

"How are you hanging in there?" Fate asked Tre, who could only groan in pain as the outside air moved around them.

"I'll live." Tre grunted and looked at Sein. "Thanks for getting us out of there." Sein could only smile as the group flew to the surface at a slower pace than normal.

"Mama..." Vivio looked up, her eyes wide. "It's coming back!" Nanoha turned her head and gasped as she saw the ship rushing right at them.

"It's getting closer!" Nanoha gasped as the ship rushed at them. "Move!" Nanoha, Fate, Hayate and Sein shot off to the ground as the nose of the ship came rushing upon them. "Nnnngh!"

The next thing that any of them knew, three powerful orange blasts struck the underside of the nose of the ship, knocking it off of its course right at them. The group stared as a large white insect appeared in front of them and grabbed them between its hands gently, before they all disappeared out of the air.

Megane nodded, sweat rolling down her face as Hakutenou reappeared on the ground. Between her and Caro, getting Hakutenou and Voltaire up high enough into the air so that their summons could help divert the Saint's Cradle had been risky, but they managed to pull it off, even if Megane felt like passing out at that moment. "Good job, Hakutenou." The insect nodded and opened its hands revealing a slightly disoriented Nanoha, Fate, Hayate, Vivio, Tre, and Sein. "Sorry about the rush, but it's hard to teleport when you can't see your targets."

"How did you know where we were?" Nanoha asked and blinked as Dieci waved her hands, smiling. "...You can see that far?"

"Yes," Dieci looked up and sighed in relief, "looks like Voltaire has the cradle in a very slow descending orbit, maybe if we get the thing to hit the ocean..."

Hayate looked up and blinked. "Wow, you have really good eyes, I can barely see the cradle from here."

"We have another problem." Zest spoke up. "From what she," he indicated Dieci, "has said, Voltaire's blasts aren't penetrating the hull of that ship. A Dragon that size should be able to blast almost anything to dust with ease, instead it's just pushing the nose up."

"There is damage," Dieci commented, "but it looks like someone punched a giant dent in the underside."

"Hakutenou, see if you and Voltaire can get that thing to aim back up into the sky, or at least keep it from going any closer to the ground." The giant insect nodded as Megane closed her eyes and concentrated.

Dieci nodded as Hakutenou disappeared from the ground and reappeared near the front of the cradle. "Good, they're holding it up there."

"For how long?" Nanoha asked, getting a chuckle from Zest. "...What?"

"Long enough to fire the ultimate weapon the Bureau has at it." Zest looked up at the sky knowingly.

Nanoha blinked and looked around. "Uh, no offense, but Fate-chan, Hayate-chan and I are right here." When Dieci, Teana, and, shockingly enough, Zest, all face-faulted, Nanoha giggled and stuck her tongue out.

"Mama..." Vivio tugged at Nanoha's collar. Nanoha looked at Vivio, who was frowning and slapped both of her hands against Nanoha's cheeks gently. "Bad mama."

Megane panted and closed her eyes. _"Caro, you ready?"_

_"Yep! Let's get them out of there."_

_"Just cancel the summon, okay?"_

_"Right!"_

Dieci looked up and nodded as she saw the summons disappear from the air. "They're gone."

"Good." Megane fell over, groaning. "I... I need... Some rest..." She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "Too tired right now."

(-)

"This time, let's not miss." Leti said as she turned the key again, "Arc en Ciel, FIRE!"

After all the drama and tension of the day, seeing the white blast arc out and run through the Saint's Cradle, before turning into a giant hole that expanded outwards for a hundred kilometers, was almost anti-climatic. Leti smirked and pushed her glasses back up her face. "I've had enough drama, thank you very much."

"Admiral?" Randy looked at Leti, who snorted at him. "Right, never mind."

(-)

On the ground, Lina looked up and shook her head. "Heh... Glad that I didn't need to do anything." Oh well, she wasn't going to complain, after all, what they used was a lot safer than what she had planned. "Still, going to be a mess, isn't it?"

(-)

Later that day...

Tre hissed as she lay in the hospital bed. "This sucks." At least the healers had fixed her broken bones fairly easily, but they refused to let her stay with her sisters. Not because she wouldn't cooperate, Tre had just gotten done explaining what she could about the Megahs and the AMS to several Bureau people, but because they didn't want her aggravating her injuries, even healing magic had some limits. Looking down at the grey prison garb she was in, Tre grumbled and leaned back. At least the outfit and the bed was comfortable.

What really bothered Tre wasn't the fact that she wasn't with her sisters, it was Lutecia, who laying in a bed on the other side of the room. For all intents and purposes, Lutecia was in a coma and wasn't responding to anything.

"Wish I could help you," Tre grumbled as she closed her eyes to get some sleep, "but I don't know how to fix what happened to you, Lu." She just hoped that someone could help the poor girl out.

* * *

Hayate: It's over now.  
Vita: Yep.  
Hayate: We still have loose ends to clear up.  
Vita: Next time on Blood That Flows - StrikerS, Dad! Knock it off!  
Hayate: What?

Okay, so, I know, if anyone's still reading this, I know that you were probably looking forward to seeing Zelgadis and Lina do something. When I got to this point while writing, I was mentally exhausted and I never could give Zel a good scene. I tried a few times, but it didn't work out, so I had to drop it. As for Lina, I _DID_write a scene for her, but my betas all said that it was a bad scene, so, instead I changed it to the Arc en Ciel scene, which was more well received by my betas.

Yeah, I'm not perfect, sometimes I what comes out isn't as good as the rest of it.

Just a couple more chapters of wrapping stuff up and then StrikerS will be over. Thankfully, you won't have to wait long for the next arc.


	255. StrikerS Fifty Five

Blood That Flows

StrikerS Fifty-Five

Of course I own nothing.

* * *

Nove looked at Cinque as her older sister hid behind her. "...Cinque?" She looked in front of her as Hayate Yagami, her hair still white colored, stood in front of Nove. "Uh..."

"You know, I should be angry, very angry, over what you did to Signum." Hayate said as she motioned for Cinque and Nove to sit down next to her. "But, instead, I'm rather calm right now." Hayate looked at Cinque, who was looking down at the ground nervously. "Please look at me."

Cinque did so and her uncovered eye was showing an immense amount of fear. "Please don't break my spine."

Hayate sighed and nodded. "I deserved that. Though, because of you, a member of my family has lost her right hand and right eye." She looked at Cinque, who was looking down with a sad look on her face. "So, tell me, what should be done to you to make it up to Signum?"

"That's enough!" Nove stood up and got between Cinque and Hayate. "Cinque's one of the nicest people I know! Stop speaking like you know her! She doesn't..."

"Nove," Cinque pulled Nove down and smiled, hugging the girl lightly, "thank you, but I deserve whatever they decide."

Hayate raised an eyebrow. "Even if it was something horrible, demeaning, or life-threatening?" Cinque nodded at the question. "What if I demanded your life?" Nove gasped and glared at Hayate. "It's within my rights, Signum is both my knight and a combination of a daughter and sister to me, and if it hadn't been for fast treatment, she wouldn't be here right now."

"Knock it off, dad." Vita grumbled as she overheard Hayate talking to Cinque and Nove. "You and I both know that Signum wouldn't want you to execute someone just because she got injured." She snorted at the dirty look Hayate gave her before sitting down near Hayate. "I can't say that I'm any happier with you, though. Signum's my older sister and I hated seeing her so injured." When Nove glared at her and Cinque looked away out of shame, Vita looked at Hayate. "You know... All things considered, all of these cyborgs aren't in too much trouble, right?"

"Probably not, they did help us out when we needed help during the final fight, even if they were really dangerous opponents, they tried to help us." Hayate looked at Vita, nodding slightly. "Anyway, it's not like they're the first people we've known to commit crimes and get judgement passed on them, right?"

The busty redhead smirked and looked at Nove and Cinque. "Well, if we're any indication, they'll have to spend about ten years in prison, suffer major humiliation and be mentally broken before they're allowed out." Both Nove and Cinque blanched at that. "Or..." Vita couldn't help but mentally laugh at how the two seemed almost eager to hear the alternative. "Or, you two, and all the other cyborgs, would have to go through a court trial, possibly some educational rehabilitation, depending on how much you know about what's acceptable and what's not." Nove and Cinque both blinked, well, Cinque only winked since she had her eye-patch on. "What? Signum, Shamal, Zafira, Reinforce and myself all went through a three week course to make sure that we knew what right from wrong really was and that we understood everything that was going to happen to us. You'll probably have to spend a long time in community service though."

Hayate looked at Cinque, before nodding. "As for you... Are you willing to do anything to make up for what you did to Signum?" Cinque nodded at Hayate. "Anything?"

"Come on!" Nove yelled at Hayate. "Just state your terms already!"

"Fine." Hayate took a deep breath. "For the time being, I could use a maid." Both Nove and Cinque stared at Hayate stupidly as the short woman stood up. "If you're willing to do anything to make up for what you did to Signum, then I want you to become the family maid." A rather evil grin came to Hayate's face as she looked Cinque over. "I'm going to need your measurements, so, as soon as you're able to leave lock-up, you're to see me at either my office or home, got it?" Cinque nodded and Hayate's grin turned positively evil. "Good."

Vita stood up and gave Cinque a mock salute. "Just remember this... Hayate loves dressing people up, you'll probably end up in twenty different outfits before she puts the final one on you." Cinque sweat-dropped as Vita chuckled. "Hope you don't mind her taking pictures."

Cinque idly wondered just what she was going to suffer through, even if she deserved it.

(-)

Zest looked at Megane as she relaxed on the bed. "So, uh..."

Megane sighed and looked at him. "I should have told you years ago." Zest looked away uncomfortably and Megane sighed again. "I never thought that something like that could..."

"You didn't think," Zest interrupted her, looking down at her with narrowed eyes, "you, myself and Nakajima are all very lucky we didn't die during that mission. At the very least, you should have made sure that Nakajima's husband was watching your daughter."

"_Our_ daughter." Megane stressed to him. "And, yes, I should have said something, Quint knew."

"I know." Zest grumbled as he narrowed his eyes. "Even if it was because we were drunk, I would have liked to have known that I had a daughter. Now she's..."

"She's not dead!" Megane hissed as she sat up, tears threatening to spill out of her eyes, "she's just... Just resting! I know she'll be okay." Megane's eyes screwed shut as her shoulders shook while soft sobs wracked her body. "She just needs to rest, she'll be fine. Just fine." When Zest put his hand on her shoulder, she suddenly turned and hugged him, crying into his body. "I want my baby back!"

Zest had no answers for her. He really had no idea how to handle this situation.

(-)

Regius looked at Due, who was currently in a single cell. "Well..."

"Is there any reason why I'm in here?" Due asked, irritated at him.

"Murder of a priest, suspect in several other murders, infiltrating the Bureau under false pretenses, directly responsible for several injuries that led to a kidnapping and murder of other people," Regius had to admit, Due had nerves of steel, if she wasn't bothered at all by his accusations, "although, I wonder how you'll do in prison. A cute thing like you?"

Due snorted at Regius. "Oh please, give me ten minutes and I'll have you on your knees sobbing, calling me mistress and begging for more."

Regius narrowed his eyes at her. "For that, I could just leave you in solitary confinement for the rest of your life." Regius turned and started to walk to the door.

"Really?" Due chuckled at Regius. "You leave now, and I might not be... Cooperative."

Regius turned to look at her and snorted at her threat. "We have someone who can rip any information out of your head, your cooperation isn't needed." He blinked as she laughed at him. "What's so funny?"

"You think that Inspector Acous can dig into my head?" Due narrowed her eyes while smirking and tapping her head. "Sorry to say, but did you ever think that my skill as an infiltrator led me to figure out how to shield against such attacks? Or that maybe my shape-shifting ability allows me total control over my body? Which, by the way, includes my mind."

He snorted at her. "I have no doubt you can heal from near lethal injuries pretty easily, but if needed, we'll break your mind down and get the answers we seek. What possible incentive do you have to keep me from ordering your mind probed and then thrown into solitary for the rest of your life?"

"Complete and total access to every dirty deal that the Bureau High Council has ever made." Due smirked as Regius turned and gave her his undivided attention. "You and I both know that you were making dirty deals as well. There are only two people that had more knowledge about the High Council than myself, and that was Uno and the Doctor. In fact," Due pulled her legs up against her chest, "I was going to eliminate those bastards for the Doctor, but things happened." Due had a lazy grin on her face as she looked at the General. "How about it? Put me through rehabilitation or whatever you do to repentant criminals who didn't know what they were doing was wrong so I can be Lutecia's bodyguard for the rest of her life and..." Due's voice became almost sultry as she leaned forward, "I'll give you every dirty deal that the High Council and every member of the Bureau has made on a silver platter... And if you happen to have any... Insider information about some of the corruption inside of the Bureau, I suppose any sort of investigation would leave that stuff out into the open, wouldn't it?"

"What information?"

Due chuckled at him. "How about the fact that the Council wanted to replace all natural mages and knights with artificially created and grown artificial mages and knights? While deplorable, it's not exactly horrifying... Unless they were planning on removing everyone who might stand up to them with quickly created and eliminated mages and knights?"

"So, why'd he focus on you Combat Cyborgs?"

Due snorted and leaned back, grinning as he seemed to look at her legs as her pants pulled tight against her body. "Like what you see?" Due laughed at him as he narrowed his eyes at her. "As for focusing on us, it was pretty easy, at least we wouldn't die off easily from degradation, even if we're harder to make." Due sighed heavily. "However, due to the events ten years ago, the Doctor went kind of crazy. Why focus on stuff that will degrade too fast when he could put some effort into creating weapons that will be loyal and allow modifications to be done to their bodies?"

"Alright, I'll make a deal with you," Regius walked towards the cage, "if you give up all information that you had while working under Jail, and I can make recommendations for the sentence you asked for."

Due just grinned at him. "Good."

Regius nodded and turned to leave. "I'll have someone here to record everything you say within a few days..." He paused at the door and turned to smirk at her. "And, yes, I did like what I saw."

Due snorted at him. "I could show you more, but that would cost you."

"If you want dinner, you should know that I expect you to dress up for a fancy restaurant."

Due blinked in confusion as Regius left the room. '...Did he just ask me out on a future date?' She could honestly say that it was a first for her.

(-)

Otto stared nervously at Kyrie. "Um..." She fought the urge to shiver as Kyrie continued what she was doing. "Do you need to play with my tail like that?" Kyrie grinned at Otto and nodded to her.

"Do you have any idea how awesome a tail like this is?" Kyrie practically purred to Otto as she slinked up to the brown-haired cyborg, "do you have any clue what you can do with something like this?"

"A... A little." Otto said, blushing hard as Kyrie's hands moved further down her tail. "Please stop that."

"Oh?" Kyrie frowned and let go, hugging Otto from behind. "Didn't like that?" She blinked as Otto shivered in her grasp before she grinned and hugged Otto tighter. "Or did you like that too much?"

"I am a girl, you know." Otto turned her head and blinked as Kyrie continued to grin at her.

"So? Variety is the... Spice of life, after all." Kyrie giggled, before kissing Otto on the cheek and releasing her from the hug. "You're so cute!"

Otto stared as Kyrie walked away, swinging her rear in a very enticing manner. "...What just happened?"

Not too far from them, Amitie sighed and hung her head. "Kyrie..." She groaned pitifully. "Why couldn't you at least tease one of the redheads?" Not that Amitie didn't see the appeal of Otto, the girl was really cute. Even if Otto had been a boy, Otto would have still been really cute.

"Because Wendi would tease back and Nove might get upset." Amitie turned to see one of the cyborgs, Deed, if she remembered correctly, sit down next to her. "Sette would not react and Mr. Snuggles would ignore her. Sein, on the other hand, might take her up on her offer."

Amitie blinked and looked around. "Sein is..." She trailed off as she saw Sein talking to Wendi and Dieci not too far off. "I don't see Sette or her cat." Amitie looked around, still not seeing the two. "Did something happen to them?"

"Doctor Shamal came and asked for them to join her for a session," Deed leaned back and sighed softly, "if my session was any indication, the Doctor Shamal likely has taken some blood from Sette, checked her health out and is doing a full body physical."

"You too, huh?" Amitie sighed as Deed nodded. "I'm very healthy, thank you very much. Does she have to give us one of those weird exams?"

"I do not know," Deed shook her head, "I felt quite uncomfortable having her look at me so closely like that." The brown-haired cyborg pulled her knees up to her chest and lowered her head towards them. "What is the purpose of it?"

"Complaining about a gynecology exam?" Amitie and Deed both turned to see Ginga standing near them, shaking her head. "Believe me, they're not fun for any woman, but they're needed so that the doctor knows that you're healthy."

Deed bit her lower lip and looked at Ginga a little nervously. From what she heard, Ginga wasn't too happy with Nove, but the older girl was Subaru and Nove's sister, so she tried to not think bad things about the girl. "I thought that Doctor Shamal was a general doctor?"

Ginga smirked at Deed. "From what I understand, Shamal's a medical doctor, gynecologist, psychologist and a dentist," an evil grin came to her face as she wiggled her fingers in front of her, "which means she can take a drill and poke holes in all of your teeth for no reason at all."

"...When did she have time to learn all of that?" Amitie asked, getting a shrug from Ginga.

"Heck if I know, something about past lives, having experience with each field already and needing some refreshers or something."

"She still can't cook!" Vita yelled, overhearing the last bit of the conversation. Ginga, Deed and Amitie all sweat-dropped as Hayate whapped her with a folded paper fan over the back of the head. "Oww! Dad!"

"No teasing Shamal when she can't defend herself." Hayate said in a stern tone of voice, "just for that, Vita, I'm having Shamal make dinner tonight and you're going to have to eat it."

Vita just hung her head and whimpered pitifully.

Amitie looked at Kyrie and at Ginga, all three of them looking at each other weirdly.

"So, anyway, um, Ginga," Deed tried to think of something to say, "are you still mad at big sis?"

"Nove?" Ginga looked across the yard as she saw Nove and Cinque talking to each other. "...No, Subaru's back, I'm not angry with her anymore. I was more worried that something bad happened to Subaru."

"I know what you mean." Amitie looked at Kyrie, who was playing with a large ball by throwing it against the wall. "I was worried sick over Kyrie."

Deed looked at Otto, who was busy laying on her back, before getting up and walking over to her twin. When Otto sat up, Deed knelt down and hugged her twin tightly. "Deed?"

"Promise me that I will never be alone."

Otto blinked, but nodded, hugging Deed back. "I promise."

"So, what's going to happen to all of us?" Amitie looked at Ginga, who shrugged at the question. "You don't know?"

"Sorry, it isn't for me to decide anything."

(-)

Nanoha looked at the doctor, who smiled at her. "Both you and your daughter are fine, Miss Takamachi," Nanoha let out a sigh of relief as Vivio got off the examination table and jumped into her arms, "however, I noticed an anomaly with your daughter's Linker Core."

Both Nanoha and Vivio looked at him in confusion, complete with near identical blinks. "...Wow, you two really are mother and daughter, aren't you?" The doctor shook his head to clear it of unnecessary thoughts. "Anyway, young Vivio's Linker Core has something fused with it." He called up a holographic keyboard and a screen appeared in front of Nanoha and Vivio. "Recognize this thing?"

"A relic?" Nanoha gasped and looked at Vivio. "Is that why you..?" Vivio nodded and buried her face against Nanoha's chest, whimpering. "Is it harmful?"

"No, in fact, it just seems to be there." The doctor scratched his head. "I would need to do some tests on her Linker Core, but it doesn't seem to be harming her. However, I'm not an expert on stuff like this, so I think I'll forward the results down to the science heads, they've worked with you for ten years, right?"

"Mary has, Shari hasn't, but she's worked with us before, so..." Nanoha trailed off and looked at the Relic again. "Well, if anyone would know how to deal with a Lost Logia, it's those two."

(-)

"EH? Seriously?" Mary looked at Vivio and then at the data she was given. "A Relic fused with her Linker Core?" A small grin came to her face as she motioned for Nanoha to lay Vivio down on the table they usually used for scanning various equipment and both Reinforce and her daughter when they needed to.

Nanoha sweat-dropped and put Vivio down on it. "Vivio," Nanoha sighed as the girl hugged her tightly and wouldn't let her go, "it's okay, Mary might be really scary, but she's not mean. She's helped me in the past. Plus, I'll be right here, nothing bad will happen."

"But..." Vivio whimpered, remembering what happened on the Cradle.

Smiling, Nanoha kissed Vivio on the forehead. "We're just going to look, we're not going to make anything bad happen, okay?" Vivio nodded and let go of the hug, laying down. "Good girl." Nanoha stepped back as the scanner flared to life, encasing Vivio with blue light. Nanoha walked over to Mary. "Well?"

"Amazing, a real Lost Logia fused with a person's Linker Core." Mary clicked a few buttons and frowned as she saw the results. "Well, it really looks like it's shut off, huh..."

"Shut off?" Nanoha blinked as Mary shrugged. "What does that mean?"

"Exactly what I said, it's there, but it's not receiving any power." Mary tapped her chin and let out a thoughtful sound. "Well, maybe the Saint's Cradle was the battery for these things? If that's the case, then it shouldn't be able to activate on its own. Heck, even though it's fused with Vivio, it probably won't activate at all if the Cradle was its power source, so..."

"So... What are you planning?"

Mary turned to Nanoha and the grin on her face wasn't exactly reassuring. "My plan? Simple! Do lots of tests and eventually figure out how to control this myself! Then I can create an army of evil monster men that can force even the great Nanoha Takamachi into a corner with their fighting abilities! Mwahahahahahahahah!"

Nanoha sweat-dropped and took a few steps back. "Mary, did you forget to take your meds this morning?"

Mary stopped laughing, blinked and frowned at Nanoha. "What makes you think that I need meds? Sheesh, learn about jokes." She snorted and looked at the display. "As for the Relic in Vivio's Linker Core," she looked at the small girl who was looking at them in fear, "it's completely inactive, so, unless someone can build a new cradle or the thing comes out of the past again, it won't be a problem. However..." Mary narrowed her eyes as she looked at the data. "I'll need to do some tests on Vivio... I think I might be able to figure this thing out."

"What?" Nanoha hissed at Mary. "What are you..?"

Mary looked at Nanoha with narrowed eyes. "I'm going to give her a chance to use the power that she has, that's all. I might have to build a device to specifically control its power output so that she doesn't go berserk or succumb to mind control of any sorts." Mary turned away from Nanoha and turned the machine off. "She's free to go, but I'm pretty sure that I can come up with something given some time." When Nanoha walked over and picked up Vivio, Mary cleared her throat, "oh yes, Nanoha," the younger woman looked at Mary, who grinned at her, "later on, I'd like to run some tests on Raising Heart with this Knight Valkyrie Armor that Sein was wearing and compare it to the device Jail made to work for it."

Nodding, Nanoha left the room and sighed. "Sheesh, you okay, Vivio?" She smiled when the girl nodded and rested her head on Nanoha's breasts. "Tired?" Vivio nodded again and Nanoha rubbed her back. "Then rest, okay?"

"Okay, mama." Vivio murmured and drifted off to sleep as Nanoha walked down the hallway.

* * *

Hayate: I don't even think I'm in the next part. Gimme that script!  
Nanoha: I don't think you should steal the script from the author, Hayate-chan.  
Hayate: What happens next concerns me too! Anyway, next time on Blood That Flows - StrikerS.  
Fate: Just calm down, Hayate, you'll have screen time again soon anyway. We're just wrapping up stuff for the next few chapters anyway.  
Yuuno: Are you sure you should be breaking the 4th Wall so much?  
Thoth: **Don't worry, boss, I'll get plenty of pictures.**


	256. StrikerS Fifty Six

Blood That Flows

StrikerS Fifty-Six

Of course I own nothing.

* * *

"Signum!" The swords woman turned to see Shari waving her down. "I was wondering where you were, you need more testing and operations on that hand, you know?" One thing that was odd was the long bundle in her hands.

Signum sighed and nodded to her. "I was heading that way right now anyway." Signum idly grabbed her gloved right hand as she said that. "Do you have something?"

"Well, considering I saw you with that Shine Sword out there, I had a great idea and thought that this would work for you." She undid the packaging and Signum's good eye widened as she saw what was in it.

"You... Made another Laevantein?" Signum asked, slightly confused.

"Not completely." Shari shook her head. "This one doesn't have the ability to go into that snake form your other one does. But, it can connect with your other Laevantein, this is getting confusing, let's call this Laevantein 2 and the other one Laevantein 1, anyway, Laevantein 2 can merge like your sheath can for the bow form, however, well, uh... Call up Laevantein, will you?" When Signum did just that, Shari handed over the other Laevantein. "See how they're both single blades?" Signum nodded and noted that the sword had a nice weight to it, even if the edge of it was blue for some reason. "Now, why don't you put the flat of the two blades together?"

Signum looked at the swords and did just that, staring as they became a large combined blade. "...Shari, what the heck? What did you do to Laevantein?" The question was quite valid in Signum's opinion. Along with the increased size of the blade, the dual hilts shifted under her hand to slightly increase the handle's side, and then create a pommel disk at the bottom of the extended hilt. The two cross guards also combined to form two "horns" facing forward while the other two seemed to be meant for deflecting weapons away from the hand. The two back parts of the blade seemed to slight collapse to create a fuller running down the center of the blade. As always, at the bottom of the blade, the cartridge loader shifted to expel shell casings from the flat part of the blade.

"Made it so that it could combine with the first one and become an even bigger sword, I think that Miyuki called it a Zanbato." Shari waved her hand at that, "anyway, the fact is, it gives you some options for future fights and..." She trailed off as Signum put the sword on her shoulder and turned away. "Uh, Signum?"

Signum turned back to look at Shari and gave her a rather unsettling and weird grin. "I think I need to learn how to use two swords more effectively."

As she watched Signum walk away, Shari felt the urge to shudder. "...Signum was grinning, someone's going to die." She muttered as she walked away.

Signum, on the other hand, did like the thought of having a second Laevantein in hand. But even if she had a second sword, it didn't mean that she was going to be an expert with two weapons. She smirked as she saw the person she needed to talk to. "Takamachi Miyuki," the girl turned to look at Signum, "I find myself in need of a sparring partner and trainer." When Signum explained, Miyuki nodded and smiled at her.

"Not a problem." Miyuki liked the thought of having Signum as a sparring partner. The upcoming months were going to be interesting.

(-)

"Mom!" Arashi cried out as he saw Lina outside of the examination room. "Hi!" Lina knelt down and hugged her son.

"Hey, Arashi," Lina hugged him tightly and rubbed his back. "What happened?"

"A meanie with blue hair showed up, took Vivio and hit me."

Lina blinked, while she was upset about the fact that her son was hit, something was bothering her. "Who's Vivio?"

"Nanoha-neechan's daughter! Arashi blinked as Lina stilled while hugging him. "Something wrong, mama?"

"...When did she have a daughter?" Lina mumbled as she stood up and held her hand out. "Come on, Arashi, I think we need to find your sister..." Or Yuuno, Lina was flexible with which one of those two she got to deal with first.

(-)

As luck would have it, Lina managed to find Yuuno first. Seeing the glare that Lina, who was almost a mother to him, was giving him, Yuuno almost felt the urge to start cry for no reason. "Uh..."

"So, when were you going to tell me that you made me into a grandmother, Yuuno?" Yuuno blinked at the rather angry tone Lina had. "Why didn't you tell me that you got Nanoha pregnant?"

"EH?" Yuuno didn't know what to say to that, and when Lina slammed him against the wall, it made it a little harder to concentrate. "What are you talking about? Nanoha's not pregnant!"

"Then where did Vivio come from?" Lina's anger melted away when Yuuno started to laugh softly. "What's so funny?"

"If you saw Vivio, you'd understand."

Lina was about to ask for clarification, when she heard Nanoha call to them and ask what was going on. Turning, she stared at Nanoha, who was holding onto a sleeping child. "...Is that Vivio?"

"Yep." Yuuno and Arashi said at the same time, causing Lina to sigh and let Yuuno go.

"Sorry, when I heard that my daughter has a daughter of her own, I thought the worst." Lina shook her head and looked at Arashi, who was blinking in confusion. "Next time, you might want to explain a little more clearly."

"...What's going on?" Nanoha asked, confusion on her face. When Yuuno explained, Nanoha started laughing and Lina narrowed her eyes in annoyance. "Sorry, but you thought... Don't you think I would have told you ahead of time?"

"Sorry, hard to not worry." Lina sighed softly, "ugh, I'm getting old and tired, I think. Or I'm still suffering from jet lag, but, anyway, Nanoha, I wanted you to know that I actually came here for a reason." Nanoha and Yuuno both blinked at her. "I'm moving to Mid-Childa."

"HUH?"

Lina sighed softly. "Before you ask, there's nothing wrong with the shop, but Arashi needs to learn how to control his gift, and I can't do that on Earth. With you, it wasn't too bad, magic can be taught, that's easy, but he's a young child, and Chaos magic tends to be very noticeable."

"What about dad?" Nanoha blinked as Lina smirked.

"He'll be moving here too. When Arashi was showing me what he could do, we had to make a choice, and, sadly, Nanoha, you really have no idea how to handle teaching control with Chaos magic, since Raising Heart does most of the work for you." Nanoha blushed heavily. "So, I'm going to be moving to Mid-Childa so Arashi can learn in an environment more suited for magic."

"How long until you move here for good?" Nanoha asked and Lina shrugged at the question.

"Probably anywhere from six to ten months. We need to find a house and find a place to open up a new Midoriya Cafe." Deep down, Lina was looking forward to this move, she was curious about this planet that embraced magic and technology.

(-)

That night found Nanoha sitting in her room with Fate and Yuuno while Vivio was sleeping on her lap. "I've been thinking for awhile..." Nanoha said as she looked at the two of them while rubbing Vivio's back. "Let's move in together."

"Sure." Fate smiled and leaned back. "But, I think this room would be a little too..."

"I meant a house." Nanoha said, catching Fate off-guard. "I don't want Vivio to grow up on a military base. Plus, it would be nice to have a place where Erio and Caro could come and enjoy time off without being surrounded by work all the time."

"After what your mom did this afternoon..." Yuuno trailed off and leaned back against the couch. "I don't mind the thought though, but have you thought about where we're going to live?" He chuckled when he heard Nanoha respond negatively. "I thought so, but, you should know, there's a rather large property within Cranagan that my clan owns. It has a two story house, basement and attic on it. I'd have to do some paperwork and make calls, but I could get the house transferred over to my name and we'd have a place to live."

"Does it look nice?" Fate asked, getting a shrug from Yuuno. "Yuuno!"

"What? I haven't seen it in years, but I know that it's liveable, might need some work on the paint and some new furniture, but nothing major." He looked at them. "Well?"

"Sure." Nanoha smiled at that, "I'd like that, how many rooms?"

"Plenty," Yuuno chuckled at her, "the last time I was there, I was eight years old and I think there was over twenty of us in the house for a week comfortably."

Nanoha nodded, that sounded perfect for what they would need.

(-)

Chrono looked up as Shamal walked into the office early that morning. "Something wrong?"

"You mean other than Zafira still out cold, Signum's injury, Tre laid out and Lutecia being basically a vegetable?" Shamal ignored the annoyed look on Chrono's face. "Nothing much, but there's something I found about six of our guests." Walking up, she put the papers on Chrono's desk. "I've kept my results out of the official records, but I think you'll be interested in four of them."

Chrono looked at the papers and read them over. His eyes widened as he came across parentage for Otto and Sette. "...How? They're older than he is."

Shamal sighed heavily. "I wondered as well, so I talked to Due before coming here." A sardonic smirk came to Shamal's face as she looked at him. "Guess who the nurse that gave Filia a blood test and took the remains of Val's egg for disposal was."

"...She gave Filia and Val's DNA to Jail?" Chrono asked as he saw Deed and Wendi's parentage. Chrono flipped the pages and almost swore as he saw Cinque's parentage. "...You have **got** to be kidding me, Shamal. How the hell did Jail even get Lina's DNA?"

"The same way he got Val and Filia's DNA." Shamal shook her head. "This is one big cluster-fuck."

"Yeah, I can..." Chrono trailed off as he looked at Dieci's page. "...Even Nanoha?" Chrono felt like banging his head on the table. "Okay, this is officially nuts. I'm going to have to make some arrangements."

Shamal blinked as Chrono pulled out a cell phone. "What arrangements?"

Chrono sighed as he held up a finger. "Hello, Filia, yes, I miss you too. Say, it turns out that you have some family here on Mid-Childa," Chrono held his phone away from his ear as Filia screamed so loudly that even Shamal cringed from the yell, "yes, it was quite the shock to me as well," Chrono said as he put his phone near his ear again, "how would you, Amy and the kids like to come to Mid-Childa for awhile and meet them? Huh? Yes, of course mom's allowed to come too. I warn you, it's a little weird over here right now." He nodded at her response. "Okay, love you too, tell Amy hi for me, and please don't make it so she can't walk or sit properly before you come here." A flush came to Chrono's face as he heard her response. "Well, ah... Yes, I guess I have been gone for awhile, uh... Yes, I promise to make it up to the two of you, yes, love you too, goodbye."

Shamal smirked as Chrono continued to blush while hanging up the phone. "I take it that she's gotten good at using that tail of hers on Amy?"

"Like you wouldn't believe." Chrono muttered before glaring at Shamal. "Get out of here!" Shamal left the room while laughing at him. Chrono groaned and buried his face into his hands. "Ugh... My curse for having kinky wives." Not that he'd like them any other way.

(-)

He grunted as extreme pain and soreness penetrated his senses. 'At least I'm alive,' he thought to himself as he cracked an eye open. "Nnngh, what," he groaned as he felt movement on his body, "what happened?"

"ZAFFY!" A far too loud voice screamed in delight followed by two small arms hugging his body. "You're alive!" As his vision cleared, he saw Reinforce Zwei hugging him, her shoulders shaking as tears fell from her eyes while burying her face against his body. "I thought... You were so hurt, mommy disappeared, Signum lost her hand and eye, and daddy went all cold and distant and..." Zwei broke down bawling against his body. "Missed you so much, big brother!"

Zafira slowly moved his hand to her back and gently patted her, causing her to hug him tighter. "Zwei, that hurts... A lot... Please loosen up." He let out a breath he didn't know he had when she did as he asked. "Thank you. So, what happened?" When Zwei looked up at him, tears in her eyes, Zafira sighed and shook his head.

He could find out later, after she had calmed down. Right now, she seemed really upset.

Besides, being patient was something Zafira was good at.

(-)

Elsewhere...

Vita smiled as she saw Verossa walk into the Riot Force building. "You're here early." She said as she got close to him. She walked beside him before grabbing his arm. "Couldn't wait to see me?"

"While I wouldn't mind spending time with you, Vita, I was asked by Shamal to show up today." He sweat-dropped at her annoyed look. "It's not like that, shee... She needs me to look into someone's head."

"Oh," Vita blinked at that, "sorry, I thought you were..." She trailed off as he turned her and gave her a quick kiss on the lips. "...What was that for?"

"You're cute when you're jealous." Verossa laughed softly as he left Vita blushing in the hallway.

"You... You... GAH!" Vita ran after Verossa, her face still flushed while trying to get her blushing under control. "You don't just get to kiss me and then leave me in the hallway, you jerk!"

Caro and Erio both blinked as they saw Vita run after Verossa. "Adults are weird." Erio muttered while looking at Caro, who nodded at him. "Hey, come on, Teana-san and Subaru-san are on the training field."

"Right." Caro nodded as she and Erio ran to the front doors. A few moments later, Caro found herself on her back as she ran into someone. "Oww..." She looked up and saw Signum standing in front of her with an raised eyebrow. "Uh... Ah... Sorry." Caro gulped, there was something about that eye-patch that made her nervous.

"You should be thankful that I'm not one to get upset too easily." Signum offered her hand down and blinked as Caro seemed to pale. "Something wrong?"

"I... Uh... Never get a tan, please?" Caro said as she stood up hastily and ran out after Erio.

"...What was that about?" Signum scratched her head and winced as her right arm throbbed. "I'm going, I'm going." She grumbled as she made her way towards Shari's lab. She needed to get some more work done on her new hand anyway.

Outside of the building, Erio looked at Caro in confusion. "What's wrong?"

Caro shook her head and looked at him with worry in her eyes. "Something about that eye patch bothers me."

Erio just scratched his head before yelping as something familar smacked his backside, sending him crashing to the ground. "Grr!" He stood up and glared at Fried, who seemed to chirp at him rather smugly. "When I get my hands on you, you flying rat!"

"Erio-kun!" Caro cried out while chasing him down. "Don't hurt Fried! He was just playing!"

"I'll show him playing!" Erio yelled as he chased down the slippery, small Dragon.

(-)

Verossa blinked as he saw Tre on one bed as he and Vita entered the room. "Didn't know that there were others in here." He blanched as she turned to look at him. "Uh... Hi."

"You do know that I can go days without needing to sleep, right?" Tre snorted and looked at Lutecia. "You here to help her?"

"I'll try," Verossa nodded as his hand glowed green while walking over to Lutecia, "normally I just use this to draw out information. First time I've ever used this to jump start a brain."

"Wait," Tre spoke up, stopping Verossa. "If you can get her brain to turn on, can you make it so that she doesn't remember anything about Quattro or Levi?" When Verossa raised an eyebrow, she sighed, "if you see her memories, you'll understand, she doesn't deserve to have that stain on her soul."

"Pretty deep," Vita snorted as she looked at Tre, "but I'm sure Verossa can do that, right?"

"I'll try." Verossa said as he put his hand on her head and closed his eyes. It didn't take him long to figure out what Tre meant by erasing memories as he saw what Levi had done to the girl. 'There we go,' he found an image in Lutecia's mind of a smaller, younger version of herself curled up into a ball, crying softly. _"Hello."_

_"Who? Who are you? You're not master."_

_"No, I'm not Levi, nor am I Quattro. My name is Verossa Acous, I work for the Bureau as an investigator."_

_"Ma...master sa...said that you were bad people."_

_"To her, we were bad. Your mother misses you, you know."_

_"Mom?"_ Lutecia's voice was confused, almost like she didn't know what was going on. _"Who's that?"_

_"...I saw some of the stuff that happened to you, did she work on your mind as well as your body?"_

_"I don't..."_

_"Shhh... It's okay, just relax. I'll help you remember everything that you need to."_ Verossa held his mental hand out. _"Take my hand, and I'll help you, I promise."_ Lutecia whimpered and slowly, reluctantly, reached her hand out to take his. _"That's it... Just relax."_ He whispered and she gasped while he pulled her against his body. _"It's okay, nothing bad will happen."_

Lutecia could only whimper as Verossa worked on undoing the damage to her mind that Levi did to her.

It was almost twenty minutes later when Verossa stepped back and slumped into Vita's arms. "I... Wow... Eight years is a lot of time to go through her mind to suppress and wipe out memories."

"Will she be okay?" Tre asked, looking at Lutecia in concern. After almost a minute, there was a groan from the young girl. "Lutecia?"

Blinking, Lutecia slowly sat up and looked around. "...Tre? What... What's going on? I... I don't remember much."

"It's okay," Tre gave her a rare smile as relief flooded her body, "it's okay, Lutecia, you don't need to remember much. Everyone will be happy that you're okay."

Lutecia gave Tre a slow nod and wondered why her body had a strange feeling. "Where's my mom?"

"She's okay," Tre nodded to her and looked at Verossa. "Thank you."

He nodded as he wrapped an arm around Vita's shoulders. "Hey, glad I could help."

"Come on," Vita smiled at him, "I'll let her mom know what happened, as for you," she grinned at him while helping him out of the room, "you deserve something nice for that." Verossa sweat-dropped as her grin increased in size. Oh well, he could never refuse Vita when she was in a good mood.

Vita continued to smile as she walked down the hallway. She couldn't wait to get him alone. After all, he looked like he could use a massage.

* * *

Regius: Let's deal with these loose ends then.  
Auris: What do you have in mind, sir?  
Regius: Just let me deal with this. Next time on Blood That Flows - StrikerS  
Auris: This is the first time we've ever done this.

Are you guys still reading the fic or have people given up on it?


	257. StrikerS Fifty Seven

Blood That Flows

StrikerS Fifty-Seven

Of course I own nothing.

* * *

Meanwhile, across the city, Regius glared at the information that he had gotten from the investigator. "You're sure?"

The man nodded to him. "Everything that she said to me was exactly as she said to you, sir, plus more."

'If everything she said was true...' Regius narrowed his eyes as he looked over the information. "Thank you, you're dismissed." The man nodded and left the room. When he was alone, he pushed a button on his desk phone. "Auris, hold all my calls, I'll be in a meeting."

_"Yes, sir."_

Regius nodded and turned in his chair, before pushing a button on the arm rest and causing several screens to appear in front of him. "Good afternoon everyone."

On the top middle screen, Mizetto raised an eyebrow at him. "Regi, is there any real reason that you called for us here today?"

"Believe me, I'd rather have to deal with the fact that Hayate's been getting after me to return control of the Riot Force back to her than talk to all of you right now." Chrono said through his window. "Normally, I wouldn't mind spending hours with you all, but I do have my own problems here."

"I'll keep it quick then." Regius said to the group. "You were all instrumental in making this Riot Force come to life. However, just one force isn't enough to deal with all of the problems that crop up in the Bureau. There's still a lot of turf wars between the different factions of the Bureau." He looked at Chrono. "Both the Navy and the Enforcers fight over the best talent, as do the Air force and Rescue Corps, but the Ground Forces have, until recent years, been left out in the cold. What I propose is simple. Outside of the main Riot Force here in Cranagan, each of the named branches would have a Riot Force branch that would, in effect, be able to ignore such turf wars and help where it would be necessary."

"I'm not sure that I follow," Mizetto said to him, "what are you thinking with this idea, Regi?"

"Alright, do you remember three years ago when an Enforcer crew signaled for help, but the closest Enforcer back-up was over a week away?" The others on the screen nodded and Regius continued, "however, there was a Navy ship only an hour away. The Navy ship was on route to a rather minor disturbance and could have helped out, but didn't. When the back-up arrived, most of the Enforcers were wiped out. Imagine, if you would, a Riot Force naval officer on that Navy ship. The officer could have, under good faith, ordered the crew to help out those Enforcers, thus sparing all of their lives in the process."

"I see," Carim spoke up as she looked through the screen, "each branch of the Bureau would have a Riot Force specifically tailored to them, but, like the main Riot Force, it wouldn't be bogged down by red tape, correct?" Regius nodded at her question. "I'm still not sure just what it would do."

Regius smirked at her. "Each branch would have a few mages and knights to each one, like I said, the naval Riot Force member could, under good faith, order the Naval crew, to help, let's say a Rescue Corps operative that called out for help. Instead of hoping that there's another Rescue Corps member or crew near them, the naval Riot Force officer would be on hand and help out with the crew."

"Ambitious," Mizetto said as she leaned back, "Regi, we'll need to correspond more often to work out the final details, but more Riot Forces sounds like a good idea. What will happen to this Riot Force that you created?"

"Think of it like the central Riot Force and the others as branches," Regius smiled softly, "so, is it agreed?"

"I can get behind this," Chrono nodded, "I just hope that I don't have to fill in for each commander every time something comes up. Anyway, if this is all, I'm going to be stepping down soon and transferring command back to Commander Yagami."

Regius nodded and the screens turned off. Sighing, he leaned back in his chair. "Alright, that ball's rolling, now then..." He narrowed his eyes and pushed a few buttons on his chair, causing a new screen to pop up. "Nakajima," his eyes widened and he spun around in his chair to look away, "you should have set a privacy mode."

"Regius, sir! Uh... Normally people don't call me when I'm taking my towel off after a shower!" She yelled while covering her breasts and running up to the screen to hit the privacy option. "Anyway, what is it?"

"It seems that Jail was working with the High Council."

"I know that," Quint said over the communication, "what of it?"

"Do you remember what I told you about my role in all of this?" Regius narrowed his eyes while leaning forward.

"...General, if you're saying that you want me to expose your role in the recent events, I can do that, but, that's only if you're sure."

Regius took a deep breath, "no, not quite, what I need from you is to go public with the fact that you found evidence that Jail's work on the Combat Cyborgs was collaborated by someone in the Bureau."

"Do you want me to lie about who it was?"

"Not quite," Regius smirked and leaned back, "Jail was under orders from the High Council to create artificial mages... Combat Cyborgs would count as artificial mages... Don't you agree?"

"That's not the whole truth, you know that, right?"

"The thing about the truth, Nakajima, is that it's the best lie around. After all, the truth can't be disproven." His eyes narrowed as he looked at the door. "Tell me, Nakajima, how hard would it be for your report on everything to do that?"

"Not hard at all, but..."

"I'm sick of the corruption at the top, Nakajima. While it gave you your original daughters, the rest of the Combat Cyborgs, Jail and the most recent events should never have happened."

"You and I both know that it wouldn't help any, even if I tried to go public, the High Council has too many friends in too many places to squash anything I would bring out." Quint sighed over the communication, "the fact that we're having this conversation means that we're probably corrupt ourselves."

"I know," Regius narrowed his eyes and leaned back, "tell me, Nakajima, if someone committed a crime and some Enforcers just happened to wander across another, worse crime scene..."

"You and I both know that the Enforcers would be allowed to act within their means to not only stop the first illegal act, but also shut down the one they came across."

Regius chuckled at that. "Excellent. It would be such a _shame _if a certain blonde cyborg escaped from the Riot Force, made her way to where the High Council was hiding and forced the Riot Force to have to arrest her and deal with the High Council at the same time."

"Indeed it would." Quint said, chuckling softly.

(-)

Hours later, in a secret location, three individuals were talking. Well, that was all they could do, seeing as none of them had a body anymore.

**"I can't believe this, that bitch failed."**

_"Only partially. Jail was removed from the picture, like we wanted, and now the Combat Cyborgs are under the Bureau's custody. We need to wait, but if we can get one of them to be our strong arm..."_

"Ah, gentlemen..." A female said, interrupting them, as a woman with short brown hair pushed a cart into the room. "It's time for your maintenance check-up."

"Of course," the third Brain would have nodded to her, "anyway, with Jail out of the way, we'll need to find someone else to continue the process that he started. There's more than a few scientists who wouldn't have any real problem making a bunch of artificial mages for us."

**"If we could get our hands on whatever it was that caused that one planet to get a giant grove dug out in it, we could give it to an army of Artificial Mages."**

_"The rumors I've found was that it was a mage of tremendous power."_

"No human has that much power!" The third Brain snapped back at the other two. "And besides, that's just a rumor."

There was a beeping sound and the attendant blinked as she pushed the button. "...It seems that there is a force of Bureau members outside of this building."

**"WHAT? WHY?"**

The attendant suddenly smirked as her body shimmered, slimmed down, her hair lengthened and turned blonde, while her eyes amber as she looking at them. "Oh, because I broke out of prison, injured a couple of guards and made my way here." She narrowed her eyes at them. "Really, you shouldn't talk bad about my creator. And, just before you do die, you should know, I think that the first person in here is going to be very mad... I interrupted her fun time." Due continued to grin as the three Brains cried out in dismay. Okay, so that redhead was only giving that guy a massage, but still, she probably wouldn't be happy about it.

"Alright, freeze!" A female voice spoke up and Due turned as Vita, angry as ever, walked into the room, before staring at the three brains in giant jars. "...What the hell?"

"Meet the Bureau's High Council," Due jerked a thumb at the Brains, "they long since gave up their bodies to rule the Bureau from the shadows, committing several dangerous and illegal experiments from the shadows."

**"Don't listen to her! We've always been brains in jars."**

"They were the founding members of the Bureau, and the direct cause of Jail's creation, along with the funding for Artificial Mages, Project F, and, because of Jail, the Combat Cyborgs."

Vita looked at the Brains and narrowed her eyes. "Living beyond your normal life through artificial means? You disgust me."

_"Like you have any room to talk, program of the Book of Darkness!"_

Vita took a deep breath, her hair covering her eyes. "You're right, I don't have room to talk, I made a deal with that book, and I paid for it for hundreds of years." She looked up at the Brains, anger in her eyes, "but, unlike you, I would have given it up if I could have lived a normal life."

"Vita Yagami," Vita turned to see Admiral Leti walking in behind her, "imagine my surprise when I found out that a dangerous criminal had gotten free of the Riot Force." She looked at the Brains while other Bureau members filled the room. "But seeing this..." Leti trailed off and shook her head as she turned around and walked out, "secure the escaped prisoner, Vita Yagami, I expect you to eliminate this mockery of life in front of us."

Vita nodded and looked at the Brains as she floated up. "High Council? You don't look like much."

_"Please, spare us! We have the keys to keep the Bureau from falling apart. We can keep the Bureau safe for a hundred years!"_

Vita snorted at them. "Those who give up essential freedoms for temporary security deserve neither security nor freedoms, Benjamin Franklin."

**"What does that have to do with anything?"**

Vita smirked at them as everyone left. "You gave up all your freedoms for the sake of trying to make everyone secure, but along the way, you endangered us all. For your crimes against humanity, the Bureau and probably a hundred other things I can't think of right now, there is only one punishment!"

**"Zerstörungsform!"**

If the Brains had eyes, they would have bugged out as Vita's small hammer suddenly turned large, yellow, gained a large drill on one end and a rocket on the other end. "Meet Destruction Form." Vita growled as she swung the hammer back. "And for all your crimes, just die!"

(-)

Meanwhile, outside...

Leti looked at Due with narrowed eyes, "you knew about this, didn't you?" Due nodded and grinned at her, "and you didn't tell us, why?"

"You'd never believe me." Due laughed at her, "anyway, yeah, they're the cause of a lot of problems. How come you weren't more surprised?"

"Trust me, I've seen a lot of weird stuff, for now, I think it's best if you were returned to the Riot Force... You're in a lot of trouble."

Due grinned at her. "Oh, I know, I just feel better knowing that I got rid of those things."

Leti shook her head and turned to look as Vita came out of the room. "Well?"

"It's done, though, I can honestly say, I don't ever want to know why there's a law that allows for instant elimination of things like that."

Leti gave her a tight smile. "Interestingly enough, the founders of the Bureau said they didn't want any perversions of life like that and it was to be eliminated immediately if possible."

Vita blinked and looked back into the room, before shuddering. "How... Ironic."

Leti smirked and nodded as they left the building.

* * *

Hayate: So, it's been some time, huh?  
Vita: Meh, we're almost done with this, aren't we?  
Hayate: Almost. Next time on Blood That Flows - StrikerS.  
? ? ?: Hey, kiddies, I'm back.  
Vita: Where the heck have YOU been?

Thanks for those reviews, people. It's not the reviews that make me happy, it's the fact that people are enjoying the story that makes me happy. It's just nice to know that people are still enjoying it once in awhile.

Anyway, this arc is almost over.


	258. StrikerS Fifty Eight

Blood That Flows

StrikerS Fifty-Eight

Of course I own nothing.

* * *

Two weeks later, Hayate found herself looking over numerous reports and information before she sighed and looked at Vita, who was shaking her head. "Two weeks, and we still haven't heard hide nor hair of any suspicious activities?"

Vita shook her head. "Unless you count Erio and Subaru getting all the hotdogs before anyone else on Wednesdays, no."

Hayate sighed and glared at the reports in front of her, as if it would magically tell her where Levi had disappeared to.

"Sounds like you're having some real problems, kiddies." A rather familiar and unwelcome voice said, causing Vita and Hayate to turn and glare at the person standing in the corner.

"Riksfalto!" Hayate stood up and slammed her hands on her desk. "What the hell? Where have you been?"

Riksfalto blinked behind her sunglasses. "Okay, one, I don't understand why you're so upset, two, you speak as though we're allies and three, what the heck are you talking about?"

"A couple weeks ago, we had to deal with an army of giant metal golems," Vita said in terms that Riksfalto would understand, since she probably didn't know what a robot was, "we could have used your help, you know..."

Riksfalto snorted at Vita. "Oh please, I have no reason to help you out. You seem to forget, I'm a Mazoku. You humans are great for food and entertainment at times, but I'm not obligated to help you out one way or the other."

"What about Yuuno? You feel the same way about him?" Vita asked, blinking in shock as Riksfalto laughed. "...What?"

"You really think that he's that special?" Riksfalto snorted at Vita and took off her shades. "Should my master order it, I would fight to kill him. For now, he's interesting. But, if you wanted to know where I've been since that one day I showed up... Do you have _any _idea how much energy it takes to jump from one world across, uh..."

"The universe?" Hayate said, still irritated.

"Yeah, that," Riksfalto ignored Vita's smirk, "anyway, if you make a long trip without knowing the destination, it's kind of draining, even for me. I was pretty hungry, so I went off to find a meal and ended up on another world, the natives called it Orussia or something. Wars are good for recharging energy, anyway, what's this about a Levi?" When they explained who Levi was and what she did, Riksfalto laughed. "Well then, you got nothing to worry about, I think."

"Huh?" Both Vita and Hayate stared at the Mazoku General, who shook her head.

"Think about it, you said that she hid out for almost ten years, right?" They both nodded at her, "then she's a schemer. If she hasn't returned to deal her revenge yet, then she's likely going to stay hidden until she makes her next move."

"So, what? We're supposed to just ignore her?" Hayate asked, getting a nod from Riksfalto. "What?"

"Even if he was a traitor and a half Mazoku, Gaav managed to hide out for nearly a thousand years. If this Mazoku could stay hidden from everyone, you're better off not even looking for her until she's ready to show herself again."

"So, we just give up?" Vita asked, getting a shrug from Riksfalto.

"Up to you, but personally, if she's the vengeful type, she'll wait a few years, let you drop your guard before making her move." Riksfalto smirked as she disappeared. "For now, I'd suggest you get on with your lives for now, and prepare when you can, because I guarantee, when she comes back, your lives and history will change, and I doubt for the better."

Vita and Hayate looked at each other in concern. "Uh, Hayate, what if Levi's dead?" Vita sweat-dropped at the look Hayate gave her.

"Unless someone personally killed that Mazoku, I'm assuming that she's still alive." Hayate grumbled and sat down.

"You've read too many adventure stories before we came into your life." Vita muttered, and blinked as Hayate sighed and shook her head. "Hayate?"

"Remember a few years ago when we fought against Shabranigdo?" Vita nodded slowly. "How many times did we see Gaav die during that fight?" When Vita started tapping her fingers to count it off, Hayate rolled her eyes. "The point is, until Gaav's death was confirmed by Miyuki, he survived several things that should have killed him outright. Let's not forget that Levi was named Alicia the last time we saw her ten years ago, and Fate-chan shot her with a Nemesis Zambar Breaker right through her back that time."

"When you put it that way, I can see your point. I just hope you're wrong about this."

Hayate nodded and hoped she was as well.

(-)

Mr. Snuggles was the first to notice the new guests in the lounge area. It was pretty easy for him, since the cybernetics that Jail had installed in him allowed him to scan for all sorts of magical signatures. When his scanners picked up a signature similar to both Sette and Deed, he was curious, when his scanners detected a signal that was very similar to Otto and Wendi, he was suddenly wary. After all, how many people had similar power to Sette and her sisters? _"There's two people that we should be wary of."_Sette blinked and looked at the direction that Mr. Snuggles was looking.

Standing less than twenty feet from them was a blonde haired woman with blue eyes and a young boy with green hair and amber eyes. "So, they're our family?" The boy looked at the woman in confusion.

"Apparently, Val, yes." The woman, who was in form-fitting pants and a short-sleeved shirt, walked over to Sette. "Hello, my name is Filia Ul Copt-Harlaown." She smiled lightly at Sette and sat down next to the pink-haired cyborg. "You are Sette, correct?"

Sette nodded and didn't bother asking how this Filia woman knew who she was, figuring that she was told before coming into the room. "Yes I am. Might I ask why you are here?"

"Do I need a reason to visit my family?" Even if Sette didn't show much reaction, the fact that she was completely silent for almost two minutes spoke volumes to Mr. Snuggles, who finally got tired of Sette's silence and jumped onto her shoulder.

_"What do you mean, family? Master's family is right here. Who the heck are you?"_ Mr. Snuggles stared as Filia smiled and her tail popped out behind her. _"You're just like Otto and Wendi."_

"Not really, they're more like me." Filia smiled at the cat and looked at Sette. "I am originally from another world, where Dragons aren't uncommon." She turned to see Val talking to some girl with pink hair pinned up against the back of her head. "My son is an Ancient Dragon," she turned to Sette, "until just a couple of weeks ago, I thought he was the last of his kind, it's nice to see that it's not the case anymore. As for me, I am a Golden Dragon, former Priestess under the Fire Dragon King Vrabazard."

"...A Golden Dragon?" Sette blinked as Filia's tail twitched while the Dragoness smiled at her. "I see, that Shinzoku, Sirius, said something similar about myself, Otto, Wendi and Deed, and how we were Dragons as well."

Filia nodded and smiled at Sette some more. "I was wondering, when things settle down, and you can go free, would you like to come live with Val and myself? I can help you discover your heritage and develop your powers properly."

Mr. Snuggles glared at Filia when Sette went completely slack. _"Great, you broke my master."_

"I wasn't aware that she could create a familiar," Filia smiled at Mr. Snuggles, "and I didn't mean to break her, but she, Otto, Deed and Wendi, that's their names, right?" The cat nodded and Filia continued on. "Good, anyway, if the four of them have Draconic blood in them, they need to learn how to control certain urges before too long."

_"Urges?"_Mr. Snuggles asked while blinking.

"You'd be surprised how much a Dragon can eat when their body starts growing and adapting." Filia looked at Sette, who seemed to be getting her bearings again. "So, how about it? Would you like to learn how to control your powers?"

"I..." Sette looked away, her face turning red, "I do not know what to say."

_"You should take it, Sette,"_ Mr. Snuggles jumped up on top of Sette's head and batted his tail against the back of her head lightly, _"knowing how to use your powers would be helpful in the future, plus, it wouldn't hurt to know your family, would it?"_

Thinking about this, Sette turned to Filia. "What about the others who have Dragon blood in them?"

"The other three, I would want them around as well," Filia smiled at her. "You don't need to call me mom or anything like that, I wouldn't force you to. If you felt more comfortable calling me big sister or aunt or something else, you could. But, only if you accept this offer."

"...May I do something that I have never done before?" Filia blinked and nodded slowly, only to gasp as Sette suddenly leaned over and hugged her tightly. "Thank you."

Mr. Snuggles smirked at Filia's confused look. _"Even though Jail cared about all of the cyborgs, there was no real mother among the group. It's kind of unusual for her to have the option of having a mother, so, she just wants to know what it feels like."_

Blinking, Filia nodded and hugged Sette back. After a few moments, Sette pulled away, her cheeks slightly red. "I... I do not do that very often, forgive me."

"What's there to forgive?" Filia smiled as Sette looked away, seemingly embarrassed. "We need to work on a few things, but yes, it's okay, Sette."

"Mama!" A loud voice made Filia jump, turning, she was tackled by the same girl that was talking to Val not too long ago, causing her to crash to the ground as the girl with the pinned up hair grinned down at her. "Is it true? You wanna be my mama?" Interestingly enough, a red tail was sticking out of her backside and twitching slightly.

Filia sweat-dropped heavily. "You're, uh..."

"Wendi!" Wendi grinned at Filia.

"Yes, well, I was thinking about it." Filia gasped as Wendi suddenly dropped on top of her and hugged tightly. "Ack!"

"Mama! Yay! I got a mama too now!"

Mr. Snuggles and Sette both looked at Filia with some worry on their faces. "Wendi, if you do not let go right now, you might accidentally kill her from lack of air." Sette shook her head as Wendi got off of Filia and knelt next to the blonde woman with her head bowed.

"I'm not mad," Filia panted out as she sat up, "just... Surprised is all." She looked at Wendi and smiled at her. "For now, just try to work on being so excitable, okay?" Wendi nodded and looked up, smiling. "So, why were you so excited..?"

"Because I wanted to know what it's like to have a family out there."

Seeing the absolutely adorable look on Wendi's face caused Filia to sigh and open her arms again. She wasn't surprised when Wendi took the invitation and hugged her again, at least this time it wasn't so powerful that the air was being driven out of her lungs. "Alright, alright. Now, where are..?"

"Mom!" Filia turned her head to see Val walk up with a girl with long brown hair and reddish eyes and a girl with short brown hair and green eyes, "I found the other two! See? Just like they said! Now there's four!"

Filia chuckled and smiled at the two newcomers. "Otto and Deed?"

"I am Otto," the girl with short brown hair said, "and this is my twin sister, Deed."

Filia nodded and tilted her head. "I mean no offense, Otto, but did you know that you could pass for a boy?" Otto nodded and Filia blinked as she let Wendi go. "Oh, I wasn't sure if you..."

"I do not mind if people think that I am a boy." Otto said as she and Deed sat down next to Filia. "I am used to people thinking that about me."

"Plus you like the fact that unless you pull your pants off, you can go swimming topless and no one cares." Wendi added, smirking at Otto, who glared at her. "What? It's true!"

Filia rubbed the bridge of her nose and shook her head. "Otto, I don't mind if you decide to dress as a boy, but please, if you do go swimming, I'd rather you went with some sort of top on."

"...But what if I wear male swimwear? It would look weird if I wore a shirt and other boys weren't."

Filia sweat-dropped and looked at Deed, who looked like she was about to start laughing. "Well, how about it, you two? Would you two like to learn about your Draconic heritage?"

Deed and Otto looked at each other and then back to Filia. "As long as you do not mind having us around, yes." Deed answered Filia.

Filia looked at the twins, then at Wendi and Sette, before finally looking at Val. "...We're going to need a bigger place, huh, Val?"

"I thought dad was getting a new place here for all of us?" Val asked, tilting his head in confusion as Filia nodded. "Okay."

Filia smiled as she stood up. "We'll need to make some arrangements, but it looks like, for now, welcome to my family."

It wasn't uncommon to see Wendi smiling, to see Otto, Deed and even Sette share that same smile, it was far more rare. "What about Mr. Snuggles?" Sette asked as her cyborg cat jumped onto her breasts, causing her to pet him again. "I would not wish to abandon him."

"I wouldn't ask you to." Filia smiled at Sette. Privately, Filia wondered just what the heck she was getting into, but ignored that, at least the house would be more lively now.

(-)

Dieci was feeling nervous as she and Cinque sat in a private room. It was hard not to, they had been led into the room at least ten minutes ago and no one had come to get them yet. "What do you think is going to happen to us?"

Before Cinque could answer, the door opened and a woman with red hair and blue eyes walked into the room. "Hello." She smiled as she closed the door behind her and sat down across from them. "I suppose you're wondering what I'm doing here, huh?" They both nodded and the woman closed her eyes for a moment, when she opened them, Cinque and Dieci were shocked to see one eye red, but the other eye, her left eye...

Was gold.

"I take it from your shocked expressions, you know what this is." She said as they nodded. "My name is Lina Takamachi, and apparently, you two, Cinque and Dieci, correct?" They both nodded to her, "Well, apparently you two are related to me now."

Dieci blinked at Lina. "...What?"

Lina shook her head. "I'm not too good at this, but..."

"The doctor," Cinque spoke up, catching Dieci and Lina's attention, "got your DNA, and used that to modify our bodies, didn't he?"

Lina smirked at her, nodding. "You're sharp, but if that's how it happened, yes. But, I'm not here to talk about that. Let me ask you two one thing," they both looked at Lina with curious expressions on their faces, "it's terrifying, isn't it?"

"Yes," Dieci nodded, looking at her hands as they trembled softly, "the doctor had me on medicine to keep me from ever using it again, by keeping me calm, I... I'm scared of it. If I go into battle again, I'll end up losing myself, drowning in a sea of golden darkness that I can't... I can't see the shore, where is it? Please, no more!" Dieci yelled, gasping as she realized that she wasn't drowning and that someone was holding her tightly. "...Huh?"

"Dieci," Cinque said as she hugged her younger sister, "I know, it's scary, but we got out, didn't we?"

Dieci trembled, tears welling up in her eyes. "It's not the same, even if we got out, it's there, just..."

"Just beyond your realm of consciousnesses, waiting to get unleashed into the world again and consume you completely." Lina finished for her, causing Dieci to gasp and look at Lina in shock. "I've lived with it for almost three decades now." Lina smiled at the two softly. "Even if you two are my daughter and granddaughter, I can understand if you don't think of me as family." Lina chuckled and rubbed the back of her head. "Well, Cinque's my daughter, Dieci, apparently Nanoha's your biological mother, so, you're my granddaughter."

"The doctor was very weird." Cinque muttered softly, getting a nod from Dieci. "So, what do you want from us?"

"Would you two like to learn how to keep that power in check?" Lina smiled as they gasped at her. "At the very least, I can help you cope with it."

Cinque nodded, she really wanted to control it, to keep from ever hurting someone like she did to Signum ever again. Dieci blushed softly and looked down. "...Grandmother?"

"Boy, I'm not going to get used to hearing that," Lina laughed softly and smiled at Dieci, "yes?"

"I would... I would like to learn about how to control this power."

"One, don't be so formal, and two," Lina grinned at the two of them, "welcome to my family."

(-)

"I've got someone for you to meet." Shamal smiled as she pushed on Megane's wheelchair. "Where is Zest today?"

"Filling out paperwork for the mission he was on from three days ago." Megane sighed as she leaned back against the chair. "I told you, my legs are fine."

"And you collapsed yesterday after only thirty minutes of exercise, so, quiet down." Shamal smiled as she stopped in front of a door and opened it up. "We had to move her into this room, because it gave her more of a view to see the outside world."

Megane blinked, unsure about what Shamal was saying, but gasped as she saw who was sitting in the bed, looking outside. "...Lu...Lutecia?"

The purple haired girl gasped and turned to look at Megane, her eyes wide. "M...Mommy?" Her body was trembling as Shamal pushed Megane up to the bed silently. "Mommy!"

Megane held her arms out as Lutecia practically jumped off of the bed and hugged her, sobbing into Megane's chest. "I'm here, mommy's here." Megane cried softly as Shamal stepped away from them.

"I'll leave you alone for awhile, I need to check on some of the others, call if you need anything." Shamal smiled as Megane nodded while hugging Lutecia tightly.

As she stepped outside, Shamal sighed heavily. "This is going to be a pain, isn't it?" She asked no one in particular and left the two alone.

Oh well, at least things were starting to look up.

* * *

Shamal: I'm glad things are working out. The next chapter is mine. Mine! None of yours! Mine! Next time on Blood That Flows - StrikerS, I get the chapter!  
Vita: I think she wants to have more screen time. Too bad the arc's over in the next chapter.  
Shamal: What? Oh, come on!


	259. StrikerS Finale

Blood That Flows

StrikerS Finale

Of course I own nothing.

* * *

Two months later...

Shamal sat in front of her desk and sighed as she looked at her medical journal. Turning on the recorder, she started to voice her thoughts. "Well, I can honestly say that I'm glad that things have finally calmed down somewhat from the insanity of Levi's actions. Nanoha's family is now living on Mid-Childa, which is still somewhat of a shock, but at least they have their new Midoriya Cafe ready to go. It will still be at least another month before they're ready to open up shop completely. The only reason I note this is because of two reasons, one, I miss those delicious snack items and two, well, apparently Lina put in the paperwork and Cinque and Dieci are now officially adopted into Lina's family."

Shamal leaned back into her chair and took several breaths before continuing. "If my words are jumbled, I apologize, I'm trying to collect my thoughts as I go along. Cinque is still ashamed of what she did during the last crisis. For awhile, she refused to be in the same room as Signum for any length of time. Even though Signum's not angry at her, Cinque still feels bad about what she did."

Shamal giggled softly as she recalled what happened only a few days ago. "Nove finally got tired of it and gave Cinque a headlock..."

_"Dammit, Cinque!" Nove growled as she the shorter cyborg whimpered. "Signum forgives you! You need to forgive yourself too!"_

_"But, I..."_

_"Shut up!" Nove let go of the headlock and hugged Cinque. "No one blames you, so you need to stop blaming yourself, okay?" Cinque nodded against her chest before Nove let go, turned and pushed Cinque towards Signum. "So, talk to her already!"_

_Signum had an amused look on her face as Cinque walked up to her. "Before you say anything, no, I'm not mad. I'm a warrior, stuff happens on the battlefield that you can't predict."_

_"But, your eye..."_

_Signum shrugged at her. "It can be replaced." Signum wouldn't admit it to anyone, but the eye-patch was kind of cool. "Besides, my eye is still there, but it doesn't process what I see correctly."_

_"What about healing spells?" Cinque looked at Signum, who sighed at her._

_"This is_ after _the healing spells." She smirked at Cinque, who nodded slowly, "however, Shari was saying she wanted to try something new out."_

_Cinque wondered why Signum was suddenly shivering, but shrugged it off. It wasn't that cold in there._

"Dieci's been a lot more cooperative with meeting and working with us." Shamal smiled as she remembered her conversations with Dieci. "Other than being a little naive, she's a really good girl. Compared to Due, nearly anyone's a good girl." Shamal snorted as she remembered that blonde. "Despite everything, Due only helps in the investigation because she's got nothing better to do."

_"That's it?" Shamal looked at Due, who nodded. "No reason?"_

_"Like I said, I don't care for the Bureau much, but I'll cooperate, since I know that my sisters would be upset if I didn't. As for any other reason, well, they're my own. Just make sure that you do your part, okay?"_

"She apparently just wants to go with Lutecia and be her bodyguard for some reason. It wouldn't be hard for me to say that she's too dangerous and unstable to be released from prison. Still, she has been very helpful, her testimony alone is making life miserable for a lot of people who were involved in illegal activities. I can say that she's mentally sound, but letting her go from prison just isn't a good idea, I'll have to recommend that some method of monitoring her be put into place."

"However," a small smile came to Shamal's face as she continued to speak, "Nove is someone I would allow to leave right this minute if she wanted to. She isn't the only one, but of her sisters, she did the least harm, outside of kidnapping Subaru, during the last crisis. She is a dangerous opponent, but I've watched her with the other cyborgs, and other than some annoyance at Wendi, she's usually really nice."

_"Hey," Nove waved at Shamal as the doctor and Genya walked into the room, "uh... You're..."_

_"You don't need to call me dad if you don't want to," Genya smiled at her, "I would like it though. I'd like to thank you for helping Ginga get my wife treatment while you fought off that robot."_

_Nove blushed and looked away, "well, ah, we're family, right? I'd hate it if my family died on me for no reason. Cuz, you know, I was looking forward to knowing my parents and..."_

_"It's okay," Genya continued to smile at her, "I was hoping to get to know my newest daughter as well."_

_Nove blinked at him. "Newest?"_

_"Well, to me, you're the newest member of the family. When you get out of here, you'll have to see your little brother and sister." Genya nearly laughed as Nove blushed and turned away from him. "You don't have to be so shy."_

_"I'm not shy!" She shook her head and looked away. "I, uh..."_

_Shamal nearly laughed, the way Nove was acting reminded her too much of Vita when Vita was younger._

"Wendi is, incredibly excitable, but she's mostly playful and loud. Then again, from what I've heard, none of the other combat cyborgs would want her to be any different. I have no recommendations about her, other than some proper guidance once she gets older."

"Tre is similar to Due in that I don't really trust her being let loose is for the best. Part of her reminds me too much of Vita on a bad day, but she does care about the others, particularly Sette and Lutecia." Shamal nodded as she thought about it, "so, for that fact alone, plus the fact that she helped Hayate, Nanoha and Fate raid the Saint Cradle, I'll recommend that she be allowed to leave when the therapy is over. I'm only doing this because the Saint Church offered to take her and Sein in as combat nuns." Shamal wouldn't admit it out loud, but the thought of Tre in an outfit like Schach amused her to no end.

"Speaking of Sein, other than how close she is with Tre, she doesn't seem like a bad kid either. She's more excitable than Wendi is and all she wants to do is have fun. However, despite that, from what I've seen, she really does care for her sisters, all of them. She told me that despite everything else, she still cries when she thinks about Quattro." Shamal had to admit, Sein was the only one who admitted that openly, though she suspected that both Due and Tre were upset about Quattro as well.

"Otto is a little confusing. Not because of the fact that she could pass as a boy, but because she actually _wants _people to think that she's a boy."

_Shamal blinked at the response. "Really?"_

_Otto nodded, blushing as she pulled her legs up against her chest. "I do not want to be a boy, mind you, I just... Feel more comfortable if people think of me as a boy. The only male figure I have had in my life was the doctor, so, I have no idea how to act properly."_

_Shamal sweat-dropped, well, this was going to be interesting for awhile._

"Even if most women wouldn't want to act like a boy, Otto seems more comfortable in male and unisex clothes than in female clothing. There's nothing wrong with it, but I might have her spend some time with Zafira when he recovers properly."

"I have nothing much to say about Deed, she's rather polite, though sometimes I wonder if she knows when to quiet down." Shamal nearly laughed at that, she never would have guessed that Otto's twin would talk so much. "Like Otto, she seems like a good girl, though she has a bit of a temper problem. I thought it was because she was part Dragon, so I had to ask Filia about the temperament of a Dragon, sure enough, some Dragons do have worse tempers than others. I'm just thankful that Deed's temper is mostly limited to glaring and nothing worse."

Shamal took a deep breath as she looked at the clock, then back to her journal. "The last one, Sette, well, I don't know how to describe her, she's probably the most silent of her sisters, but from what I can see, it's probably a defensive mechanism, since she's in a situation that's new for her. I would like to spend more time with her and pick at her brain some more. Her familiar though..." Shamal sighed as she thought about that cat.

_"What do you mean, I'm not allowed?" Mr. Snuggles glared at Shamal, who shook her head. "Listen, I go with my master, no matter what."_

_"Not this time."_

_"She'll talk more if she's petting me." Mr. Snuggles said, causing Shamal to bite her lower lip lightly. "Plus I can answer some stuff for you too."_

_"Fine."_

"That cat was right, Sette was more talkative while petting him. I don't know why the cat likes her breasts so much though." Shamal shook her head. "Sette's probably the most childish of them all, other than her fighting abilities, she's completely innocent. Thankfully, she learns fast. However, I think she might have a mild case of Autism. More time will be needed before I can make an accurate diagnosis with this, however."

"However," Shamal sighed, "while the Combat Cyborgs are, for the most part, okay, other than some possible future check-ups with Sette, Deed and Otto, the Florian sisters, on the other hand, are far worse off. I'm not sure what I can do for them at this point. Due to Levi disappearing, they seem to be completely lost and looking for a path to follow. Honestly, I'm a bit at a loss as to what to do with them." Shamal sighed heavily. "For one, they're not insane, they know exactly what they're doing at any given time, however, they're quite, for a lack of a better term, broken."

"Amitie seems to have her head together, though, from what I've observed, she's incredibly dependent on Kyrie, even if it's just to make sure that Kyrie is okay. Even if she's not as," Shamal blushed as she recalled Kyrie's "offer" just the other day, "open about her experiences as Kyrie is, it didn't take long for me to figure out that Amitie's just more composed than Kyrie is."

_"Amitie?" Shamal looked at the girl as she trembled. "What's wrong?"_

_"You are!" Amitie yelled as she stood up, turned to the wall and punched a hole in it, much to Shamal's shock. "If you were using us for hard labor, I could handle that, it's easy! Just do the work and you'll be happy. If you wanted to use us for personal pleasure, that's easy too, I can at least appreciate that! If you wanted to beat us because we were your enemies, I can withstand that, I've done all of that before! But this..." Amitie stumbled back, slamming her back on the door before sliding to the floor, "you're too nice, just like Kuma... It's not natural for people to be nice to their enemies."_

_"Are you an enemy?" Shamal raised an eyebrow when Amitie nodded. "Really? Because I'm not seeing an enemy in front of me."_

_"Then, what do you see?" Amitie asked, bitterness in her voice._

_"A girl," Shamal walked over to Amitie and knelt down to look her in the eye, "a girl who's afraid of the changes around her and worried that it's all just a trick to build up your happiness, before we tear it all away." Amitie looked at Shamal, her expression was one of complete defeat._

_"What do you want from me?"_

_Shamal shook her head. "Just to talk, nothing more." It took Amitie almost five minutes, but in the end, she did give a shallow nod to Shamal._

"Poor girl," Shamal shook her head, "I honestly don't know what to do with her or Kyrie. I can't authorize them to leave anytime soon. They know what they're doing, have their full mental facilities, like I've said, so they aren't insane, but they do need help, a lot of help. Unfortunately, I'm not qualified to handle some of the portions of their trauma. I know a few therapists who can help with it, so I might have to get some help with those two."

"Next is Agito, a rather unusual case, if I do say so myself. We've already given her the option of leaving confinement, but she said she wanted to make sure that Due and the rest were doing okay. I'm actually glad that Due told her to leave and that they would all be alright. Considering the only Unison Devices I've ever known have been Reinforce and Rein Zwei, Agito is quite unusual, to me at least. A firey temper, a mischievous streak a mile wide and she's not afraid of teasing people if it gets a reaction out of them. Still, she recently became Signum's partner, and if Signum hadn't said so, I would have thought that Agito was actually a link to Signum's past somehow. The arrangement that Signum and Agito have works out pretty well for the two of them, and I have to say, it will be nice to have another family member around the house."

"Finally, there is Lutecia Alphine. After talking with Verossa about the need to remove her memories, I'm glad that he did so, such a thing, it's best that Lutecia doesn't remember that." Shamal sighed and shook her head. "Even so, she's still a ten-year-old girl stuck in a teenager's body, and that includes all the fun stuff that comes with it, including the hormones." Shamal was grateful that Megane was there to explain everything to Lutecia, about why her body was reacting the way it was and other stuff that the poor girl didn't understand.

"I am no sex therapist and yet I find myself having to deal with three kids who have all been sexually abused in their lives." Shamal leaned back and sighed heavily. "I just hope that I can help them out. One last note concerning Lutecia, even if she was aged to sixteen years old, somehow Jail was able to come up with a drug that stopped her aging almost completely. From what Due told me and my own observations of Lutecia's bio-scans, the drug is slowly wearing off, though it will still take several years before it wears off completely. Jail Scagiletti was a genius when it came to DNA manipulation. In a way, I'm almost sad that all reports of him have him as dead. I would have loved to have learned how he did this."

"One last piece of information, apparently the recovery crews managed to find four Unison Devices that hadn't died off just yet. They're currently in stasis and between Shari and Mary, I'm sure that we'll be able to recover them, now that we know that they just need a partner to regain themselves. Apparently their Linker Cores are both drained to almost nothing and over-stressed, bonding with a person takes pressure off of their Linker Cores and allows them to recover properly. I don't know if or when we'll see them, I'm just hoping that things turn out alright for them. Right now, Reinforce is still unisoned with Hayate, and, according to Agito, it could take Reinforce some time to recover. None of us are sure how long, but Mary estimates it will be anywhere from a few more months to a few more years from now. Personally, I hope it's sooner rather than later."

Shamal nodded and turned off the screen, shutting off the recording of her medical journal.

(-)

"Um, Mr. Snuggles?" Suzuka looked at her old cat, who was sitting on Sette's chest. "It's been a long time."

_"Yep."_ The cat nodded to her, before standing up to his full, and rather small, height. _"Suzuka, you're a good person, I like you, but at least with Sette, I haven't had kids shooting magic at me on purpose or blowing me across the universe."_

Suzuka sweat-dropped and looked at Sette. "Have you been treating him well?" Hearing the cat talk was weird, but things on this world was just flat-out weird at times.

Sette nodded and resumed petting Mr. Snuggles. "He is enjoyable to have around."

"I'm glad," Suzuka smiled, tears in her eyes, "Mr. Snuggles, when you disappeared, I thought you were dead, and..." She bowed her head, crying softly, "I'm just glad that you're okay now."

Mr. Snuggles jumped off of Sette and landed on Suzuka's shoulder. _"You weren't a bad person, Suzuka, I liked you. But Sette is my master now."_

Suzuka looked at her old cat, before reaching up and hugging him to her. "I know, I just miss you." She said while scratching his cheek.

Sette watched and narrowed her eyes at Suzuka. "Please do not harm Mr. Snuggles."

"I won't! I'm more worried about you harming him." Suzuka glared back at Sette.

Mr. Snuggles blinked and started to wonder just what happened.

(-)

Time would continue to move on as events and people's recovery continued.

Amy shook her head as she watched Val play with Liera, Karel and Lia. "So, it's finalized then?" She asked Chrono, who nodded as the two of them sat in Chrono's childhood home. Granted, he didn't think much of it, since he spent most of his time growing up in a starship, but at least his mother never sold off the old house, it made it easier to move into it.

"Yes, as soon as they're given the green light, we'll have four new members of the house."

Amy nodded and turned to look at Aria and Lotte, "you understand that?"

"Yes, ma'am," Aria, dressed in a French Maid outfit that showed off the top of her cleavage and shoulders, bowed, giving Amy and Chrono a glorious look at her breasts, "you won't need to worry about a thing, Lotte and I can help mistress Filia's new children adjust to society better than anyone."

Lotte nodded while grinning. "You won't need to worry at all!" She pulled out a duster and turned to go clean the basement out.

"Should I go help her, or do you wish to have some more tea?" Aria asked, getting a shake from Amy's head. "Very well, I'll go assist my sister then."

As Aria left, Chrono looked at Amy, "just where did Filia get the idea for Lotte to be a combat maid that involves a duster and Aria to serve tea?"

"She heard about a couple of characters from a video game and liked their designs." Amy was blushing softly and Chrono blinked at her. "Let's just say that if she knew that it was a porn game, she might have broken our computer back on Earth."

"Or gotten ideas." Chrono muttered, sighing heavily. "That reminds me, we have a new bed upstairs, right?" Amy nodded slowly and blushed at his grin. "So, want to go break it in properly?"

"Filia will be upset we didn't invite her..." Amy trailed off as Chrono stood up and picked her up. "Aria! Lotte! Please go watch the children!"

"Okay!" Both familiars yelled as they ran out of the basement.

When they got upstairs, Amy blushed as Chrono put her on the bed and climbed on top of her. "Filia's going to be mad." She was quick to remind her husband.

"Oh, I know..." Chrono chuckled as he undid Amy's clothes. "But I know she's on her way back home." Amy blinked as Chrono smirked at her. "I wasn't going to do this without letting her know what was going on."

Amy blushed as Chrono slid her shirt off. "Should have guessed you would have contacted her."

Amy didn't say much after that as Chrono took her bra off.

(-)

"Mom!" Miyuki called out as she got out of the store room. "Everything's put away back here!"

"I helped too!" Arashi ran out, covered in a dusting of flour. "See?"

Shiro shook his head and laughed. "Alright, thanks Arashi, Miyuki. It shouldn't be too much longer before the store is open for business."

Lina smirked as Shiro took Arashi into the back to wash him off. "So, have you decided where you're going to be living?" She asked Miyuki, who nodded. "Oh?"

"Nanoha invited me to live with her, Fate and Yuuno." She sighed when Lina shook her head. "What?"

"Nothing, I'm just glad that I never had to fight for the guys I liked, I would have blown too much stuff up." Lina laughed as Miyuki blushed. "But, good luck."

"You _do_ realize that you're wishing me luck against your other daughters, right?" Miyuki sweat-dropped as Lina nodded. "Mom?"

"Let's just say, Miyuki, I just want you to be happy. That's all."

"You just want one of us to get married and make you into a grandmother." Miyuki shot back to Lina, who shrugged while laughing at her. "Alright, I'll see you around, mom."

"Later." Lina smiled as she watched Miyuki leave her. "Well, time to get more checks on the store done up."

(-)

"Well, it wasn't as bad as I thought it was," Yuuno laughed as he dropped onto the master bed. "Just needs some paint outside and new furniture inside."

Nanoha nodded, smiling as Vivio rested on her lap. "I'm surprised Hayate gave us the day off."

"She gave everyone the day off." Fate said as she, Erio and Caro, Fried was resting on Caro's head, walked into the master bedroom. "Only a few people are on duty right now anyway, and if they need us, they can call us and we'll be back in less than two minutes."

Nanoha nodded and looked at Caro and Erio. "I know you two are going to be working on a nature preserve soon, but I want you two to know that you'll always be welcome here, this is your home too."

The two blushed and looked down, embarrassed about it. Caro had to hold out her arms to catch Fried as he fell off her head suddenly. "Thanks, Nanoha-san." Caro smiled at her. "I wanted to go and help take care of those animals."

Erio shrugged as Nanoha looked at him. "I wanted to go with Caro. Plus it's a good place to practice magic without causing too many problems."

"It's three months on and three months off, right?" Fate asked, getting a nod from Erio. "Well, be careful, I'd hate to find out that something bad happened."

"We're just making sure that the animals aren't doing anything wrong and keeping poachers in check." Erio smiled at Fate. "We'll be fine. Besides, we learned a lot while we were here. Don't worry about us too much."

"Ku ku!" Fried chirped in, getting a smile from Fate and Yuuno.

"Yuuno-papa..." Caro put Fried down as Yuuno sat up. She ran up and hugged him tightly. "I'll miss you when I'm out there."

Yuuno smiled and hugged her back. "I'll miss you too. By the way, Caro, what's with that list on the fridge anyway?"

Caro looked up and smiled at Yuuno. "Those are the people that can hug Yuuno-papa." Fate and Nanoha both had to cover their mouths to keep from laughing too loudly at that.

Yuuno chuckled, though he was sweat-dropping heavily. "Ah, okay..."

"Nanoha-mama..." Vivio looked up at Nanoha, who looked down, smiling at her. "Is hugging Yuuno-san nice?" Vivio blinked as Nanoha picked her up and nuzzled her nose against Vivio's. "Mama?"

"Wanna find out?" Nanoha winked at Vivio and looked at Yuuno. "Yuuno-kun, Vivio wants to hug you too."

Yuuno chuckled and opened his right arm up, allowing Nanoha to put Vivio next to him so he could hug her. "Well?"

"Mmm... I like Nanoha-mama more." Vivio sighed as she rested her head on Yuuno's body. "This is nice too."

Fate smiled and looked at Yuuno, then at Nanoha and nodded. "Yes, yes it is."

(-)

"It's nice to be home again." Vita stretched as she and Zafira, who was in wolf form, walked through their home. "How are you holding up?"

"I've been better." Zafira muttered as they walked outside to enjoy the sea air. "So, do you know what Hayate has planned for us?"

"Other than living here? Not really. She said something about disbanding us officially."

"Officially?" Zafira looked at Vita. "What does that mean?"

"I'm kicking people out of the Riot Force and having them work with the new ones that are being made." Hayate said as she walked into the house. "Before you ask, I told them to call me if there's an emergency. For right now," Hayate gave them both a sad smile, "I want to say, I'm sorry, for behaving so coldly to everyone when Reinforce was kidnapped and Zafira was hurt. I... I didn't know how to handle it, so, I'm sorry."

"Hayate," Zafira shifted into his human form and walked up to her, before he and Vita knelt in front of her, "you're our family. Even if things go wrong, you're still there for us. None of us blame you for losing your cool back there."

"Zwei does." Hayate said sadly.

"Daddy..." Hayate turned to see Rein Zwei float outside and look at her sadly. "I'm sorry for being mad too."

Hayate smiled at her and sighed heavily. "We're not perfect, so... Let's just use this to learn, okay?"

Vita stood up and smiled as Rein Zwei agreed with that. "Good, now that that's done... Let's go swimming!"

"Vita?" Hayate yelped as Vita picked her up and carried her into the house. "What are you doing? What if I get a call?"

"Hayate, we're going to enjoy this warm day even if you don't want to. Besides, you gave most everyone the day off, remember? That includes you!" Vita grinned at her. "Come on, we gotta try on those new swim suits we got last weekend."

"Alright, alright, you win." Hayate laughed and looked at Rein and Zafira. "Come on, you two, I'll need back-up in case Vita decides to try and start a water war with me again."

Zafira chuckled and nodded as he and Zwei went to get changed.

(-)

Genya watched as Ginga and Quint continued their education of Nove's other family. One thing he found interesting was that his wife's hair was still green, though it wasn't too big of a deal for him, it made his sex life more interesting when they could role play that she was a different person entirely, It was almost amazing how even Tre had no idea about some of the stuff about human culture. Thankfully the judges involved with the case for all of the cyborgs were being really lenient, though they were waiting for the final word from Shamal before making any final decisions.

Part of him was kind of sad that all of those cyborgs were being adopted so quickly. After all, he always did want a large family.

Oh well, he wouldn't complain, he had a very lovely wife and five children. What more could a man ask for in life?

(-)

A month later...

Kyrie looked at Shamal in shock. "You're... Letting us out?"

Shamal shook her head. "Not entirely accurate, Kyrie. You two have done very well in your sessions, so, I'm authorizing the use of a pass to take the day and go outside to enjoy some time for yourselves." Shamal smiled as Kyrie hugged her. "It's... Hey!" Shamal jumped as she felt Kyrie's hands slip down and squeeze her butt. "While I appreciate the sentiment, Kyrie, please refrain from groping your psychologist."

"It was just a joke." Kyrie pouted as Shamal rolled her eyes. "Alright."

"Good, now, remember, if you need something, call back right away."

Both Kyrie and Amitie nodded as Shamal walked them out to the front door. "Um, we'll be unsupervised?" Amitie asked, slightly confused.

"Not entirely." Shamal shook her head. "Someone put in some paper work for a day visit for you two, that's why you got your pass today."

Both girls blinked until they got outside, where Amitie stared wide-eyed and Kyrie gasped at who they saw.

"Hey girls." He waved at them as he leaned against his car. "Been a long time, how have ya been?"

"KUMA!" Both of them squealed and ran for the man, hugging him tightly.

"Where have you been?" Amitie asked as she hugged him.

"Hmm, well, I was on that giant ship that got blown up almost four months ago." Kuma chuckled as both Kyrie and Amitie stiffened in response. "No, I'm not dead, I got out well before that blast hit, after all, if I died, I couldn't show you to your new rooms, could I?"

"New rooms?" Kyrie blinked and Kuma nodded as he jerked his head to the car. "What new rooms?"

"Get in the car, I'll show you."

(-)

It didn't take long, with Kuma's driving, to get to his hotel. Kyrie and Amitie both stared at the names on rooms nearest to the hot springs. "See? I think I got the names right too."

Sure, the name plates were on simple plastic, but the fact that he got them their own rooms, and came back for them was more than they had ever thought someone would do for them.

"Thank you." Amitie hugged him again, tears filling her eyes. "Thank you, so much."

Kyrie just grabbed Kuma and kissed him on the lips for a few moments before hugging him as well.

Kuma just blinked and chuckled. "I'll see what I can do about getting you two out of the psych ward and out into the real world, okay?"

They both nodded.

StrikerS Fin

* * *

Yes, I know, was supposed to be Shamal's chapter, but I needed to tie up loose ends.


	260. StrikerS Epilogue

Blood That Flows

StrikerS Epilogue

Of course I own nothing.

What? You thought that just because the last chapter was Finale that there wasn't any more?

* * *

At an undisclosed location...

"So, you wish for us to basically be your escorts for several years while you travel from one planet to another, looking for something?" A woman with long, dark-blue hair and purple eyes asked as she and her potential client sat in the meeting room, alone.

"Indeed." Her potential client nodded to her. "I have substantial funds for your operations..."

"We normally don't take jobs that last this long." The first woman said as she leaned back. "How much do you know about us?"

The potential client suddenly grinned at her. "Oh, I know enough about your abilities that if the Bureau were to suddenly show up, right now, that you could defeat all but possibly two or three of them with ease."

"Two or three?" The woman frowned at her. "I'm sorry, you must have me mistaken for someone else." Standing up, the woman extended her hand. "I thank you for the offer, but I must decline, after all, I don't do business with those who insult me."

"What if I told you I could fix your little problem?" She smirked as the woman blinked and slowly lowered her hand. "All I'm asking for is transportation, you can do whatever jobs you wish, I won't stop you. I know all about your abilities and the greatest weakness you face with your powers. I can eliminate that weakness."

"Really?" The first woman said as she sat down, her large breasts bouncing slightly with the motion. "How so, Miss Levi?"

Levi grinned at her. "Because, Curren of Huckebein, I honor my agreements, so long as you honor yours, I can remove that pesky problem of not killing enough people."

"How so?" Curren asked, the thought did appeal to her, after all.

"Make a pact with me." Levi grinned at the confused look on Curren's face, "of Immortality, and even your Eclipse powers won't be a problem. It might take me some time to study you entirely, but I can get around your pesky anti-magic."

"Alright, deal."

Levi grinned as she and Curren shook hands. "Excellent. I hope this partnership will last a long time."

Curren nodded, knowing that getting rid of that annoying 'kill or die' problem would be most helpful in the long run.

(-)

Outside of the meeting room...

"Something wrong, Cypha?" The dark skinned, busty, blonde haired, one-eyed woman turned to see two people walking towards her.

"Fortis," she addressed the androgynous male who asked her the question, "Deville," she nodded to the big guy who only nodded back to her. "As for what's wrong, it's that woman."

"Miss Levi?" Fortis blinked at her. "Normally you're cool towards people you don't know, why the sudden hostility?"

Cypha snorted, turned and started to walk away from the two of them. "I don't trust her, at all." Cypha stopped and looked over her shoulder at Fortis and Deville, "if I was you, I wouldn't trust her either. She'll be the end of everything if you aren't careful."

Fortis could only blink in confusion as Cypha looked away and started walking away from them again. "...Weird, I thought Cypha didn't care about anything when she wasn't fighting."

Deville could only shrug, he couldn't read minds after all.

As she walked away from them, Cypha's good eye narrowed as she bit her lower lip. 'So, it seems that it will happen after all.' Reaching inside of her coat pocket with her left hand, she thumbed a small object. 'We'll see what happens, won't we?'

StrikerS Epilogue End

* * *

Well, that's it for StrikerS. It's been a long trip, and I admit, sometimes it wasn't too good, especially near the end. I'm sorry if the quality dropped near the end. I hope you enjoyed it still.

Up next, a breather arc called "Numbers" followed by "SSX".

I don't know how long it will take me to get to ViVid and Force, but that's because I'm working two jobs these days and I don't want to burn myself out like I almost did when writing StrikerS.

Until next time, stay classy.


	261. Numbers Start

Blood That Flows

Numbers Start

Of course I own nothing.

Sorry about taking a couple of weeks, I needed some time to myself before updating again.

* * *

Sighing as she looked at the paperwork, and up at the two people in front of her, Hayate, her hair still white as snow, could only shake her head in both amusement and annoyance. "Are you two sure about this?"

"I wish I didn't have to, but I ned to go back and make some connections."

Hayate nodded and looked to the other person in front of her. "And you?"

"Sad to say, but I'm pretty sure that I'm needed at home. At least for a few years."

Hayate nodded and stood up. "Very well, Arisa, Suzuka, you two are given permission to take a leave of absence, good for three years, barring something like an interdimensional war of course."

The two saluted Hayate, who saluted back. A moment later, Suzuka walked over to Hayate and hugged her. "Hey, Hayate-chan, if Reinforce recovers before we return, you'll let me know, right?"

"Yeah." Hayate nodded as she hugged Suzuka back. "I guarantee it."

Arisa joined them in the hug a few moments later.

(-)

Later in the day...

Cinque walked into Hayate's office with some trepidation. "Um, hello." Seeing Hayate's blue eyes suddenly gleam with a mischevious light, Cinque wondered if she should be more worried than she already was. "Uh, you told me to just come in shorts and a shirt, so, uh..."

"Get in here, close the door," Hayate stood up and narrowed her eyes as Cinque did that, "and strip."

Cinque was about to ask, but thought better of it when Hayate walked over to a door on the side of the room and opened the door, revealing a lot of outfits.

"You don't need to take your underwear off," Hayate said without turning to look at Cinque. "Anyway," Hayate grinned and pulled out a camera, "let's get started."

Hours later...

Cinque felt like crying as she was in, what Hayate said, was the final outfit of the day. It was a black dress that was really poofy and frilly, but short as heck. "Hayate-san, did you just want to show me off in this?" Really, Cinque was worried that if she bent over, or a stray breeze kicked up, or if she stood on her toes, people would be able to see her underwear.

Hayate looked at Cinque, who was in pumps, making her seem somewhat taller than she was, socks that went all the way up to the edge of her skirt, and nodded. "Well, partially, I admit, this is to get back at you for injuring Signum." Cinque whimpered and Hayate handed her a duster. "You can get to work on dusting this office."

Cinque nodded and looked at her elbow-length soft velvet gloves. "Um, can I get something to cover my shoulders?"

"Nope." Hayate grinned as she looked at the strapless top Cinque was wearing, it covered her lower back and her front completely, going up and around her neck to keep from falling down, but other than that, her back, shoulders and upper arms were completely exposed. "I told you four months ago, didn't I? You're my cute little maid for now."

Cinque sighed at that. "Okay... But why the, um... Why did you make me change into lacy underwear and a garter belt before you put me into this?"

"If I'm going to have a cute and sexy maid, I need to make sure that she's wearing the right underwear, don't I?"

Cinque whimpered and hung her head. 'Mother, help.'

_"Remember, Cinque," Lina shook her head as the short girl looked at her pleadingly, "you promised to make up for what you did to Signum. Besides, I set some rules up with Hayate, you won't be too bad off."_

"Won't be too bad off my flat chest." Cinque muttered as she dusted the window sill.

"Cinque, if you're complaining too much, I can have you work in nothing more than bikini bottoms and an apron." Hayate was amused as Cinque instantly shut up and went back to work. "And I'll want you in the outfit you have on every day from now on."

Cinque hung her head and sighed, knowing that there was no way out of it.

"On the plus side, you do get weekends off." Hayate said as she looked over various reports that she was getting, before sighing. Oh well, at least she could take it easy about who went to which mission. Regius had asurred her that, outside of an emergency on par with an out-of-control Lost Logia or a Mazoku running amok, there really was no hurry to most of these missions like there had been before. Well, outside of missions that were happening within a few hours. "Tell me something, Cinque..."

"Yes?" Cinque asked as she cleaned the window behind Hayate's desk. "Is there something you wished to know?"

"Yeah, while I've seen your sister's fighting abilities through recordings and I got to know most of you when you were in rehab, I never stopped to ask you one thing." Hayate turned to face Cinque, who was looking at her in confusion. "Is being part of the Bureau what you really want in life? Or do you have some other wish?"

Cinque sighed and looked around the office, before finding a chair not too far from the desk. Walking over to it, she sat down and leaned back. "Some other wish? My only wish was to make sure that my sisters live a happy life, even if I wasn't there for them."

"Cinque," Hayate shook her head as the smaller girl looked at her in confusion, "I'm not asking about your sisters, I'm asking about you. Don't you have any dreams for yourself now?"

"I... do not know for sure." Cinque admitted, wondering why Hayate smiled at her sadly.

"Then use this time to think about your future." Hayate held up her hand. "I don't mean today, I don't mean tomorrow, but I just want you to think about your future and what you really want. You and your sisters might have to work for the Bureau to pay back for your crimes, but what I want to hear is what you want, for yourself. Not for your sisters, not for anyone, but you."

"...What's your dream for the future then?"

Hayate closed her eyes and leaned back in her chair. "If you wish to know," Hayate opened her eyes and Cinque was almost startled by how troubled they looked, "I've seen horrors that exist in this and other worlds, Cinque. Years ago, I fought against corruption that nearly took Reinforce away from me, and after that, I almost lost one of my best friends to the man who caused Reinforce to get corrupted in the first place. My family has fought, bled, cried, gotten injured, and," Hayate put her right hand over her chest, before grimacing, "even died."

Cinque's visible eye, as she still wore her eye-patch, widened as Hayate took several shuddering breaths. "But..."

"I killed Reinforce, Cinque. Even though it was only temporary, I still did it," Hayate shook her head and looked away, her white hair bobbing with the motion, "my wish, my only wish, for the future, is to not have my family torn from me, to live happily with them, to see them make their own ways through life. Maybe see them have their own families together."

"...But, that's what I want with my sisters..."

Hayate sighed softly and looked at Cinque, a small grin on her face at the cyborg's confused look. "You want them to be happy, there's nothing wrong with that, but your experiences with life are limited, Cinque. My wish, my desire, comes from my experience, my life," Hayate stood up and walked over to Cinque, before kneeling in front of her, "that's why I want you to think about your future. You and your sisters need life experiences," Hayate put a hand on Cinque's shoulder and gently squeezed, "you lack experience in life outside of being with your sisters and fighting."

"What do you want me to learn then?"

"How to fill out a maid outfit, of course." Hayate grinned as Cinque practically face-faulted in the chair. "Though, if you were to learn all that you could in life, that would be good too."

Cinque thought about it for awhile, before nodding. "Alright. But, until then, I still wish to see my sisters live happy lives, all of them."

Hayate smiled at her, "like I said before, nothing wrong with that."

(-)

Meanwhile, North of Cranagan...

"Is something wrong, Tre?" Carim asked as the two of them sat in Carim's office. Even if Tre was in her office every so often, the tall cyborg was, at the very least, fairly cordial and didn't cause too many problems. Carim would say that Tre was probably the least problematic person around, except that she and Luna seemed to go out of each other's way to antagonize the other one at times.

"A little," Tre had a soft blush on her face and Carim raised an eyebrow at that, "it's, uh, the men around here."

Carim raised an eyebrow. It wasn't too often that she heard a complaint like this. "Did one of them try something inappropriate?" She blinked when Tre shook her head, the blush getting slightly brighter. "What happened?"

"They, uh... They keep looking and..." Tre trailed off when she heard Carim laugh softly. "It's not funny."

"I'm sorry," Carim covered her mouth for a moment before taking a deep breath to calm down, "it's not often that I hear someone complain about people looking at them." Carim blinked when Tre showed some discomfort before sighing. "Tre, how old are you, officially?"

"I don't see how..." Tre trailed off, blinking at the Knight.

"Just humor me, please?"

"Twenty years old, why?"

"You're twenty years old, Tre. How much experience do you have interacting with people that weren't your enemies or sisters?" Carim nodded as realization slowly dawned onto Tre's face. "Not much, I'd wager. In fact, while you did get your education about some of the norms of society, you haven't had to deal with much personal interaction, have you?"

"I..." Tre shook her head, still blushing. "No, I haven't. But, the way they look at me, it, uh..." She fidgeted as memories floated to the surface. "It makes me uncomfortable..." Carim blinked and asked her to explain. "I... I just..." Tre bit her lower lip and looked down. "I don't like it when people stare."

"Tre, I'm not sure I understand, what's wrong with them looking at you?"

"Why would they want to look at someone so large as me? I'm almost surprised that you didn't have to change the chairs or the doors for me." Tre looked up and Carim was rather shocked to see the upset look on her face. "I mean, you had to get a special order just for my outfit and..."

"Tre," Carim stood up, causing Tre to blink in surprise, "calm down, please? What is this about?" Carim narrowed her eyes in confusion. "I'm not sure that I understand." When Tre looked away, uncomfortable, Carim sighed heavily. "Was one of them making fun of you?"

"No, it's just..." Tre sighed and looked at her again. "I don't like it when people look, it reminds me too much of what Quattro said to me for a long time, about how my breasts are too big, my ass is huge and..."

"Tre," Carim shook her head, "I'm not sure what's going through your mind, but I think I understand why you're upset." She sighed heavily, "do you think that people will make fun of you, or think less of you if they're close to you? Or are you just uncomfortable with being someone that draws attention?"

"I'm too tall," Tre shook her head, "I... I don't feel comfortable around people unless I'm fighting or training, is that wrong?"

"No," Carim shook her head, before chuckling softly, "Tre, I honestly think you're worrying about nothing." A random thought occurred to Carim and she bit her lower lip, "Tre, has the only time someone ever commented on your body been to tease you about it?"

"There's Sein, but she likes anyone with breasts, so I don't think she counts."

"Tell me about it." Carim muttered, remembering when she and Sein had bathed together. "So, you haven't had any experience with anyone who might just be attracted to you, huh?" Tre nodded and Carim shook her head. "Well, there's your problem." Tre blinked at her in confusion. "You need more experience around people. Before you ask, no, I'm not telling you to get a boyfriend. I just want you to get used to being around people. You'll find that a body like yours isn't a curse, but rather a treasure."

"Some treasure," Tre grumbled as she stood up, "I'm not used to people staring at me though."

Carim shook her head while chuckling as Tre left the room. Oh well, she doubted Tre would ever get used to that. Still, maybe hanging around people who would stare at her would be a good thing for her.

(-)

Tre twitched as she saw Luna turn a corner and smirk at her. "What are you smirking at, Inverse?"

"The fact that someone like you is so insecure about her looks that she goes and complains about the fact that people are enjoying what she looks like to your boss." Luna smirked more as Tre growled at her.

"Well at least I don't get knocked around in training like a certain unskilled nun that I know." Tre smirked as Luna lost her smirk. "Oh, I'm sorry, I forgot, you're not an unskilled nun, just an incompetent one."

"Watch your tone," Luna pulled a sword out of her robes and pointed it at Tre, "I might slip up the next time we spar." When Tre pulled out a pair of Tonfa from her outfit and jerked her head towards the window leading outside, Luna nodded and the two went outside...

Through said window.

(-)

The sound of breaking glass had both Sein and Schach sighing heavily. "Who started it this time?" Sein wondered as she and Schach walked towards the front door.

"I don't know, I'm just hoping that they don't destroy anything else." Schach grumbled as they walked outside and shook her head as Tre and Luna sparred. "One of these days, those two are going to hurt themselves."

"I hope not." Sein muttered, "I'd hate to have to keep them apart. At least it's pretty calm this time."

"Too slow."

"What's the matter? Can't turn well because of your chest?"

"At least I didn't need to relearn my entire fighting style."

Schach nodded as she turned away. "Usually the name calling is more personal. Just make sure they don't kill each other. I need to go fix the window."

"Sheesh, we've only been here for a couple of months," Sein shook her head and sat down. At least these fights were never really boring. She privately wondered if Tre just did it so she'd have an excuse to fight someone all the time.

'Or maybe she's just trying to show off and get attention.' Sein thought as she watched others in the Church come outside to watch Tre and Luna go at it again. Her thoughts went into the gutter when Luna managed to get a tear on Tre's outfit, exposing the tall cyborg's breasts. Sein grinned and started giggling perversely as Tre's breasts bobbed and heaved with her movements. Holding up her finger, she let her finger camera start to take pictures for her.

_"Hmm, a camera in your fingers, huh?" Shari asked rhetorically as she looked at Sein's naked body through the scanner._

_Sein nodded at her. "Yeah, um, I can't see through matter, so, when I use my Deep Diver, I don't like jumping in blindly."_

_"Yeah, about that," Shari looked at Sein, "how come you haven't escaped yet?"_

_Sein looked almost offended at the question. "Even if I could, I wouldn't want to. My sisters would go crazy from worry if I were to do something so stupid." She closed her eyes and looked away, "I might be a perverted girl who likes to grab breasts, and I might not be very mature, plus I'm not as intelligent as my sisters are, but that doesn't mean that I'm an idiot." Shari started giggling at the description and Sein blinked as she played back what she said. "I mean, gah! Ignore what I just said!"_

_Shari laughed and nodded. "Alright, fine. As for your camera fingers, I don't think I'll be removing them." Sein looked at her in confusion and shock. "They're connected to your nervous system and I don't see them causing you any harm, so, unless they're harmful to your health, I have no reason to remove them from your body. Just don't use them to cause trouble."_

_"Eh heh, sure." Sein smiled nervously. "So, uh, are we done?"_

_"Nope." Shari grinned and Sein suddenly paled as Shari pulled out a giant needle. "I'm completely certified to give cyborgs medicine. Don't worry, this isn't going into your arms."_

_When Sein was flipped over, she wasn't sure it was her arms she should have worried about._

Sein grimaced at the memory and rubbed her butt as phantom pain shot through her. "She just _had_ to have a giant needle to shove into my rear, didn't she?" She didn't even want to think about the other aspects of that check-up that happened after the shot.

'At least things are okay right now.' She thought to herself, wondering when something was going to happen and tear away the small amount of peace they had in their lives right now. Oh well, she could just enjoy it. After all, she could still sneak into Tre's room whenever she wanted to. Even if it was just to sleep next to Tre after a day of Schach running her ragged. Who knew working for the Saint Church would be more draining that fighting?

Sein giggled as Tre got a good hit in on Luna and tore the bottom of Luna's outfit, revealing her panties to everyone. 'At least I'm getting a lot of good images.'

* * *

Dieci: So, this arc's about us then? Well, I'm supposed to be up next, I guess. Next time on Blood That Flows - Numbers, ack! I'm not very good at this, am I?


	262. Numbers Second

Blood That Flows

Numbers Second

Of course I own nothing.

* * *

"Have a nice day," Dieci smiled as she let the last customers of the day outside. Locking the door, she sighed and turned around. She really didn't know about this outfit that Lina had her in all afternoon, it was orange and white with white lace on the edges, the top completely hung off of her shoulders and down to reveal the top part of her breasts, thankfully it didn't reveal too much, just giving a small hint of her cleavage, her skirt was fairly poofy and did its best to show off her legs, but at least her skirt wasn't in any danger of showing off her underwear, though her socks ran pretty far up her thighs, leaving only a small amount of skin clearly visible.

"So, how'd you like your first day?" Dieci turned to see Lina smiling at her gently. The older woman was dressed in a similar outfit, though Dieci was sure that Lina had her skirt a touch longer than Dieci's was, she wasn't sure.

"It was interesting. Learning combat from Tre was easier than this." Even though it had been four months since she had found out that Lina was, according to the doctors, her grandmother and Nanoha her mother, it felt weird calling Nanoha "mother". It was easier to call Lina "grandmother", even if it felt weird to do so.

Lina laughed softly and nodded at her. "Oh yes, learning how to be nice in society is never easy. Just blow the problem up and move onto the next one, much easier than learning that, no, you can't go and destroy everything." Dieci flinched and Lina raised an eyebrow. "Something wrong?"

"About destroying everything..." Dieci looked down, shame written across her face. "A few years ago, I... You know that power, Chaos? Well, I... I used it... And, when I did... I destroyed..."

"Dieci," Dieci looked up and gasped as Lina, who had walked around the counter, hugged her. "Shhh... Quiet now. Whatever you did, I'm sure that it could have been a lot worse."

"I destroyed an entire planet."

Lina blinked at that. "Huh, well, uh, did you destroy it all at once or..."

Dieci shook her head. "No, it took some time, but the fact is, I blew it up. There was that boy..." She trembled, hugging Lina more tightly. "He said I was nice, and then I... I... I saw him get murdered because of a war, and..." She screwed her eyes shut, tears falling down her face as she remembered what happened next. "I lost it... And destroyed the army... Then the planet started to pay the price for what they did and I..."

"Dieci, shhh..." Lina rubbed her back. "Come on, let's go into the back and talk about it." Dieci just nodded as her grandmother led her into the back room.

(-)

In the back room, Shiro blinked as Lina led an obviously distraught Dieci into the room. "Don't tell me she's upset about having to work tomorrow." He chuckled at the look that Lina gave him and almost felt tempted to be on the look out for flying towels or something similar. "Guess not."

"No." Lina shook her head and had Dieci sit down on a chair while Shiro went to get two more. "Dieci, did you ever talk to Shamal about this?" The cyborg shook her head and Lina sighed, before nodding as Shiro came back into the room. "Alright, so, talk then. What was going through your mind at the time?"

"Just... Anger... All I wanted to do was make them pay for killing that little boy. What did he do to deserve that?" Dieci's hands started to tremble as she remembered what was going through her mind. "But, I never... Before I knew it, it felt like a golden darkness had spilled out around me and I was starting to sink into it."

"It was overwhelming, huh?" Lina asked, getting a nod from Dieci. "I know how it goes. I was there. You can touch the power, use it, feel it, but it's never easy to hold back something so pure, so potent and so destructive." Lina closed her eyes and bent her right arm at the elbow, her hand pointing upwards. "Even now, it feels like an unstoppable surge of power that is waiting to jump out at you, rushing forward until it consumes you and everything around you, doesn't it?"

"Y, yes!" Dieci said, gasping as Lina opened her eyes, the glamour that usually had them both blue was no longer there, but rather her right eye was red and her left was gold. "How do you get rid of it?"

"It's part of you, Dieci." Lina said and moved her right hand so she could grasp Dieci's hands and give them a comforting squeeze. "Just like it's a part of myself, Nanoha, Cinque, and Arashi. Getting rid of it would be like trying to get rid of your arms and legs without replacing them. All you can do is accept it, and learn how to control yourself, and this power."

"How can you control Chaos?" Dieci asked, confusion written all over her face as she looked at her grandparents.

"You can't, not directly." Lina shook her head. "You need to give it direction, focus, and you have to keep yourself in control at all times." She nodded when Dieci gulped. "It's not easy, at all. Everyone who's ever had this power has gone berserk," except for Arashi, but Lina suspected that was because he had been so flooded with Chaos magic when she was pregnant with him that using it was natural for him, unlike everyone else, "even I went berserk." Dieci gasped as Lina nodded to her. "I never have been able to confirm this, mostly because I refuse to talk to the Lady any more than I have to."

"The Lady?" Dieci blinked as Lina smiled ruefully at her. "Who's the Lady?"

"The Lord of Nightmares, the creator of all, the power and source of all Chaos, creator, destroyer, life, death, you name it, she's it. She is both merciful and merciless, kind and cruel, loving and hateful," Lina smirked at that, "in other words, she's as Chaotic as her power is. My golden eye, Nanoha, Cinque, yourself and Arashi's power are all a result of what happened when I sank into the Sea of Chaos about twenty-five years ago..." Lina frowned and started tapping her fingers as if she was using them to count. "It was twenty-five, right, Shiro?"

"Twenty-six years last week, actually." Shiro chuckled as Lina blinked and nodded.

"Ah, right, forgot the exact date. Anyway," Lina waved her hand, it wasn't too important anymore, "I sank into the Sea of Chaos, the mind of the Lord of Nightmares, before I was dropped off onto Earth twenty-six years ago. The Lady put part of her soul into me, I could talk to the Lady about something I suspect about Chaos, but I don't."

"Why?" Dieci asked, blinking as Lina sighed and looked down. "...Is it bad?"

"I'm worried that if I do, I'll sink into the Sea of Chaos completely and disappear from the world." Lina took a deep breath before slowly letting it out. "But, there's something about Chaos that's bothered me for awhile now. I can't confirm it, but, from my observations of using it, and what Nanoha told me about when she used it," not to mention that specter of the Lord of Nightmares that Yuuno said he saw years ago, "but I really think that the Lord of Nightmares, her power, Chaos, responds to desire and the will of the user."

"What makes you say that?" Dieci asked and Lina smiled at her.

"Because the Wolkenritter, Signum, Shamal, Vita and Zafira, their greatest desire was to become human, so they could live their life with Hayate. They were affected by Chaos power, and, as a result, became human."

Dieci stared at Lina, stunned beyond belief. "But, if it can do that, why does it feel evil?"

"That, I'm afraid, is a secret only the Lady is privy to." Lina sighed, shaking her head, before she stood up. "Dieci, you need to learn how to draw upon the power without losing complete control. It's the only way to keep from being consumed by it if you ever draw upon it in the future because of rage. The best way to defeat something is to understand it, after all."

Dieci nodded to her. "Please, teach me... Grandmother." When Lina twitched, she sweat-dropped. "Ah..."

"Don't worry about it, just not used to hearing that from someone your age, that's all."

"I'm only fifteen." Dieci blinked and thought about it for a moment. "Oh, your daughter is only four years older than I am, right?" Lina nodded at that. "That would make more sense then, I'm sorry."

"Don't be, old people get weird." Lina winked at her, causing Dieci to blush softly. "So, come on, why don't we get changed into some more comfortable clothes, go home and I'll cook us up a big meal?"

When Dieci's stomach growled, causing the cyborg to blush heavily, Lina laughed and nodded to her. "Come on."

Watching them leave, Shiro just shook his head in amusement. His family had grown again, and he, for one, just loved it.

* * *

Sette: Is it our turn?  
Wendi: I think so. Whee! I have no clue! Next time on Blood That Flows - Numbers, read it, because I'm going crazy!  
Sette: Are you not crazy already?


	263. Numbers Third

Blood That Flows

Numbers Third

Of course I own nothing.

* * *

The next morning...

Chrono, who was home for once, raised an eyebrow as he walked into the kitchen and saw a rather grumpy cat staring at the coffee maker. "I was wondering who was up making coffee." When Mr. Snuggles glared at him, he held up his hands. "Calm down, I didn't mean anything by it."

Mr. Snuggles snorted and went back to watching the coffee brew. _"That Dragon brat might be better without the redheaded kid helping to blow me up, but I'm still upset at him."_

Chrono raised an eyebrow. "What did Val do that has you so upset?"

_"He slipped into bed with Sette last night,"_ the cat twitched and turned back to the coffee pot, _"kicked me out of the bed and took over the best sleeping place ever."_

Chrono blinked again and looked at the coffee pot, then at the table where a few glasses were laid out. "I see... I'm afraid to ask this, but what's the best sleeping spot ever?"

_"Sette's breasts."_ Mr. Snuggles turned to look at him with annoyance written all over his face, _"They're the right mix of soft and firm, plus large enough that I can stretch out or curl up and there's no problem."_

"You could try other places to rest." Chrono chuckled as he walked to the fridge. "Looks like the coffee's done." Opening the door, Chrono pulled out some milk and turned to look at the table, staring as all the coffee glasses were full and the pot was completely empty. "...How did you..?"

_"It's best you don't know."_ Mr. Snuggles said from the counter before jumping down to the floor, taking a few steps towards the table and jumping up onto it. _"Anyway, how are you awake now? I can still smell your two mates over you."_

Chrono twitched at that. "Well, ah, that's none of your concern, you know!"

"You're kind of loud, Chronosuke." Lotte said as she walked into the kitchen and blinked at the table. "Did you pour coffee for all of us?" Lotte blinked as Chrono pointed to Mr. Snuggles. "...Do you have a human form?"

_"Not on my own. Coffee tastes weird to me, but it's still decent."_

"Then," Lotte looked at Chrono, who shook his head, "I guess so, anyway, Chronosuke, are you going to stick around for a little bit or are you heading out right away?"

"Unless an emergency comes up, I do have a few days of leave, why?"

Lotte scratched her head. "Well, Aria and I are supposed to teach young Val today, but it's kind of hard when our magic's restricted. You're the one in charge of us, so, uh..." She poked her fingers together and fidgeted, causing Chrono to sigh and walk up to her and rub the top of her head.

"You don't need to try and butter me up, Lotte." Chrono shook his head and called up a small holographic screen and pushed a few buttons. When Lotte glowed softly, sighed and smiled, she hugged him. "Lotte?"

"Mmm... Chronosuke's so nice," she started purring and looked up with a sensual smirk on her face, "maybe I should show you..."

_"Just so you know, the blonde Dragon woman is moving this way and will be here in under a minute." _Mr. Snuggles grinned at Lotte, who pouted and let go of the hug around Chrono.

"Mooou... Not fair. If I had known you'd be so handsome when you grew up..."

"You'd do what?" A cool female voice said, instantly sending the temperature in the room plummeting to almost arctic levels.

_"Probably try being a harmless cat and rub up against your mate more."_ Mr. Snuggles smirked as Lotte glared at him. _"However, I suspect that you'll have to worry about those three little ones,"_ Mr. Snuggles' eyes flashed briefly, _"they seem to be waking up and, if they act like any child, they might be hungry."_

Immediately Filia's annoyance disappeared as she turned and left the room, humming happily.

"I owe you one." Lotte muttered as she walked over to the table. Taking a glass, she blinked as she saw that the glass nearest to Mr. Snuggles was completely empty. "How? When did you..?" Mr. Snuggles just blinked at her. "...Nevermind."

(-)

A half hour later...

"I see," Sette nodded as she ate breakfast with the rest of her family. "I appologize, Mr. Snuggles, if I had known that would have happened, I would have made sure to not roll over last night."

"She was pounding the bed and asking where you were." Val grinned, causing Sette to narrow her eyes at him while her face turned slightly red from the comment.

Filia smiled softly, even if that cat was a little weird, the fact that it was some sort of familiar did explain a lot about it. "Sette, even I don't speak that formally. You can loosen up around the family."

Sette blinked and looked at Filia. "But I am not an invertebrate animal, I cannot just loosen myself up." When Filia's head hit the table and Amy, Wendi and Chrono all laughed, though Wendi was much louder than the other two, Sette just blinked in confusion. "...Was it something I said?"

Filia sat up and rubbed her forehead. "You need to learn that some things aren't meant to be taken literally, dear."

"Mother," Otto spoke up as she got done eating, "may I ask what we are supposed to do for today?"

"Well, other than teaching you kids how to react around others..." Filia trailed off, unsure as to what to teach them.

"Perhaps a trip to the open field training park would be in order?" Chrono said as he took a drink from his coffee mug. "Filia can teach you four how to tap into your Dragonic heritage while Aria and Lotte teach Val some basic mid-childa style magic."

"Actually," Aria spoke up from her position next to Karel, "it seems that Val is more suited for Belkan magic than Mid-Childan magic. Lotte and I can still teach him though."

Chrono nodded and put the coffee cup down. "Even if you couldn't teach him Belkan magic, there is that Mid-Belkan hybrid style that people use."

"So there's even MORE Belkan styles?" Wendi groaned and hung her head. "I mean, it's bad enough that there's..."

"Wendi," Chrono interrupted her, causing her to look at him, "there is more than just Mid and Belkan varients to styles. There are almost 900 different classes of magic that the Bureau has documented. And Mid-Belkan hybrid is, at its core, an advanced form of Modern Belkan and suited for more people who wish to use the Belkan system but find that the Mid system gives them more flexibility."

"...Then why change the name to Mid-Belkan?" Wendi asked, causing Chrono to blink. "Wouldn't it be easier just to leave it Modern Belkan instead of Mid-Belkan? Why do people need to complicate matters so much?"

"Because," Aria spoke up, causing Wendi to look at her, "Modern Belkan is taught to soldiers in the Bureau in large groups and is pretty standard. Mid-Belkan, however, is someone who learns Modern Belkan and gives it their own personal twist and style to it. In effect, Mid-Belkan is a personalized fighting style that uses Modern Belkan as its basis. While that's not to say that people who use Ancient Belkan use only one style, as Vita and Signum would probably kill me for suggesting such a thing, Ancient Belkan is more personalized and spells and techniques are passed down from master to apprentice."

"So, there's not much difference?" Wendi scratched her head in confusion. While Otto, Deed and Sette said nothing, they were curiious as well.

"I can give you an example easily enough," Chrono said, causing Wendi to look at him, "Zest Grangeitz is a Belkan Knight who uses Ancient Belkan techniques and fighting skills while his subordinate, Quint Nakajima is someone who uses the Mid-Belkan style. While they are similar in the fact that they fight up close to an enemy, the methods used are different from each other. If I was to say, Zest is someone who moves to get in close and strike down an enemy with a single blow if possible while Quint would be more likely to move you into a position where she could hit you with either several blows or one really strong blow to take you out."

"So, it would be similar to Tre and myself then." Deed spoke up. "Tre's style is about using her speed and strength to overwhelm her opponents, however, as I am neither as fast nor as durable as she is, it would be best for me to not waste time on an opponent. Even though we are both close range fighters, as opposed to Wendi, Cinque or Dieci, the way we approach things is different."

"More-or-less," Chrono nodded to her. "There's more differences than that, but that's a very basic rundown of them."

"So, let's finish breakfast and we can all go to the park then." Filia smiled at the four cyborgs. While she would have no trouble teaching Wendi and Otto Golden Dragon magic, it would be harder for her to teach any specific Ancient Dragon spells to Sette and Deed, not to mention Val. 'Just how do you teach someone a style that is almost completely dead anyway?'

* * *

Lutecia: So, we're up?  
Megane: Yes. What are you doing here?  
Due: Don't I live here too?  
Lutecia: Next time on Blood That Flows - Numbers.  
Due: How often do we get screen time anyway?


	264. Numbers Fourth

Blood That Flows

Numbers Fourth

Of course I own nothing.

* * *

Two months later...

As Lutecia helped her mother dig up a segment of the yard, she smiled and waved as she saw Garyuu and Due walking back to the house, carrying wood. "Due-nee!"

"Hey, Lu, Megane." Due nodded, sweat covering her body as she walked towards the house. "I have to tell you, gathering wood's more exhausting than I thought it would be."

"Uh huh..." Megane gave her an annoyed look before looking at Lutecia. "Honey, why don't you help Garyuu put the wood around back?"

"Sure, mom." Lutecia smiled and walked with Garyuu around the back of the house. Once Lutecia was out of sight, Megane turned and glared at Due, who held up her hands in a disarming manner.

"I still don't understand why they let you out of prison."

"The same reason they let my sisters out." Due chuckled, which died at the glare she was getting. "Look, I've done a lot of horrible things, and I'll never get the same chance in life that all my other sisters have gotten. Heck, I'll be lucky if I'm allowed to do anything other than be Lutecia's bodyguard for the rest of her life. And if she has children, my responsibilities will pass down onto them."

"What? You're saying that you'll live forever?" Megane snorted at Due, who surprised her by nodding.

"So long as my parts don't shut down and I don't go through any aging process, it's unlikely that I'll die of natural causes for at least eighty years or more." Due shrugged as she put the wood down. "Honestly, I don't care." She looked at Megane with narrowed eyes. "I owe your daughter that much at least."

Megane turned and walked to the house. "If you do anything to her, Due, so help me..."

"I can't." Due said to Megane. "Quite literally, I can't. If I do anything, well, let's just say that it wouldn't be pretty for me." When Megane walked into the house, Due sighed heavily. She wasn't sure about Megane's decision to move out to this planet. It might not have been too far from Mid, but it was just terraformed. Even if she wanted to get away from Mid-Childa, she could have at least chosen a planet that was already inhabited. "I wonder what Zest would say about this?"

"I'd say that I agree with her decision." Due's eyes widened and she spun around to see Zest standing there. "Megane's taking time off until her body fully recovers, plus she'll get to spend time with Lutecia, and the fact that she'll stay away from the pressures of the Bureau are all good reasons, in my opinion." The taller man looked at the house and shook his head. "I'm not sure why I even came here."

"Well, if you didn't, Lutecia wouldn't have been born." Due smirked at Zest, who narrowed his eyes in response. "What? I _was_ privy to almost all information that the Doctor knew, including who Lutecia's parents are."

Zest snorted and looked at the house some more. "...I shouldn't have..."

"Come here?" Due shook her head. "It's been _how_ long since Megane and Lutecia were released from the Riot Force's care? Six months? Longer?" She ignored the way that he narrowed his eyes at her. "The fact is, you probably haven't spent too long with her."

Zest narrowed his eyes, before snorting and walking past Due, towards the house.

Watching him leave, Due had a small smirk on her face. She didn't know what was going to happen, but if Megane was busy talking with Zest and Lutecia, she probably wouldn't have to deal with the other woman too much. "Wait a second..." If Megane was busy with Zest, she probably wouldn't be able to cook dinner and Lutecia often had an immense appetite when it was time to eat. "Guess I better get cooking."

(-)

Hours later...

Lutecia was heading towards the kitchen, rubbing her stomach. "So hungry..." She wished she knew what her mother was doing with Zest. Opening the door to the kitchen, her eyes widened as a giant cloud of flour, batter and some other food stuff suddenly erupted outwards and covered her body and the living room floor, making a giant mess.

"Ack! Lutecia?" Due yelled as she pulled out the dinner from the stove. "I was just about done with cooking."

The young girl put her hand over her closed eyes and wiped the gooey mess off of her face, before blinking several times. "Due... This..." She started snickering, before giggling and doubling over and laughing, the mess dripped from her hair as her body shook from her laughter.

"Glad to see that you're in a good mood." Due said as she used her arms to move some gooey mess off of the counter and onto the floor. "Anyway, go get cleaned up, I'll have supper done, and then I'll probably have to spend all night cleaning the kitchen up." Not that it was the first time that she had to spend all night up doing cleaning.

Lutecia nodded and ran to the bathroom to get cleaned up, dripping the whole way.

A small part of Due's mind was suddenly reminded of Caro. 'Why _did_ she freak out when she heard about my tendancy to blow up the kitchen anyway?' Oh well, it was probably one of those mysteries that never would make sense.

Though, part of her wondered just what Megane and Zest were doing for all this time.

(-)

"So, that's it then?" Zest looked at Megane, who was sitting at the small desk in her room while he sat on the bed.

She sighed heavily and looked at him. "I don't want you to have to choose between working for the Bureau and being here for our daughter, Zest. If you wanted to disappear for a few years, go ahead." She looked away, depression radiating from her as she thought about it. "It was a mistake..."

"Even so, life isn't a mistake, Megane." Zest watched as she didn't react. "You could have aborted her right after you found out you were pregnant. Don't tell me that Nakajima talked you into keeping her."

"NO, but..."

"But nothing," Zest narrowed his eyes at her. "You were happy you were going to have a child. I saw it in your eyes whenever I saw you and Nakajima talking. If you want me to, I could spend my life with you, be there for the both of you."

"But you're needed back on Mid-Childa." Megane protested as she looked at him. "I just need time to recover and raise Lutecia. I'll come back."

Zest closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "Do you want me in your life? In Lutecia's life?"

"I..." Megane gripped her knees and bowed her head. "...I do. I really do, but, I can't..."

"If you're worried about taking me away from the Bureau, just stop right there." He stood up and towered over her. "Even if I do take missions, I want to know, will I be welcome here?"

Megane looked up at him and gulped softly. "...Just... Don't be gone too long. Please?"

He nodded to her. "I think I can manage to stick around for more than a couple of days at a time in the future." When she smiled, he almost felt his breath get taken away. "...You are one beautiful woman, Megane."

"Thank you, Zest." Megane stood up and walked up to him. "Want to get supper?"

He raised an eyebrow as an odor started to fill the room. "...What's cooking?" Whatever it was, it smelled good.

Megane shrugged and walked towards the door. "I don't know, let's find out." Hopefully there wasn't too much of a mess in the kitchen.

When Megane saw the kitchen, Due found herself thrown outside and told to never work in the kitchen again.

Said order, however, was changed after Megane, Zest and Lutecia, who had just gotten washed up in time to see Megane throw Due out, had supper. Due was allowed to cook, but only if she cleaned up the mess afterword.

A gigantic mess in the kitchen could be partially forgiven if someone was _that _good of a cook, after all.

* * *

Nove: I guess it's...  
Wendi: FUN TIME!  
Nove: ACK! What are you doing here?  
Wendi: Let's go! Fun time!  
Nove: I guess we're having fun on the next Blood That Flows - Numbers.  
Wendi: YAY!


	265. Numbers Fifth

Blood That Flows

Number Fifth

Of course I own nothing.

A word of warning, this is a fairly long chapter.

* * *

"Hey, Nove," Nove turned to see a couple of people she hadn't seen in almost six months without a chaperon.

"Wendi! Dieci!" Nove ducked under a kick from punch from Subaru before doing a back flip and catching her sister in the chest. "Got'cha!"

Subaru grimaced, but nodded. "Dang, almost got you." At least she could take solace in the fact that she was stronger than Nove was, even if Nove could run circles around her if she tried hard enough. When Nove smirked, Subaru grinned and put the redhead in a headlock. "Hey, you guys." Subaru waved at Dieci and Wendi while Nove struggled to get free from the headlock.

Dieci laughed softly as she watched Nove try to escape from Subaru's headlock. "It's nice to see Nove having so much fun." When Nove yelled at her, she giggled. "Anyway, Nove, if you're done playing, Wendi and I were wondering if you'd like to come with us to meet up with Cinque later."

"How'd she get the day off from Hayate?" Nove asked as Subaru let go of the headlock. "I thought she was supposed to work for Hayate every day?"

Dieci scratched her cheek nervously. "Well, uh, it's not exactly that simple, apparently, mom, err, grandma, err..." She hung her head and her shoulders slumped helplessly. "I'm still not sure what to call her."

Subaru blinked at that. "Nanoha-san's mother? Isn't she your mother?"

Wendi sighed as Dieci blushed. "Technically, Lina is Dieci's grandmother and Nanoha's her mother. But it's too weird, and Dieci can't make up her mind if she should call Lina-san mother or grandmother yet." The Dragon cyborg shook her head and put Dieci in a headlock, causing the brown-haired girl to let out a squeak and flail her arms up and down. "I told you, didn't I? Just call her what you feel comfortable calling her." Wendi let go of the headlock and looked at Nove. "As for Cinque, Lina told Hayate that Cinque needed the day off, apparently. And Cinque apparently thinks that taking a day off is to spend the day babysitting Vivio and Arashi at the amusement park. Wanna come with?"

"Don't we all still need a chaperon?" Nove asked, and looked at Subaru, who shrugged at her. "You're a real help."

"Hey, my job is to rescue people and catch criminals, I don't pass judgements down." Subaru stuck her tongue out. "Speaking of which, I need to get going. Got to meet my new superior today."

"Later." Wendi said as she and Dieci waved Subaru off as she ran into the house to get dressed. "So, want to come with?"

Nove shrugged and turned to the house. "Hey, mom!"

"Yeah?" Quint, her hair still green, popped her head out of the kitchen window. "What's up, Nove?" The combination of her long hair and confused look made the older woman look like she was in her early twenties rather than her real age.

"Wendi and Dieci want me to go with them to the amusement park, is that okay, or are we still under house arrest?"

"Hang on," Wendi and Dieci stared as Quint jumped out of the kitchen window and did a roll as she touched the ground, before dusting herself off, "as for going to the amusement park, do you three have any money?"

Dieci looked at the window, and then at the front door and pointed at it with a shaky finger. "Um, why didn't you come out the door?"

Quint looked at the door and shrugged as she turned to look at them again. "Honestly, I don't know. Ever since my hair changed colors I've done some pretty weird things."

"Didn't Due do a bunch of weird stuff when Agito was bonded with her?" Nove asked no one in particular, getting a nod from Dieci and Wendi.

"Anyway, you can go without a chaperon, but," Quint narrowed her eyes at the three girls, "you aren't allowed to use your powers, outside of a Bureau agent requesting your help or an immediate threat to people's lives, understand?" All three nodded quickly and Quint grinned at them. "Good, I'll just go get some money and I'll be right back."

When Quint disappeared into the house, Wendi leaned in close to Nove. "Nove, your mom can be scary," Nove nodded and gulped slightly, "even if she has a great ass."

"Hey!" Nove whirled on Wendi, who was grinning. "Stop checking my mom out, you perv!"

Wendi chuckled at her. "What? Your mom's a total babe, ya know?"

Dieci just slapped her face and groaned. "Wendi, please stop talking about Quint like that, she's old enough to be all of our mothers." Dieci blinked and tilted her head. "Actually, in a way, isn't she our mother? I mean, her DNA was used to clone Subaru and Ginga, they're type Zero cyborgs and..." Dieci was suddenly tackled to the ground by Wendi. "Hmm?"

"No!" Wendi shook her head vigorously. "Nah uh, not listening, nope, she is NOT my mother at all."

Nove twitched before hanging her head. "Ugh... Wendi, you keep that up and I'll kick your ass all over the front yard."

Wendi got off of Dieci and pouted. "Oh, come on, it's not my fault that your mom is a looker."

"That's it!" Nove growled and jumped at Wendi, who yelped and rolled away, got up and started to run as Nove kicked up some dirt and chased after her. "Get back here!"

"No! You're just going to kick my butt."

"You'll be lucky if that's the _only_ thing I kick!"

Sitting up, Dieci sighed as she watched Nove chase Wendi around the yard. "Those two never change." In a way, it was comforting, considering how things had changed so much from when they were working for the doctor. "...I wonder what happened to you, doctor." Dieci looked up into the sky. "Wherever you are, I hope things are going, EEEK!" Dieci's eyes widened, her hair stuck out and she jumped as something cold and damp touched the back of her neck. Spinning around, she gasped as Quint stood there with three cans with bits of ice sliding down the edges. "Wh, wh, what was that for?"

Quint giggled softly. "I'm sorry, I couldn't help myself, you were looking so serious there that I just wanted to tease you a little. You okay?" Dieci nodded, panting and Quint smiled as she watched Nove case Wendi around the yard. "So," Quint raised an eyebrow as Nove kicked Wendi in the butt before tackling her, "why is Nove chasing Wendi like that?"

"Wendi was teasing Nove about how good you look."

Quint blinked a few times at that, before smiling. "Well, that was nice of her." She blinked as Dieci suddenly fell over, her face crashing into the ground. "...Doesn't that hurt?"

Dieci just groaned and got back up. "How can you be so calm about this?" Quint just giggled at her. "What?"

"You'll understand one day, Dieci," Quint smiled and gave her a can, "it's just cola, but anyway, I don't care if someone thinks that I'm good looking, that makes me feel good," she winked at Dieci, who blushed and started to drink from her cola, "even if it's from someone as old as my daughter. Nove! Wendi, come on, you two, come get something to drink before you head out." She smiled as the two dusted themselves off and came over to get the sodas from her. "Here you, Nove, some money to get in and have some fun."

"Thanks, mom." Nove nodded as she pocketed the money and cracked the can open to take a drink.

"Oh, and Nove," Quint grinned at the younger girl, "if your friend wants to check out my ass, I might have to start wearing a bikini around here."

Quint fought the urge to laugh as Nove's eyes widened and she sprayed the soda out of her mouth, before doubling over and coughing, when she saw Wendi's grin and heard her giggling, she almost felt the urge to run into the house and change into a skimpy bikini, if only to tease Nove some more, and to see Wendi's reaction, of course.

"What the hell, mom?" Nove coughed a few more times as she stared at her mom like she had grown a second head and her skin had turn purple or something equally weird.

Quint just winked and turned around to go back inside. "Better get going before it gets too late."

Wendi continued to giggle as she watched Quint's ass sway with each step. "Lovely." She continued to giggle and even started drooling as she slowly raised her arms up, her free hand was twitching as if she wanted to grab Quint's rear end.

That lasted until she was slapped on the back of the head by both Nove and Dieci. "Oww! What the heck?"

"Come on, you can perv out at the amusement park." Dieci rolled her eyes as she and Nove led Wendi out of the yard.

(-)

An hour later...

"Cinque!" The short, silver-haired girl turned and smiled as she saw Wendi, Nove and Dieci walking up to her, Vivio and Arashi. "Why aren't you inside?"

"Because, Wendi, if I was, people might think that I'm either a child myself or you would not be able to find myself, Vivio or Arashi because we're shorter than any of the other adults in the area." Cinque said flatly as she narrowed her visible eye. "Besides, I would like some help to deal with these two." She gestured to Vivio and Arashi, both of whom were sitting on a bench and waving at the group.

"So, what's the problem?" Dieci asked, looking at the two younger children.

"I wanna ride the Ferris Wheel!" Arashi pointed to the Ferris Wheel while jumping up and down.

"I wanna try the shooting games!" Vivio shook her head and glared at Arashi.

"Wheel!"

"Shooting!"

"Wheel!"

"Shooting!"

"Wheel!"

"Shooting!"

"Well," Nove sweat-dropped as she looked at the two kids fighting, "I'm sure that we can help you two enjoy whatever you want without causing a problem for the other one."

"Yay!" Both children cried at the same time.

"So," Wendi turned to Cinque as they walked up to the front gates, "why are you watching them?"

"Nanoha is currently doing some busy work for the Bureau, Fate's off-planet for a few weeks and Yuuno was called in by Vita to help with some new developments regarding the Riot Forces that are being assembled." Cinque shook her head. "While Nanoha and Yuuno will both be done before the day is over, someone was needed to watch Vivio, and the maid was off for today, so mom thought that it would be good if I got out of Hayate's office for the day..." Cinque trailed off as Dieci grinned. "Dieci, what are you..."

"Nothing, nothing at all, just thinking about the cute swim wear that Hayate's going to be stuffing you in when you go back to work on Monday." Cinque hung her head and whimpered, that wasn't going to be very fun.

"Come on," Nove waved at the group as she stepped inside after paying for them, "let's just have some fun today."

"Sweet!" Wendi and Vivio said at the same time. Nove gave them a weird look and twitched.

"Okay then..." Nove trailed off and looked at Dieci, who was just laughing softly. "Dieci, you get to keep Wendi in line."

"Why me?" Dieci sweated as Nove and Cinque walked off with Arashi. "Nove!"

"What? I thought you'd like to do some shooting with Vivio?" Dieci blinked as Nove looked at her, grinning, "besides, I think Wendi wants to do some shooting too, so, I figured that it would just be better if you went with her."

Dieci couldn't fault the logic of that, before sighing. "Alright."

She just hoped things wouldn't be too bad at the shooting gallery.

(-)

Minutes later...

"Dieci, you have _got_ to try this game!" Wendi was grinning as she and Vivio shot at various targets. "There's lots of wooden animals with targets."

"I told you, I'm just trying to make sure that you don't go overboard." Dieci said while leaning against the side of the stand, not looking in.

"When have **I** ever gone overboard?" Wendi sounded almost offended as she shot at several more targets, pouting as she missed and the game came to an end.

"And that's the game. Sorry lass, you didn't win any prize, as for you, young lady," the man smiled at Vivio while handing her a small stuffed bear. "If you hit just one more target you would have won one of the big prizes."

Vivio pouted and turned to Dieci as her eyes got big and watery. "Come on, Dieci! You're supposed to be really good at shooting. Please?" Dieci started to sweat as she saw Vivio's teary, begging expression. She was about to refuse Vivio anyway when Wendi joined in, adopting an identical pouting, begging and teary-eyed expression.

"Please?" Both Wendi and Vivio pleaded at the same time.

Dieci's resolve lasted exactly a third of a second after seeing that. Sighing, she walked up to the counter and was thankful that there wasn't a line as she paid the man and picked up one of the guns. "So, this shoots water?"

"Yep." The man nodded to her. "Just hit twenty targets, the trick is to hit twenty of the same kind of target."

Dieci nodded and pointed the gun at the targets as they started to come out. At first she thought it would be simple to just squeeze the trigger and fire off a continuous stream of water, but found that the device had been designed with that in mind, having only fired off a quick burst with her first squeeze. "Alright." At least the stream could keep up with her trigger pulling. When Vivio and Wendi both started cheering for her as she knocked down several ducks and sheep, Dieci smiled and took more and more shots, knocking down several pigs.

Everything was going great until a new animal was introduced.

Wendi paled as she saw Dieci's pupils shrink and her arms shook. "Oh... No..."

"Cow!" Dieci screamed as she fired randomly and wildly. "No! I don't want to destroy the cows! No more!"

As the shots got more and more random and wild, Wendi grabbed Vivio and took several steps back. The last thing that she wanted to deal with was Dieci making them explode somehow.

"Hey! Calm down, they're just wooden, hey!" The man ducked as Dieci shot at him. "What's with..?" He trailed off as he saw several bursts of water hit along the power box. "Hey! Careful with that, you could..."

Wendi grabbed Vivio and stepped back even further. Sure, she could survive the upcoming explosion, and so would Dieci, but Vivio wasn't quite as tough as they were, at least she didn't think so.

Wendi could be forgiven for not knowing about the Saint Armor, she thought it only worked when Vivio was an adult, after all.

"What's going..?" Vivio started to ask, which was drowned out the rather large explosion that engulfed the stand a moment later, sending out a wave of fire in all directions. "What the?"

"There needs to be a law against cows." Wendi twitched as Dieci walked out of the explosion, and other than some smudges on her face, hair and clothes, was utterly fine. Well, if you ignored the way she was twitching. "Dieci, are you okay?"

Dieci fell to her knees, whimpering about destroying the cows again.

Wendi sighed and shook her head. "Well, it could be worse..."

"How?" Dieci asked before something slammed into the ground in front of her. Looking down, her eyes widened and she started crying.

"We could have burning stuffed cows fall out of the sky to torment you." Wendi deadpanned and sighed. "Come on, Vivio, let's get Dieci out of here, okay?"

Vivio nodded and wondered just why cows were so explosive.

(-)

"This is fun!" Arashi beamed as he, Cinque and Nove rode upwards on the Ferris Wheel. "Wow! I can see the base from here!" He pointed to the distance and Nove nodded, smiling as she saw the Riot Force building as well. "Cinque-nee! Can you see it?"

"Yeah..." Cinque said, looking down and killing the mood instantly.

"What's wrong?" Arashi asked as he sat down.

"I..."

"Cinque, if you say 'nothing' or you don't know, I'm going to make you watch mom and dad try to sing when they're drunk, and trust me, it's not a pretty sight." Nove narrowed her eyes at Cinque, who could only stare dumb-founded at the slightly taller redhead.

"I wasn't thinking about that, I was just thinking about what Hayate was going to make me wear next." Cinque sighed softly. "Listening to Vita's comments, for once, I'm glad that I have a rather... Under-developed body. I doubt I could stand to wear the naughty nurse outfit that she's made Shamal wear in the past."

Cinque was grateful that she didn't fill out the outfits that well. After all, she'd die from embarrassment if she had to be in anything _that _revealing. How Shamal was able to wear that outfit last Wednesday without blushing was beyond Cinque's comprehension.

If Cinque knew that Shamal had volunteered to dress up as a naughty nurse for Hayate's picture collection, well, it would have answered all of her questions at least.

"I think on Monday I'm supposed to clean her house out." Cinque shook her head, wondering what was going to happen there.

"By yourself?" Nove asked, getting a shake from Cinque. "Really?"

"Hayate said that both Signum and Vita are going to have a day off, so they'll be watching me." Cinque sighed heavily and leaned back in her chair. "I don't know if I can handle this punishment... Maybe it would have been better if I had been..." Cinque trailed off as she found Nove grabbing her and doing something that Nove wasn't too prone to doing...

Giving her a hug.

"Cinque," Nove sighed as she held the girl that was more of a mother and older sister to her than Quint, Subaru or Ginga could ever be, "don't say that, please? I don't want to think of you in prison for the rest of your life. It wouldn't be fair."

Arashi watched as Nove hugged Cinque, before getting up and hugging Nove from behind. He didn't know what was going on, exactly, but he wanted to join in and get a hug too, darn it!

Cinque smiled and hugged Nove back. "You're a good girl, Nove." She closed her visible eye and sighed. "Thank you, I'm just worried that Hayate will go too far and ask me to model in something that would be too revealing."

Nove nodded and let go of the hug, before pulling Arashi into a rough one and rubbing her knuckles on his head, causing the kid to start squealing and kicking his legs as he tried to get free.

Cinque smiled as Nove put Arashi down and sat down as well. "Thank you." Maybe today was going to be a good day after all?

(-)

"What the heck happened to Dieci?" Nove asked as she, Cinque and Arashi, after getting off of the Ferris Wheel, made their way to the shooting galleries. "...And what's with that fire?"

"Cows... Why did they have cows? Cows keep exploding." Dieci whimpered as she sat on the bench while Wendi rubbed her back, Vivio just looked confused.

"I don't know what happened," Vivio shrugged at them, "suddenly there was a cow, then Dieci started shooting stuff and then everything exploded!"

"Explosions?" Cinque asked slowly and, with some dread, turned to see a small fire that was being contained and put out. "...This isn't going to be good."

"I'll take unbelievable explanations for four hundred, Alex." Nove muttered as she saw park security coming over to greet them.

"Maybe we should just leave?" Cinque suggested, wondering how bad this was going to be for them when word got back to their various guardians.

"There she is!" The slightly burned stall manager pointed to Dieci, who was still trembling. "She blew up my stand for no reason!"

"Actually," Cinque began, trying to deflect some of the anger away from the manager.

"Listen, little girl, I'm in no mood to deal with anyone but those three," he glared at Dieci, Wendi and Vivio, who gulped slightly. "So, just sit down and let the adults handle this."

Cinque felt her eye twitching. "...Are you saying that I look like a child?"

"You're twelve, now please be quiet." The manager turned to the security, who were gathering around loosely. "Come on, get them out of here. I want them to pay for all the damages."

"Now that wasn't very nice," a mischievous female voice spoke up, causing everyone to look around in confusion. The light seemed to dim out for a moment and when it returned to normal, there was a small girl with silver-white hair and dark skin standing near Dieci while grinning at the manager. "After all, she's actually older than either of the redheads." Her yellow eyes were quite striking, almost like they were looking deep into his soul for no reason at all. It was interesting that the girl was wearing a brown, over-sized cloak over her body, and when she opened it up, it was surprising that she was wearing a skin-tight brown outfit with purple tiger stripes over the sides. "Though, you seem unusually agitated for some reason."

"Of course I'm upset!" The man yelled and pointed at Dieci as a crowd started to gather, "she destroyed my stand!"

The girl blinked and looked behind him. "You mean that stand there?" She pointed, causing him to snort and turn around.

"Yes, that stand..." He trailed off as he saw his stand, undamaged, standing there. "What the heck?"

"Yes, it would have been bad had something happened, right?" The manager turned around and nearly fell down as the girl seemed to be right in front of him. "After all, the loss of property and life would have been quite bad, right?" She smiled at him, her grin widening so much that she was forced to close her eyes in response. "But since none of that happened you must have imagined it." She bared her teeth at him and opened her eyes. "Right?"

"Uh..." The manager blinked and looked around. "...What was I doing?" He turned around and started to walk back to his stall, confusion on his face.

The girl grinned and dropped to the ground as people started to disperse. "Hee hee, dad was right, people are simple-minded."

"Who are you?" Nove asked as she stared at the child.

The girl turned to her and grinned. "I'm Carona, daughter of Earth Dragon Lord Rangort and Mazoku Priest Xellos."

Nove, Dieci, Wendi and Cinque all stared at her, wide-eyed and pale.

"Oh, and that guy was totally wrong about you," Carona looked at Cinque. "You don't look like you're twelve, just because you're short and flat-chested doesn't mean that you look like you're twelve."

"...Did you just say that I was flat?" Cinque twitched and put a hand on her chest. It wasn't her fault that she was flat-chested, but did this girl _have _to point it out?

"So, uh, how did you get him and everyone else to leave?" Wendi asked Carona, who seemed to get happier at the thought of explaining what happened.

"Oh, that's simple, I undid the damage that the explosion and fire caused and wiped out the short-term memory of everyone but you six."

"You can do that?" Nove asked, slightly nervous at the thought of what Carona could do to her if she tried hard enough.

"Any high ranking Mazoku or Shinzoku can do stuff like that." A new female voice spoke up behind Nove, causing her to turn and smack her face into the largest pair of breasts she had ever ran into, dwarfing even Tre and Sette's in pure size, causing Nove to take a few steps back so she wouldn't fall down.

Looking at the woman, Nove found her face turning as red as her hair. The woman in front of her had dark skin, eyes that were the same color as her silver-white hair, which was short up front and only draped across her shoulders in the back. She was wearing a rather tight shirt and pants that clung to her skin, leaving no room to the imagination just how endowed she really was.

"Hi, mom!" Carona grinned at Rangort. "See? I didn't cause problems."

"That's your mom?" Wendi and Nove said at the same time as they looked at Rangort, who nodded to them, before narrowing her eyes at Wendi.

"You do realize that I'm not too interested in having a human love interest, right?"

"She can't help it," Nove muttered. This woman just oozed sexuality from her body. Nove wasn't sure if Rangort did it on purpose or not.

"I bet," Rangort rolled her eyes, "come on, Carona. Your father and Lena are waiting for us. As for the rest of you, maybe you should leave too."

"Wait!" Cinque spoke up, getting Rangort's attention. "I thought Mazoku and Shinzoku didn't like each other."

"We don't." Rangort said flatly. She looked at Carona, before sighing. "Follow me." She said as she turned around and started walking out of the amusement park.

Wendi giggled as she watched Rangort's butt sway from side to side. It wasn't her fault, between Rangort's large breasts, her muscled body and her round ass, she was just the perfect supermodel, even if her ass and breasts made Tre almost seem petite in comparison. Even if Rangort wasn't looking for a companion like her, Wendi couldn't help but fantasize herself and Rangort, chocolate, whipped cream and flower petals.

Ahead of them, Rangort blushed and twitched as she caught Wendi's sexual fantasies heading her way. "Ugh, girl, if you want to fantasize about me, please keep your thoughts to yourself." Rangort turned to look at Wendi, her face completely red. "No, I can't read your mind, if that's what you were thinking, but I can catch emotions and surface thoughts, and your thoughts are so loud that anyone could tell what you were thinking just by being near you."

Nove groaned as she, Cinque, Dieci, who had calmed down, Vivio and Arashi followed them. "Calm down, Wendi, sheesh!"

As they got out of the amusement park, Rangort led them towards one of the parks. "Carona and her twin sister Lena weren't intended to happen. A few years ago, there was a major upheaval in the Mazoku power structure where Xellos and I are from. As such, the Mazoku called for a truce while they sorted out their own problems. Well, some of them decided to vacation to a new world and I followed them."

"You fell in love with a Mazoku then?" Dieci asked Rangort, who spun and glared at the girl, causing her to whimper.

"Nothing so crass." Rangort snorted at Dieci. "Let's just say that chocolate made by Deep Sea Dolphin can screw with your perception of time and activities. I'm a Shinzoku, so having children the same way as humans can didn't occur to me until after Carona and Lena were born." Rangort snorted and turned away. "Before you ask, no, I can't really remember what happened either."

"Daddy says that auntie Dolphin's chocolate brownies are weird." Carona giggled at them.

"I see..." Nove trailed off, grateful that Jail wasn't around to hear about this. As it was, knowing that a Mazoku and a Shinzoku had gotten together was almost enough to make her go a little crazy. She couldn't imagine how Jail would have taken it.

"Yes, well..." Rangort put a hand on Carona's shoulder. "It's time for me to leave now."

After the two were gone, Vivio and Arashi looked at each other. "That was weird." Vivio muttered, getting a nod from Arashi.

It just affirmed their opinion on adults.

They were weird.

* * *

Shamal: Well, I'd say that things are going good.  
Kyrie: Really?  
Shamal: Yes. Well, next time on Blood That Flows - Numbers.  
Kyrie: Ooooh! Delicious!  
Shamal: I'm glad you like the cookies I baked.  
Kyrie: Too bad there's no cookies in the next part.


	266. Numbers Sixth

Blood That Flows

Number Sixth

Of course I own nothing.

* * *

Elsewhere...

"I still can't believe we managed to escape." She looked at her companion and felt the urge to roll her eyes when he grinned at her. "I mean, really, I thought we were going to die."

"Oh, we probably would have." He continued to grin at her as he adjusted the sunglasses on his face. "Anyway, if you have those coordinates locked in, just hit the button."

She rolled her eyes as she did so and watched as the stars seemed to disappear as their small craft went to warp. "Well, there, now then..." She stood up and looked at her outfit, before looking at his. "First thing's first, we're getting new clothes," she grabbed his hair and gave it a tug, "and you need a haircut."

He smirked at her. "Fine, but I get to choose your outfit."

She snorted at him. "Knowing you, it'll be something incredibly dull and bland."

He shrugged as he walked out of the cockpit of the ship. "Maybe, maybe not."

(-)

Back on Mid-Childa

Shamal smiled as she looked at the clock. "Well, Amitie, I have to admit, you've come a long way in our sessions." The dimensionally displaced girl blinked and looked at Shamal in confusion. "When we first started, it took me four hours to get through one session, we've managed to get that down to one." Shamal laughed softly as Amitie turned away, blushing. "Now, now, there's no reason to get like that. It's a good thing that you've come so far along."

"Am I going to still need to have sessions every couple of days?" Amitie asked, sighing as Shamal nodded. "Come on, why do Kyrie and I have to..."

"You have nightmares of what happened to you about a year ago, recently told me that you were worried that this was a dream and you had gone completely insane, oh, and there's the fact that when you and Kyrie were watching that war movie, the two of you reacted as if you were living that war personally."

Amitie winced at Shamal's stern look. "It wasn't..."

"That was only four days ago, Amitie," Shamal interrupted her, "even if you and your sister have come a long way, you still have demons to overcome." Shamal raised an eyebrow as Amitie looked away. "Is this about the fact that you and your sister were made to be a Mazoku servant?" Amitie nodded and Shamal sighed as she leaned back into her chair. "You don't need to talk about it if you don't..."

"You already know about Kyrie and myself, don't you?" Amitie looked at Shamal, resignation written all over her face.

"Unless you wished to talk about it, I wasn't going to bring it up. You aren't the first artificial person that's lived or worked for the Bureau before," Shamal took a deep breath before continuing to speak, "I was once an artificial being myself."

"...What?" Amitie asked, confused by how Shamal worded it.

"For centuries," Shamal elaborated, "I was part of a guardian program for a book called the Book of Darkness. Any injury to my body could be healed in a matter of moments. Death wasn't even permanent. I've lived thousands of lives, taken many more over that same time." She sighed as she remembered all the pain and suffering that she and her family had caused over the years. "A little over ten years ago, I came across a power that I had never fought against before. It broke my connection to the Book of Darkness and changed me, from an artificial being to a flesh and blood human." Shamal took a deep breath as she continued, "also, those girls that were in prison with you..."

"Those girls with the weird names?" Amitie interrupted Shamal. "They're cyborgs, right? Sein, the one with blue-green hair, right?" Shamal nodded again and smiled at Amitie. "Yeah, she explained what she and the others were to me and Kyrie awhile ago. What about it?"

"They were similar to yourself and Kyrie, created as weapons, but they have families now. You and your sister, have either of you thought about your futures?" Shamal mentally sighed as she saw Amitie look confused and scared. "It's alright. Is there anything else you wanted to talk about?" Amitie shook her head and Shamal nodded. "Very well. I'll see you back in three days then."

Amitie nodded and walked out of Shamal's office. "Um... Kuma probably won't be back for a little bit..."

Shamal smiled and put an arm around Amitie's shoulders. "Come on, let's just walk then. I know that this isn't exactly professional of me, but I was experimenting with some cooking, I was wondering if you'd like to try it."

Amitie blinked, before nodding. It wouldn't be too bad.

(-)

Elsewhere...

Signum looked at her hand as Shari finished her diagnosis of it and nodded. "Well?"

"Good news, it looks like it's fully integrated into your body." Shari smiled at Signum, "complex maneuvers shouldn't be a problem anymore."

Signum nodded and grabbed the black glove, putting it over her metal hand. "Shari, I need to ask, why did you go as far as you did?"

"Partially scientific curiosity, and mostly because I wanted to see if I could." Shari giggled at the look Signum had. "As for your eye, how is it working?"

"Other than some color blindness, it works pretty good." Signum muttered as she looked around. "How did you get a working one in under a year anyway?"

"You can thank Vice for shooting his sister's eye out." Shari answered as she turned to her computer console, "repairing eyes like that is fairly difficult, but it's manageable."

"Especially since my nerves weren't completely destroyed?" Signum raised an eyebrow, getting a nod from Shari.

"Yeah. We wouldn't have to put in the fake eye if your lenses hadn't been so screwed up."

Signum waved it off. "At least it works now." A slow sense of dread came over her as Shari grinned at her. "You are not adding a weapon to my artificial eye, Shari."

"Drat," Shari snapped her fingers, "plan B then." She tossed a small object to Signum, who caught it easily. "Remember that eye-patch you were wearing while your eye was injured?" Signum nodded to her slowly. "Well, when creating your new eye, I came up with a little something regarding that eye-patch. Put it on." Shari grinned as Signum did so. "Now, tap the side of your head twice, and..."

"What the hell? Shari, what is this? I can see through the eye-patch?"

Shari nodded. "I enhanced your eye-patch because I noticed that sometimes you had trouble adjusting your new eye properly. Just think of it as protection until your body gets used to the new eye."

Signum nodded and left the room. "I think I need to work out with this... It feels weird having depth perception again." It was even weirder with the eye-patch on.

Shari shook her head and sighed. "Now what?"

(-)

Shamal smiled as she watched Amitie eat the food. "You like it?"

"A little over-spiced, I think," Amitie said as she swallowed some water to wash the food down, "and a bit too much salt, but otherwise pretty good. Can I have more?"

Shamal nodded, smiling happily. It was the first hot dish she had ever made and was quite happy that someone liked it. No one at home trusted her cooking at all. Just because she lit water on fire a couple of times in the past didn't mean that she was a bad cook.

"If you want, Kyrie and I will test your food for you." Amitie gulped as Shamal suddenly started glowing as she smiled. "Uh..."

"Really! Thank you!" Shamal almost hugged Amitie in happiness.

Amitie nodded and went back to eating. This food really was good...

To her that is.

Amitie and Kyrie were both used to eating whatever they had to so they wouldn't be hungry all the time, and, as such, their sense of taste was a little weird.

* * *

Sette: So, it looks like it is my turn now. ...I have nothing interesting to say, but I am hungry. Next time on Blood That Flows - Numbers, read it, I would... Enjoy it if you did.


	267. Numbers Seventh

Blood That Flows

Number Seventh

Of course I own nothing.

* * *

Closing her eyes, she concentrated as the air around her got cooler and cooler, before she snapped her eyes open and thrust her right hand forward. At first, it seemed like nothing was happening...

When the lake turned to solid ice and the ground started to break apart in response, she nodded, though she wished that it didn't take so long to get the effect she desired...

"Wow, Sette!" The tall girl turned to see Reinforce Zwei smiling at her. "That's more powerful than I can do normally."

"You also can get your results much faster than I can." Sette sighed and grimaced as her arms felt slightly numb. "I wish I knew how I got these ice powers..."

Zwei scratched her cheek lightly. "Didn't Filia say that sometimes Dragons develop random powers that aren't always what you'd expect?"

Sette nodded and looked at the destroyed lake. "...I would have preferred fire instead of ice. I like being warm over cold."

"Most of us do." Zwei said as she sat on Sette's shoulder. "But, you're just learning right? I couldn't do everything right when I first started learning." Zwei giggled as Sette made some sort of noise, whether it was agreement or not, Zwei didn't know. "But, still, maybe you're just developing them. Maybe you'll have something really cool when your powers fully develop." Her eyes seemed to sparkle as she thought about the possibilities. "Oooh! Maybe you'll be able to bend light around you and create some freaking magic laser beams!" Zwei pointed her fingers forward and giggled as she mocked the motions of gun recoil. "Pew! Pew! Pew!"

"Were you hit by Nanoha's Starlight Breaker growing up, by any chance?" Considering that Reinforce Zwei was so small, she wasn't exactly grown up, at least from Sette's point of view.

Rein shook her head. "Nope. I did learn how to cast the spell though." Rein blinked and rubbed her chin as she looked into the distance. "Do you think that learning magic early causes people to become silly?"

"Apparently it worked with you." Sette deadpanned as she turned away from the lake. "So, why are you here? This is a public training area."

"I was just getting some food to eat with Zaffy and we saw you over here, so I wanted to see what you were doing and Zaffy decided to just sit and watch us." Zwei smiled at her. "You want to come get some lunch with us?"

It was at that moment when Sette's stomach grumbled, causing her to put a hand on her belly. "I believe that I am hungry... Again."

Zwei floated up, blinking. "Again?"

"Lately I find myself hungry every few hours when I am not asleep or training."

Zwei smiled at her. "Well, no problem, I'm pretty hungry too. Let's go get some food then." Sette nodded, glad that Zwei was offering to feed her.

It was rather... Nice.

(-)

Sein twitched as she watched Tre and Luna get into another argument. At least this one was limited to just words, since they were busy painting the Eastern side of the Saint Church. "Okay, Luna, Tre, just _why_ are you two always at each others throats? Even I'm not that bad with grabbing breasts and I thought I'd _never _say something like that in my life!" She crossed her arms over her petite chest and glared at the two older and bustier women. "I have to stand out here and make sure that you two don't start causing fighting and I'm tired of it!" Sein took a deep breath as the two were looking at her somewhat ashamed. "So, out with it, why do you two fight so much? We've been here less than a year and you two do almost nothing but fight!"

Tre grimaced and looked at Luna. "Don't know why, but she just bugs me for some reason." It didn't help that her attitude made her come across as someone who was so superior all the time. It was so annoying that sometimes it took all of Tre's efforts to _not _attempt to lay Luna out at least four times a day.

Sein nodded and made a mental note to do something about Tre later. Maybe when they were alone... "Luna?"

Oddly enough, Luna looked uncomfortable as she grabbed her paint brush and went back to painting. "I'd rather not talk about it."

Tre growled as she grabbed Luna, spun her around and slammed her against the wall, not caring that the paint was going to ruin Luna's outfit. "No, you don't get to not do that. You've been bothering me since we got here almost six months ago."

"Seven." Sein pointed out for her. "It's been seven months since last Tuesday."

"Fine, seven months. What _is _your problem with me, Inverse?"

Luna narrowed her eyes at Tre. "Trust me, you don't want to know. Just drop it." She grabbed Tre's arms but found that, even though Luna was one of the strongest people in the Saint Church physically, Tre was just that much stronger.

"No, now tell me what the heck your problem with me is."

"Fine! You want to know?" Luna growled as Tre nodded. "Let go and I'll tell you." When Tre lowered her down, Luna shocked both Tre and Sein as she grabbed Tre's head and did something none of them ever would have thought the elder Inverse would do.

Sein stared, wide-eyed as Luna pressed her lips to Tre's, who twitched and fell over, breaking the kiss. "Hu, whaa?"

Luna licked her lips, spun and ran away from the two of them.

"Well... Uh..." Sein tried to get her brain back on track as she saw that. "...I guess she liked you..."

Tre blinked, several times, trying to figure out what happened as she stared after Luna as the latter disappeared around the corner. "...Am I some sort of lesbian magnet?"

There was no answer to that question.

(-)

Zafira, back in his human form, felt like twitching as he watched the plates pile up around Sette on the booth table they were all at. It wasn't like she was eating like an animal or even like a starving person. That wouldn't have been too bad.

No, she was eating like a completely normal person, taking her time and chewing her food. What was really unusual about it was how much she was eating.

"Four steaks, eight pancakes, two hamburgers, a whole apple pie, twenty bread sticks, cheese sticks, at least eight refills on your drink, and some crackers." Zafira summed up Sette as she blinked and looked at him.

Swallowing the pancake in her mouth, Sette tilted her head. "I am sorry, did you want some?" Zafira shook his head and Sette nodded. "Very well. I feel like I am done anyway."

Zafira and Rein Zwei both let out sighs of relief. The bill for this was going to be huge.

"May I have ice cream to go?" Sette asked the waitress, who nodded and sweat-dropped while Zwei, who was in a high chair, and Zafira, both fell to the floor. "Are you two okay?"

Zafira sighed and got up. "Never mind. Will you be okay with the cone?" Sette nodded and Zafira made a mental note to talk to Filia and find out just how Sette could put all of that food away.

He idly wondered how Chrono could feed Sette, much less Otto, Deed and Wendi if they were anything like she was.

Sette gave a small smile as she was given a large ice cream cone and started licking at it slowly. Seeing the tall girl enjoy the ice cream cone, Zafira found himself losing all his irritation with her. It was just too hard to stay mad at someone who, despite being almost as tall as he was, could be so cute.

At least he was able to cover the bill for this meal.

* * *

Amy: Mr. Snuggles?  
Mr. Snuggles: I like this sunbeam. Next time on Blood That Flows - Numbers, sunbeams are nice.  
Amy: I guess... Watch out for my children though.  
Mr. Snuggles: What?


	268. Numbers Eighth

Blood That Flows

Number Eighth

Of course I own nothing.

* * *

"Well, this is kind of odd, aren't you usually with Sette, Mr. Snuggles?"

The cat lifted his head and looked at the person that addressed him. _"She isn't expecting trouble and watching her stumble through her Dragonic heritage doesn't sound exciting, Amy. Besides, this sunbeam is nice and warm."_ He dropped his head back to the carpet and started purring. _"I don't know what you humans see in those blankets, a good sunbeam is all I need."_

Amy giggled as Karel ran in and jumped on Mr. Snuggles. Most cats would simply growl, hiss or even try to claw the offender.

Mr. Snuggles wasn't most cats. The instant Amy's son touched his fur, he was on the move as he curled into a ball, rolled backwards and ended up on his feet with his eyes narrowed at Karel, who nearly crashed into the wall. _"Bad human, bad."_

"Aww! Come on!" Karel pouted as he spun around to face Mr. Snuggles. "You let Sette pet you all the time."

_"Sette also doesn't try to jump on me like this!"_ The next thing Karel knew, he was on his back with Mr. Snuggles standing on his forehead and looking down at him. _"Not so fun when you're the one getting tackled, is it?"_

"Okay," Amy lifted Mr. Snuggles by the scruff on his neck, "that's enough of that. You could go a little easier on him."

_"Would he have gone easy on me?"_

Amy sighed, that was a good point, but Karel was still her son. "Even so, he's a child and needs to learn. You don't need to go that hard on him, do you?"

"Come on, mom, I'm not a kid." Karel protested as he jumped to his feet. "I just wanted to play with Mr. Snuggles."

_"First of all, kid, I'm a cybernetically enhanced cat that survived being exploded across the universe, secondly, I don't like kids, and lastly, I don't play."_

Amy put Mr. Snuggles down on the floor. "At least let him pet you."

_"As long as that's all he does."_ Mr. Snuggles almost started growling when Karel grabbed him into a hug and started petting him painfully. _"I will hack a hairball all over your face when you sleep."_

Amy smiled as she walked out of the room. "You do that and I'll forbid Sette from letting you near her chest ever again."

Mr. Snuggles stared at Amy, who was looking over her shoulder and smiling at him. _"You wouldn't."_ Amy continued to smile as she left the room. _"Darn you."_ Mr. Snuggles growled as Karel continued to pet him roughly.

In the kitchen Filia raised an eyebrow at Amy. "Aren't you worried that an intelligent, super powered and somewhat vicious cybernetic cat might come after you for revenge?"

"That's what I have you and Chrono for." Amy giggled at Filia, who gave her a flat look. "What?"

"Fine, I guess I'll be your bodyguard from the evil kitties." Filia closed her eyes and turned away from Amy, who just continued to smile and giggle. "But I do have one requirement." Amy blinked, wondering what her wife wanted. "Every morning for a month, I want you to sit next to me wearing a skirt... And crotchless underwear." Filia's tail slipped out over the top of her pants to waggle suggestively at Amy as the brunette blushed while Filia turned to her slowly while grinning. "Well?"

"Bu... Bu... But..." Amy continued to blush as Filia grinned at her. "Can't we do that in bed and..?"

"Either that or I let Mr. Snuggles get back at you."

Amy hung her head and sighed. "Fine." She let out a yelp as Filia suddenly pulled her into a hug and sat back down on her chair. "...I didn't even see you move."

"Been watching Mr. Snuggles do this."

Amy sighed and would have said something more, but it was a little hard to talk with Filia's lips on her own. That and that Filia's hands were fondling her all over the place. "We..." Amy gasped as Filia kissed her again. "Can't..." She let out a whimper as Filia licked her neck. "Upstairs, now." She growled as Filia stood up and carried her up to their room.

At the top of the stairs, Lotte Lieze blinked as Filia carried Amy into their room and shut the door behind them. "Huh, always thought Amy was more into Chronosuke than girls." She snapped her fingers. "Drat, wish I had thought of that."

There was a tug at the hem of her dress and Lotte looked down. "Auntie, why was mommy and mama Amy acting so weird?"

"Well," Lotte knelt down to look at the young Dragon girl in the face, "you mommy loves Amy a lot, so sometimes they act really weird around each other, like what she just did."

"Mommy doesn't love me like that?" Lia frowned, confused and Lotte just smiled and tapped her on the nose.

"Your mommy loves you, but she has different love for Amy." Lia stared at her in confusion. "You love your mommy, right?" Lia nodded, "and you love your brothers and sisters, right?" Lia nodded again. "But you love your mommy different than you love your brothers and sisters, right?"

"Uh huh... Is it like that?" Lotte nodded and Lia hugged the familiar, causing Lotte's eyes to widen in surprise. Not from the hug, but from Lia's strength. Val was pretty good at controlling his strength when he wasn't rough-housing with someone who could handle it. Lia, on the other hand, didn't seem to know how to control her strength just yet.

_"Vision... Fading... Neck... Bruising... Aria, help!"_

"Lia," Aria poked her head out into the hallway, "you need to let go, or Lotte will pass out, and we don't want that, do we?"

Lia shook her head and let go of Lotte, who gasped as sweet, sweet air rushed back into her lungs. "Sorry, auntie."

"It's," Lotte rubbed her neck while coughing and panting, "it's okay. You need to work on controlling your strength." Lia nodded to her.

Aria smiled and went back into Val's room as he played with Liera. "So, do you know where your big sisters are at?"

"Nah uh." Val shook his head. "I think Wendi wanted to go have fun with Nove today and Sette went to the training park. I don't know where Otto and Deed went."

Aria blinked, wondering where the twins would have gone.

(-)

"Are you sure that this is wise, Deed?" Otto asked as she looked at her twin with her head poking out from behind the door.

"I am not sure, but I wanted to try." Deed nodded to Otto. "Now, come on out, I want to see what you look like."

Nodding, Otto stepped out of the changing room and Deed's eyes sparkled as she saw her twin in jeans, a tank top and a sleeveless vest. "Wow, you look good as a 'bad boy'."

Otto fidgeted slightly. "The pants are tight feel like they are riding up into my butt."

"That's silly." A new voice spoke up, causing Otto and Deed to blink as Kyrie walked up to them. "It looks nice to me." She grabbed Otto by her shoulders and spun the girl around so she could look at Otto's rear. "Hmm, maybe you're right, that does look a little too tight." The pink-haired girl spun around and ran into the store, leaving the two twins blinking several times before she came back with several pairs of pants. "Let's try these on!" She grabbed Otto and pulled her into the dressing room.

Deed's eyes widened as the door closed behind them. "Um, I think Otto can dress herself."

"Nonsense! We need to dress her properly. Oooh! Let's try this."

"Hey, wait, stop."

"Why?" Kyrie's voice was practically purring. "This is much more fun, isn't it?"

"For you, maybe." Otto whimpering almost had Deed tearing the door off of its hinges. "Hey! Not there!" There was a thump that made Deed stand up and grab the door handle.

"Well, this is your problem, your underwear isn't thin enough to wear such tight pants." Kyrie almost sounded upset as she opened the door and looked at Deed. "Can you go and get Otto some..." She trailed off and whispered to Deed, who started to turn red as Kyrie described what she wanted. "Now get going." She slapped Deed on the butt and closed the door behind her, looking down at Otto, who was crossing her legs while looking up at her. "Moou... You look so cute!" She grabbed Otto and pulled her up and hugged the flat-chested girl tightly.

"Um, please let go..." Otto's eyes widened as she felt Kyrie's hands go down on her back. "...Why are you grabbing my butt?"

"Because you're so cute." Kyrie gave Otto a few squeezes before letting go. "Here's a little tip, Otto," she leaned in and whispered softly, "if you're going to act like a boy, you should expect some girls to grab you like that."

Otto continued blushing as a knock came to the door. Opening it up, Kyrie grinned and grabbed the panties from Deed. "Good job, now just wait." She closed the door and grinned at Otto as she held up the panties. "Let's get you into something more _comfortable_ shall we?"

Otto just gulped as Kyrie grinned at her while kneeling down.

As she heard thumps, whimpers and yelps coming from inside the dressing room, Deed had to keep herself from rushing in and saving Otto from Kyrie. That crazy girl was almost as bad as Sein was, for crying out loud.

Several minutes later, Otto stumbled out of the changing room, in pants that were slightly baggy on her and grabbed Deed, hugging her tightly. "She... She... She's worse that Sein is."

Kyrie pouted and crossed her arms over her breasts. "Oh, come on, all I did was hug you and grab your butt. It's not like I raped you." Kyrie continued to pout as Deed glared at her. "Oh, come on. How about this? We all get swimsuits and go find a beach and go swimming, huh?" She blinked and tapped her chin. "Huh... Maybe I should get Kuma and Ami some swimsuits too? But I don't know Kuma's size!" She could rattle off Amitie's size off the top of her head, but she never thought to learn what size of clothes Kuma wore.

Mostly because she liked seeing him with as few clothes as possible.

Kyrie blinked as Otto and Deed stared at her. "What?"

"You said you liked seeing Kuma without much clothes on." Deed replied and Kyrie blinked, before shrugging.

"So what? It's true. Have you _seen_ him without a shirt?" She let out a fake growling noise and grinned as she suddenly got next to the twins and threw her arms around their shoulders. "So, how about it?"

"Maybe later," Otto said as she and Deed slipped away from Kyrie, who only pouted and nodded.

"Okay! Just let me know ahead of time!" Kyrie waved at the two of them until they disappeared into the crowd. "Hmm..." She looked at her watch and her eyes widened. "Ooops! I need to get outside! Kuma will be here soon!" Kuma might be patient with her and Amitie, especially when the two of them joined him naked in the outdoor baths, that didn't mean that she had to test him for no good reason after all.

* * *

Lutecia: Hey! I'm back! Due-nee! I'm back!  
Due: I see that. Next time on Blood That Flows - Numbers, Lu and I are back.  
Lutecia: Bow before me! Ha ha ha!  
Due: I'm not sure.


	269. Numbers Ninth

Blood That Flows

Number Ninth

Of course I own nothing.

* * *

A few days later...

"So you plan on turning this whole area into a resort?" Due asked Lutecia, who nodded to her and smiled.

"Uh huh. I'm not sure about being part of the Bureau yet, even though I'm really good at summoning," the young girl said as she, Due and Garyuu all continued to dig in the garden. "I know that there's a large chunk of my life missing from my memories," Lutecia didn't notice as both Garyuu and Due slowed down to watch her more closely, "I'm not sure if I want to know or not, about what happened to me." Lutecia stood up and sighed as she looked at herself. "I'm only eleven years old and I look like I'm sixteen."

"Lu..." Due reached out to the young girl, who turned and smiled at her. "Uh..."

"Thank you, Due." She looked up at the sky and clasped her hands behind her back. "Maybe I'll join the Bureau in a few years, but I just got mamma back, and, if I do work for the Bureau, I want to have something really nice to come home to, you know?"

"But, you do have something already." Due stood up and smiled at the girl. "You have your mother, your father and your friends waiting for you. Even if it was just a lab, I always looked forward to getting back and being with my sisters." Putting her hands on Lutecia's shoulders, she was almost surprised when Lutecia smiled back at her. "So, I wouldn't..." She trailed off as Lutecia took a step forward and hugged her. "Lu?" She asked, tensing up and wondering what was going to happen next.

"For someone who tries to convince everyone she doesn't care about anything, you're really nice, aren't you, big sister?"

Due sweat-dropped and hoped that Megane wasn't nearby. "S..Sister? Come on, we're not..."

"Even if mom is my mom, and Zest is my dad, you were there for me too... And I still remember how the rest of your sisters looked up to you." Lutecia looked up at her and smiled. "So, I want to call you that too, big sis."

Due chuckled softly before nodding slowly. "Sure... Little sister."

Lutecia just smiled and rested her head on Due's chest, her eyes closed in contentment.

(-)

Meanwhile, on Mid-Childa, a meeting of great importance was happening...

"Come on, Signum! Get out here!" Vita rolled her eyes as Signum finally walked out of the house. "Took you long enough." She scoffed and put on some large sunglasses over her eyes and a hat on her head.

Signum had a soft blush on her face as she walked outside in an incredibly tiny blue bikini. At least it wasn't quite as daring as Vita's outfit, which was nothing more than a black sling bikini. "Must we wear such revealing outfits?"

"Personally, I'd rather go nude for sunbathing." Vita said as she rubbed her belly and chest with sunblock. "I mean, this _is _a rather secluded area of the beach after all."

Signum rolled her eyes as she sat down on the other lounge chair on the dock. "While Hayate wouldn't mind it, and Shamal probably doesn't care, do you think Reinforce would be happy if you did?"

"That's the only reason I'm not naked." Vita rolled her eyes as she rubbed her legs down. "Besides, after all the crap we've had to put up with for so long, I think we could use a tan."

Signum nodded and rolled over as Vita, done with putting sunblock on her body, offered to rub her back down. Shivering from the cool liquid, Signum wondered how Vita talked her into sunbathing. "I would rather work on my forms." Signum yelped and turned her head to glare at Vita with her good eye as Vita smirked at her after giving her butt a swat. "Knock it off, I'm in no mood."

"First of all, Signum, this is to help you unwind. Secondly, I think that you're too worried about what happened with that injury." Vita's voice was unusually serious. Unusual, because when she wasn't on duty or fighting, the redhead was among the most laid back people around.

Signum wondered how much that was because of the peaceful life they were living, how much was Vita actually growing up and how much was because Vita got laid semi-regularly.

"Listen, Signum, it doesn't matter if you're injured like you are." Vita smiled as she pushed her fingers into Signum's muscled back. "Once you get used to it, you'll be kicking my pretty butt all over the training field again."

Signum snorted and crossed her arms under her head before sighing and just let Vita's hands roam over her back, legs and her ass. "I wish you wouldn't try to fondle me so much." Signum didn't push her off though, Vita was making her feel pretty good after all.

She was almost disappointed when Vita got off of her and went to lay down on her lounge chair.

Hours later, Shamal walked onto the back porch and blinked as she saw Signum laying on her back and Vita laying on her front, the straps on Vita's sling were off of her shoulders, the two of them were looking slightly red and she sighed before walking into the house quietly.

A moment later, Shamal returned onto the porch and held a bucket in her hand and poured ice cold water onto the two of them, causing them to jump and let out a loud cry as she smiled at them.

"What the hell, Shamal?" Vita asked, her breasts swaying freely as her sling bikini fell to the ground, leaving her nude. Shamal raised an eyebrow and was glad that Kyrie and Hayate weren't around. Vita would find herself instantly dog-piled by the two of them.

"Shamal," Signum shivered slightly, "what was the point?"

"You two were starting to burn, get inside and I'll make sure that you two don't suffer too much." Shamal rolled her eyes and walked inside. "Oh, and Vita, you might want to pull your suit up."

Vita looked down at herself and sighed as she grabbed her swimsuit and walked inside, completely naked. "Ugh, I swear..."

Signum nodded and forced herself to look away from Vita's bare ass as she followed the redhead into the house. Signum wasn't sure what was worse, spending too much time around Thoth, dealing with Vita on a daily basis or watching Fate run around in her outfits. 'Since when have I been an ass woman?'

Zafira, in his wolf form, looked up and blinked as Vita walked past him, completely naked and red all over. He knew better than to say anything. Besides, seeing Vita, Shamal or Signum naked really didn't do anything for him. Sure, they were beautiful, but they were like sisters to him. If it had been Arf or Fate walking by naked, he would have had a harder time keeping himself from reacting at all.

Oh well, it wasn't a big deal for him. At least Hayate was at work right now.

Or so he thought, as the front door opened and Hayate, her hair still white, walked in with Rein Zwei and Agito floated in behind her, took one look at Vita's naked form and grinned at the redhead. "Oh, Vita-chan..." Her fingers twitched while Zwei blushed and looked away while Agito just blinked in confusion. "Measuring time!"

"ACK!" Vita yelped as Hayate tackled her to the ground, straddled her stomach and started squeezing her breasts in the middle of the living room. "H...Hayate..." Vita groaned as Hayate grinned at her.

"Naughty Vita-chan, going around naked in the house, what would Reinforce do?"

"Probably not grope my chest like you are?" Vita sweat-dropped, groaning as Hayate's hands continued to squeeze her breasts. "Uh... Could you, uh... Stop groping me in front of everyone?" The current redness on her face had nothing to do with the burn she had. "My skin's burned, and it hurts a little bit."

Hayate squeezed Vita's breasts a few more times before letting go. "Go on, get dressed then." She stood up and waited for Vita to do the same before giving Vita's ass a hard slap and getting a yelp of pain and a nice bounce from Vita's breasts in the process. Hayate smiled as Vita put a hand over her butt and ran into her room before sighing and walking towards her own room. 'I miss you, Reinforce.'

Agito looked at Rein, who was completely red faced as she watched what happened. "So, is this normal around here?"

"Some times." Zwei replied, shaking her head at her family's antics.

Agito looked around and saw Shamal looking at her with an amused expression. Flying over to the blonde, the small fairly tilted her head. "Um, where's Signum?"

"Getting changed so I can take care of the sunburn she has." Shamal stretched her arms over her head and mentally sighed. Hayate hadn't acted like that in a long time. Sure, she still groped breasts all the time, even Reinforce hadn't gotten her to stop, but she usually wasn't so eager like that. Having Reinforce unisoned with Hayate for so long was starting to take a toll on the young woman.

Shamal just hoped that Reinforce recovered before too long, she didn't know what would happen otherwise.

* * *

Kuma: You know, these things have been misleading lately.  
Amitie: Only partially. Hey! I'm barely in the next chapter. What the hell, author?  
Kyrie: Next time on Blood That Flows - Numbers... HEY! I'm hardly in it as well!`


	270. Numbers End

Blood That Flows

Number End

Of course I own nothing.

* * *

The next day...

Blinking at the knocking on her window, Lina walked over and raised an eyebrow as she saw her sister floating just outside. "Hey, sis." She opened the window to let Luna inside. "It's pretty late."

"I know." Luna said, her voice rather soft and meek, quite unlike her. "I need to talk."

Lina nodded and led her over to the bed. "You know that the Saint Church is in an uproar over you, right? They called me today to see if I had seen you." Luna flinched and Lina sighed heavily as she sat down next to her. "Why'd you disappear for a week?" Seeing Luna's rather disheveled look, Lina had the feeling that her sister hadn't been staying in hotels for the past week.

"I needed to sort stuff out in my head." Luna sighed as she looked at the floor. "So, I just walked, and kept walking and..." She blushed softly when her stomach growled. "Uh, I guess I haven't eaten or drank much in the last week."

Lina rolled her eyes. "Come on, let's get you something to eat, then we'll talk."

It was almost an hour and several plates worth of devoured food later that Luna was finally ready to start talking.

"So, sis, what happened?" Lina blinked as Luna's expression became one of depression. "You didn't kill someone did you?"

"No." Luna shook her head and looked at Lina, blinking as she saw Cinque walk into the kitchen, rubbing her eye sleepily as she went over to the sink. "Uh..."

"Thirsty." Cinque muttered as she got some water and went back to the living room.

"Movie marathon, and she was up really early this morning, claimed she was too hot." It wasn't unreasonable, some people just couldn't sleep when their room got above certain temperatures. "Anyway, Luna, what's going on?"

"I... I..." Luna's face went as red as Lina's hair as she muttered a phrase.

"Uh..." Lina blinked. "Sis, even if my hearing was going, which I don't think it is, I didn't catch what you just..."

"I kissed a woman!" Luna's outburst was so sudden that Lina's eyes widened as she fell backwards, crashing to the floor and groaning. "There! You happy, sis?" Luna looked down at her lap and started trembling. "I've always liked women more than men. Me, the former Cephied Knight... Someone who was sick and messed up in the head."

"Woah, wait, wait, wait..." Lina stood up and stared at her sister, stunned. "What do you mean, sick and messed up?"

"It's not natural, is it?" Luna looked at Lina sharply, standing up and looking at Lina squarely in the eyes. "For two women to love each other. What purpose does it serve? You know how people back home react to two deviants, don't you?"

"Uh, Luna..." Lina rubbed the bridge of her nose, she couldn't believe that her sister was a lesbian, though, it made sense why Luna never went on dates or even hung around guys too often. "That was at home, that's not..."

"It's true." Luna twitched. "Lina, when I was starting to realize that I like girls more than boys, you know what I saw?" Lina could only blink in confusion. "Two deviants, two men were found out to be lovers, they were dragged out into the open, naked and beaten in front of everyone. I was only twelve, you know what they said?"

"Any one who is found to be like they were would also be beaten?" Lina guessed, getting a nod from Luna.

"I... You can't..." The next thing Luna knew, Lina was holding her in a tight hug. "Sis?"

"Two things, one, you're not at home anymore and two, no one would beat you for that here." Lina smiled at her sister. "And, secondly, you were the Knight of Cephied," Lina gave her a flat look, "you could have easily beaten anyone who tried to say you were in the wrong."

"People had enough to worry about, if I started attacking people because I liked women, people might have accused me of being possessed by a Mazoku." Luna said flatly, getting a slow nod from Lina.

"I suppose that's true..." Lina trailed off, knowing exactly what kind of nut jobs existed on her old home world when it came to proving Mazoku were possessing someone, much less finding if someone had made something simple like a deal with them. "Still, this isn't home. You don't need to worry about that stuff around here." Seeing Luna look unconvinced, Lina sighed and let go of her sister. "Here, why don't you spend the night? I'll give the church a call."

"Thanks." Luna sighed heavily and leaned back in her chair. When Lina was gone, Luna looked up at the ceiling while holding a hand above her head. "How can I ever let mom and dad know about this?"

It might have been a weak excuse for how she was acting, but impressions that strong from when she was a young girl never went away, even as an adult.

(-)

"I see, thank you." Carim nodded as she hung up the phone. Turning to Tre, she smiled at her. "Seems that Luna disappeared to go see her sister." It was almost amusing how Tre was more worried than she tried to let people know.

Tried being the operative word, as she spent most of the week out looking for Luna. It would have been almost cute in most circumstances. Seeing the brief flash of relief cross Tre's face, followed by a flash of annoyance almost made Carim wish that she had installed security cameras in her office.

After all, she needed an excuse for recording cute moments like this.

"I see." Tre stood up. "Excuse me."

"The Midoriya Cafe is on the far West side of Cranagan." Carim laughed as Tre stumbled forward, before turning and twitching and then leaving without saying a word.

Carim smiled to herself and wondered how long it would take Tre to get Luna back. Oh well, she'd find out soon enough.

(-)

Looking up from the table he was sitting at, Kuma raised an eyebrow behind his shades as he saw Zelgadis sit down across from him. "Well, well, never thought I'd get the royal treatment from Riot Force Six."

"Knock it off," Zelgadis narrowed his eyes at Kuma, "how you avoided being thrown in prison is beyond me."

"Hey, when you're awesome, stuff like that doesn't matter." Kuma hunched over as he leaned forward. "Besides, taking care of those two girls is a full-time job, your boss decided that as long as I take care of them and pass along any tidbits of information along the way, she wouldn't bother with me."

"Uh huh... You know," Zelgadis narrowed his eyes at Kuma, "it wouldn't be hard to still have you arrested, you did attack a member of the Bureau while she was on duty, stole medical equipment, not to mention that your speed is so dangerous that you could destroy a good chunk of the planet if left unchecked."

Leaning back, Kuma shrugged and crossed his legs. "What would be the point of doing that? All the pretty ladies would be gone if I did that." Kuma leaned forward and his playful demeanor vanished as he folded his hands in front of his face. "Anyway, found some interesting pieces of information. From what I've heard, one of the most dangerous crime groups in the outer territories has recently taken a long-term mission. I'm not sure who the client is, but from what I've heard, they're heading into the furthest reaches of space and probably won't be back for at least four years."

"You're talking about that group, aren't you?" Zelgadis mentally cursed as Kuma nodded. "Who has the price to hire criminals that specialize in anti-magic abilities?"

Kuma shrugged at the question. "Not sure, but I also heard that some of the other crime organizations may be taking their spots up while they're away."

"Makes sense. Heard anything else?"

"Other than a couple of shuttle pilots getting enough supplies to last them months, nothing unusual." Zelgadis raised an eyebrow at that last one. "From what I've heard, it's not too unusual, but what's interesting is that these pilots apparently were only ten years old or something."

"And let me guess, no information about what they look like or anything?" Zelgadis sighed when Kuma shrugged. "Fine, just keep us up to date on anything that you find."

Kuma smirked and was about to say something when a pair of arms suddenly wrapped around him from behind. "Ah, Kyrie, you done here?"

"Mmmhmm!" Kyrie grinned as she pressed her breasts against his back while hugging him. "Thanks for taking Ami and I out to have fun."

Kuma patted her arm and looked to see Amitie, holding several bags and shaking her head, standing nearby. "I'm glad, we should probably go then."

Zelgadis nodded and watched Kuma as he got up and left with Kyrie hanging off one arm and Amitie walking fairly close to his other arm. Zelgadis knew a lot about reading people, and even he had to admit, he was a little confused about those two girls.

(-)

The next morning...

Taking a sip from her coffee, Lina, dressed in a bathrobe, blinked as she heard a knocking on the door. "Coming." Going over to the door, she blinked as she saw Tre standing in front of the door. "Came to get my sister?"

Tre shook her head. "No, I just want to talk to her."

Sein popped her head out from behind Tre. "Good morning!" She grinned at Lina. "Mind if I come in?" Lina raised an eyebrow and Sein fidgeted. "I just want to see Dieci and Cinque, okay?"

Lina waved them in just in time for Shiro, who was dressed in casual pants and a loose shirt, blinked at Tre and Sein. "Wow, I thought Sette was tall."

Tre blushed and looked away. "Not that much taller."

Shiro blinked at the reaction. "You know what the worst part about being taller than others around you?" Tre looked at him, a slightly upset expression on her face. "They never make beds long enough after a certain point."

Tre blinked, several times, before something unusual happened. "That," her lips started to twitch upwards as she snorted while her shoulders shook, "was a very, very..." Tre had to lean back against the wall as she started to laugh, a deep, throaty laugh that had Sein staring in shock.

Never, in all the time she had known Tre, had she seen Tre laugh like that.

"That was a lame joke." Lina chuckled, but even so, it was kind of funny. "I'll go get my sister."

"I wanna check on mine!" Sein followed Lina out of the kitchen.

Shiro smiled at Tre as she calmed down and sat down. "Feeling better?" Tre nodded, a small smile still on her face. "Good. You shouldn't worry about people thinking that you're too tall, or too large or anything like that." Tre flushed and looked away. "I wouldn't worry about it anyway." He smirked at Tre as she glanced at him out of the corner of her eye. "I'll be honest, if I wasn't married and about thirty years younger, I would have swept you off your feet easily."

"Knock it off, honey." Lina said as she came back into the kitchen with a rather sheepish looking Luna behind her. "You're too charming for most women to handle."

Chuckling, Shiro walked over to Lina and cupped her chin while smiling at her. "I think my charms work just right." He leaned in and kissed her on the lip, getting a happy moan from his wife as she hugged him closer. "Don't you?" He breathed to her after he broke the kiss.

Lina was blushing and panting softly as she trailed a finger over his chest. "Still too strong, I think that you need to help me with a sudden problem I have."

Tre and Luna gawked as Lina dragged Shiro out of the room. "...Are they like that all the time?" Tre looked at Luna, who could only weakly shrug her shoulders.

"I'm not sure..." Luna trailed off, suddenly aware that Tre was in the same room as her. "Ah, about..."

Tre sighed heavily. "I don't care if you have a thing for me. I can handle that. If you hate me, I can handle that too. If you don't care, I can handle that." She stood up and glared at the older woman. "What I can't stand, however, is your goddamned mixed signals. There are days I'm not sure if I should beat you up, spar with you, or go to Sein and work off other frustrations."

Luna winced and looked down. "I'm sorry, but I..." She blinked as Tre put her hands on Luna's shoulders and looked up at Tre, who was still frowning at her.

"Listen, like I said, I don't care what you feel about me, but you need to let me know, right now..." Tre took a deep breath. "What am I to you? An annoyance? Someone to get angry at? Or maybe..."

"I don't know." Luna sighed and moved over to the chair to sit down. "I... I just don't know. When I look at you, I feel things, and then I get upset about it, so I have to do something and..."

The next thing Luna knew, Tre had grabbed her face, turned her head and was kissing her on the lips, causing the older woman's eyes to widen dramatically. She was still staring in shock as Tre, completely red-faced, pulled away from Luna.

"Alright, you didn't pull away, now tell me, Luna, do you want to do it again?"

Luna nodded shakily. "Y..yes, but, but what about Sein?"

Tre shrugged at the question. "Do you really think Sein would be against a three-some?" Tre stared as Luna suddenly froze up, before passing out and slamming to the floor. "...Was it something I said?"

Still, it was something, though, Tre had a feeling it wouldn't be as easy as she was hoping it would be.

Tre then mentally slapped herself. "I've been around Sein too much."

(-)

Teana stretched as she walked outside in the crisp morning air. It was nice to walk outside before going on any sort of missions. Becoming an Enforcer wasn't going to be easy, she knew that, however, Chrono had assured her that simply being one of the people who fought during the most recent incident that she was well on her way to being an Enforcer anyway. "Hey, Cross Mirage. How are you holding up?"

**"Very well. You okay?"**

"I'm fine myself." Teana smiled at her device, which was in its card form.

"Teana! Is that you?" Teana turned to see Quint, still with green hair, walking up to her. "I almost didn't recognize you with your hair down."

Teana blushed softly and ran a hand through her hair. "I figure that it was time to drop the twin ponytails, you know?"

Quint nodded, smiling and walking off. "Well, it was nice to see you, oh, wait!" Quint turned to look at Teana. "Say, I was wondering something." Teana blinked at her in confusion. "I know that you don't have a place of your own yet, and that you don't have any other family members, but..." Quint smiled at Teana. "Would you like to live with my family?"

Teana stared at her. "Huh? Just like that?" Quint nodded at her. "I dunno... I can get pretty violent with Subaru pretty quickly. You really want someone who will beat your daughter up?"

Quint giggled at Teana. "I think Subaru likes it when you beat her up." She laughed as Teana blushed and looked away. "But, the fact is, Teana, I would rather you live with us than in a house on your own. Besides," she winked at the younger girl, who stared in shock at how Quint's expression almost mirrored Subaru's when Subaru was saying something embarrassing, "I know Subaru would love it if you lived with us."

"I wouldn't want to impose, besides, the Bureau could easily set up a place of my own."

Quint shrugged and turned to walk away. "Your loss, but what will Subaru do with all of your clothes that she brought to the spare room?"

Teana's eyes widened and her face went totally red. "W...What?"

"I'm pretty sure that she enjoyed bringing your underwear to that extra room." Quint had a hard time keeping a grin from forming on her face. "After all, she is my daughter, who knows _what_ she's planning on doing with..."

"GAH!" Quint turned around to see Teana rush past her. "I need to stop that perverted daughter of yours!" Blinking, Quint ran to quickly catch up to Teana.

"And just how will you stop her?" Quint asked as the two ran down the block.

"I'll make her, even if I have to stay there myself!" Teana put on a burst of speed and Quint blinked, chuckling to herself.

"That was easier than I thought it would be." She muttered softly to herself.

It didn't take long for Quint to get to her house at the same time as Teana. Entering, she fought back the urge to laugh as Teana rushed to the table and grabbed Subaru. "Su-Ba-Ruuuuu!"

"ACK! Tea!" Subaru's eyes were wide as Teana lifted her out of her seat. "What?"

"Why did you steal all my underwear?" Subaru stared in shock as Genya spit his coffee all over Ginga, who yelped and fell out of her chair while Nove just started banging her head on the kitchen table. Aston was busy laughing at his father and Ginga's funny faces and Cecilia wondered just why someone was trying to hurt her big sister.

"Why, doctor, why did you have to have me related to this group of perverts?" Nove muttered to herself as she kept lightly banging her head on the table.

"Uh, I didn't?" Subaru lightly scratched her cheek. "If I wanted Tea's panties, I'd just take them off of you." Amazingly enough, Teana's hair stood on end while her face went totally red. "Um, Tea..?"

"Su..Ba..Ru... You IDIOT!"

"Alright, that's enough." Quint grabbed Teana and pulled her away from Subaru before something bad happened. "Teana, calm down, Subaru didn't take your underwear."

Teana blinked, her face slowly turning back to normal. "What?"

"Sorry, but I lied." Teana spun around to stare at Quint in shock. "So... You still want to live here?"

Teana hung her head and groaned. "I have a feeling that even if I refused, you'd still manage to get me to live here."

"Glad to see that you understand." Quint patted Teana on the head. "So, you heard her, Teana's going to be moving in with us."

"Not that I mind," and Nove didn't, she liked Teana, "but I hope she's not going to accuse us of stealing her underwear all the time."

Teana blushed even as Quint laughed at that. "Don't worry, I won't be doing that."

Subaru blinked several times, thought about what Teana had just said, before a wide grin came to her face. "YAY! TEA!" She tackled the girl to the floor in a tight hug. "You're going to live with us? Yay!"

"GAH! Get off!" Teana yelled as she rolled with the tackle and ended up on her back as Subaru started nuzzling her chest. "C... Come on! Knock it off! Your family is watching!"

Genya just shook his head. Leave it to his wife to do something so underhanded, sneaky and tricky.

Oh well, he wouldn't have married her if she was any different.

(-)

Moaning softly, Hayate blinked and rubbed her eyes, looked at the clock before flopping back onto the bed and rolling over, sighing as she felt her face press into a nice pair of soft, yet firm breasts. She smiled as she felt a pair of arms wrap around her and hug her...

'Wait a second, breasts? I went to bed alone last night.' Hayate's eyes snapped open and she raised her head to see a face smiling softly at her, red eyes showing nothing but tenderness towards her. "R...R...R..."

"Morning, Hayate," her bed partner said softly and kissed her on the forehead, "how are you?"

"REINFORCE!" Hayate hugged the naked device as hard as she could, sobbing into Reinforce's chest. "Please, don't be a dream. Don't be a dream." Hayate whimpered as she felt Reinforce's hands rub up and down her back. "Please... If this is a dream, then I'll wake up and you'll be gone and I'll be all alone and, oww!" Hayate winced as she felt two fingers pinch her butt. "That hurt..."

"Am I still here?" Reinforce asked softly while rubbing Hayate's rear gently. "Because I hope this isn't a dream either."

Hayate's eyes watered up and she leaned up, kissing Reinforce deeply as the two of them hugged each other tightly, clinging to each other, their eyes were closed as tears of joy fell down their faces.

"What's all the..." Vita's sleepy voice came into the room, only to trail off. "MOM? YOU'RE ALIVE?"

"MOMMY!" Reinforce Zwei yelled as she zipped into the room, her eyes lighting up in happiness as she saw Reinforce and Hayate kissing. "MOMMY! MOMMY!"

Reinforce broke the kiss with Hayate so she could smile at the rest of her family as they stood in the doorway. She noted that Signum had an eye-patch on and a small red haired girl floating near Signum. Zafira was in wolf form and Shamal was smiling at the scene, looking almost relieved for some reason. "I'm back, everyone. I'm sorry that I was gone for so long." Sure, there were new things about her family that she didn't know, but that could wait for a little bit.

The important thing was, she was finally home, safe and sound with the ones she loved.

-Numbers End

* * *

What? Did you think I was going to end Reinforce for good?

Up next, SSX. However, it's going to be a little bit before I post it. Both to give you readers a chance to get caught up and for me to get further ahead in the story so I don't have to take a longer break between arcs.


	271. SSX Start

Blood That Flows

SSX Start

Of course I own nothing.

Okay, sorry about the delay. Been distracted as of late, I meant to have this started up earlier than this.

* * *

Yawning as she walked into the kitchen of her home, Nanoha nodded to Arf. "Morning." She blinked several times as she saw was Arf was wearing. "...Why are you wearing just shorts and no shirt?"

"Because I got an apron on!" The familiar, in her child form, smiled at Nanoha. "And it's not like I've got breasts in this form, so nyah!" She stuck her tongue out and went back to cooking for everyone. "I'll have breakfast ready soon."

"Thanks, Arf, you've been a really big help."

Arf turned and smiled at her. "Of course! I am Fate's familiar after all, cooking breakfast, helping you, Fate, Yuuno and Miyuki adjust to living together along with Vivio is simple for me."

"Don't forget Erio and Caro." Nanoha smiled tiredly as Arf nodded.

"Of course, they're coming home soon, aren't they?"

Nanoha nodded to her. "Yeah, it's a shame that Fate, Yuuno and myself are heading out today on that mission."

Arf shrugged, she knew about the mission. "You'll be gone, what? A week? Relax, even if something weird happens you know Erio and Caro can take care of themselves." Nanoha nodded at that and blinked as a leer came across Arf's face. "Speaking of taking care of yourself, did you have fun last night?" Arf giggled as Nanoha's face turned red. "I'm surprised you're the first one up, really. You know how loud you get when you..."

"Alright, that's enough of that!" Nanoha snapped, trying to get her blush down. "Little girls shouldn't be grinning like that." When Arf shrugged and shifted to her adult form, Nanoha fell over as Arf's large breasts spilled out of her apron. "ARF!"

"What?" Arf shrugged, then looked down. "...Oh."

"Sheesh! I didn't mean for you to do that!" Nanoha said as she rubbed her head. "Besides, what I do at night isn't really your concern, is it?"

Shifting back to her child form, Arf gave Nanoha a flat look. "It is when you keep me up half the night."

Before the two could argue any further, Vivio walked into the kitchen, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. "Morning, mama, Arf-nee..." Her hair was sticking out at odd angles as she scratched her head. "Thirsty..." She muttered, grabbing a glass and filling it with water. "Ngh... Is Mary done with that new device she promised me yet?"

Nanoha smiled at her. "Not quite yet, she got distracted by the data Thoth sent her." Vivio groaned and drank her water. "Go get cleaned up."

Vivio nodded and left the room quickly. After she left, Nanoha looked at Arf with narrowed eyes. "You're lucky you transformed back before she showed up."

Arf sighed at that. "You take a bath with her, it's not like she hasn't seen this kind of stuff before. We went to that outdoor bath last month with Hayate and her family, remember?"

"It's not that, Arf, this isn't the time and place to get naked, okay?"

"All things considered, she lives in a house with three women and one man and you four really don't keep quiet when you're having fun, I don't think seeing naked breasts is going to be a problem for her." Secretly, Arf was just waiting for Vivio to accidentally run into one of the adults during those moments. She wondered who it would be more embarassing for, the adults or Vivio.

"I'm going to go get ready and wake everyone up." As Nanoha got to the stairs, she bumped into her older sister. "Sorry, Miyuki-nee."

"Hey, no problem." Miyuki smiled at the younger woman. "And don't worry about a thing, I can watch over Vivio and the house while you're gone."

"Thanks," Nanoha nodded and looked at Miyuki, before biting her lip, sighing and going upstairs, causing Miyuki to blink at her retreating back.

Shaking her head, Miyuki walked into the kitchen just as Arf was finished with making breakfast. "You know what's wrong with Nanoha?" She found it a little odd that Arf was only wearing shorts and an apron, but mentally shrugged it off.

Arf gave her a flat stare. "Considering the situation between you for and your bedroom antics, why shouldn't she feel a little awkard?"

Miyuki sighed and rubbed her eyes. "I see." It was pretty easy for her to forget that not everyone got a crush on their older sibling when they were growing up. "So, what do wolves do?"

"I wouldn't know." Arf answered honestly. "I was only a puppy when Fate made me into her familiar, I'd be dead right now without her. If he can remember that far back, Zafira would be have better answers."

Miyuki nodded, that made sense. "Anyway, you're going to stick around, right?"

"Of course I am." Arf rolled her eyes at Miyuki. "Someone has to cook food for everyone. You're completely hopeless."

Miyuki groaned at that. Just because she messed up with ingredients once in the past two years didn't mean she was horrible. How was she supposed to know that wasn't nutmeg? Mid-Childa didn't have everything the same as Earth did. "Fine, but if you wear just that apron, someone might do horrible things to such an innocent child."

A moment later, Miyuki was hit in the face with a hot, wet towel.

(-)

A couple of hours later...

Shamal shook her head as she walked into Hayate's office. "Hayate," she smiled at the shorter woman, who nodded back to her, "you know, you don't need to go with us..."

"Shamal," Hayate narrowed her eyes at the doctor, "I told you, I just felt a little nauseous this morning, nothing serious. Besides, I'm more worried that you don't have your affairs in order."

Shamal shook her head. "No, I got it taken care of two days ago..."

***Flash***

Kyrie blinked as she and Shamal finished up their session. "What do you mean you won't be here next week?"

"I told Amitie already, but I guess she didn't tell you, huh?" Kyrie shook her head. "alright, I'm going to be gone all next week. There was a request and most of the top staff of the Riot Force are going to be on this mission."

Kyrie stared at Shamal. "Must be some mission." Shamal shrugged. "So, what am I supposed to..." Kyrie trailed off as Shamal tossed her something. "What's this?"

"A journal." Shamal said to her. "Just record your day to day activities in it. You don't need to comment on any dreams or thoughts in specific, just write what comes to you, okay?" She blinked as Kyrie looked down. "Something wrong?"

"It's just..." Kyrie surprised Shamal by suddenly hugging her. "You've been so kind to me and Ami and you didn't need to."

Shamal sighed as she hugged the younger girl. "And I've told you before, I've never tried to be cruel in my life. So, you just relax and do this for me, okay?" Kyrie sniffled and nodded while leaning against Shamal's chest. "...You aren't going to let go unless you cuddle for an hour, are you?"

"Well..." Kyrie looked at Shamal with a weird smile on her face and before the knight could figure out what she had planned, the younger girl's lips were planted firmly on her own. Shamal's eyes widened at the kiss and her brain nearly shut down when she felt Kyrie push her tongue into the blonde's mouth even as her breasts pressed against Shamal's own. Regaining her balance, the doctor's brain finally rebooted and she broke the kiss with the younger girl. "Aww..."

"Kyrie," Shamal panted, a blush on her face, "that was totally inappropriate." Seeing Kyrie's eyes widen in fear before she whimpered and looked down, Shamal sighed. "Look, you can't just do that, okay? It's very inappropriate for doctors and their patients to fraternize."

"...If I wasn't your patient, would you let me do that?" Kyrie asked, hopeful. Maybe Shamal wasn't mad at her after all?

Shamal just sighed.

***End Flash***

"Anyway, Hayate, I'm just saying that you should be careful, if you're coming down with something..." Shamal trailed off and sighed as Hayate shook her head. "Alright."

"Hayate's getting sick on us?" Shamal and Hayate looked up as Fate, Nanoha and Yuuno walked in. Fate gave Hayate a pointed look. "If you're getting sick, you should stay home."

Hayate waved her off as she saw the rest of her family follow Reinforce Eins into the office. "Alright, the mission that we were given isn't going to be extremely difficult, thankfully." That drew a few chuckles from everyone as Reinforce move to stand beside her. "As for what it entails, well, guard and escort duty."

"If we have to keep clients alive, I swear, I'm going to bind all of them in one area so they can't move," Vita grumbled, remembering all those horrible, horrible escort missions. Just _how_ could the computer be so _stupid_?!

"Thankfully it's not like that." Reinforce spoke up for Hayate. "There was a rather large find of various things, from materials, to Lost Logia and even some relics of old civilizations. Unfortunately, it's out in the furthest reaches of Bureau space, near the outlands..."

"Let me guess," Signum spoke up as she adjusted the black glove on her right hand, "they need at least two ships to cart it all back, it's spread across several worlds or there's a major risk of being attacked by criminals out there?"

Hayate nodded at her and looked at Yuuno, Nanoha, and Fate before looking at Zafira, Shamal, Rein Zwei and Agito. "Because of the rather lawless nature of the area out there, we were all asked to play bodyguard." Hayate leaned forward slightly and laced her fingers in front of her face. "I don't like the thought of all of us leaving Cranagan at the same time. If something happened, none of us would be here, so, I ask, do any of you have any reservations about going?" She smiled lightly when they all shook their heads negatively. "Well then, we fly to the space port by helicopter and then leave as soon as we get there." Hayate smiled and stood up. "I hope you all packed plenty of clothes for the mission. Dismissed."

Later in the day, far out of the city...

"You know, Ami," Kyrie spoke up as the two cleaned up around the hot springs area, "I was thinking of something."

"Does it involve eggplants?" Amitie asked, causing Kyrie to stare at her. "Because I've been thinking that I need to try stuff with eggplants lately."

"The last time you tried to do something with something you made a bomb... Out of cotton, and I still don't know how you got it to stick." Kyrie waved her hands. "Anyway, I was thinking, you know what would be really awesome?" Amitie blinked at Kyrie, she typically only got this excited... Well, she tended to get excited a lot. "You know, I was thinking, we haven't had much luck with Kuma, right?"

Amitie nodded, part of her wondered why he wouldn't want them, but she shrugged it off. "What you got in mind?"

"Well..." Kyrie rubbed her hands together and grinned as she explained her idea to Amitie.

Blinking, the elder Florian sister blink and thought about it. "Shamal and... Kuma... Together?" She looked at Kyrie and raised an eyebrow. "I'd think you'd want Shamal for yourself."

Kyrie pouted and looked down. "I gave her a kiss and she pushed me away," she looked up and grinned at Amitie, "but at least this way, we can have both of them with us!"

Amitie blinked, before nodding and smiling at the thought. She idly wondered if the two of them could convince Shamal and Kuma for something more, but she wasn't greedy, just the thought of having Kuma and Shamal around at the same time made her feel...

Really nice.

* * *

Nanoha: What do you mean that we're not going to be in this arc?!  
Fate: We need to let the others have a chance to shine too.  
Nanoha: WAAAGH! It's been so long and now we have to get out of this arc?! Not fair!  
Fate: Next time on Blood That Flows - SSX, Nanoha, stop trying to contact L-Sama to beat the author up.

So, yeah, this arc covers the events of Sound Stage X. I know a lot of people haven't read transcripts or listened to the Sound Stage, so, this should give you a good run-down of the events that happened.


	272. SSX 2

Blood That Flows

SSX 2

Of course I own nothing.

* * *

Meanwhile...

Kneeling down and examining the ground closely, Teana frowned as she and her assistant looked over the scene of another murder. "Rune, any clues?"

The short haired girl, who was slightly shorter than Teana was, with hair the color of ripe straw and amber eyes that were a couple of shades lighter than Fate's own, pulled up a holo screen before sighing. "None. By all accounts, the dead bodies were removed from this location."

"Again? This is the second time." Teana narrowed her eyes. "We know that those bodies were really dead, right?"

"By all accounts, yes." Her aide, Runessa Magnus, said while nodding. "However, it was stated that the bodies have all disappeared by now." She sighed as she turned her screen off. "My apologies, I wish I was more helpful."

Teana shook her head and smiled as she stood up. "It can't be helped. Either we have some really fast scavengers or a necromancer of some sort." The first thought didn't bother her as much as the second one did. If it was a necromancer, just how were they able to work so fast?

"There's no trace of any sort of predator."

Teana sighed and rubbed her forehead. "How many bodies between the two worlds?"

"Just four in total." Runessa looked at Teana. "Is that a good or a bad thing?"

"I'm not sure, Rune, but then again, I'd rather not deal with this if I could help it." Teana shook her head and started to walk away. "Let's go."

"Where are we going?" Runessa asked Teana, who gave her a half-smirk as she looked over her shoulder.

"It's doubtful we'll find anything here. The last murder scene only left clues of a brief struggle, some blood, weapons used, and nothing else, right?" Runessa nodded at her. "If there was a dead body, we'd have something to look at, but so far, there's nothing."

"I wonder why." Runessa mused out loud as she followed Teana. "So, what is your plan?"

"I'm going to head to Cranagan, get a hold of some of my contacts, and see if there's anything on file that resembles these events." Plus if there was a necromancer involved, she'd need to contact Zelgadis about what to do. After all, he had more experience with dead things than she did.

Runessa just nodded and continued followed her.

(-)

Meanwhile, on another planet, a matter of interest was happening...

"Heh heh heh, this works out so well, doesn't it?" A rather tall man with long, black hair looked at his partner, who was equally as tall, but had short blond hair. "I hate having to do this extra work, just to make some quick money."

The blond snorted at his partner. "If you didn't like money, you wouldn't work at all." They shared a quick laugh as they got closer to their target. "There it is, now, all we have to do is..."

"Leave before someone half your age and size kicks your ass from here to Cranagan." Someone said from behind them.

"Leave before..." Blinking, the two turned in shock to see a redheaded boy in brown pants and a blue shirt smirking at the two of them. "Who the hell are you?"

"Erio Mondial, and I'm one of the Rangers around here." Erio's smirk seemed to grow as he looked at them. "And, so you know, the other one's right above me."

Looking up, the men paled as they saw a _huge_ white Dragon hovering in the air and growling down at them.

"So, I'll give you a chance to surrender peacefully and I won't have the Dragon eat you." Erio still couldn't believe how fast Fried had grown in less than three years.

"Tsk, you punk," the black haired one narrowed his eyes at the boy. "What makes you think that you're a match for us?"

Erio chuckled at him. "One, the Dragon is my friend, two, his master is right behind you and despite how cute she is, she could kick your ass without his help, three," a weird spear formed in Erio's hands, "I have Ragudo Mezzagis, four, you have no magic and the most important part of all..."

"You two are common bandits and our grandmother is the 'bandit killer'." Caro finished for Erio.

"You punk!" The blond did something that was kind of surprising...

He pulled out a revolver hand gun and fired three shots at Erio.

As surprising as it was, the two thugs paled as the bullets bounced off of a barrier. "Oh shit, they're with the Bureau?"

"Gee, took you long enough to figure that out. Caro, shall we?"

Caro nodded and grinned as magic circles appeared under both of their feet. "Double Mega..."

"Brand." Erio finished as the two snapped their fingers. The ground around them shook for a moment before erupting upwards in a huge explosion. Watching the energy travel upwards, Erio, Caro and Fried all sweat-dropped as the explosion exploded again, becoming a giant cloud that had several cloud streams fall out of it, which all exploded as well. "Okay, note to self, we don't do that again."

Caro just nodded as the two thugs came crashing back to the ground. "...Fried, will you carry them back with us?"

"Kurrr..." The Dragon snorted and walked over to the two crispy victims and watched them for a moment. His eyes widened when he saw an arm move suddenly.

Erio and Caro watched, a little bewildered as Fried suddenly breathed fire on the two downed bandits, causing them to both scream in pain. "...They shouldn't have moved." Caro murmured as she called Fried off and cast a water spell on them.

It wouldn't do to have the two of them die for no reason after all.

(-)

About an hour later...

Erio was slightly annoyed as his superiors laughed at the recount of what happened. "Oh, come on, it's not that funny."

"Overkill is funny," Mira laughed at him. She was a slender woman with dark hair and a short ponytail. "Besides, it's going to be a bit lonely around here with you and Caro leaving tomorrow."

"Ah!" Caro's eyes went blank at that. "It's been three months already?"

"Yeah, it has," the final person, a man with a scruffy beard and glasses on his face, said, "you know, Caro, Erio, you two really should try to convince your parents to let you two stay out here for more than three months at a time."

Caro looked at Erio, who nodded. "Well, we talked about it, and even our parents aren't full time Bureau members, our grandmother doesn't even like the thought of our parents being part of the Bureau, but..." She trailed off and looked at Erio helplessly.

"We do like it here, Tanto-san," Erio continued for her, "but everyone's going to be on Cranagan at the same time for the first time in almost two years now."

"Ah," the man nodded and smiled at him, "a little reunion then?" Erio nodded at him. "Don't worry about it then, what about your friend Lutecia though?"

"Last I heard, she's still on Carnaaji with Due and Megane." Caro said to him. "Zest-san was apparently on a long mission a month ago, he might be getting back soon, but Lu's not sure."

"She said that her resort was almost done though." Erio said, happy for his friend. "I'm glad she's doing okay."

Both Tanto and Mira nodded at them. "Well, if you two decide to be full-time rangers, let us know, we'd love to have you around."

"For now," Tanto reached behind him and pulled out some signs, "what do you think of our warning signs?"

"Danger, poaching is against the law and if you attempt to do so, you face massive explosions, burns and a long hospital stay." Erio read off, sweat-dropping heavily. "It's not _that_ bad!"

"Erio, the poachers that tried three weeks ago are still in a full body cast, and the poachers that you caught a month before that are in the mental hospital screaming about pink little demons and their redheaded familiars." Mira smirked as both children face-faulted at hearing that. "Keep this up, and you two will have a horrible reputation before you're fifteen."

"Didn't grandma get a reputation as the Enemy of all Who Live by the time she was sixteen?" Erio asked Caro, who nodded at that.

"And Nanoha-san was called a Devil when she was younger than we are." Caro and Erio took one look at each other and grinned. "Maybe grandma will be proud of us if we get a nickname like that too!"

"Yeah!" Erio grinned and both adults just sighed at them.

"I think you encouraged them." Tanto muttered to Mira, who glared at him. "...What?"

"I'm not the one who made the sign." Mira muttered to him.

* * *

Lutecia: So, I'm in the next chapter? Oh ho ho ho! Excellent!  
Due: Oh dear lords. Next time on Blood That Flows - SSX  
Lutecia: Mine mine mine! My turn! Ha ha ha!  
Due: She's gone insane.


	273. SSX 3

Blood That Flows

SSX 3

Of course I own nothing.

* * *

Meanwhile on Crannaji...

Lutecia wiped some sweat from her forehead as she looked at her handiwork. "Hmm, another two months and the training course will be complete."

"Really?" She turned to see Due walking up behind her as the cyborg carried several pieces of pipe under her arms. "So, what's your plans after this?"

Lutecia sighed and shook her head. "I don't..." Her shoulders slumped as she looked over the training area. "...Due, do you think I'm wasting my life?"

"Huh?" Due blinked stupidly at the question. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"I don't know, I just feel like I should be doing something more with my life, like something's missing."

"Besides your memories?" Due sighed as Lutecia seemed to get more depressed. "Alright, listen, Lu, what you're feeling right now probably has something to do with your missing memories. I don't know what happened to you when you were working for the Doctor," which was a lie, Due knew a lot about what Lutecia had gone through, but it was best to not let her know, "but I'm sure that it wasn't anything important."

Lutecia sighed and nodded. "Okay... I just... Feel like there's something in my life that I'm missing, something important, but every time I try to think about it," the young girl grimaced and grabbed her head, groaning as sounds, sensations and feelings suddenly washed over her. "NNNGAH!"

"LU!" Due dropped the pipes and grabbed the girl as she suddenly passed out. "Hey, come on! Wake up!" Picking up Lutecia, Due ran back to the house, hoping that Lutecia wasn't somehow recovering her memories of that time.

It just wouldn't be fair to her.

(-)

Megane sighed as Lutecia woke up almost two hours later. "You scared us." She gently squeezed Lutecia's hand. "How are you feeling?"

"My head hurts." Lutecia whimpered and slowly sat up. "What happened?"

Megane shook her head. "I'm not sure. I just want you to take it easy, okay?" Lutecia nodded as she stood up. "I'm going to go and help Due with something, you just take it easy, okay?"

As her mom left the room, Lutecia sighed and rested her head back on the pillow, sighing and wondering just what happened out there.

(-)

Outside of the room, Megane frowned softly and walked into the living room where Due was communicating with the Saint Church. "You're sure?" Verossa said as he spoke to Due. "I admit that I don't have much in the way of experience in placing mental blocks on someone, but even so, I mostly erased her memory and put blocks in to keep her from thinking about her missing memories too much."

"But she is," Megane said as she walked up to the screen, "why?" She nearly growled as Verossa shook his head and shrugged at the same time, "Verossa..."

"Hey, I'm not sure. If I knew, I'd tell you. Though, if I were to come out there, I could figure it out easily enough."

Megane nodded at the image and sighed. "Please do."

"I'll be there in about four hours." With a nod, the screen turned off and Megane looked at Due, wondering what to do next.

(-)

Four hours later...

Verossa raised an eyebrow as he saw Lutecia sleeping. "I'm almost afraid to ask..." He trailed off, looking at Due, who whistled a soft tune. "Just what did you do?"

"What? Just because I might have slipped a sedative into her drink a couple of hours ago doesn't mean that I did anything wrong at all." Due tried her best to look innocent.

Which failed a moment later when Megane grabbed her, threw her to the door and blasted her with a purple energy blast. "Stay out, you maniac!"

Verossa sighed and shook his head, "anyway," closing his eyes, he put a hand on Lutecia's forehead and took a deep breath as he dove into her mind again. 'Now then, what am I..?' His thoughts trailed off as he saw what he was looking for, an inky black mass that swirled around in Lutecia's mind. 'What the hell?' His eyes widened as his mental body was stabbed with inky blank tendrils. 'UGH! Okay, that hurt,' he grimaced, thankful that the pain wasn't physical, otherwise he'd be dead at that moment.

He was about to remove the substance from his mental body when he heard an echo. _"Master... Obey... Please me."_

'What the hell?!' Verossa mentally screamed as he attacked the inky black mess, getting it to dislodge from his body. The next thing he saw was the ink suddenly split into dozens of small bits and disappearing completely. 'What was that?' Looking down, he saw a piece of black sludge slide onto his foot.

_"Master... Need... Where..? Help me."_

'Lu, what's wrong with your voice? What is going on here?'

_"Need you, master... Where are you?'_

Verossa's eyes widened. 'You have got to be kidding, even with her missing memories, she still has a compulsion for needing a master?' Though, he had a feeling that she needed more than just a master. 'I don't have the experience, what is it that you need?' He threw his head back and screamed as several tendrils pierced his body.

Oddly enough, none of them were causing him pain, in fact, it was almost pleasant. 'Wait a second, I'm getting stabbed by these things and I'm not in pain?' His eyes widened as a flash of memory struck him, driving him to his knees. 'Lu... Oh damn...' Closing his eyes, he forced himself free from her mind. The next thing that Verossa knew, he was back in his body and laying on the floor. "Ugh... I feel sick..." He looked at Due and Megane's concerned faces. "Let me get my thoughts in order and I'll tell you what I found out."

It was about an hour later at the kitchen table where Megane was staring in shock at what Verossa told her. "You... But you erased her memories..."

"Muscle memory," Due spoke up as she stood by the refrigerator, "even if the reasons for it are gone, her body hasn't forgotten." She slapped her forehead and groaned, "can't believe I didn't realize it sooner."

Verossa sighed and looked at Megane. "Believe me, if I could have avoided this, I would have. I doubt I can ever get rid of the conditioning that she went through. That doesn't make this situation helpless though. I might be able to put some blocks in that can reduce any of those feelings in her."

"I don't like the thought of someone messing with her mind too much, but the alternative is to find her someone to be intimate with her?" Megane winced, Lutecia was only thirteen, even if she looked a bit older.

"I think finding her someone to help her isn't a bad idea." Due shrugged, getting a glare from Megane. "I'm not suggesting myself, if that's what you think. I prefer older men to younger children."

"What are you suggesting, find her some sugar daddy to help take care of that?"

Due shrugged at Megane's question. "If it helps." Seeing Verossa wince and the way that Megane narrowed her eyes, Due held her hands up. "I was kidding. I don't want to whore Lulu out, if that's what you're thinking." Due turned to look at Lutecia's room. "But anyway, can you put a block around that stuff?"

"For awhile, maybe a year." Verossa rubbed his eyes and stood up. "Shouldn't be too hard, but it might take me some time."

"I'll get to making dinner then." Megane stood up and pushed Due out of the room. "You get to explain to Zest when he comes back tonight."

Due's face went completely white. "Why do I have to explain?!" When Megane gave her a smirk, she sighed and went outside. "Great, just great... Why do I feel like my daddy's going to be mad at me when he gets home? Zest isn't even my father!"

She just hoped that Zest wasn't in a bad mood when he got there.

(-)

Hours later...

Verossa staggered out of the room and groaned as he leaned against the wall. Closing his eyes, he took several deep breaths while trying to calm his nerves down. Getting that stupid compulsion that was seemingly etched into Lutecia's mind and body under control was a pain. Opening his eyes, they were angry and troubled. Standing up fully, he made his way to the kitchen and nodded to Megane. "She's fine, she'll be a little confused when she wakes up, but she should be fine. I really don't know what else I can do for her."

Megane nodded to him. "Thank you." Both of them turned as Due walked in with Zest. The big man instantly looked at Verossa, who sighed and nodded to him.

"Lutecia's fine for now. I don't know what else I can do for her right now." Verossa then looked at Due and narrowed his eyes. "Normally I wouldn't speak ill of the dead, but I'm glad that your sister was killed. If she was alive right now, I'd see just how far my mental abilities can go and use her as a test subject."

Due shrugged at that. "I don't blame you. I just wish I could go back in time and finish her off myself."

Zest looked at Megane and nodded. "Excuse me." He stepped out of the room.

Sighing, Verossa walked over to the table and sat down, taking off his jacket and draping it over the back of his chair. 'What next?' He thought to himself.

"What's this?" Due asked as she picked up something on the floor. Verossa turned to look over his shoulder and his eyes widened as he saw her opening a small box. "Woah! Who's this for?"

"Give me that!" Verossa grabbed the box and shoved it into the inside of his coat pocket. His face reddened and he looked away as Due giggled at him. "Guh... Stop acting so smug." It didn't help that Megane had a knowing look on her face. "Just... Knock it off, it's for my girlfriend, okay?"

"I hope it works out for you then." Megane nodded to him and went back to finishing up supper.

(-)

Zest looked at his sleeping daughter before kneeling down next to the bed and brushing the hair away from her sleeping face. "I never was much of a father, was I?" He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "It's not fair to either of you, is it?" Opening his eyes, he nodded to her. "You deserve better than what I've been giving." Gently cupping Lutecia's cheek, he smiled as she started to nuzzle it.

Thankfully he had already made arrangements. After next month, he was going to get a long-deserved vacation.

He wanted to be with his family, after all.

* * *

Subaru: What are... What are you?  
? ? ?: We will find our master. Out of our way.


	274. SSX 4

Blood That Flows

SSX 4

Of course I own nothing.

* * *

Back on Mid-Childa...

"Hey! Subaru!" A male voice called out, causing Subaru to look up from her paper work. "Staying after to do some extra paper work?"

"Hey, Voltz," Subaru smiled at the older man. Sure, he was her commander, but he acted more like a big brother than a commanding officer to her. "Just finishing up my report from that case from two days ago."

"You mean the out-of-control Twinkie Truck?" Both Subaru and Voltz laughed as they remembered what the papers were calling it. "What took you so long to fill the report out anyway?"

"Mary's been demanding my attention about some sort of Lost Logia that she's been playing with." Subaru sighed heavily and shook her head. "Dunno why she wants me to play with it, it's some sort of amplification thing." She waved her hands, not really caring about it. "So," she looked at the scarred man, "anything you wanted?"

"What? I can't flirt with my cute little subordinate?" Voltz winked at her, causing them both to chuckle at the joke. "Actually, I was wondering how things were going for you."

Subaru rubbed the back of her head and smiled at him. "Well, Tea's finally going to be back, so I was hoping to spend the day with her after I was done here."

Voltz smiled at her. "Hey, that's fine. I'll keep you up to date if anything crazy happens."

Subaru rolled her eyes at him as she turned back to her report. "Oh, come on, Voltz, ever since the Cradle incident, there hasn't been anything too crazy. What makes you think something crazy's going to happen in the next few days?"

(-)

"Not here." A feminine voice said as a door suddenly exploded inwards, causing the origin of said voice to turn and watch as several armed people rushed into the room.

"FREEZE!" One of the armed people said as they pointed their weapons at the people in the room.

"Captain, what are they?"

"Wish I knew." The captain whispered as he looked at the five in the room, all of which were in nearly identical body suits that covered their bodies but left their heads and arms completely exposed. On their faces were visors which covered their eyes completely, leaving only a thin stripe in the middle, which, from what the captain could tell, allowed them to see. On their hands down to their elbows were weird gloves, and instead of fingers, it looked like the women all had short metal knives instead of fingers.

"Protectors of this world perhaps?" One of the women said.

"Perhaps." A second one said as she took a step forward, her left arm morphing into a long blade. "Not that it will matter now."

"Hey, STOP!" The captain said, only to gasp as the woman seemed to blur and vanish for a moment.

The next moment revealed a horrifying sight to everyone behind the captain as the woman seemingly reappeared in front of him, her blade shoved through his throat. His body became numb both from the shock and from the blood loss as the woman pulled the blade out of his throat and disappeared, repeating the process on all of the officers.

In under ten seconds, the woman was standing around eight dead bodies.

"I wonder why such a small force confronted us." The woman said as she looked at the others as her arm turned back to normal. "It does not matter, we must find our master."

The others nodded. One stepped forward as the bodies on the floor began to glow with black energy. "The process seems slow."

The first one nodded. "For now, I doubt that it will remain that way for much longer. We Mariage must find our master. We must find Ix."

The others nodded as the dead bodies stood up, their clothes and appearances changing to match the appearance of the Mariage that murdered all of them.

"Let us go." The first Mariage said as the newly created Mariages and the ones that were in the room already disappeared completely.

(-)

Elsewhere...

Quint rubbed her forehead as she and Nove sparred in the yard. "Gotta be faster, Nove." She giggled as she got behind her daughter and tapped her on the shoulder. It wasn't full-contact sparring, since this was just meant to help Nove work out some problems with her style.

Nove spun, growling, but stopped and blinked as Quint suddenly dropped to a knee and grabbed at her forehead. "Mom, you okay?"

"Yeah, I don't..." She gasped as her body suddenly glowed, her green hair turned purple and a small ball of light erupted from her chest. "What the?"

"Looks like the Unison Device got better." Nove idly commented as the ball of light materialized into a small female form.

"Huh?" The device, which had long green hair and green eyes blinked and looked around. On her back were two nearly transparent wings, making her look like a fairy. "Wh...Where am I?!"

Nove found it interesting how the device's long hair was providing her a decent amount of covering for her body. "Tell me, what was the last thing you remember?"

The device blinked and looked confused. "...Something, music maybe? Voices? I can't remember. But there was this metal body... Then tubes... Then... Nothing."

Nove looked at Quint as she got back to her feet. "You okay, mom?"

"Yeah, I'm fine, just a little light headed..." Quint looked at the small device and smiled. "Well, what's your name?"

The device blinked, several times, before tearing up. "I don't remember!" She wailed, sobbing in mid air as she threw her head back.

"Don't worry about it," Nove commented to her, "even Agito can't remember her past." Nove sighed as the device continued to cry. "Hey," she reached out and cupped the back of the device, "calm down, okay? We'll help you, we're not bad people."

"But..." She sniffled and looked at Nove, who was smiling at her. "Who are you?"

"My name is Nove Nakajima... And this," she gestured to Quint, who walked up behind her, "is my mother, Quint Nakajima."

"Hello." Quint smiled at her. "If you want, you can be a part of our family for now." Quint's smile increased as the device nodded to her. "Well then, welcome to the family, little Slyph." Both Nove and the device looked at her. "I can't just say 'hey you' or leave her nameless. And the wings, green hair and eyes? First thing that popped to my mind was that she's a Slyph, you know? A fairy."

Nove blinked and gave her mother a wry smirk. "I'm shocked. Most of the time, no one's that clever in this family." The next thing that she knew, Quint had her in a headlock and was rubbing her knuckles against Nove's scalp, causing the redhead to wave her arms up and down in the air frantically.

Sylph just blinked and smiled. For some reason, watching that caused a rather warm feeling to envelope her.

* * *

Teana: Urgh, what a mess. Next time on Blood That Flows - SSX, read it or we're in trouble.


	275. SSX 5

Blood That Flows

SSX 5

Of course I own nothing.

* * *

It was getting to be late in the day when Teana found herself in a small cafe. "Thanks for meeting me, Mr. Zelgadis."

The older man nodded and sat down across from her. "While I appreciate the meeting, Enforcer Lanster, I wonder why we didn't meet at the Riot Force building or at the Midorya cafe."

Teana shook her head. "The Riot Force is under-staffed at the moment and I don't want too many people over-hearing. If I had my own apartment, I would have invited you to my place to talk." When Zelgadis raised an eyebrow and smirked, Teana blushed and shook her head. "Not like that. I meant over this case."

Zelgadis chuckled at her embarrassment. "It's fine, you're lucky that this place is slow right now, what did you want to talk about?"

"It's about this case, actually." Teana sighed and looked at her drink. "Tell me," she looked back at him, "what do you know about necromancers?"

Zelgadis raised an eyebrow. "Necromancers? Even where I was from, they weren't very common. Mazoku were the most common type, since they could animate bodies easily. But for humans, well, it depends. A novice necromancer can maybe control up to three zombies at a time. A more experienced one can have an entire army, the size depends on the amount of power they have. For example, if you were a necromancer when you joined Riot Force and had some skill, you could control maybe twenty zombies at a time. If Hayate was the one who made the zombies, she could control several thousand easily."

Teana stared at him. "There were necromancers that could do that?"

"Very rare, despite how strong myself or Lina are, most people where we came from aren't quite at that level." Zelgadis leaned back in his chair and thought for a few minutes. "Actually, if you want to know, if my grandfather was into that stuff, he could have revived every dead body on a continent within an hour. But then again, his skill and power was practically unmatched by any human."

Teana shuddered, she couldn't imagine having someone that could do that raise an army of undead to fight again.

"Of course, this assumes that you're just wanting cannon fodder that can march forward without fear of death against your enemies. If you put some actual effort into creating a zombie that's a bit tougher than those or has special tricks, you'll create less of them, but the rewards are more impressive."

Teana sweat-dropped as she listened to Zelgadis. "You... Know a lot about this. Why?"

Zelgadis sighed softly. "When I was younger, I searched tirelessly for a cure to a problem I had. Along the way, I came across several scrolls and tomes that described necromancy in various forms and details. Some even described just how much power was needed by comparing how much energy it took to develop a fireball spell and how much it took to create one zombie and explained how the energy requirements worked at higher levels. I just used math to figure out the rest."

Teana nodded and lightly bit her lips. "Actually, is there anything in there about turning fresh corpses into zombies?"

"Fresh corpses?" Zelgadis blinked and thought about it. "Well, I never heard of anyone turning a fresh corpse into a zombie right away, unless they made it so that their zombies could do it, why?"

"Because I'm thinking that there's a necromancer that's turning fresh corpses into zombies." Teana twitched as she thought about her choice of words. "Okay, I'm never going to use fresh and corpse in the same sentence ever again."

Zelgadis chuckled at her discomfort. "I wouldn't worry too much about it. If there was a necromancer with that kind of skill, I'd like to think we would have heard of them by now." Teana nodded at that. 'Actually, I'm more worried about the fact that she might be right.' If Zelgadis could read minds, he would have found that Teana was thinking the same thing that he was.

"Still, I should be going, it's late, and I need to get home before Subaru gets too worried about me." Teana's face went red when Zelgadis chuckled and gave her a knowing smile. "Knock it off, it doesn't mean anything."

Besides, Teana wanted to get rested up for the next day, Caro and Erio were going to be coming in and she couldn't wait to see the two of them again.

(-)

The next morning...

Blinking as he woke up, Kuma merely raised an eyebrow as he saw Kyrie on the left side of his body while Amitie was laying on top of him. The two girls were wearing over-sized, long-sleeved shirts that covered their upper bodies but revealed a hint of their panties as the two girls moved. "Bad dreams again?" He whispered when he noticed that the girls were both awake.

"Yeah..." Amitie said as she moved her arms to hug him more and push her chest against his. "I'm sorry, I just..." She trailed off and smiled as he put an arm around her shoulders. "Thank you."

Kyrie was practically purring as she molded her body against Kuma's. "Mmm..." She put her head on his shoulder and sighed happily. "Can we stay like this for a little bit?" As Kuma's arm wrapped around her lower back, she smiled happily and looked up at him. "Hey, Kuma... Want to have some fun?" She let out a yelp as she felt him pinch her sides. "Hey, come on, I'm serious."

"That's why I pinched your side." Kuma rolled his eyes. If it wasn't for certain things, he wouldn't mind taking Kyrie or Amitie up on their advances. But whenever he thought of what they went through, it was hard on him to reciprocate the feelings.

That didn't mean that he didn't entertain fantasies of the two of them at various points. He did have an appreciative eye for good looking women, after all.

"Why?" Amitie asked softly as she looked at him. "Why do you keep pushing us away?"

Kuma took a deep breath as he thought about his answer. "Because, you two are hurting." Ignoring their confused looks, Kuma hugged them tightly. "If things were different I would have already taken you up on your offers."

"Kuma..." Kyrie whispered, burying her face against his chest. "I'm sorry."

"It's okay," he smiled at her and looked at Amitie, who was looking as depressed as Kyrie sounded, "you two aren't bad girls, and I do like you. I'm just worried that if I got into a relationship with you right now it would hurt you."

"Because we were used by our former masters?" Amitie asked, sighing as she felt his hand gently squeeze her back.

"Partially. I just don't want a relationship where you two would think of me as your master. You aren't my slaves, and I don't want that type of relationship." Kuma moved his arms so that he could caress Amitie and Kyrie's cheeks. "I can wait until you two are ready, but for now, I just want to make sure that you two are able to live happy."

Kyrie looked at Amitie out of the corner of her eye and sighed as her sister snuggled against Kuma. She didn't blame Amitie, Kuma was comfortable. "Can we still stay like this?"

"Sure." Kuma said and went back to rubbing their backs to get them to relax.

(-)

"Caro! Erio!" Teana waved as Nove and Subaru stood behind her, the latter was looking somewhat upset about something. "How are you?" She smiled as they walked up to her.

"Pretty good," Erio nodded and looked at Subaru, "what's wrong?"

Nove rolled her eyes as Subaru pouted more. "She's just being a baby."

"The ice cream was gone." Subaru sniffled and slumped, causing everyone to sweat-drop heavily as Subaru had a blue glow of depression around her. "I just wanted some ice cream, and it was gone."

Nove slapped her forehead with her open palm. "Just because Slyph ate the last of the ice cream doesn't mean you should be so upset. Sheesh, we're going to go get some later."

"But my name was on the container." Subaru whimpered, causing both Nove and Teana to sigh.

"She's been like this for a few hours now." Teana rolled her eyes and looked at them. "...Erio, have you gotten taller?"

"Yes." Caro glowered at Erio, who rubbed the back of his head nervously. "He keeps stealing all my height! I want it back!"

Erio sweat-dropped and shook his head. "No I'm not. I swear." He sighed as Caro continued to glower at him. "I thought Fate and the others were going to meet us here."

Teana nodded at the change of subjects. "They had a mission that they were called out on. They'll be back in a week."

"Oh," Erio scratched the back of his head. "Well, let's go. I got nothing else to do today."

"We're getting this big baby some ice cream." Nove jabbed Subaru in the ribs and sighed as Subaru perked up instantly. "How the hell am I related to you?" Her eyebrow twitched as Subaru grinned at her. "And if you say that it's just luck, I'm going to kick you through a tree the next time we spar."

Subaru just smiled at Nove as the group walked out of the airport. "You're more like mom every day, Nove."

"HUH!?" Nove stared at Subaru, her eyes wide. "Wh...What the hell does THAT mean?!"

Teana sighed heavily, as far as she was concerned, it was probably a good thing that Nove was more serious than either Subaru or Ginga were. Sure, Ginga wasn't as bad as Subaru could get some days, but there were times that Teana could swear that the older girl was a total ditz.

Especially when she saw Ginga trip over a rough spot of grass that one time. Though, considering that Ginga had apparently been trying to get the image of Quint and Genya in the bathroom out of her head, Teana didn't blame her too much.

Still, despite how crazy things were at the Nakajima house, Teana really didn't want it any other way. As much as she didn't want to admit it, being around the craziness that was Subaru's family had become a comfort for her.

Then again, if she wasn't able to handle a little craziness, she doubted that she would have survived joining the Riot Force.

(-)

Elsewhere...

"Hey, mom..." A young boy with green hair suddenly shivered. "Is it normal to feel like something bad's about to happen?"

"Val," Filia looked at him seriously, "what do you mean?"

Val's eyes went to the floor as he focused on that feeling. "I'm not sure, but I feel like something really bad is about to happen. Like a big disaster hitting us all at once."

Filia nodded slowly. "I see," Val getting some form of precognition wasn't too unusual. While it was a fairly rare skill, even among Dragons, it wasn't surprising that Val would develop some skill.

"Well, either a disaster or Shari made something crazy again."

Filia sweat-dropped but didn't try to refute what Val said. Every time she was around Shari when the girl was in a mood to create science, she felt that the world was in danger of exploding somehow. "Let's just hope it's not that."

Val nodded and bit his lip lightly. "Hey, mom... I've been having these really weird dreams lately." Filia just looked at him silently, waiting for him to continue. "In them, I... I'm angry... And you're there, and I got this weird spear in my hands, you're looking at me, all scared... Then sometimes I have this dream that I'm fighting against Nanoha, but she's a lot smaller and has this weird cannon on her arms... Last night..." Val screwed his eyes shut and shuddered heavily, missing how Filia was completely pale as he spoke. "I dreamed about this big guy, he had red hair and..." Val stopped as Filia knelt and hugged him tightly. "Mom?"

"I had hoped that you wouldn't ever find out..." Filia sighed heavily and pulled away from him, sadness written all over her face. "Val, I... I know why you've been having those dreams," Filia hugged him again. "I'll tell you, later, but not right now."

"Mom?" Val blinked in confusion. "What's wrong?"

"I just want your father and your other mother here too, okay?" Filia rocked him softly. "Promise me one thing, Val, when you find out the truth, please don't hate me."

"Mom?" Val was confused, why would she think that he would hate her? "What..."

"Please, Val, promise me." There was something in the way his mom was trembling that stopped all of his questions cold and just had him nodding while he held onto his mother. He had never seen her like this, and it scared him deeply. "I'm sorry, Val." Filia pulled back and smiled at him lightly. "It wasn't a fun time in my life back then, so remembering it isn't easy. Your other parents were there too."

Val nodded. "Okay, but when is dad going to be home?" He knew that Chrono was busy a lot, being in the military tended to eat up a lot of his time.

Filia blinked and tapped her chin. "You know what? We should give him a call."

"Okay!" Val smiled, part of him was still worried about what got his mom so worked up, but being able to talk to his dad again would make up for it.

At least for now.

(-)

How much longer would this need to continue? How long until things were finally settled?

"Not much longer..." A soft voice whispered in the darkness before chuckling darkly.

(-)

"Hey, Mr. Nakajima!" Genya turned to see Wendi and Dieci walking towards him and waving, the redhead was rather chipper and grinning. "Is Nove here?"

Genya shook his head. "No. I was just heading out for the day myself, but Nove's with Subaru and Teana. They went to pick up Erio and Caro from the port."

"Drat." Wendi pouted and kicked the sidewalk lightly. "Cinque wanted to meet up with all of us about something. Can you give her a call for us?"

Genya nodded to them. "Not a problem." He smiled lightly as he looked at them. "Are you two doing well in your lives right now?"

Dieci scratched the back of her head. "Well, living with grandmother is nice, and Cinque was able to get the two of us off for the week because Cinque wanted to spend some time with the rest of our sisters..."

"Not to mention that we were asked to help with city security." Wendi grinned as Dieci sighed heavily.

"Just tell everyone while you're at it. Should I get you a loud speaker so all of Mid-Childa can hear you?" Dieci gave Wendi a flat look and the redhead giggled at her.

"Oh, come on, don't be like that." Wendi pouted as Dieci rolled her eyes. "Anyway, yeah, just give her a call for us, okay?"

Genya nodded and watched them walk off, talking about various things. Part of him was a little sad that they were adopted so fast, but he wasn't unhappy with how things turned out. Especially since he still got a daughter out of it.

Idly, Genya wondered if his desire to have a large family was a hold over from when Quint was unable to have children of her own, before shaking that off. He wouldn't trade any of his children for anything in the world.

And, as long as all of those girls were happy, he could be glad for them.

* * *

Caro: Hi everyone! I'm doing this this time! EEEEH? What do you mean I have to wait until the next chapter! Mooou! Next time on Blood That Flows - SSX


	276. SSX 6

Blood That Flows

SSX 6

Of course I own nothing.

* * *

Hours later...

Lina looked up as the door to the cafe opened up. "Yes, may I..." She trailed off, smiling as she saw who it was. "Caro! Erio!" She walked around the counter and hugged the young girl as Caro ran to her. "How are you two?"

"Grandma!" Caro smiled brightly as Erio stood behind her, smiling and nodding at Lina. "We're fine," Caro hugged Lina as tight as she could, "missed you."

"Missed you too." Lina looked at Erio and shook her head. "Wow, you've gotten tall. If we're not careful, you'll be a giant soon." She laughed as Caro pulled away and pouted. "Don't worry, Caro, you're cute as you are."

"But Erio keeps stealing my height, grandma, he won't give it back!" Caro stomped her foot on the floor as she sulked, getting a soft laugh from Lina. "What?"

"Did you know that before I married Shiro, I was pretty short too?" Lina smiled at Caro, who blinked at her in confusion. "So, don't worry about it, I'm sure that you'll grow just fine in a couple of years. Besides, Vita was as small as you are when she was your age, look at her now."

Erio sweat-dropped as a sudden image of Caro popped into his mind. What was so odd about it was that she was as tall as Signum, but her breasts were nowhere near as big as the sword woman's breasts were. 'Where the heck did that come from?' He wondered to himself.

"So, you two are in town for a few months again?" Lina asked, getting a nod from the two of them as she led them to a booth in the corner. "That's good. Anything interesting happen while you were watching the animals?"

They both shrugged as they talked about a few poachers that tried to get in, some of the weirder things they had seen animals do and some minor stuff.

"The really dangerous part is trying to herd the animals when they want to mate with each other." Caro said, shivering slightly. "You wouldn't believe how mean they can get when that happens." She pouted when Lina laughed at her. "You knew?"

"I've been around farm animals, dragons and other creatures during mating season, Caro, I've seen what they can do when they're trying to impress mates." Lina waved her hand at her grandchildren. "So, what are your plans right now?"

"Nothing really." Erio answered and looked at Caro, who shrugged. "Probably just going to spend some time here not doing much."

"That reminds me," Lina gave the two an annoyed look. "The last few times you two were back, you spent the entire time meeting with people in the Bureau, didn't you?"

Erio sighed at the look he was getting. "Sorry, grandma, but we needed to meet people, test equipment and other stuff. Ugh, it wasn't any fun for us either."

"Well, I hope you plan on coming in more than once every three months, kiddo." Lina smirked as she stood up. "I missed you two."

(-)

Genya blinked as he walked into his office. "Good morning." He had to admit, it wasn't too often that someone was in his office when he wasn't. Even more surprising was the fact that the young woman in his office was using his office computer. "I'd ask what you're doing, but considering that you're an Enforcer..."

"Enforcer's Aide," the woman corrected and stood up, "my apologies, Major Nakajima, I needed to do some searching on some information on a case I'm assigned to." When he raised an eyebrow, she cleared her throat, "If you must know, I used your computer because it was more secure than a public one, and you have high enough clearance for me to look up certain pieces of information."

"Two things," Genya held up two fingers, "one, why didn't you use the Enforcer computers or get your partner to give you clearance if that's all you needed? And two, you have me at a disadvantage, what's your name?"

"Oh," she blinked several times, "my name is Runessa Magnus. As for why, this isn't anything official in my searches yet and may be completely pointless. However, if it does lead to something, I wish to keep it private."

"You could have just asked if that was the case." Genya rolled his eyes. Children were too impatient at times. But he remembered who she was now, Teana had mentioned her name a few times in the past couple of months as being her aide. "You're lucky I'm far more easy going than most people around here." He walked over to his desk as Runessa got out of the chair. "Next time, just ask."

She nodded and turned to walk away. "If you must know, I did find what I was looking for."

After she was gone, Genya narrowed his eyes as he brought up his computer's history. The girl was good, she managed to erase almost all traces of what she did on the computer. 'Still...' He pulled up a vid phone and made a call. It wouldn't do to have the girl go without suffering some consequences, now would it?

(-)

Later...

Teana, in her Enforcer outfit, narrowed her eyes at Runessa. "Of all the bone-headed, idiotic, stupid stunts to pull, this has to be near the top of the list!" The two were in Teana's office and Teana was glad that Runessa was looking ashamed for what she did. "Do you have _any_ idea what your stunt looks like to our superiors?"

"Well..." Runessa began, but was cut off by Teana.

"It makes you look like someone who doesn't bother with authority, it makes me look like I don't care about the rules and worst of all," Teana took a deep breath to try and keep her temper down, "I respect Genya Nakajima deeply. He's almost like a father to me and you do that? Do you have _any_ idea how hard it's going to be to look him in the eye later?"

"Would it help if I said that I might have a lead in our case?" Runessa said softly and waited for Teana to motion for her to continue. "I found some bits of information at all the murder sites that I didn't think much of. But, as you've told me, never over-look anything."

"And what did you find?" Teana asked, annoyance was still in her voice, but if this proved to be useful in solving the murders, she might be able to give what Runessa did a good spin later.

"A name, Tredia Graze, keeps coming up. I was using Genya Nakajima's computer to find out more about the man, but all I found was a foot note about a scientist."

Teana cupped her chin and thought about it. "This isn't over. Until this investigation is over, you aren't allowed to do any information searching without at least contacting me, got it?"

Runessa nodded and left the office. '...That went as well as could be expected.' Runessa thought to herself.

Still, it wasn't anything compared to what was coming.

(-)

Inside her office, Teana took a deep breath to try and calm herself down. 'Dammit, Rune, you're usually smarter than that.' At least Genya had called her and not her superiors. It would have been a mess otherwise.

Still, she had a name now, and as for scientists... "I suppose I should give Mary a call." The older woman scared her though. "Then again..." The thought of having to deal with Shari somehow seemed a lot worse.

Pulling out Cross Mirage, she made a call to Mary and sighed as she came up on the screen, looking a bit frazzled and dirty. "Hey, Mary..."

"Teana!" Mary smiled brightly at her. "How are you doing? I've been working on some new types of cartridges. You want to bring Cross Mirage over later? I might be able to give you something even more impressive than what you've got now."

Teana sweat-dropped heavily. "Well, that is, ah..."

"Oh, wait, before that, remember those Unison Devices we put into stasis almost three years ago?" Mary asked before Teana could answer. "Well, I think we can give one to a host now, we've managed to get their bodies from falling apart to just barely alive. Granted, it's not much of an improvement, but they won't turn to dust in only a few seconds like that one did and..."

"Mary!" Teana yelled, trying to get the woman to calm down. "I was wondering if you knew someone by the name of Tredia Graze or not?"

Mary blinked and closed her eyes in thought. "Graze? I think I heard of that name once before. But he wasn't a reputable scientist from what I recall... Hmm... It's too bad Jail's dead, if anyone would know, it would have been him."

Teana blinked several times. "Wait, there's someone who might know, thanks Mary."

"No problem," Mary smiled, but blinked at Teana, "you never answered my question."

"Call me back in a week," Teana hung up and made another call, even if Jail wasn't around, there was one person who would have an idea about who Tredia Graze was."

(-)

Due blinked as she looked at the screen. "Tredia Graze? Sounds familiar... Graze, Graze..." Her eyes widened as an image came to her mind. "Oh yeah! That dead guy!" She snapped her fingers as the memory of what happened came to her fully.

"Huh?" Teana blinked at Due. "What do you mean?"

"Well, the guy came to the Doctor with some sort of dead body that he called a Mariage. It didn't look dead, I admit, but it wasn't alive." Due waved her hand dismissively. "Anyway, he said he wanted to join the Doctor to show Mid-Childa some real terror. The Doctor turned him down though, last I heard Graze had been trying to make more of those Mariages before they decided to eat him or something."

Teana turned pale as Due raised her hands up and wiggled her fingers. "They're all dead, zombies, if you will. I don't know much about them, Un-nee took care of research and I wasn't too interested." Lowering her arms, Due crossed her arms over her breasts and closed her eyes in thought. "Though, Mariage sounds kind of..."

"It means Marionette." A male voice spoke up and Due turned around to see Zest walk into the room. "I admit, it doesn't sound like Ancient Belkan though. It was from a minor dialect from what I can recall."

"How do you..?" Due asked as Zest smirked at her and held up a rather thick book. "...Light reading?"

"I like to read about Ancient Belka at times." Zest looked at Teana. "I wish I could help you some more, but there's not much information here. Although, if you're dealing with the dead, like Due suggests..."

Due snorted. "What? That book actually has something on the land of the dead?"

Zest shook his head. "No, but it mentions the three most famous rulers from Ancient Belka. There was the Saint Kaiser, the Hegemon Emperor and the Dark Ruler of the Underworld Ixpellia." He shrugged at the looks he was getting. "That last one is one of the many translations for that king's name. Considering that the Saint Kaiser was a woman, you should know that the titles really don't mean anything."

Teana closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "Thanks, I'll look into this more." With that, she turned the screen off.

Due looked at Zest with a smirk on her face. "So, why did you have that book?"

He snorted at her. "Lutecia was studying up on some Ancient Belkan before Megane asked her to help make some snacks for later, and I always found history interesting." He blinked when Due was gone and mentally groaned. He never should have mentioned that they were baking.

Oh well, even if the kitchen wouldn't survive, at least there would be some good food out of it. 

* * *

Due: I'm not even in the next part! But these things remind me of Zombies.  
Lutecia: Zombies? ! EEK!  
Due: Next time on Blood That Flows - SSX, read it, or they'll come for your brains.  
Lutecia: WAAAAGH! ZOMBIES!


	277. SSX 7

Blood That Flows

SSX 7

Of course I own nothing.

Sorry, last week I got really busy thanks to some real life stuff.

* * *

It was late at night when Teana was jolted awake by Cross Mirage. "What's going on?"

**"An emergency call."**

Teana's eyes widened and the sleepiness she was feeling was washed away in an instant as she sat up, her blanket falling down and revealing her topless form. If anyone would ask, she had locked her door to keep Subaru from finding out, plus it was so hot that she could only sleep comfortably in her panties and nothing else. "What's going on?"

**"Fire at a nearby hotel, Subaru, Nove and Ginga have also been informed and are on their way to minimize damages."**

Teana narrowed her eyes as she threw on some clothes before grabbing Cross Mirage, transforming and rushing out of the room. Even if she could make magic clothes, she wanted to make sure that she had something to transform back into when she canceled her transformation.

It wouldn't do to cancel her transformation and end up naked in the street after all.

(-)

The Mariage walked through the fire, ignoring how it roared around her as she approached a man in sleep wear who was cowering in the corner. "Bell Matera, you should know the location of Ix."

The balding man looked at the Mariage and gulped. He didn't know what an Ix was, but he remembered what these things were. "Ix? What's Ix? I don't know any..."

"Ix is our king, you worked with Tredia Graze several years ago."

"Graze?" Bell blinked and stared at the Mariage. "That old bastard? He cut ties off years ago, but suddenly contacts me a couple of months ago. And he contacted me a week ago, from some place near here. I'm not sure what he wanted, he just called saying he wanted a confirmation on me being on Mid-Childa." Sweating heavily, he pointed at the table. "My personal terminal, the call data's still there. If anyone knows where Ix is, it's him."

The Mariage turned to look at the table and walked over, pushing several buttons and nodding as call data came up. "Sector K267. Very well, goodbye." She turned and left the room silently.

"I... I'm alive?" Bell patted himself and started chuckling. "Heh heh heh, yes, I'm..." He trailed off as his eyes widened. "GAH! NO! STOP!" He trembled and stumbled backwards as he saw several Mariage appear in front of him, their visors glowing as they walked up to him slowly. "Leave me alone! HELP! SOMEONE HELP ME!"

(-)

Subaru grunted as she rushed through the burning hallways, looking for anyone who was inside the hotel. "Is anyone..."

"SOMEONE HELP ME!" A male voice was heard coming from a room around the corner. Narrowing her eyes, Subaru broke into the room and blinked as she saw a middle-aged man pressing himself against the glass. "STOP! NO! HELP!"

"Calm down," Subaru held her hands up and slowly moved towards him, "the fire's getting to you, I'll cast a freezing spell to put it out, but you need to calm..."

"STAY AWAY!" The man screamed as he grabbed a lamp and swung it around at the air in front of him before finally hitting the glass window, shattering it and spraying glass everywhere. "No... Stay back."

"Hey! Careful!" Subaru rushed towards the man, her eyes wide when he grabbed a shard of glass and stabbed himself in the throat. "Wh...Why?"

The man was grinning even as blood pooled out of his mouth and throat while he stumbled backwards and fell over the edge of the balcony. Subaru rushed to the edge and stared in mute horror as the man was already on the pavement, three stories down and quite dead.

(-)

Ginga looked at Nove as they came across five identical woman and at least twenty dead bodies around them. "This is bad." Ginga muttered as she slid into a defensive stance. "Any ideas?"

"Not really," Nove muttered, not knowing that these were the murderers that Teana was hunting down in her current case. Even if she did know about that fact, what happened next was shocking to both of the Nakajimas.

"What the..?" Ginga and Nove both stared, their eyes wide as the dead bodies suddenly and slowly stood up, their forms morphing and twisting, turning into identical copies of the five women in front of them. "...Oh crap."

One of the women pointed her arm at the two and the twenty new Mariage changed their arms into blades and rushed at them.

"Well, what now?" Nove asked as she and Ginga slid back to give themselves room against these things.

"They were dead, right?" Ginga pointed out as they jumped away from each other. "That means we probably don't have to hold back! Blitz Calibur!"

**"Protection."**

Ginga shuddered as she felt the blade slash against her barrier. Her eyes widened as a second slash not only was enough to make her barrier shudder, but also crack, a third slash cut through completely. "Holy!" A quick sphere of energy formed in her hands before she punched forward, blowing the Mariage's head clean off. "Nove! Be careful!"

"I figured that out!" Nove shouted back at Ginga as she dodged around several slashes and lashed out with a kick that connected with the Mariage's chest and sent it flying into another one, knocking them both to the ground easily.

"Enough of this." The one who was pointing at them said suddenly and disappeared from view, only to reappear inches away from Nove with its sword arm stabbing forward at the redhead's throat. Nove's amber eyes were wide in shock, she couldn't believe how dangerous these things were. Everything seemed to move in slow motion, Nove's reactions, the sword arm coming right at her throat, and even Ginga's reactions all seemed to be in slow motion.

The next thing Nove knew, there was a familiar looking knife lodged in the forehead of the Mariage that was trying to kill her, followed by several more along her body.

"Rumble Detonator." A familiar, and quite welcome, voice said as the knives suddenly exploded, sending shrapnel everywhere. Nove was thankful that she got her arms over her face in time and only had to deal with some cut up arms. "Nove, sorry it took so long." Nove turned her head to see Cinque in a white trench coat and blue suit, Wendi in a black body suit and Sette was wearing, of all things, a pair of jeans and a black shirt that seemed a bit tight around the chest. On Sette's shoulder was Mr. Snuggles.

_"Never seen this before."_ Mr. Snuggles commented as several of the Mariage rushed at the four of them.

"Careful!" Ginga called out as she did a spin kick, knocking one Mariage off of its feet before crying out in pain as another stabbed her still extended leg. "Gah!"

"Die." The one that stabbed her said calmly as it turned its other arm into a sword and stabbed at Ginga's throat.

Ginga's eyes widened as the blade was intercepted by another blade and the one in her leg was cut off, freeing her.

"You should take me on instead." Sette said, her eyes narrowed as several pink beams surrounded her, striking at various Mariage that were trying to get close to her from behind. "My thanks, Wendi." Using her superior strength, Sette pushed the Mariage away, causing the masked woman's arm to fly upwards before Sette slashed at the Mariage, cutting its head off easily.

Wendi just grinned as she ran in and pulled Ginga out of the area. "Nove, cut loose!"

"You don't need to tell me twice." Nove let out a grunt as she grabbed her Gun Knuckle and changed the setting on it. "Now... TAKE THIS!" She screamed as she swung her bloody arms at the Mariages and fired an ice-cold blast at them, the cloud covering and freezing them solid.

As the cold vapor subsided, Mr. Snuggles jumped up to one of the frozen Mariages, extending its claws and cutting through its neck with ease. Combined with Sette's blades shattering the bodies and Cinque using her throwing knives to destroy the rest, it wasn't long before there was only four of the Mariages left.

"Impressive." One of the four remaining Mariages said as the bodies fell to the floor. "Too bad though."

Ginga's eyes widened as her nose was assaulted with a rather strong scent. "Watch out!" Her warning came in time as Sette, Mr. Snuggles and Nove all got clear of the sudden exploding dead bodies. Not only did the bodies explode, but the remains erupted into flames that were so hot that her skin was nearly burning from being near it, and she was the furthest one away from the fire.

"You are fast, aren't you?" Nove's amber eyes widened as a familiar voice said as a Mariage appeared out of thin air and stabbed upwards at Nove's right arm, a sickening squelching sound was heard moments before a crackling metal sound filled the air. "Not fast enough, that device on your arms is dangerous though."

Nove let out a soundless scream as the Mariage stabbed upwards with her other sword arm, piercing her left arm at the wrist and causing the short redhead to fall to her knees as the shock and pain of the sudden attack hit her brain.

"Nove!" Wendi let out a yell as she fired several pink blasts at the Mariage, who pulled her blades out of Nove's arms, letting them bleed freely, and disappeared. "Nove!" Wendi ran up to the shorter redhead and gasped as she saw the damage done. "Hold on." Grabbing Nove's ruined equipment, Wendi ripped it off of Nove's arms before putting her hands over the wounds. "This is going to hurt, okay?"

"Hurt, hoOOOOAAAAAHHHH!" Nove let out a scream of sheer pain as Wendi's hands erupted into fire, the heat from her hands was almost enough to make her black out, especially as she could feel her skin being seared shut from the fire.

"Sorry." Wendi apologized as she moved her hands from the underside of Nove's arms and grabbed the top, making sure to get the hole closed as fast as possible. "We'll get you to a doctor, just don't pass out."

Nove would have answered, but she was currently laying on her side, grabbing at her wrists to try and get the pain to go away. Wendi winced as she heard Nove's cries of pain. "Come on, Nove, we'll..."

"Die." A soft female voice spoke up and Wendi turned, her eyes wide as one of the Mariages had her arm pointed at the two of them, her arm was in the shape of a cannon.

There was a blur and the cannon shot was knocked off target, causing the shot to hit the ground near Wendi. _"I think that you'll have to deal with me now."_ Mr. Snuggles said as he stood to his full height of a foot and a half to face the Mariage down.

"You can die first." The Mariage said, aiming her cannon arm at the cat, only to find the cat wasn't there anymore.

_"Where were you aiming?"_ Mr. Snuggles asked, whispering to the Mariage from his new position on her shoulders. Turning her head, the last thing the Mariage saw was three sharp claw blades penetrating her skull through her visor and causing her body to twitch and fall to the ground, all life in the body spent.

Mr. Snuggles snorted and looked over to see Sette finishing off her opponent while the last Mariage, this one with blood on her arms, looked at the advancing Cinque before nodding.

"Impressive, you managed to destroy twenty freshly created Mariage." The Mariage nodded to the group. "However, can you defeat an army of thousands of Mariage?"

Everyone except for Nove stared in shock at that. "We shall find Ix, and then we shall continue our mission."

Cinque took a step back as she saw the body suddenly changed into some black ink-like substance as her form fell apart while she turned into a puddle of something. "What the hell?"

A moment later, the liquid puddle exploded, knocking Cinque off of her feet from the violence of the explosion.

"These things are made up of some explosive and flammable substance." Sette said as she narrowed her eyes. "Killing them does not stop them from being dangerous."

Before anyone could answer her, there was another explosion, this one from on top of the burning hotel.

"Now what?" Ginga asked softly as Cinque ordered Wendi to get her and Nove to a healer. Ginga only hoped that Subaru and Teana weren't as bad off as she and Nove were at that moment.

* * *

Mariage: We are taking over this one. From now on, everyone will burn. Next time on Blood That Flows - SSX, read it, or we shall stab you.


	278. SSX 8

Blood That Flows

SSX 8

Of course I own nothing.

* * *

A few moments ago...

"Sector K267," the Mariage on the roof spoke before stopping as she was suddenly wrapped up in extremely tight binds. "Interesting." She turned her head to see a young woman with long orange hair pointing a gun at her while four gems on her belts glowed lightly. "Powerful binding magic."

"I am Teana Lanster and you're under arrest for suspicions of murder, arson and..."

"It doesn't matter." The Mariage said and looked away from the girl. "I now know where to go, a small group shall converge on that point soon, and if Tredia Graze or any of his associates, they shall fall for keeping us away from our king."

Teana's eyes widened as the Mariage's body seemed to become a thick oil and she started to dissolve into a puddle. "Sector K267," the Mariage said with its last breath, before the liquid erupted violently, sending flames roaring across the roof and Teana crossed her arms in front of her as she was blasted back and towards the edge.

Grunting, Teana shook her head to get the spots out of her vision as well as the ringing out of her ears. "Something's not right here." She muttered to herself. She may not have trusted Due at all, but if she was right and Tredia really was dead, why would his name come up twice? It was possible that Tredia cloned himself using Project F. Between Fate and Erio, she knew about it, though she didn't know too many details, since talking about it wasn't easy for either of those two. There were other ways for a dead person to be running around, of course.

Still, something about that was just wrong in her mind, Teana hadn't heard nor seen any hints that Graze was behind the problem, not until Runessa found that information.

"Lanster," Teana blinked and looked over to see Sette, Mr. Snuggles and Cinque floating in mid-air. "Are you harmed?"

"A little scratched up, but I'm fine," Teana said and blinked as she saw Sette relax, or at least Sette seemed to relax at those words. It could have just been her imagination.

Sette nodded at that. "Good, it would... Not be good if you were harmed, like Ginga and Nove were."

Teana's eyes widened as she heard that. "Nove? Ginga? Are they okay?" Cinque nodded at her and Teana sighed, glad for that.

"Ginga's leg is injured but she should be able to recover normally. Nove won't be able to help us for at least a week, however." Cinque bit her lip lightly, Nove wasn't one to get injured easily, she couldn't imagine how dangerous things were going to get soon. "Wendi's getting them to a doctor right now." Her eye widened as she saw Subaru come through the door to the roof, looking a bit melancholic. "Subaru, are you okay?"

"Huh?" Subaru blinked as she tried to clear the thoughts running through her mind. "Sorry, I was distracted by something. What's going on?"

"I need you to go somewhere for me." Teana nodded to the cyborg. "There was something that woman said that has me thinking. Do you know any sector called K267?"

Subaru scratched her head. "Isn't that near that old ship yard where they dump broken ships to be used as scrap metal and spare parts?" Teana nodded at her. "And you want me to go there, why?"

"I'm thinking that the cause of this whole mess is somewhere there. Just go and see if you can find any life forms out there, okay?" Subaru nodded and took off in the direction of the ship yard. "Cinque, Sette, Mr. Snuggles, we need..." She was cut off as a beeping sound was heard. "Now what?"

_"Teana, are you busy right now?"_ Caro asked as her image popped up on a view screen. _"Because, if you aren't, Erio and I could use a little help here."_

"Are there others with you?" Teana asked as Caro nodded before turning and firing a beam of energy off screen.

_"There was a fire that broke out down town and we were woken up by Sein who asked us to help. But now there's a lot of women who look exactly the same and they're strong and fast!"_

Teana's pupils shrank as she heard that. "We're on our way, just hang on." When the view screen turned off, Teana's eyes widened as Sette grabbed her from behind and took off flying, with Mr. Snuggles on her shoulder and Cinque following right behind.

"Cinque left orders for the Ground Forces to get those fires under control, there were no more life signs in the building, so the fire will not be a big problem anymore."

Teana nodded, hoping that Erio and Caro were okay.

(-)

Erio panted as he landed on the ground and looked up, staring as those masked women continued to walk towards him. "Damn it." He jumped out of the way as over ten of them fired some sort of arm cannon at him, unfortunately, the wall behind him was not quite as adept at dodging and ended up with a giant gaping hole in its side.

"Ragudo Mezzagis, pierce them!" Erio called out as he ignited the magic spear in his hands and thrust forward, a solid beam of destructive energy lashed out, running through at least six of the Mariages in one shot. Erio turned his head and his eyes widened as he saw four Mariage suddenly appear less than a foot from him. "Chain Lightning!" He called out, a Belkan triangle forming under his feet as daggers shot out from the array and slammed into the four, electrocuting them instantly. Taking a deep breath, Erio spun the Lance of Light as he got back into a defensive stance and gawked at the fact that even though he had just killed ten, there were at least twenty more coming after him. "What's going..." What he was about to say was cut off as the building behind him groaned and started to collapse. Sparing a quick look behind him, his eyes widened as he saw someone falling from the top floor. "Hang on!"

Spinning, Erio jumped straight up and, using Levitation magic, grabbed the falling body before the person could get hurt by debris and flew to a different building. "Are you okay?" He blinked as he got a look at the body. The person was a woman with bushy red hair that seemed to cover her eyes completely. She wasn't too tall, Erio found out as he put her down so she could stand up, coming to only about a head taller than he was, her frame was fairly average, and her breasts weren't too large, though Erio mentally slapped himself as he found himself staring at them. "Uh, miss?"

She suddenly smiled at him and nodded. "Quite." The next instant surprised the heck out of Erio as she leaned in and kissed him on the cheek. It didn't last long, but it was still enough that Erio's face quickly matched his hair in color. "I shall not forget this, my hero." She turned and started to walk away, her hips swaying in such a way that Erio quickly found that he had to swallow to get his mouth moist again. "If you must know, little hero, my name is Lyla."

Erio nodded and shivered slightly. "Beautiful."

"ERIO-KUN!" An angry female voice shrieked from behind him. Turning, he started sweating heavily as Caro glared at him from on top of Fried's back. "There's an army of masked women destroying everything and you're flirting with some floozy?!" Caro wasn't sure if she was a floozy, but kissing Erio and then walking off like that had to make her one.

Right?

"Kurr!" Fried snorted and launched a gout of flame down at the Mariages, hitting some and causing them to explode, but missing most as they effortlessly dodged out the way.

"Dang it!" Erio called out as he created several blades of lightning and sent them out into the quickly forming crowd. "This is going to take forever!"

Caro nodded as she sent magic spells down at the crowd, covering Fried and providing barriers for Erio and her Dragon when the Mariages fired cannon blasts at them. Caro made the mistake of looking up to see just how many there were coming and nearly wet herself in fright.

The streets, from what she could see, were completely full of these weird women.

(-)

Elsewhere...

Filia blinked as she heard a rather loud thumping coming from outside of the house. "Ugh, I swear, if those two are attacking the paper boy again..." Granted, the first time, it was rather funny when Aria and Lotte were in their animal forms and jumping all over the poor lad, but she didn't want to see that this morning. Walking out to the front door, Filia blinked, several times, as she saw Aria and Lotte tag-teaming several identical human females. "What's going on?"

"They blew up the garden!" Lotte yelled and pointed to the destroyed garden. "I wanted them to fix it and they tried to kill me!"

"Considering that they won't listen to us," Aria said as she used a frying pan to knock one of the Mariages away from her, "and tried to kill us without provocation, I'm pretty sure that they won't hesitate to kill anyone."

"What's going on out here?" Amy asked as she popped her head out of the doorway. "I heard noises and Filia wasn't in bed and..." She trailed off as she saw what was going on. "...Did you two piss off a cloning factory or something?"

Before anyone could answer, one of the Mariages seemed to form in front of Amy, a sword arm formed as she stabbed forward.

The blade never got close to Amy as Filia grabbed it and squeezed down. Narrowing her eyes, Filia swung the Mariage back at the group, but held onto the arm and smiled grimly as the arm was torn clean off of the body. "It's one thing to ruin my garden, it's another thing to attack those two, but," any traces of humor left Filia as she tossed the torn arm at the group of Mariages, "you threatened my wife, and I don't stand for that."

"What about us?" Lotte whined as she ducked under a swing towards her head. Before she could react, a narrow blue beam lanced out and blasted the Mariage through its head and taking out several behind it. "Huh?"

"You two can take care of yourselves..." Filia said as she pulled out a mace from somewhere. "Though, since you're a part of my family, you count as well."

"Where did you pull THAT from?!" Amy yelled as she stared at the mace in Filia's hands.

"I'll show you later." Filia said as she used said mace to knock the head off of one of the Mariages. Her tail slinked out of her nightgown, wrapped around the dead body before it fell and threw it into the crowd. "Aria, Lotte, let's show them that you don't mess with my family."

"Isn't Chronosuke supposed to be home soon?" Lotte asked, jumping back as a blue beam carved its way into the crowd of Mariages. Looking up, Lotte smiled as she saw Chrono floating above them.

"Considering that my family is being attacked, why would I be anywhere else?" Chrono asked as he touched down. "Lotte, Aria, you two are free of your limiters right now, you know that right?"

The two grinned at each other. "Well, we weren't before!" Aria said as they released a twin Blaze Cannon into the group.

"So, what took you?" Filia asked Chrono as she swung her mace into the group of Mariage.

"Had paperwork to finish up, I only got done a few minutes ago." Chrono said as he fired several Stinger Blades into the skulls of the Mariage around them. "Enough talking, let's get this over with."

"Right." Filia nodded as they continued to work the Mariages over.

(-)

There was a ringing of a familiar chime as Lina grabbed her cell phone and sat up. "Miyuki, you better have a good reason for calling me this early."

"There's a bunch of women who look exactly the same, they broke into my home over here," Miyuki was, of course, talking about the house she shared with Yuuno, Nanoha and Fate, "they tried to kill me and almost killed Arashi and Vivio, they're okay now, but I'm still being overwhelmed here."

"I see..." Lina said, her eyes narrowing. "Miyuki, dear, I'll be there as soon as I can."

"What's going on?" Shiro asked as he saw his wife turning her cell off and putting some clothes on. He raised an eyebrow as she was putting on some rather form-fitting pants and sleeveless top that only covered her chest, leaving her arms and stomach exposed. "Dear?"

"Get some pants on, someone tried to kill our family." As soon as the words were out of Lina's mouth, Shiro had pants on and three different swords strapped to his waist. Nodding, Lina walked out of the bedroom and to the kitchen. "Arf!" She yelled into the house as she grabbed a large knife from the counter top, when the small red dog ran into the kitchen, she stopped at Lina's look. "Get into your adult form and grab the three weapons from over the fireplace."

Arf nodded and ran back into the living room as her form shifted and grew into her far more imposing adult mode. "What's going on, mom?" She asked as she grabbed a trident, a handle and a stringless bow from above the fireplace.

"Miyuki, Arashi and Vivio are in danger." Lina said as Arf tossed her the bow. Turning to the front door, Lina found that she didn't have to open it as it was smashed in. "I take it that you're the reason my family's in danger." Lina narrowed her eyes, her left one glowing gold as she held up a flaming palm. "Get out of my way and then you can die." When they didn't move, Lina nodded. "Very well. Flame Wind!" She snapped her hand forward, a powerful gust of wind mixed with fire snapped out, sending the Mariage that had made her way into the house flying back the way she had come.

"What the heck?!" Arf exclaimed, shocked as she held the trident in front of her.

"Yuuno and Nanoha aren't the only ones who created hybrid magic." Lina said as she walked out, followed by Shiro and finally Arf. "Alright, let's show you how we fight."

Arf flew up and gaped at what she saw. "Mom, even if you can tear through them easily, there's so many that I can't see the street anymore!"

"Well then..." Lina narrowed her eyes. "I'll have to get warmed up, won't I? Rune Flare!"

With those two words, the city streets were awash with flames.

(-)

Erio grimaced as he and Caro were forced onto the streets again. "This is nuts!" Even though they were slaughtering these things by the dozens, it was like a never-ending wave of bodies that kept coming at them. "We're going to get killed at this rate."

Caro nodded, trying to catch her breath as she cast a barrier around them. Looking up, she sighed in relief as Fried was okay. "I wish I could do more."

"What about Voltaire or Leviathan?" Erio suggested to her.

"I need some water for Leviathan, he's not good without water, and I'm worried if I summon Voltaire that he'll attack someone he's not supposed to." Caro wilted at the look that she was given.

"There are so many of these things that I can't even see where they end, Caro, summon him before we both die!"

"Too late." A female voice spoke up and the two gasped in shock as a blade cut through the barrier, shattering it and leaving them exposed. "A good fight, now die."

As the Mariage pulled her arm back, the ground started to shake and rumble, a stone spike ripping upwards and nearly impaling the Mariage, who seemingly disappeared, before more spikes erupted upwards, skewering several of the Mariages and creating a protective dome around Caro and Erio.

"What the?" Erio asked, he recognized the spell, Dug Haut, easily enough, as Teana did it quite often, but he had never seen it used so powerfully like this before.

"When facing a multitude of enemies, the best way to make sure that they don't get to you is to make a barrier that can strike back. Didn't I teach you kids better?" A familiar male voice spoke up and Caro gasped as she saw Zelgadis, his skin blue and rocky, walk around a stone pillar. "Hey, kids." He smirked as them as they stood up. "Considering how many there are, it's probably a good thing that I called for some help." He snapped his fingers and the rock pillars erupted outwards and away from the three of them.

"Help?" Erio asked, "from who?"

When the pillars weren't standing anymore, Zelgadis grimaced as far fewer of those women were dead than he would have liked. "You'll see, he should be here... Now."

Just as Erio was about to ask what was going on, the area suddenly lit up and a loud honking sound was heard. "It can't..."

Zelgadis smirked and nodded. "But it is."

"HAHAHAHAHAHA!" Kuma laughed as he ran several Mariage over, punching one that tried to get in through the window. "A funny thing about mass is that the thicker it is, the harder it is to punch through it, but if I increase my speed I can punch through any mass, no matter _how _thick it is! HA HA!"

"Binesto Cannon!" A female voice said from above, looking up, Erio's face turned bright red as he saw up Kyrie's skirt and her panties. Sure, her skirt wasn't that long, but still, seeing her underwear so easily was enough to make him blush.

"Sorry it took us so long." Another female voice said as Amitie seemingly appeared on the ground next to the three of them. "We had to get our zappers from lock-up." She pointed her gun out and fired a quick burst of five shots at the Mariage that were getting up after getting hit by either Kyrie's blast or Kuma's driving. "Amitie and Kyrie Florian reporting for duty!"

Erio smiled, they might actually win at this rate.

* * *

Dieci: It's our turn.  
Otto: Time to go.  
Deed: You do not belong in this world.  
Mariage: Next time on Blood That Flows - SSX, read it or we shall cause more problems.


	279. SSX 9

Blood That Flows

SSX 9

Of course I own nothing.

* * *

Elsewhere...

"How are things?" Dieci asked as she and Otto fired another volley of suppressive fire into the crowd of weird women. "I'm worried about my family."

"They should be fine." Otto replied as she fired another Ray Storm into the crowd. "These things are fast." By her own estimations, nearly a hundred of these women had avoided her Ray Storms and had attempted to get close to her and Dieci for an easy victory.

Attempted, because Deed proved that she knew a similar moving technique to the Mariages and was able to drive them off. Well, that and the fact that she could split into at least eight copies of herself.

Dieci raised an eyebrow. "Been practicing?" The last time Dieci checked, Deed could only get four clones, well, three if you didn't include the original.

"Yeah," Deed nodded as she chucked her sword behind her head, bisecting one of the Mariages as it tried to sneak up on her. "Mom has been helpful, so has Val. Never thought that Dragon magic was so useful."

"The Doctor never knew about this magic." Otto said as she clapped her hands and then spread them wide, sending a green wave outwards and into the crowd. "Even so, I do not have any clue how to make this go any faster."

"Mom did teach us that new spell." Deed spoke up, causing Otto to blink, before nodding at her twin. "Do you mind if I try it?"

"Feel free," Otto held up a hand and the three were covered by a green bubble. "I do not think I can keep this field up for very long against their assault."

"Can I fire out of it?" Dieci asked, getting a nod from Otto. "Good." She aimed her cannon into the crowd, blowing several of them away. "You know, I'm surprised they're dying so easily."

"They seem to be made for numbers, to overwhelm their enemies, but they are not made especially tough." Otto regretted saying that as, a moment later, over ten of those women were suddenly around them and stabbing through the barrier. "Deed, where are your clones?"

"Sorry," Deed said, sweat falling down her face as she concentrated on the magic she was gathering. "I am not used to using Dragon magic and keeping my clones up."

Dieci grunted as she slammed one of the Mariages with her cannon, only to cry out as one slashed her across her legs, rear and lower back, tearing into her flesh and forcing her to her knees. Turning her head, she could only watch as the Mariage that had cut her legs raised its arm back to stab her. 'I'm sorry, grandmother.' She said to herself and braced herself for the end. 'I deserve this, after what I did to, huh?!' Her eyes widened in shock as she felt a hand on her legs and a sinking sensation as she disappeared through the ground.

A second later, she reappeared next to Otto as the Mariages around them were hit with a purple streak that bounced off of each one, causing them to jerk and fall one after another. "Sheesh, you need to be more careful, Dieci." Sein said as she popped out of the ground next to them, smiling. "We heard about the fires and I got worried about my cute little sisters, so I asked Tre to help me come down here." She tapped Dieci on the nose and looked at Otto, who looked relieved. "So, what's going on? You three looked like you had it well in hand a moment ago."

"This," Deed said as she pointed her hand out at the mass that was making their way towards them, "Chaotic Disintegrate!"

There was a cracking sound that turned into a loud roar that filled the air before a flash of white erupted in the middle of the group of Mariages. Sein, Dieci and Otto all had to cover their faces and look away from the bright flash. When the light and sound had ended, the three blinked their eyes and looked at what happened to the Mariages.

Or rather, what remained of them as all that was there was smoking body parts that littered the ground. Amazingly, there wasn't a single damaged building or a crater from the devastation.

"Woah." Dieci's eyes were wide as she looked at the destruction. "How come the ground isn't destroyed?"

Before anyone could answer her, there was a thud and Otto turned, gasping as Deed was laying, face down, on the ground. "Deed!" Otto grabbed her sister and lifted her up. "Are you okay?"

"F...Fine..." Deed gasped out, panting lightly as Otto helped her to her knees. "Tired..."

Otto looked on, worried for her twin, suddenly remembering what Filia had said about using the higher end Dragon magic that they could.

***Flash***

_Filia looked at Wendi, Deed, Sette and Otto before sighing. "Even though you can use this spell, you should know that until your bodies get used to your Dragon magic, it'll be pretty draining on you."_

_"How bad?" Sette asked, curiousity tinging her voice._

_"Well, I'm not sure," Filia chuckled, "I only know that partial Dragons have always had difficulty using high-tier Dragon magic. Anyway, as for the spell itself, it was designed to be strong enough to stop most Mazoku and evil beings cold. It won't work on high level Mazoku, but then again," Filia sighed and shook her head, "they cheat, almost nothing works on them anyway. There should be very little to any damage to your surroundings, so it won't destroy the city if you use it in the middle of downtown." She looked at Wendi, who's eyes lit up in glee. "However, this will still hurt people badly if you use it in a crowded area, so don't be stupid with it."_

_Wendi giggled nervously and rubbed the back of her head._

***End Flashback***

"Impressive." Dieci blinked as Tre walked up behind them, nodding at the damage, before looking at her. "You left yourself open." Before anyone could say anything, Tre knelt down next to Dieci and put her hand on the girl's legs, a soft light coming from Tre's hand had Dieci staring in shock. "What? Learning some basic healing spells never hurt anyone." Tre smirked at Dieci and used her free hand to ruffle the girl's hair.

Dieci smiled at that. "Thank you."

"Don't thank me yet," Tre looked at Deed, who looked ready to pass out. "This was just one area, we've got a lot of these things left.

Sein looked around the city and shivered as she saw the bodies all over the place. "This is... A nightmare."

The others could only nod.

(-)

Elsewhere...

Miyuki panted, the Sword of Light in her hands, Arashi and Vivio were behind her. If Miyuki could look at them, she'd see that they didn't seem afraid of what was going on, at least as long as she didn't look at their legs, which were wobbling. Not that Miyuki would have blamed them. She was good, she was very good, but she was one person, with no magic against at least several hundred identical enemies that could change their arms into weapons and sometimes move so fast that she swore they were stealing tricks from her family's handbook.

Still, she had the Sword of Light, her own skills and a few tricks up her sleeve. If she wasn't guarding Vivio and Arashi, she'd be able to tear into this group of enemies easily. "I need a miracle," she muttered to herself as she dodged around a slash at her face, slashed upwards to cut that Mariage in half and kicked the body away from her, before spinning and lobbing off the head of another Mariage.

Part of Miyuki hoped that this wasn't bothering Vivio and Arashi too much. Doing another quick spin that had her crouching as a result, Miyuki was glad that a wave of energy erupted from her sword, cutting at least twenty of the Mariage in half.

The next thing Miyuki knew, the ground in front of her erupted upwards, sending the Mariages flying, before a giant fireball lit up the early morning sky. Turning, Miyuki thought it was her mother, before staring at who was there. "...Aunt Luna?"

Luna Inverse smirked at Miyuki. "I might not be quite as good as Lina is... But I still have some magic and sword skills that I can use." Pulling out a thin long blade, Luna made her way to Miyuki, carving her way through the Mariage until she was next to her niece. "Besides," Luna said as she and Miyuki made their way into the crowd, hacking and slashing, "Lina would kill me if I didn't do what I could to save her children."

Miyuki nodded and gasped as several Mariage disappeared from in front of her. Spinning around, her eyes widened as they appeared behind the children. "Damn!" She ran for the kids, hoping that she could make it.

Just before the Mariage could stab downwards, both Vivio and Arashi disappeared in a black flash. Miyuki didn't even bother wondering what just happened, she had seen that before. Instead, she just grinned and drove Gorun Nova through the Mariage's neck, decapitating it. "Arashi, where'd you go?"

"Up here!" Looking up, Miyuki sweat-dropped as she saw Vivio and Arashi on the roof of the house. "Go nee-chan!"

"You just stay there then!" Miyuki yelled and turned around, narrowing her eyes at the Mariage. "You freaks messed with the wrong family."

"Indeed they did." Luna said as she jumped back to land next to Miyuki. "Say, can I borrow that for one second?" When Miyuki handed it over, Luna grinned and pointed it at the Mariage. "I've heard that this thing can do some crazy stuff, so... Rune Flare!"

Luna had been expecting a large ball of flame to erupt in the middle of the Mariage, scattering and destroying most of them.

Miyuki didn't know what a Rune Flare did, but she knew it was a magic spell from her mother's world, and she was hoping it was a good spell.

What happened next had them both gaping in shock.

A ball of flame appeared in the middle of the group of Mariage that was about the size of a basketball. In less than a second, it quickly grew to the size of a large television, then to the size of a compact car, and expanded further to the size of a Sherman tank. Before either Miyuki or Luna could make sense of what was going on, the ball of flames exploded outwards in a spiraling motion, destroying and knocking over everything on the street that wasn't nailed down, and several things that were, including both Miyuki and Luna.

Groaning as she sat up, Miyuki gaped at the scene. Sure, there were still Mariage coming at them, but they were almost a block away, even if they were closing in fast. "...Aunt Luna," Miyuki said as she took the Sword of Light from her aunt. "I don't think I ever want to see that again."

"At least not so close," Luna nodded as she stood up, grateful that the explosion never reached the house behind her. Taking a few steps forward, Luna looked up to the roof and sighed as she saw that Vivio and Arashi were both okay. "Well then, Miyuki, shall we dance with the devil in the pale moonlight?"

"Too bad it's not Saturday night." Miyuki smirked as the two rushed forward to deal with the oncoming Mariages.

Hopefully someone could figure out how to deal with these things before too long. After all, Miyuki might have been good, but she was only human, and she didn't have unlimited stamina for this.

* * *

Subaru: It's my turn! Eh?!  
Mariage: No, it is not your turn, we are still doing this, now die.  
Subaru: No thanks!  
Mariage: Next time on Blood That Flows - SSX, we shall take over.  
Subaru: This a hostile show takeover?


	280. SSX 10

Blood That Flows

SSX 10

Of course I own nothing.

Last week sucked. Badly. Don't ask.

* * *

Subaru raced along her Wing Road and shuddered as she saw the Mariage walking under her. She wanted to be down there, using her fists to pound on them, flatten them, stop them from harming any more people.

_"Subaru, I swear, if you do anything but go straight for the site..." _Teana had warned her over ten minutes ago, but it still rackled that she wasn't fighting against the Mariage directly. As she got to the edge of the crowd of Mariage, her eyes widened as she saw something she never thought she'd see.

"Voltz!" Subaru yelled as she got closer to the group.

Turning, the older, scarred man nodded to her. "I'd love to chat, but we've got to get ready to make our move."

Subaru looked at the large group of Ground and Rescue forces and had to stare in shock. "Wow, I didn't know that there was..."

"So much coordination?" Voltz asked, getting a nod from Subaru. "You can thank her for that." He pointed off to a woman who was walking towards them.

Subaru looked at where he was pointing and blinked. "Hey, you're..."

"Auris Gaiz," she adjusted her glasses as she looked the two over, "Voltz, are your troops ready?" He nodded to her and she turned her attention to Subaru. "Subaru Nakajima, are you here to assist us?"

Subaru shook her head. "I'd love to, but I'm under orders to investigate sector K267. There's a chance that the person behind this whole mess is operating from there."

Auris nodded and looked at the troops. "Alright people, from our eyes in the sky, other than those fighting against these things, there should be no civilians or non-combatants left. Only attack those that look completely identical and don't hold back, from what we've seen, none of these people will either."

Voltz looked at Subaru and rubbed his hand on her head, getting a soft blush from her. "I know you'll probably tell me to be careful, but I'm no magic user, the best I can do is pull people out if they're hurt right now. As for you, you be careful, okay? If I find out that one of these things did you in, I'll have to find out which one and kill it in revenge, won't I?"

Subaru chuckled and nodded. "Thanks, see ya." She turned and rushed off on her Wing Road, hoping that she wasn't on a wild goose chase.

As they watched Subaru go, both Voltz and Auris had similar thoughts. They would have preferred her to be there, guarding everyone's backs and taking the enemy head on.

(-)

It took Subaru over ten minutes at full speed to reach the scrap yard. "Nove probably could have been here in less than eight." She grumbled to herself, thinking that it wasn't fair that her little sister was faster on her Airliner than she was on her Wing Road. Taking a few breaths, Subaru narrowed her eyes as an explosion suddenly rocked a half-cannibalized, half-sunken ship. She wasn't sure why that ship hadn't been destroyed, but then again, things always seemed to have some use to them, even if it was just for scrap metal to be melted down for cars and other stuff.

Zipping in through the flaming wreckage, Subaru gasped as she saw one of the Mariages there. It turned to look at her before morphing its arm into a cannon and firing at her.

"ACK!" Subaru flailed her arms and she leaned back and fell off her Wing Road. Looking up, she grimaced as she saw the ceiling she entered start to groan, before creaking and falling apart. "Well then," Subaru turned to the Mariage, which was adjusting its arm to fire at her again, "I can't let you hurt anyone! Divine..." Her Wing Road reformed under her feet and she rocketed towards the Mariage, even as it primed another shot at her. "MAGNUM!"

(-)

Looking over her shoulder, the Mariage would have narrowed her eyes if she could have, at the explosion she heard some distance off. Turning, she walked down the makeshift hallway, ignoring the debris around her until she came across the very thing that she was looking for. "Your majesty, Ix," the Mariage got to one knee and bowed to her ruler. "It is an honor serving you, yet again, oh great and powerful king. Allow us, your personal army, to turn this world into a wasteland to signify your glorious return."

"I wish you wouldn't." A young voice spoke up and the Mariage looked up to see a girl who was physically about eleven years old, look at her with sad eyes. "Must my awakening be nothing more than the harbinger of destruction?" The girl stepped forward, sighing as she looked at her silk dress. "It is nice to be awake, but I do not like how every time I am, everyone I know is gone."

The Mariage stood up and bowed to her. "Lord Ix, we should not tarry long. I shall show you the glorious army that we have prepared for your return."

"I wouldn't go that far." A new voice spoke up and Ix gasped as she saw someone in the doorway to the room. Turning, the Mariage saw a girl in shorts, a short jacket with some sort of black shirt under it, wheeled shoes, a heavily gloved right hand, short purple hair, her arms, stomach and head all had some blood running down them. "I had to beat up another one of your buddies as I came in, now..." She looked at Ix and her eyes widened. "Wait, there was someone here?"

The Mariage stood in front of Ix and morphed its arm into a blade. "You will not touch our king."

Subaru grinned at the Mariage and shifted to a defensive stance. "Funny, because I think that your king is coming with me." When the Mariage in front of her disappeared, Subaru simply dropped to her knees and slammed a fist into the ground, a storm of magical energy spun around her before rushing up in a massive torrential storm. When Subaru heard the Mariage let out a cry of surprise before being blasted away, she moved to a standing position and slowly turned around to see the Mariage slumping to the ground. "Now then... You can let me take your king, or we can continue fighting."

The Mariage said nothing and pointed its arm, which morphed into a cannon, at Subaru.

"Figures," Subaru sighed as she saw that. "Too bad my partner's about to get you." Subaru looked to her left, grinning.

The Mariage turned its head for only a moment, before snapping attention back to Subaru. By that time Subaru had managed to cross the gap, grab the Mariage by her head and lift her up.

"Just so you know," Subaru narrowed her eyes as she squeezed her hand around the Mariage's head, "I don't like people who hurt others pointlessly."

"For our king, Ix!" The Mariage said as she put her cannon arm on Subaru's stomach. "Die."

"You first." Subaru said as she spun and threw the Mariage against the wall. "Divine... MAGNUM!" A sphere formed in her hand before she punched forward, slamming into the wall behind the Mariage as she disappeared from view. "Damn."

"You will make for a powerful Mariage." Subaru's eyes widened as she heard that voice speak from behind her, "now die."

Ix watched, sadly, as her Mariage thrust its arm forward to pierce the girl through her neck. It never got easy to deal with watching people die, even if she had seen it countless times over her endless life.

What happened next wasn't something that she saw too often as several chains snapped around the Mariage, holding her still.

"Should have done this sooner." Subaru said as she turned around and raised her hand upwards until it was eye level, her fingers twitching as a Belkan triangle formed under her feet. "I can't stand people who abuse their power," her hand was glowing as energy seemed to erupt from her fingers, "no matter your reasons, there's never a good reason for using your power to harm those who can't fight back."

"You can," the Mariage pointed out to Subaru, who narrowed her eyes at it.

"I wasn't talking about me! I was talking about that man who killed himself, and it's all your fault!" Subaru screamed as she punched forward, striking the Mariage in the head so hard that the head went flying off and bounced along the floor for several feet. Subaru glared at the body as it fell, panting hard before her anger left her. "I don't..." She trembled and fell to her knees, "I don't like harming people, I don't like it when people use their power to harm others." Squeezing her eyes shut, Subaru could still see that man's look of utter terror as he slashed himself before falling over the balcony. "I'm sorry, I wish I could have saved you."

Ix just watched, curious about the girl who killed her Mariage.

* * *

Ix: So, how do I do this? EEEK! I think I screwed up! Waaah!  
Subaru: Next time on Blood That Flows - SSX  
Ix: The sunrise... It's beautiful. Please, read and find out.


	281. SSX 11

Blood That Flows

SSX 11

Of course I own nothing.

* * *

It was a few minutes later when Subaru looked up at Ix. "So... Your name is Ix?" Subaru asked, getting a nod from the redheaded girl. "...Who names their daughter after a letter in the alphabet?"

Ix blinked a few times, wondering what she meant by that. "Ix is short for Ixpellia. My subjects and enemies call me Ix." Sighing, she sat down on the ground and looked up at nothing in particular. "Not that I have any subjects, other than the Mariage, left." Subaru looked at her in confusion. "My kingdom, my people, all of them were dead long before Olivie Segbert came to power."

Subaru stared at her. "You knew the last Saint Kaiser?"

Ixpellia gave Subaru a sad smile. "Sadly, no. I heard that she was a great woman, but I was only awake for three weeks during that time." Tilting her head, she looked the other girl over. "My apologies, but what is your name?"

"Subaru Nakajima," Subaru nodded to her. "So, Ixpellia..." Subaru trailed off, frowning, "that's a mouth full... I'm calling you Ixy from now on."

"Ixy?" The girl blinked a few times. "That's hardly appropriate for a king." She sighed and looked up. "Even if my kingdom is dust by now, I'm still the king. Dark Ruler of the Underworld, Ixpellia, bringer of death and destruction, that's what they called me during the wars. Not that I can blame them for it. My purpose in life is just to bring death to everyone."

Subaru just looked on in confusion. "What do you mean? Surely you can do more than..." She stopped when Ixpellia laughed and pulled her knees up to her chest.

"Do more than create weapons of war?" Ixpellia looked down, at her legs and sighed heavily. "I can't. Karma's not that kind for someone like me. I'm stuck, forever sleeping, and when I do wake up, then the people that I have met are long gone. I only wake up because some power mad fool wants to use the Mariage to destroy a world. When I can finally go back to sleep, the Mariage fall apart because I am no longer powering them." She sighed heavily and looked at Subaru, sadness and defeat evident in her eyes. "That is the cycle of Karma for me. No one can break the curse, no one."

Subaru just stared at the young girl before standing up and walking over to her. "Ixy..."

Ixpellia looked at Subaru as the taller girl knelt down to look her in the eyes. "...What?"

What Subaru did next shocked Ixpellia in a way that nothing else did before.

"OWW!" Ixpellia rubbed her forehead where Subaru flicked her finger over it. "What was that for?!" She asked, tears suddenly leaking out her eyes as she glared at Subaru.

"You looked like you needed it." Subaru said, mentally laughing as Ixpellia jumped to her feet and balled her hands into fists.

"I do _not _need someone hitting, OWW!" Ixpellia cried out as Subaru flicked her forehead again. "WHY?!"

"Because being angry is better than depressed." Subaru said as she stood up fully and held her hand out to Ixpellia, her palm outstretched. "Now, come on, let's go."

Ixpellia blinked and took the hand, yelping as Subaru pulled her up and put the young girl onto her back. "What are you going to do? Even if we leave, it won't change anything at all."

"You don't know my friends then." Subaru said as she rolled towards the entrance and looked up, grimacing as she saw the support beams had given out and the top had collapsed, blocking the way out. "Just because you think it's impossible doesn't mean that [i]we[/i] think it's impossible!" Subaru held her hands parallel to each other at about chest level. "Just because you're trapped by Karma's cycle," a Belkan triangle formed under her feet, "just because you say it's impossible," a sphere of magic formed between her hands, "doesn't mean it is."

Ixpellia looked at Subaru, wondering where her confidence was coming from.

"If there's even a one percent chance of success, so long as you face it with courage and never give up, you can take something small, and turn it into absolute victory." Subaru let out a yell as she put her hands under the sphere and sent it flying upwards, Subaru then curled her right arm down and her fingers twitched as magic started to gather in the palm of her hand. "See what can't be seen, break what can't be broken, find your path among the infinite choices ahead of you, that's how my friends and I are."

Ixpellia watched, transfixed as the magic in Subaru's right hand got brighter and brighter.

"So," Subaru looked over her shoulder and grinned at the young king, "do you believe in yourself enough to create a miracle?"

"I..." Ixpellia wondered, did she believe in herself enough to end the cycle of Karma that she was stuck in?

"It's fine," Subaru said softly as she punched upwards with her right hand, "Divine Sphere... BREAKER!" She screamed as a beam of energy rushed up towards the energy sphere that was slowly breaking through the debris above them. "If you can't believe in yourself... Then put your belief in me and my friends!" Subaru yelled as the energy beam pierced the sphere above.

"Believe... In you?" Ixpellia blinked as she looked at Subaru, and then at the strange gauntlet she was wearing. "Believe in you..."

"Because, even if you can't believe in yourself, I can." Subaru said as she concentrated on her spell. "So, believe in me, who believes in you."

Subaru blinked as she saw Ixpellia's hands on her gauntlet. "I... I... I do..." Ixpellia screwed her eyes shut as she gripped Subaru's glove. "I believe in you!"

Subaru smiled and looked up as the energy sphere suddenly exploded outwards, blowing the debris away. "Let's go! WING ROAD!" She screamed and Ixy watched as a twisting, blue magical road appeared under Subaru's feet and the taller girl rocketed them out of the wreckage.

Ixpellia wasn't sure if they could save her from her the binds of Karma, but even if Subaru couldn't, Ixpellia was glad to have met her.

(-)

Elsewhere...

"So, we'll be heading to sector K267 to give Subaru back-up." Teana said over a video comlink that showed her, Sette and Cinque flying through the air. "I'd like you to help the Ground Forces, Rune, but we'll meet up with Subaru and then meet up with you. We should have the mastermind behind everything by then."

Runessa nodded and turned the comlink off. "This isn't good. Guess I'll have to move her somewhere else. Knew I shouldn't have posed as Tredia..." Her eyes widened as she felt a small impact into her back and found her movement suddenly limited. "Binds, but..."

"Got you," Teana said from behind her. Turning her head, Runessa stared as Teana walked out of the shadows, Cross Mirage pointed at her and the four gems on her belt were glowing softly. "I really had hoped that I was wrong about you, Rune."

"But, I saw you..." Runessa trailed off as Teana smirked at her. "An illusion then, where are the other two?"

"I sent Cinque and Sette ahead to help deal with the situation." Teana sighed as she walked up to Runessa. "I can't believe it, Rune. Why would you lie to me about everything?" Shoulders slumping, Teana turned to look out at the city as parts exploded. "To create something like this so fast..."

"You really have no clue, do you?" Teana's eyes widened and she spun around as she heard Runessa's voice, though, for some reason, it was deepening. "You really don't know anything about Runessa, do you?" Teana watched, horrified as the binds holding Runessa down shattered instantly. "If you must know," Runessa grinned at Teana and held out an open palm, a purple energy sphere forming, "the real Runessa's been dead for a long time."

"What do you mean?" Teana took a step back, trying to get her bearings on the situation.

The woman sighed and shook her head. "Runessa Magnus, I found her over thirteen years ago... Such a young girl, so embittered by hatred, anger and sadness... Oh, and it didn't hurt that she was dying." Runessa chuckled and threw her head back. "If you must know, my real name is Neph."

"Neph?" Teana narrowed her eyes at Runessa. "You're a Mazoku, aren't you?"

Neph threw her head back and laughed. "Ding, ding, ding! You win a prize!" She looked at Teana as she raised Cross Mirage at her. "Oh please, can you really kill Runessa? After all, I don't think you have a spell that can harm Mazoku, even one as minor as I am, easily."

"You're right." Teana lowered her gun and sighed. "But, Rune..."

Neph chuckled, her shoulders shaking as she laughed. "Civil Wars that destroy homes, lives and leave nothing but carnage in its wake. All it took was the promise to make all the bad people go away and she gave up everything."

"Phantom," Teana whispered softly, looking at Neph with narrowed eyes.

"To think," Neph turned around and spread her arms out wide, "that you humans would want to destroy yourselves so easily... After I found Ixpellia, it was so easy. A small tweak of magic," a dark sphere formed above her hand, "a removal of the control core, and this army of Mariage is easy to create. Too bad I can't control them too well..." Neph sighed, shrugging. "Oh well, it's not like they can hurt even a half Mazoku."

"Like you?" Teana asked, getting a nod from Neph.

"Yes, like..." Neph spun around as she felt a huge amount of magic from behind her. "What the?"

"Blazar!" As Teana cried out, a powerful magic blast ripped the morning air asunder. She smirked at the shocked look on Neph's face as the blast struck her in the chest. There was a blinding flash of light and Teana had to look away for a moment. When the brightness faded, Teana looked at Runessa's downed body...

And a second body, this one was purple and black, several feet away.

Neph groaned as she pushed herself up before blinking and staring. "What? But how?" Her eyes widened as several clear binds snapped around her arms and legs while Teana coldly walked up to her. "How?! This doesn't make any sense!"

"I never told you, did I?" Teana said as she pointed Cross Mirage at the Mazoku's face. "Cross Mirage, Load Cartridge."

**"Cartridge Load."**

"Bu... But... But..." Neph trembled as a magic circle appeared under Teana's feet.

"I was in a unit specifically created to be able to wipe out Mazoku." Teana said, her voice was oddly calm and emotionless as she spoke. "Did you really think I wouldn't learn spells to split Mazoku from people they're possessing? Or binds that could hold a Mazoku?" A small, cruel smirk appeared on her face as the Mazoku continued to tremble in fear. "Or... The strongest Astral magic spell ever?"

**"Ra Tilt."**

"Goodbye, Neph, this is for hurting my friend." Teana whispered as he pulled the trigger.

The last thing Neph saw was a blinding flash of white as sheer, unimaginable pain assaulted the Mazoku's senses.

When the spell ended, there was no trace of the Mazoku who had possessed Runessa.

* * *

Teana: We need to deal with these things somehow.  
Ixpellia: May I help?  
Teana: Next time on Blood That Flows - SSX, read it and find out.  
Subaru: ACK! Lots of enemies!


	282. SSX 12

Blood That Flows

SSX 12

Of course I own nothing.

I am horrible with using puns.

* * *

Teana sighed and shook her head. "Still need to deal with those..." She trailed off and looked at Runessa's body. "I'm sorry, I wish I had known you from before." Teana's words were soft and tinged with sadness as she looked at the downed body. Sighing, she put a hand on Runessa's shoulder and stared as the downed body seemed to stir. "Ru...ne?"

"Ngh... My head..." She looked up at Teana and stared. "...I'm not... Dead?"

Teana scratched her chin and sweat-dropped. "Well, honestly, I have no idea why you're alive. I never thought that the spell I used would work. Really, I was fully expecting it to not work or kill you."

"Whaaaa?!" Runessa gaped at Teana, her eyes wide and white while tears leaked out of them. "Why would you do that then?!"

Teana looked away and shrugged. "I had to do something. Anyway," she narrowed her eyes as she looked out at the Mariage on the street that were marching past them, "we need a plan."

_"Tea!"_ Subaru's voice broke through, causing Teana to nearly fall over in shock. _"I found someone at those coordinates."_

Teana narrowed her eyes as she heard that. _"Subaru, who did you find?"_

_"Her name's Ixy."_

_"No it's not!"_ A new female voice spoke up, somewhat flustered, not that Teana blamed her, Subaru could be frustrating at times, _"my name is Ixpellia!"_

_"Okay, Ixy."_ Subaru sent over the link, quite happily, causing both Teana and Ixpellia to groan through the link. _"Anyway, Tea, Ixy here has something to tell you."_

_"The Mariage, how many are there?"_

_"Thousands, why?"_

_"Way too many. I'd be more helpful if I had my control core for them."_

Teana blinked and turned to look at Runessa as she started to cough and heave before...

"Eww..." Teana winced as she saw Runessa vomit onto the rooftop. She narrowed her eyes as a black crystal bounced off of the rooftop before floating upwards slowly. _"For some reason, Ixpellia, there's this black crystal, it looks like a compass needle and there's a purple glow coming from it, do you..."_

_"That's my control core... How the heck do you have it?" _Teana nodded, she was only taking a guess, but she was lucky that it paid off.

_"Not important, if you had it, could you get these things to stop?"_

_"No. I'm too weak, I was woken up early and I don't have the energy to stop all of them."_

_"I can transfer my magic to you."_ Subaru offered to help.

_"My magic's different than yours, it wouldn't work."_ Ixpellia sighed heavily. _"...The sky, it's... It's blue..."_

Teana blinked and looked to the East as the sun started to rise. _"Yeah, it is."_ She didn't have any idea why that was important. _"If you had the control core, what could you do?"_

_"I couldn't stop all of them, but if I had my control core, I could direct the leader units to any area, and the leader units can control the ones they turned into Mariage."_

Teana's eyes widened as plans started to form. _"Subaru, get to my location, right now."_

_"On my way!"_

Teana touched her belt and closed her eyes as the four talismans started to glow. She was going to need the extra magic to send a telepathic signal across the city and contact everyone who was fighting. _"Listen up, everyone. I've got a plan forming, but I need some help still. I have a way to direct these things to a wide open space, but I need some suggestions."_

_"Why a wide open space?"_

_"Because,"_ a third voice answered the second one, Teana wasn't too sure, but the voice sounded kind of familiar to her, _"when you fight a group this large, you need a wide open area to destroy them as fast as possible. Unless you want someone to destroy the city..."_

_"Lina, that's enough. Teana, I hope you know what you're doing."_

_"I do, Zelgadis, but I need a suggestion..."_

_"Why not the training park?"_ Dieci's voice came over the com.

Teana blinked as she heard the suggestion. _"Dieci?"_

_"The training park is only a few blocks from where I am right now. I've been blowing up the Mariage in the park for some time now. Even if we destroy it, it could be rebuilt easier than destroying the major buildings."_

Teana nodded, that sounded like a plan. _"Alright then, let's make it happen."_

(-)

"Sir?" One of the Ground Forces looked at Auris, who had just been told of the plan. "Should we?" He shut up at the look she gave him. "Yes, sir."

"Alright everyone!" Voltz yelled to the troops. "You heard the plan, let's mow these things down and try to make our way towards the park."

Auris threw her hand to the side. "Crush them all, don't let a single one through!"

"Yes, sir!"

Voltz chuckled as he saw the Ground and Rescue Forces snipe the Mariages, forcing them back slowly. "Say, is it just me, or have they slowed down?"

Auris adjusted her glasses and looked at the group. "They may be made from the bodies of the dead, but it seems that they're similar to a familiar."

"So, they need a constant stream of magic to keep going then," Voltz said as Auris nodded, "sheesh! Considering how many there are, the amount of magic being supplied must have been enormous."

Auris nodded and wondered just who could do such a thing anyway.

(-)

Meanwhile...

"That stupid idiot..." A woman said as she looked upon the battlefield, sighing heavily. "Really, revealing yourself to this group was just crazy..."

"Uri, is that you?" A male voice spoke up, causing Uri to turn around and nod to the person behind her.

"Hello, Abby." Her blue hair danced in the early morning breeze as she leaned against the wall. "Lyla was around." She nodded at his twitch. "I don't think she was personally involved, but, you never know with her."

Abby crossed his arms over his chest and grumbled. "Something's coming isn't it?" Uri nodded to him. "So, what is it?"

"Not sure, I think when Garoth revealed himself that things changed." She turned around and narrowed her eyes. "Is it just me, or does everything feel wrong?"

"It's not just you." Abby snorted as he walked up to her. "A Shinzoku from another universe is running around." Uri looked at him, her eyes narrowed in anger. "Don't worry, he's not here searching for anyone in particular, nor is he here trying to screw stuff up."

"Good." Uri sighed and looked out at the city as explosions and flashes of light filled the air. "Do you think we should have done more for this universe?"

Abby shrugged at her. "Does it matter? Humans will do what they want no matter what. In the end, so long as the seals aren't broken, why should we care?"

Uri disappeared after that, she didn't want to tell him that she was tired of letting things play out in front of them.

Abby sighed as he felt her anger. "Foolish..."

He wasn't sure who he was talking to anymore.

(-)

Meanwhile...

Ixpellia looked out to the East as the sun continued to rise through the air slowly. "...So beautiful." She had never seen a sky that wasn't covered in black smog, warships and fire. "Is this how it is these days?"

Subaru chanced a look out to the East and blinked a few times. "It's so common that I never paid attention to it. Why?"

"The last time I was awake, the skies were always dark and red, smog and battleships filled the air." Ixpellia took a deep breath as the two raced into the city. "Tell me, Subaru, what is life like in this day and age?"

"Generally not this crazy." Subaru muttered as she looked at the Mariage below. "...They're moving slower than usual."

"My power is weak," Ix began to explain, "the more energy I have available, the stronger they are. The one who was using them had much more magical power than I ever had." She sighed heavily and buried her head into Subaru's chest. "I only needed a force about a tenth of this to destroy entire worlds before."

"Why?" Subaru blinked as she looked down at the smaller girl. "You don't seem like a bad kid. Why would you do that?"

"I never wanted to, but my people were being threatened by outside interests." She looked up and Subaru could only stare at the dead look in her eyes. "I needed to protect them... I was the only one who had enough magical power to do something, anything... I didn't want my people to suffer and die. And I was young enough that the process was mostly painless for me."

Subaru didn't say anything as they continued to race into the city. "So, how come they didn't seem too dangerous?"

"They're confused." Ix said as she looked out at the skyscrapers. "They sense that I'm alive, but they sense that I'm not in control, so they have no real idea what to do. If I had the control core and was controlling them, then even a few hundred of them would have wiped this planet clean by now."

Subaru blinked at her. "Are you sure?"

Ix nodded to her. "Unless you have people who can level entire cities with magic, then yes."

"Well, actually..." Subaru trailed off at Ixpellia's stupefied look. "Hey, don't look at me, but one of my instructors is a SS class mage..."

"That means nothing to me." Ixpellia interrupted Subaru and turned her head to look ahead of them. "I think we're there."

Subaru blinked and looked up, nodding as she saw Dieci and Teana on a rooftop looking out at the park, "yeah," the cyborg nodded as she zipped down to them. "Tea, Dieci, what's the situation?"

"We've been crowding them this way, but it's hard, some of them aren't..." Teana trailed off as the control core that she had been guarding suddenly zipped towards the girl in Subaru's arms before it entered her chest. There was a brief flash of light that forced Teana to close her eyes shut for a moment. "So, now what?"

"Now?" Ixpellia looked at Teana seriously, "we destroy my Mariage."

(-)

A few minutes ago...

"So, you understand the plan then?" Zelgadis asked as he held up his hand, firing a powerful blast of concentrated wind to the Mariage in front of them. He sighed as the others nodded and, instead of trying to get around the Mariage and force them one way, were driving into them as if the Mariage were a giant pool or something.

At least it made sense with Kuma, since he could get in and out before most anyone could blink, Zelgadis shrugged and unsheathed his sword and ran into the crowd of Mariage himself. Ducking a swing for his head, he slashed upward, cutting the Marriage in half as he spun and lobbed off three heads before elbowing one in the stomach and sending her flying backwards. "Lybrim." Zelgadis swung his arm in an arc, freezing all the Mariage around him in an instant. Sure, the spell didn't have that great of range, but the fact that it could freeze anything that had a physical body instantly was more useful than most ice spells.

Up in the air, Kyrie frowned as she watched the Mariage move. "They're moving slower." That wouldn't be nearly as much fun. After all, slicing up things that were barely able to move just wasn't as much fun as trying to outmaneuver enemies that could move pretty fast or could take a hit like those weird robots from awhile ago did.

"There's still a lot, you know." Amitie yelled up at her and pointed her Zapper behind her, shooting off ten shots and taking out several of the Mariage that were starting to shamble up behind her. "If you're not careful..."

"I know, I know..." Kyrie waved her hand as she watched Caro direct Fried to blasting a group. "Where has that Dragon been?"

"Busy, obviously." Amitie said as she flew up to her sister. "Didn't you pay any attention to what was going on?" Amitie sighed as Kyrie just grinned at her. "Of course not." Amitie would have rubbed her forehead if she wasn't busy shooting at the various Mariage down on the ground. "...Should I use _that_?"

Kyrie shrugged at her. "I don't see why you should. I mean, it's not like we're in danger, right?" She gulped at Amitie's glare. "Plus you might kill an ally?"

"Huh... Good point." Amitie nodded slowly, slightly shocked that Kyrie would point that out.

"Ladies, if you'd please lay some covering fire down," Kuma said as he looked up at them. Sure, getting a look up their skirts was nice, but there was a bit of a crisis going on around them. He smirked as the two let out small yelps and started firing down at the group of Mariage. "Well then..." He grinned as his magic swirled around his feet. "Let's dance!"

(-)

Sette looked at the crowd as she and Cinque worked their way into the crowd. "How are Ginga and Nove doing?" She looked at the shorter girl.

Cinque closed her visible eye as she tried to contact Wendi. "...It seems like they're okay, but they won't be at full health for a few more hours." Opening her eye, she snapped her fingers and several knives lashed out of mid-air and struck several of the Mariage in the forehead before the knives exploded. "Where's Mr. Snuggles?"

Her eye widened as an explosion occurred behind her. Turning, she sweat-dropped as a fire sprang up and a small figure walked out of it. "...I'd ask what the heck you did, but I'm more afraid of the answer."

Mr. Snuggles just smirked at her. _"Trust me, you don't want the answer."_

Cinque looked at Sette and could have sworn that the tall cyborg was smirking at her. But the smirk was so small and didn't last long enough for her to tell. "I... See."

_"Now then, it seems these things are getting weaker, how about we wrap this up and get them to follow us to the meeting point?"_

Sette and Cinque both nodded and moved towards the crowd. "Even if they are not fast, they are numerous." Sette commented as she grabbed a Mariage that tried to get close to her. Snapping the arm off, she kicked the Mariage into the group as Cinque threw several knives in and caused them to explode. "...This is taking too long."

"Reform one of your boomerangs." Cinque said and nodded as Sette did just that. "Give it here." Taking the weapon in her hands, Cinque smiled and handed it back. "So, who's up for a massive fragmentation grenade?"

This time Sette did smirk as she threw her boomerang into the air and shattered it. "Cinque, if you would," Sette said as the small, spinning blades cut into the crowd of Mariage.

"Of course." Cinque nodded and snapped her fingers.

The resulting explosion was far larger than Cinque, Sette or Mr. Snuggles expected it to be. The shockwave was so intense that it sent the three of them flying backwards to crash into one of the buildings behind them.

Groaning, Mr. Snuggles looked up and gaped at the destruction. what little wasn't obscured by the smoke was pretty impressive, considering that trees were uprooted, cars were tossed around like nothing, and a bird bath was in thirty pieces. Mr. Snuggles liked hunting those birds, they were fun to try and get before they flew away.

"Woah..." Cinque stared. "Sette, we are never doing that again." There was no response and she turned to look, gasping as she saw Sette on the ground, clutching her head. "Sette, are you okay?"

"I am fine." Sette looked up at her. "I hit my head a little too hard though." Shaking her head, Sette stood up and blinked as she looked around. "I should be okay."

Cinque nodded to her. "Just take it easy, okay?"

_"I agree, also, where are those things?"_

"What are you..?" Cinque trailed off as she looked at the destruction more clearly as the smoke dissipated. "...Woah." The crater that covered the street was massive in size and depth, covering at least a two block radius and going deep enough that several sewer pipes were exposed and destroyed.

Of the Mariage that had been surrounding them, nothing could be seen.

_"I think you over-did it." _Mr. Snuggles sweat-dropped as Cinque nodded.

Cinque looked at her hand and frowned, 'did I put Chaos into that by accident?' It wasn't like that power was controllable after all. Still, it was something to talk to her mother about.

* * *

Lina: Hey! I'm up again! Sweet! Time to go, zombie women!  
Mariage: Do try, you shall fail.  
Lina: Oh, I'm sorry, who's failing?  
Shiro: Next time on Blood That Flows - SSX, it's our time.  
Lina: Read it or I'll really cause some trouble.


	283. SSX 13

Blood That Flows

SSX 13

Of course I own nothing.

* * *

Shiro looked at Lina as she sneezed. "Are you okay?"

Lina rubbed her nose, smirking at him. "I should ask you the same thing, dear..." She practically purred as she watched him cut down more and more Mariage with each passing moment. Just watching him turn the women into dead pieces of flesh was just intense.

And Shiro was, in her opinion, totally hot when he was committing brutal kills on his enemies.

"Hey, mom!" Arf yelled from up in the air. Looking up, Lina smiled as she heard Arf's next words, "the street only has those weird women on them for at least eight blocks."

"Well then..." Lina pulled out Galveria and smirked as she looked at the Mariage. "Light Come Forth." The bright flash of light and roar of magical power had both Arf and Shiro looking away to protect their eyes and ears. "Fly, Galveria, fly through them all!" Pulling back on the magical weapon, she let loose a single bolt of energy that rushed forward at such speed and power that by the time Arf turned to look the entire city street had been cleared of the Mariage. "...I almost forgot just how powerful this weapon was."

The memory of her using it to send a Ragna Blade through Dynast Grausherra suddenly struck her mind, as well as the resulting death of the former Mazoku Lord. Looking at the bow in her hands, she narrowed her eyes and willed it to shut off.

"Dear?" Shiro blinked as Lina looked at him, a rather dark look in her eyes. "What's wrong?"

"Galveria was a mistake." Lina muttered as she turned and started to walk down the street. "Luna just contacted me, Miyuki, Arashi and Vivio are safe."

Shiro nodded as the two of them walked down the street while Arf flew overhead. "What did you mean by a mistake?"

"It's too powerful for humans to have. The other four weapons of light combined don't even come close to this thing." Even if she wanted to get rid of the thing, she would only give it to Sirius. It wasn't that she didn't trust anyone else in her family, but she knew just how tempting it was to use something so powerful when it was at your finger-tips and it could be used.

Even if Chaos was terrifying, the power it had could not be denied and some times it took effort to not tap into it with her power.

Lina blinked as she felt Shiro's hand on her shoulder. Turning, she blinked at he smiled at her. "Lina, just because it's powerful and dangerous doesn't mean that I'm worried about it. I married you, after all, didn't I?"

Lina smirked at him and slugged him in the stomach playfully. "Better turn the charm down, mister, I need to concentrate on something other than how incredibly sexy you are."

"Oh gods!" The two blinked and turned to look as Miyuki was giving them a disgusted look. "Aunt Luna flies us over here as fast as she could and you two are about to make out, in the middle of a war zone!"

Lina gave her a flat stare but shrugged. "Actually, I was trying to talk him out of it this time." She ignored Miyuki's disbelief and looked at Vivio and Arashi. "Are you two okay?"

"We're fine, grandma!" Vivio smiled brightly at Lina. "Aunt Miyuki gave your sister the sword of light and then there was a big fire that went WHOOSH! and flames went everywhere before exploding and BOOM!" Vivio threw her arms out wide with a shocked look on her face. "And everything exploded!"

"Sounds like you've been having fun then." Shiro chuckled softly. "Come on, we're making our way into the city. That Teana girl apparently has a plan of some sort."

(-)

A few minutes later, Filia and Chrono had made it to the area where Teana had asked them to meet. "Chrono, will Amy be okay?"

"We left when those things were almost gone, and I know that Lotte and Aria can handle bodyguard duties." Left unsaid was the fact that the Mariage were moving much slower than they had been when he joined the fight, so he felt a lot more confident that they would be okay. "Agent Lanster," Chrono spoke up as he got closer to Teana, Subaru, Dieci and a girl he had never seen before, "Nakajima, Takamachi, and you are..?" He looked at the last person.

"Ixpellia, Dark Ruler of the Underworld, creator of the Mariage that lay siege to this city and someone who wishes that they would stop."

Chrono raised an eyebrow, but nodded. "I see. I take it that you're not the one behind this current crisis then?"

"Indirectly, I am, however, no matter my role, this is still my responsibility." Ixpellia closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "I have no idea if I can get these Mariage to come towards us though."

A few moments later, there was a tap on the rooftops where they were meeting, looking over his shoulder, Chrono nodded to Luna, Lina, Shiro, Miyuki, Arf, Vivio and Arashi. "I see that you decided to join us."

Lina smirked and looked around. "Is this it?"

_"This is the Ground Forces working with the Rescue forces on the scene. We will be working to purge the city of these things as quickly as possible."_

_"Understood, Ground Forces. To anyone else, this is Admiral Chrono Harlaown, the force we have here can deal with most of these things easily enough, deal with the beings in your area and mop up any stragglers."_

_"Yes sir."_

Filia raised an eyebrow at him. "Was there a point to that? We could have used the others."

"I was about to say," a new male voice spoke up from behind Chrono, "that we'd like to help too."

"Zel! Caro! Erio!" Lina smiled at the trio. "You guys took care of your problem?"

"We left Kuma, Amitie and Kyrie behind. Fried's currently roasting any of these things that he can while flying through the city." Zelgadis looked at Ixpellia. "As you're the only person I don't know, I'm going to assume that you're the only person that can stop this?"

"Kind of," Ixpellia nodded to him, "how did you guess?"

"Because just after Teana contacted us and these things started to slow down, they started to make their way towards this area, and since the only thing that I can see would draw them would be someone I don't know, I'd have to say that you're the reason."

"Don't look so smug, Zel," Lina rolled her eyes, "the next thing you know, this cute little girl will start throwing a Dragon Slave around, destroy some magical items and somehow someone else will get blamed and you'll be forced to go on an adventure to help them clear their name."

Ixpellia just scratched her head in confusion. "If they're heading here, then the compulsion I put into them worked, so," she looked at Teana, "what is your plan?"

"Get them together, then destroy all of them at once," Teana smirked at the looks she was getting, "don't act like that, human-sized bodies that are flooding the city? If they remain spread out like they are now, a few will escape and we'll have to deal with this in the future. Getting them all together and then wiping them out at once is a valid plan."

"I like the stuff blowing up plan." Subaru grinned as she looked down at the Mariage as they shambled in. "So, how do we blow them up? Wait until we can't see the ground or..?"

"Rune Flare." Lina and Zelgadis said at the same time and Subaru stumbled back as the two spells converged on the Mariage below.

"I suggest that you start laying suppressing fire down." Shiro chuckled to Subaru, who nodded and took off to another roof to try and get a better angle of fire.

"This seems to be going well." Zelgadis said as the small force was able to wipe out the Mariage fairly easily. Looking up, he snorted as he saw Filia and Chrono both blast the ground below with some beam magic attacks. "Show offs."

"Oh, like you're not?" Lina smirked at him as she pointed an open palm at the crowd below. "Blast Bomb."

"That's just cheating." Zelgadis muttered irritably. "Being able to do that without boosting your magic."

Lina and Zelgadis smirked at each other as the final enemies were destroyed by the combined magical assault of the team. "Well, that's..." Zelgadis trailed off as there was a soft thump behind him.

Turning around, Dieci, Zelgadis, Teana and Lina, the only ones who had stayed on the roof, stared as they looked at Ixpellia's downed form.

(-)

A few hours later...

The doctor chuckled as he walked out of the hospital room as the few people that were there stood up and started asking several questions. Sure, he didn't know what they were specifically, but he heard enough of the same questions over the years that he knew what the general gist is. "The young girl is quite alright, she's just suffering from exhaustion and a strained Linker Core. Normally this would be a bad thing, but as we scanned her it seems that her Linker Core was regenerating rather quickly. She's just sleeping right now."

"So, she's okay then?" The girl with short blue hair asked, fear in her eyes and he nodded.

"Yes. In fact, she woke up just as we finished to tell me to let you know that she just needs a few days of rest. She said that she wanted to recover some energy so she could spend time with all of you before she goes back to sleep."

When the people in the hallway suddenly looked at him sharply, he sighed heavily. "Even though her Linker Core is recovering, it will take awhile before it's back to full health. I'm not sure how long it will take, but she mentioned that she'll put herself into a coma to recover her energy. When I asked, she said that she could put it off for about a month before she goes into a coma again."

"So, that's it?" The girl with the short blue hair asked and he nodded. "We just... Save her, talk to her and then she leaves us again?"

"I'm sorry." The doctor sighed as the girl balled her hands into fists before storming out of the hallway. "I really am."

(-)

"Subaru!" Teana ran after her friend, sighing as she saw Subaru standing by the elevator, trembling. "Come on, she's still alive, right?"

Subaru turned to look at her sadly. "It's not fair, Tea... Why? She wanted... All she wanted was to be free of the curse she was under, and I promised her that we could help. I... I don't want to break that promise."

Teana said nothing as she walked up to Subaru and hugged her. She wasn't surprised when Subaru hugged her back, trembling before her legs gave out and the cyborg buried her face into Teana's chest and started crying.

She didn't blame Subaru one bit for this. It was hard for Teana to keep herself from crying too.

(-)

"Hey..." Wendi smiled as she looked at Nove and Ginga. "How are you two holding up?" Nove's wrists were in braces while Ginga's leg was wrapped up. Thankfully between modern medicine, healing magic and the fact the two were cyborgs, they didn't need casts on their limbs.

Nove shrugged at her, "we'll live. How's the rest?"

"Sette got a small concussion, but other than that, everyone's fine." Wendi giggled as Nove had a relieved expression cross her face. "Anyway, ran into your mom on my way here," she was interrupted as Ginga nodded to her.

"Yeah, mom was in here a couple of minutes before you got here."

"Oh," Wendi blinked and looked at the door, "no wonder she knew where you two were." Wendi scratched the back of her head.

Nove snorted at Wendi. "Anyway, Wendi, where's Subaru?"

"Last I saw her, she was waiting for news over that girl she found." Wendi wasn't sure why, but Subaru really seemed to care for the girl. "Anyway, I was just checking up on you... Are you sure your arms will be okay?"

Nove rolled her eyes at Wendi. "You fixed most of the damage when you decided to see if you could weld the holes in my arms shut." Sighing when Wendi cringed, Nove gave her a small smile. "The burns weren't as bad as they could have been. I'll have a small scar on my arms, but it won't be too bad."

Seeing Wendi suddenly smile brightly made Nove feel a lot better for some reason.

* * *

Vivio: Ixy...  
Arashi: Aww! Come on! I wanna play too!  
Vivio: What are you doing? Hey!  
Arashi: Next time on Blood That Flows - SSX, read it and find out.


	284. SSX 14

Blood That Flows

SSX 14

Of course I own nothing.

* * *

Vivio wasn't sure why she was following Arashi into that girl's hospital room. Sure, she wanted to know more about the girl who made those weird women too, but why did Arashi want to see her? "Come on, Arashi, if we stay in here too long, people are gunna be mad."

Arashi looked at Vivio and frowned before running up to the bed where Ixpellia was currently sleeping. "Vivio, why is she sleeping? It's morning. She should play."

Vivio scratched her head. She had learned about Linker Cores and how exhausting all magic was a bad thing, but she wasn't sure how to explain it. "Well, it's because she's really tired."

"Then she shouldn't be up all night." Arashi said as he climbed onto the bed and looked at Ixpellia's sleeping face. "Up! Come on!"

"Hey!" Vivio ran up to the bed and grabbed Arashi. "You shouldn't do that. People need their sleep to get better."

Arashi pouted as Vivio tried to pull him off of Ixpellia. "Hey! Let go! Come on!" He grabbed Ixpellia's arm to keep Vivio from pulling him off of her. "You'll pull her out too."

"Then let go, dummy!" Vivio yelled as she slipped and fell on her butt pretty hard. "Owwie! You jerk!" Vivio yelled at Arashi and blinked as she saw that he had flipped over and was currently resting on his head. "Hee hee, you look silly."

Arashi rolled over so that he could glare at her, but his actions caused him to crash onto Ixpellia's stomach, getting a gasp from the girl. "Uh..."

Ixpellia opened her eyes slightly. "Please, let me rest... I want to stay for a while, but I need energy."

"Why?" Arashi tilted his head as Ixpellia shook hers.

"It takes a lot of energy... To create... And... Maintain... The Mariage..." She closed her eyes, going back into a light slumber.

Arashi scratched his head and looked at Vivio. "Is that like when you run out of magic and you can't move?" Vivio nodded and Arashi looked at Ixpellia. "Then... MORE ENERGY!"

"Wait, what?" The next thing Vivio knew, Arashi had put his hands on Ixpellia's chest and a bright flash of golden energy filled the room and sent Vivio tumbling across the room. "Arashi!"

"Hey!" Vivio looked up as her grandmother came into the room. "What's... Arashi?!" Lina gasped as she saw her son glowing softly. "Hey! Knock it off, you don't know what that will do." Lina walked up and grabbed Arashi's arm, causing the glow to subside instantly on both Arashi and Ixpellia. "What were you doing?" She narrowed her eyes at her son, who gulped and looked away. "Arashi... I talk to a doctor for a few moments and you run into the room and do this?" Pulling her son off of the bed, Lina rubbed her forehead and looked at the doctor and nurses who came into the room, looking worried. "Run every scan you can on her body, check for everything you know, things you don't know, whatever. Just scan her and make sure nothing bad happened to her."

The doctor blinked at the redheaded woman gave him and the nursees orders. "What do you.." He trailed off as she walked up to him and grabbed his jacket, pulling him over. "Ma'am!"

"Listen, something very strange just happened to the girl, I'm not sure what, but I do know that if she's not looked at, right now, anything could happen to her, the least of which is death." He gulped as the woman narrowed her eyes at him harshly. "Now, do you want that girl's death to be on your watch?"

Shaking his head, the doctor quickly made his way over to the girl and helped with diagnostics on the girl.

Both Vivio and Arashi were sweating as Lina looked at them with narrowed eyes. "Come on, you two, we need to talk."

The two looked at each other and gulped.

A few minutes later, Lina was in a fairly secluded area in the hospital and was glaring at Arashi and Vivio. "Okay, now, you two have exactly one chance to explain to me why I shouldn't make it impossible for you two to use magic for a month."

"Uh..." Vivio gulped at her grandmother's piercing gaze. "Arashi ran into the room, got on the bed and wanted to play with her and then he did something and I tried to stop him but he fell over and then she woke up and he wanted to give her energy and then you came in and I'm sorry!" Vivio was whimpering at the end of that and Lina had to blink several times at her.

"...Learn to breathe once in awhile, Vivio." Lina looked at Arashi. "Well? Why did you decide that Chaos magic was a good idea?"

"You said it could do anything."

Resisting the urge to slap her face and groan, Lina knelt down and took a deep breath to calm down. "Arashi, while I did say that, I should have told you, when I say anything, I mean anything. What would have happened if you turned her into a giant three headed dog with a long tail that breathes fire?" Arashi blinked at Lina in confusion. "Arashi, I'm trying to teach you how to use this power so that you can control it. It's very dangerous and you could have done a really bad thing to that girl by accident."

"Really?" Arashi trembled as Lina nodded. "I... I'm sorry!" He hugged his mother tightly and she sighed, patting his back.

"For now, Arashi, just hope that nothing bad happens." Privately, Lina was wondering what was going to happen to Ixpellia next.

Chaos was unpredictable, Lina wouldn't deny that. But every time it was used, the course of human history changed tremendously.

She just hoped that it wouldn't be a bad change this time.

(-)

Elsewhere...

Runessa looked up as an older man walked into her cell. "Genya Nakajima?" She wondered just what her punishment would be for the fiasco that had just finished up.

The older man nodded to her. "If you're curious, I'm not here to pass judgement on you. I just need to know, Teana said you were possessed by a Mazoku. Is that true?"

Runessa sighed and looked away. "I was five, dying... And that thing said that it would save me... I let it... And it used my body, healed me, and fed off the anger and pain I felt."

"I see." Genya nodded and turned away. "Thank you." It was going to be difficult to deal with, he knew that. Still... "I wouldn't worry too much. When it comes to Mazoku, there are different rules in play."

Runessa just blinked as Genya left her in her cell.

(-)

Two days later at the airport...

"I still say that we should have just blown those pirates up." Vita grumbled as she walked out of the ship while looking back at Signum, who followed her out. "I mean, come on, no one would have noticed, right?"

"Except that we nearly lost the cargo at least three times." Signum rolled her eyes and looked up at the people who had come to greet them. "I did not expect to see them."

Vita turned and smiled as she saw Caro, Erio and Vivio waving at them. "Hey kids." She said as she walked up to them. "The rest are coming out now. Anything exciting happen while we were out?"

"Nothing much, world was doomed, had to fight a horde of evil creatures that tended to explode and nearly killed all of us." Erio shrugged and Vita blinked slowly.

"Oh, didn't realize that it was Tuesday." The comment was enough to get Signum to actually crack a smile as she fought the urge to laugh herself.

"You've been sunbathing again?" Caro remarked, looking at Signum's darkened skin. It was a rather light tan, the kind most girls got when they spent the day at the beach. "I thought you didn't like tanning."

"There's nothing wrong with it," Signum dismissed, having grown comfortable with the act. Her skin's quirks had long since stopped being a curiosity for her. Vita's own tan had been gone for a little while, and everyone knew it was just due to her fairer skin, a trait common in redheads. And Vita was already itching on getting it back, saying she was going to be dragging her along with. "It's better to tan than to get a sunburn anyway."

"Meh, it's not fair that it's so easy for you to stay tanned." Vita grumbled, even though she was smirking at Signum. She never thought that she'd find something that Signum liked to do other than train or tease Nanoha.

"Mama!" Vivio smiled happily as she saw Nanoha, Fate and Yuuno walk out of the ship next. Running up to Nanoha with her arms stretched open, she jumped into Nanoha's arms as the young woman knelt down to hug her. "Mmm! Missed you!"

"Missed you too, Vivio." Nanoha smiled as she felt her daughter hug her back. "How was things?"

"Mmm... Well, there was a lot of women that showed up and tried to hurt everyone, but then Subaru found this sleepy girl who made all the women stop moving. then grandma and everyone made the bad women stop for good."

Nanoha blinked at her daughter. "Ah, Vivio, sounds like you had fun."

Nodding, Vivio leaned back and smiled. "Come on, you need to meet Ixy."

"Ixy?" Nanoha blinked, wondering why that name seemed so familiar to her. "Sure, we can go meet her later, okay?" She smiled as Vivio nodded. 'Ixy, Ixy... Where..?'

"Hey, Fate..." Erio smiled at the blonde as she walked up to him. "How are you?"

"I'm fine, but it sounds like you were pretty busy too." Smiling, Fate reached out and ruffled his hair. "I'm glad that you're okay." She laughed softly as Erio blushed. "I almost wish that I could have been here to help."

"Nah, even if there were so many that it looked like an ocean of Mariage, we had it handled." Erio grinned at Fate, who sweat-dropped heavily.

"You need to stop hanging around Nanoha's family so much." Fate dead-panned, getting a laugh from Erio. Still, when she found out what happened, she was sure she was going to worry about what happened and get stressed out since she couldn't have been there to help.

Yuuno smiled as he walked up to Caro. "You can tell me about it later, okay?"

"Okay, papa." Caro smiled at him. Jumping at him, she hugged him tightly and sighed happily. "I'm just glad that you're okay."

Yuuno chuckled as he patted her back. "I should say the same about you. Come on, let's go."

"Where's Reinforce, Hayate, Zafira and Shamal?" Erio asked, looking for the missing four people.

"They're coming." Signum looked behind her and nodded as she saw Zafira walking out with Hayate following closely behind. "See?"

"I told you, there was something in that food that made me throw up. I'm not sick." Hayate rolled her eyes at Reinforce, who followed right behind her. "But, if it makes you feel better, I had Shamal look me over a couple of days ago. I'm not sick, right Shamal?" She pouted as Shamal scratched her head and gave her a rather amused look. "Oh, come on, other than the need to throw up sometimes, I feel perfectly fine."

"Yeah, well, I can safely say that you do not have a cold, the flu or anything like that," Shamal ignored the way that Hayate stuck her tongue out at Reinforce, "but I'd suggest that you take yourself off of active duty for awhile."

Hayate blinked at her. "Just what does that mean?"

"Well, I'll need to do some better tests, but I'm just suggesting, you know, being the doctor and all, that you take it easy, okay?" Shamal smiled at Hayate as she walked past the confused woman. "Reinforce, please make sure that Hayate takes it easy for a few days until I get my test results back."

Reinforce nodded and looked around. "Zwei, Agito, just where are you hiding?"

"Awww..." Rein Zwei's voice spoke up before her head popped up from the front of Vita's shirt. "Sis is really comfy here too!"

Vita felt like rubbing her head. "Zwei, would you and Agito get out from between my breasts?"

"Aww, come on, we weren't moving that much." Zwei pouted as she floated out from between Vita's breasts. "Come on, Agito."

"GAH! AIR!" Agito gasped as she popped her head out from under Vita's shirt. "GAH! I don't know _why_ I let you talk me into this!" Agito glared at Zwei as she flew after the giggling girl.

Vita groaned and adjusted her shirt. "Not... One... Word..." She glared at people who were struggling to keep from laughing at her.

"I'll see you guys later," Nanoha said as she and Vivio walked down the ramp, "I've got to check on some stuff."

"Same here." Yuuno said as he and Caro followed Nanoha and Vivio.

"Hey!" Erio yelled at Yuuno and ran after him. "Get back here, you jerk! You left Fate alone!" Fate couldn't help but laugh at that and followed behind, waving at Hayate and her family.

Zafira shook his head, oh well, it was nice to be home.

(-)

About two hours later...

"Come on, she's sleeping here." Vivio urged Nanoha into the room where Ixpellia was currently resting. "She's..."

"You know, Vivio," Nanoha spoke up softly as she walked into the room, "if she's sleeping, you should be more quiet so she can rest."

"Acutally, I've recovered a lot." Vivio gasped as she looked at Ixpellia, who was awake and smiling at them. "I'm not sure... Why..." She trailed off as she looked at Nanoha. "...You, I know you."

"You do?" Nanoha blinked as she walked into the room. "I'm sorry, I have no idea who you are."

"You..." Ixpellia felt her eyes suddenly start burning for some reason. "You don't know?"

"Not at all."

"Mama?" Vivio blinked as Nanoha walked up close to Ixpellia, who looked like she was about to cry. "Do you know her?"

When Nanoha shook her head, Ixpellia couldn't stop tears from leaking out of her eyes. What was the point of being awake if the first person she met after centuries of sleep didn't remember her?

"Oh, wait..." Nanoha tapped Ixpellia on the forehead and smiled lightly. "My jokes stink, Ixy." Ixpellia's eyes widened as Nanoha gave her a hug. "How have you been, friend?"

Ixpellia hugged Nanoha back, tears falling out of her eyes as her friend came back to her. In all of her life, that had never happened and for once, she was just glad to be alive.

Vivio joined in the hug a moment later.

Nanoha smiled as she hugged her friend and her daughter with both arms. Even if it was a long time ago, Nanoha had never forgotten Ixpellia and was glad to see her now.

* * *

Chrono: Ack! This is the end of the arc? What the heck?  
Verossa: That's the way the stories go sometimes.  
Chrono: Next time on Blood That Flows - SSX, this is the end of the arc.  
Ixpellia: Hey! Don't I get more screen time?


	285. SSX End

Blood That Flows

SSX End

Of course I own nothing.

* * *

Chrono felt like banging his head against a wall. Or maybe between Filia and Amy's chests, that wouldn't give him a headache at least when he was done. "It's been over a month, is it really that difficult to figure everything out?"

"I think a healthy sex life has destroyed your sense of patience." Chrono turned and glared at Verossa, who was just smirking at him. "I believe that cute blonde girl, Fate, took longer than this for her trial, didn't she?"

Chrono took a deep breath and nodded. "You're right, I guess I have gotten too used to things going smoothly." He looked at his friend with a raised eyebrow. "So, how are those two?"

"I did a quick mind scan of Runessa," Verossa couldn't help but let some disgust come over his face at that. Even if it was to make sure that there was no Mazoku influence, he didn't like just diving into a person's brain unless he had to. "She's been completely purged of the Mazoku, and strangely enough, I can barely feel any emotions coming from her."

Chrono shrugged, that was in line with what he had heard from the others. "I see, and Ixpellia?"

"As you know, she's currently staying at the Saint Church. The information they can get from her and the fact that there's no better bodyguards on Mid-Childa made it an easy decision for her. Anyway, something interesting came up when I was there last time concerning her ability to create those Mariage," Verossa ignored the look of interest that Chrono shot him, "I'd almost say that her ability to do what she did before, that is, those weird women, has been shorted out." Chrono gave him a confused look. "She was actually commenting that her Control Core seems to be shut down. The doctors and engineers that we had looking at it agreed that something weird happened to it."

"Does it work anymore?" Chrono asked, narrowing his eyes. If Ixpellia couldn't create anymore Mariages, then any punishment that would be metered out wouldn't be as bad.

Verossa narrowed his eyes, despite the fact that he was rather smart, device specifics usually went over his head. Especially when it came to something that was almost as old as the Tome of the Night Sky. "Well, I believe that Shari said that it had been overclocked and had shut down and something like new sub-routines being put into place to over-write the old ones." He coughed into his hand when Chrono gave him an amused look. "I had one of her assistants translate what she said into a more common language." A rather thoughtful look crossed Verossa's face. "Actually, from what I've gathered, she needs to sleep for long periods of time to recover her energy after creating lots of Mariage."

"Okay..." Chrono wondered where this was going.

"Well, she's been scanned so many times that I'm pretty sure that she's tired of it by now," Verossa chuckled softly, "but one thing that was discovered is that her Linker Core isn't draining itself anymore. There's actually a good chance that she won't have to sleep for years at a time like she did before."

"She would like that, I think." Chrono nodded to himself, hopeful that was the result. "So, now what?"

"Now?" Verossa smirked and turned to leave. "I have an appointment to keep."

Chrono blinked and wondered what Verossa was talking about before deciding to ignore it. The guy had been complaining over the past couple of weeks that the investigation was keeping him too busy for something important.

(-)

Meanwhile, at the Saint Church...

Ixpellia closed her eyes and took a deep breath as she enjoyed the morning air. "It feels so nice."

"Does it now?" Tre asked as she walked up to Ixpellia. When the small girl looked at her and smiled at the tall cyborg, Tre gave her a light smile and knelt down to ruffle her hair. "So, it's my turn to watch over you today. Is there anything you want to do?"

Smiling, the young girl spread her arms out to enjoy the sunlight and the sudden cool breeze that came up. "Can we just walk?"

"Sure." Tre nodded as they walked through the yard. "So, Ixpellia, tell me, what are you going to do now?"

"I have no idea," Ixpellia sighed softly. "My kingdom is gone, making the Mariage seems to be lost to me," Ixpellia didn't really believe that she would no longer be able to create the Mariage, but it was nice to not have to worry about it for now, "so, for now, I have nothing to do with my time." She shrugged and turned to walk. "I just wish to enjoy myself." She knew just how precious having time to herself really was.

"Of course." Tre nodded and followed after her.

It was mostly left unsaid, but with Ixpellia not being able to use the control core to create the Mariages, there was a very real possibility that she would not need to sleep for centuries again.

Several minutes later, Ixpellia and Tre found themselves in the game room where some of the nuns were playing various games. Looking around the room, Ixpellia blinked, wondering why people would bother hitting small balls with a stick on a table, she didn't know why people would have pictures of queens and kings on small plastic cards, but found it interesting how they were using the king to murder the queen in cold blood so they could get all of the treasure for themselves. Looking at the far wall, Ixpellia gasped and her eyes widened as she saw a target board and some people throwing small projectiles at it.

"Something wrong?" Tre asked as Ixpellia walked over to where people were throwing darts.

"Excuse me," Ixpellia looked at one of the nuns, who looked down and blinked at her, "may I please try?"

"Um, sure." She nodded and handed three darts over to Ixpellia. "Do you know how to play?" Ixpellia shook her head. "Well, you just take this dart, aim at the board and throw it. You want to hit within the circle so that you get points."

"Okay." Ix nodded and stood behind the line that the nun told her to stand behind. "So... Like this, right?" She quickly threw all three darts in her hand, one after the other, in rapid succession.

"That's..." The nun was cut off as the alarm on the board rang out three times.

Looking at the board, everyone stared in shock as the three darts were in the bulls eye zone, one of which was straight in the middle.

Ixpellia frowned softly. "I seem to be out of practice." She blinked as people fell to the ground. "...Was it something that I said?"

"You hit three bulls eyes." Tre said as she recovered. "I might be pretty good, but even I can't get a grouping like that." And she had cybernetic eyes to help her out.

Ixpellia blinked at her. "Is it not standard practice to teach young children how to throw small projectiles into small targets?" When Tre shook her head, Ixpellia twitched slightly. "But... What if an assassin comes for them when they are alone? How are you supposed to be able to hit the assassin in the eyes or throat or even between the legs if you do not teach them to throw knives, rocks, glass, poisonous snakes that were thrown at you first?"

Tre sweat-dropped heavily before clearing her throat. "I guess Ancient Belka was really bad, huh?"

Ixpellia nodded at her. "Yes. If a king cannot defend herself, what chance do the common folk have?"

One of the nuns scratched her head and looked at Ix in confusion. "But, your highness," while Vivio was the majesty of the Church, Ixpellia was a living relic of Ancient Belka and was a ruler at one point, so she did deserve some consideration from the Church, "did you not say that you took on the Mariages because your Kingdom was in danger?"

Ixpellia nodded to the nun. "Yes, while I could easily defend myself from an assassin, I dare say that fighting an entire army was a bit beyond my abilities, even if I had a limitless supply of small projectiles to throw."

"Didn't you learn any other form of combat?"

"Well, I was supposed to learn something else, but..." Ixpellia sighed and rubbed her eyes. "I am sorry, I must be getting tired."

"You have been up since three this morning," Tre chuckled softly as she looked at the time, "perhaps your highness should take a nap?"

Ixpellia nodded as she yawned again. "I could not help myself, I wished to see a sunrise, again. They are quite lovely." She walked off with Tre right behind her, but not before she turned and gave Tre a small glare, "please, would you stop calling me that? I am just Ixpellia, my kingdom is long dead."

"Of course, your highness." Tre fought back the urge to snort in amusement as Ixpellia groaned while turning away.

(-)

The next day...

Ixpellia smiled as she saw Vivio, Subaru and Nanoha walking into the Saint Church. "Hello, my friends." She waved as Vivio ran up to her and hugged her tightly. "Ooomph! How are you, Vivio?"

"I'm good, Ixy." Vivio smiled even as Ixpellia's eyebrow twitched. "What?"

"I wish that you would just call me..."

"Ixy," Subaru chimed in at that moment, causing Ixpellia to groan in dismay. "Something wrong?"

"Nothing at all," Ixpellia muttered as Vivio released the hug. "Good morning, Nanoha, how are you?"

Nanoha giggled softly. "I'm doing fine. How about you?"

"Other than people calling me 'highness' like these two call me Ixy, nothing bad is happening here."

"What's wrong with Ixy, Ixy?" Vivio asked, tilting her head in confusion.

Before Ixpellia could answer, Sein popped out of the ground, smiling. "Your highness, your majesty, good morning."

"Don't call me that." Both Ixpellia and Vivio said at the same time.

Sein blinked several times. "Woah, stereo." Both girls blushed at that. "But, um, if I didn't call two former Belkan rulers by majesty and highness, Sister Schach and Knight Carim would have my cute little butt on a sling, and believe me, that hurts."

Ixpellia blinked and looked at Vivio. "...I feel foolish for not noticing before, but... I must ask, are you..?"

Vivio sighed heavily and nodded. "I am the clone of the last Saint Kaiser, Olivie Segbrecht." It wasn't something that she liked to think or talk about, since she wasn't Olivie, even if she was Olivie's clone.

Ixpellia blinked several times. "...I feel very stupid right now..." Then again, she had never seen Olivie in person, nor had seen a really good portrait of the Saint Kaiser when she was alive.

Vivio just giggled in amusement. "So, Ixy, did you want to play today?"

Ixpellia nodded and jerked a thumb behind her. "Did you know that they throw weapons as a game around here? They call it darts."

Subaru and Vivio face-faulted and Nanoha just laughed as Ixpellia blinked in confusion. "Oh, Ixy... I've said it before, but you've got a lot to learn about life."

Ixpellia just shrugged, Nanoha was probably right, but that didn't matter to her too much. She just hoped that she had more time to learn what Nanoha really meant.

(-)

Shamal really wasn't sure what to make of the data that she had gotten. She had run at least twenty tests and sighed to herself. "Well, she'll find out sooner or later." She wasn't sure why she was surprised, but shrugged it off. It was almost time for breakfast anyway. Taking a deep breath, she walked out of her room and into a wonderful aroma of smells. When she got to the kitchen, she blinked at three things, Vita, Agito and Zwei were cooking, Hayate and Reinforce weren't around and Verossa was chatting with Signum about some of the more interesting applications of combat magic to everyday life.

'Well, that explains why Vita's cooking.' Shamal chuckled to herself and smiled as Zwei noticed her. "Good morning. Verossa, just what are you doing here?"

The man smiled at her as he stood up. "Well, I've been wanting to stop over for awhile now, but it's very hard to do when your superiors keep burying you in work."

Shamal laughed softly and nodded as she took a seat. "Yeah, I can understand that."

"No! Don't use that knife!" Agito yelled at Zwei. "We use that to cut meat up!"

"Or bread dough." Vita supplied, smiling lightly. "Actually, Agito, could you get some eggs from the fridge, Rein, could you go get mom and dad up?"

"Sure!" The two, in their human-sized modes said. Zwei ran off to get her parents while Agito opened the fridge up.

"Vita's pretty good with those two, huh?" Verossa said as he and Shamal sat at the table.

"Oh please," Signum snorted, "you're just here to freeload off of us." Verossa gave her a hurt look, though the way he suddenly chuckled made it clear that he didn't take it personally.

"Signum!" Vita yelled at the pink-haired knight. "Stop taunting my boyfriend."

Signum raised an eyebrow at the redhead. "Oh, so he's your boyfriend now, huh? I thought he was just your friend with some benefits." She snickered as Vita turned and glared at her.

"At least I didn't pretend to be a pirate for awhile."

Signum rolled her eyes. "I'll have you know that I haven't worn that eye patch in a long time." She snorted when Vita waved her hand. "Anyway, Verossa, you never did say why you came over this morning."

Verossa's smile, which never seemed to leave his face, only increased at the question. "Well, I have something I want to say, but I want to wait for everyone to be up." He nodded as he saw a large blue wolf walk into the kitchen, followed by Hayate, Reinforce and Rein Zwei. "Well, it seems that everyone's here. Unless there's someone else in the house."

"Not yet." Shamal muttered to herself, causing Signum to look at her with a raised eyebrow. "Morning, Hayate, Reinforce," they both nodded to her as they sat down, "I'm surprised, I thought you two would be making breakfast."

"I was about to," Hayate said before glancing at Verossa, "but he showed up and Vita kicked me out of the kitchen."

As she came to the table, Vita rolled her eyes. "What? I'm not allowed to make a meal once in awhile?" She ignored the way that Agito laughed at her. "Well, here's breakfast, so, let's dig in."

Hayate would have commented on how much Vita had cooked up for breakfast, but for some reason, she was feeling rather hungry. As she ate, she wondered why Shamal was looking at her with some concern. "Shamal, is something wrong?"

Taking a deep breath, Shamal decided to just get it over with. "Hayate, I'm really surprised you never noticed, but... Congrats, Hayate, you're pregnant, could someone pass the milk please?"

The sudden silence was so overwhelming that Shamal was almost sure she could hear ocean crashing into the beach not too far from the house.

"What?" Reinforce finally broke the silence. "What do you mean?"

Shamal sighed and gave Reinforce a flat look. "I'd like to wash my breakfast down with milk, please pass it."

"Not that!" Hayate stood up, yelling at her. "What do you mean that I'm pregnant?!"

"You've got a baby on the way, a bun in the oven, in a family way, do you understand or should I think up new metaphors involving a turducken?" Shamal wasn't normally so easily upset, but they were keeping the milk from her, darn it!

"I... But... How?" Hayate felt like fainting, she hadn't been with anyone other than Reinforce.

Reinforce's face went pale, which was rather unusual, since she almost never reacted like that. "Hayate, I think... We need to talk about certain things."

"So, daddy's going to be a mommy even though mommy is mommy and daddy shouldn't be mommy and..." Rein Zwei twitched and looked at Agito, who was just looking around in confusion. "Waah! I've got a daddy mommy now!" Before Agito could respond, Zwei had tackled her to the floor hard.

_"Vita, it's getting noisy in here."_ Vita blinked as she heard Verossa's voice in her head. _"Care to step outside with me, I need to talk to you."_

_"S-sure."_Darn it, why was she blushing all of a sudden? That stupidly sexy voice of his... Even if it was just in her mind.

Zafira blinked as he watched Vita and Verossa step outside. Sure, Hayate being pregnant was a surprise, but if he acted like the rest, then there would be no order in the house. And without some order, things got insane.

Besides, it was kind of funny.

Standing up, he walked over to the door and opened it up slightly to listen in on Vita and Verossa's conversation.

"What is it, Verossa?" Vita asked, blinking at the green haired man.

"We've known each other a long time, Vita," he smiled at her while rubbing the back of his neck, "I'd say that we're pretty close, wouldn't you?"

"I'd hope so," Vita gave him a wry smirk. "But, why bring that up?"

"Well, I was thinking, we've known each other for a long time, and well, I was thinking that it's a little past time that our relationship go from where it is to something a little... More."

Vita's eyes widened as Verossa went to one knee and pulled out a small box before opening it. "Verossa..." She gasped as she saw what was inside of it.

"Vita Yagami, would you do the honor of marrying me?"

Vita's answer amused Zafira as he watched his younger sister suddenly tackle Verossa to the patio deck and cry out 'yes' several times before kissing him on the lips fully.

"Good for you, Vita." Zafira blinked and looked up at Shamal and Signum, who were both watching and smiling as well. "What a day, huh?" Shamal smiled down at him.

Zafira nodded and looked back at Vita and Verossa, happy for them. Turning his head, he mentally sighed as Zwei continued to over-react. Well, it wasn't like he could blame her too much, Hayate had always been her father. He was certain that when she calmed down she'd be ecstatic to be a big sister.

Oh well, at least things would work out. He was pretty sure of that at least.

- SSX End

* * *

Yep, that's it for SSX. I'm heading to ViVid next, but, it'll be a little bit. I'm almost ready with it, but not quite. Anyway, I hoped that you've all enjoyed Blood That Flows so far.

Stay tuned for the next arc.


	286. Start of ViVid

Blood That Flows

Start of ViVid

Of course I own nothing.

Sorry about disappearing like that, I was trying to get some more of this story done so I don't have to take too big of a break when I am.

Sadly, my muse is being a pain.

* * *

It was early morning, too early for anyone who had spent most of the previous night up because they were too excited to go to sleep.

So, when Vivio's alarm went off, she let out a yell and fell out of bed with a loud thump.

"Owwww... Gee, what time is it?" Vivio groaned as she rubbed her head and stared. "Gah! I better hurry or I'll be late!"

After all, she wouldn't want to be late for her fourth year in elementary school!

(-)

Downstairs, Nanoha chuckled softly as she heard her daughter crash into the floor. "That girl..."

"Reminds me of you when you were her age." Nanoha looked over at Miyuki and pouted softly. "What? You were always running around early in the morning trying to get stuff done as soon as possible." Miyuki snickered softly. "Especially when you and mom went to the park to practice your magic."

Nanoha rolled her eyes as she finished making breakfast. "I seem to recall that you were really jealous that you couldn't be a magical girl when you found out about magic." She ignored the way Miyuki stuck her tongue out at her. "Anyway, you can't blame her for being excited. Not with Ixpellia taking some classes with her."

It wasn't like the former king needed any schooling, she was smart enough to do anything she wanted in life, but being alive for over a thousand years, but asleep for most of that time, left huge gaps in what she knew. Besides, Ixepllia just wanted to be treated like a normal person and make some friends of her own.

The fact that she was going to be in some of the same classes Vivio was going to be in was just a small bonus after all.

Now if only Yuuno and Fate were there this morning. Oh well, they'd be around in the afternoon.

(-)

Elsewhere...

Nove yawned as she finished up her breakfast. "Thanks mom." Quint smiled at her. "If you don't mind, I'm going to hang out at the gym today." Nove gulped at the look Quint gave her.

"What? Afraid your mother will beat you in sparring again?"

Nove shook her head, while she was confident with her abilities, Quint still knew more about Strike Arts than she did. Besides, she just had a hard time going all out against Quint.

Ginga or Subaru on the other hand, she had no problems going all out and leaving bruises all over their bodies.

"Not that, mom, sheesh, I'm just going to go down and do some light exercise, maybe knock some wimps around, spar with Vivio, you know, the usual."

"Didn't school start today?" A new voice piped up and Nove blinked as she looked at Slyph. "I mean, Vivio was talking about it all last week how she couldn't wait for school to start up again."

Nove narrowed her eyes and groaned. "I almost forgot about that, thanks, Slyph." The small unison device blushed and looked away. "We need to work on your shyness."

Quint shook her head. "Anyway, Nove," she turned back to the stove as she worked on cooking more food, "you're going to have more free time for a few months, do you have anything you want to do in mind?"

"Actually..." Nove trailed off, closing her eyes as she thought about what Cinque had told her a few days ago, "you hear about the martial artists that are getting beaten up at night?" Quint nodded after giving it some thought, "well, I was thinking about going on patrol and seeing if I could take this person down."

Quint looked at Nove with a raised eyebrow. "Do you have any idea who it is?"

Nove shook her head, "I have some ideas, but nothing concrete." She had heard that the person doing this was using Belkan as a magic system, which did nothing to limit down the choices, since most people who used melee used Belkan magic. "About the only thing I know is that the person wears a mask over their face.

Quint frowned softly at that. "You don't think..." She was almost certain Ixpellia couldn't create any more of those Mariage creatures, but the thought still lingered in the back of her mind.

"No. Ixy might not mind two people sparring for fun, but she hates conflict if it's not needed." Nove was certain that Ixpellia wasn't making Mariage again, especially since the former king said that she would rather sleep for the rest of time than create those things again. "By the way, what was decided about Ixy? I never heard."

"Well, so long as she's not capable of creating those Mariages, or at least, so long as she never makes them again, the worst she has to deal with is constant monitoring by the Bureau."

"So... Like Tre and Due then?" Nove blinked as Quint nodded. "...Why?"

"Well, let's say she does get her ability to make those Mariage again... It would be pretty dangerous."

Nove narrowed her eyes at that. "Mom, the entire Bureau is made up of people who are very dangerous. I don't know if you know this, but Nanoha Takamachi's entire family is made up of people who could lay waste to this city and everyone on this planet in less than a minute if they wanted to. Just because Ixpellia couldn't control her Mariage doesn't mean that she should be punished for it forever."

Quint nodded at that. "Oh, don't get me wrong, Nove, there were plenty of arguments just like that at the hearing. But, she won't be punished forever. As it stands, considering the Mazoku involvement in this case, the monitoring is to make sure that she doesn't fall prey to their influence again."

"Again?" Nove raised an eyebrow at Quint. "Mom, Ixy was never possessed."

"Doesn't mean that she wasn't influenced by a Mazoku," Quint narrowed her eyes at Nove, "even if she was never directly affected by a Mazoku, you don't need to broadcast that to everyone." Nove blinked in obvious confusion. "Even if the truth was that Ixpellia had no contact with a Mazoku, the fact remains that a Mazoku was behind the most recent incident. I don't know how much the judges know about all the details, but I do know that any judgement on Ixpellia and Runessa is much lighter than what it would be normally because of the Mazoku influence."

Nove sighed and nodded at that. "Got'cha."

Slyph blinked as she held up a hand. When Quint looked at her, she fidgeted slightly. "Um... We're lying about this then?"

"Not lying, more like, we're just not telling the full story," Quint looked at Slyph curiously, "why?"

"Okay." Slyph didn't understand why they wouldn't tell the full story, but if they weren't going to, why would she bother to tell anyone about it?

"Anyway, Nove, if you're not going to be busy until later, could you watch the twins?" Quint smirked at Nove's grimace. "Just until this afternoon, I need to get some extra work done and your father won't be around until late this afternoon. Besides, when you're done, you can go meet up with Vivio and her friends at the gym."

"Gee, thanks mom." Nove said dryly as Quint smiled at her. Oh well, she didn't mind Cecilia and Aston, they were decent kids most of the time. It was just that sometimes they decided to be like total brats and were almost uncontrollable.

At least, Nove thought so, how Quint could get them to calm down so fast was something she would never know.

(-)

It was nearly an hour later, after Quint and Slyph had both left that Nove got a call from Wendi.

"Hey, Nove!" Wendi smiled at the shorter redhead. "Dieci and I were going to hit the mall today, can you make it?"

Nove shook her head. "Sorry, got the twins today." Her eyes widened as two small balls of energy slammed into her legs and caused her to fall onto her butt. "Gah! Aston! Cecilia!" She glared at the twins as they giggled at her. "Did you _have_ to do that?"

"Yep!" The twins said, grinning at her.

"So, you got them all day?" Wendi asked, sounding slightly disappointed.

Nove nodded, "at least until dad gets off of work."

Wendi snapped her fingers and pouted. "Drat. Dieci and I were going to go looking for cute guys, maybe get some new clothes and see a movie. Besides, I need a new swimsuit, my last one's worn out."

Nove rolled her eyes at Wendi. "Well, if you used it for swimming or sunbathing rather than jogging around in it, you wouldn't wear it out so fast." Didn't Wendi realize that her breasts bounced too much in those swimsuits and wore them out faster?

Wendi shrugged at Nove as the other redhead stood up. "Yeah, well, it's too bad, I wouldn't have minded seeing you in a swimsuit a couple sizes too small." Her eyes sparkled as she giggled and wiggled her fingers. "Hee hee... Nove in a small bikini."

"Gah! Knock it off!" Nove yelled at the screen as she turned it off. "Really, what _is_ up with her?" She didn't think she'd ever understand Wendi.

Then again, despite Wendi doing stuff to embarrass her, Nove couldn't help but like the excitable redhead. After all, Wendi wasn't a bad girl, just weird.

(-)

Elsewhere...

Arashi groaned as he walked into the kitchen. "It's early." Hearing his mother laughing at him really didn't do wonders for his mood. "I don't wanna go to school today."

"Practicing for when you really don't want to?" Lina asked, smirking as Arashi nodded and brightened up.

"Heard some people talking about stuff and I wanted to try. How'd I do?"

Lina laughed and shook her head. "You have to be the only kid who would ever practice complaining about not wanting to go to school." Serving him some breakfast, she went back over to the stove. "As for how you did, I'll tell you this, don't try to become a comedian." Arashi pouted at that. "Now, hurry up, you'll be in the same school as Vivio and her friends." Lina smirked at the upset look Arashi gave her. "What? I thought you liked her friends."

"Ixy's okay, Vivio's okay, but I'm not sure about the other two." Plus Arashi wasn't much for martials arts, unlike Vivio tended to be.

"Better hurry up and eat, you'll be late otherwise." Lina smirked as Arashi dug into his food with gusto. Looking at Arashi, Lina sighed to herself. It really was time to retire, for good. She winced as her eye throbbed lightly. '...Lady, what do you have planned for me? I'm in my mid-fourties for crying out loud.' Thinking about her children, all of them, Lina wasn't sure if she was a good mother, but she had no complaints about any of her children and how they turned out.

Even Cinque and Dieci, despite the odd circumstances in how they were brought into her life, were good kids. She raised an eyebrow as she saw Cinque and Shiro walk into the house, covered in sweat. "Training went well?"

Shiro smiled at that and ruffled Cinque's hair, causing the small cyborg to blush heavily. "I don't know what she learned before, but Cinque's a natural." Well, he supposed that her ability to inflitrate anywhere she wanted lent a hand to it, but at the moment he couldn't really care about that. Cinque was kind of like Miyuki though, since she didn't like to use her skills to hurt people unless she didn't have a choice.

Then again, when you could turn a sword or a large metal boomerang into a fragmentation bomb that could kill really easily, it made sense why she didn't want to use her abilities to their fullest if she could help it.

"No I'm not." Cinque blushed heavily and tried to look away. Though, it was pretty hard to do. After all, she was enjoying the attention that she was getting. It really wasn't her fault, her father had some serious charm to him. It was a small wonder that he didn't have women trying to get into his pants all the time.

Cinque excused herself to get washed off before she tried to eat and Arashi, after finishing up his meal, grabbed his backpack and ran off towards the school. Even if Vivio wasn't his favorite person to hang around, really, he was more interested in learning pure magic, not the magic fighter stuff that Vivio liked, he still didn't want to be late for school.

(-)

Thirty minutes later...

"Late, late, late!" Arashi yelled as he ran towards the school. He really should have asked his mom, dad or just called his sisters up to give him a ride. Either that or leave earlier. "Maybe nee-chan won't mind me staying with her?" He might need to do that, after all, his mother was busy a lot and the only other person who could help him use his Chaos magic was his sister.

At least he had started to make some progress with basic magic. He could actually use some of the most basic wind, fire and ice magic that his mother had taught him.

Though, why his flare arrow was more like a javelin, he would never know.

Looking up ahead, he smiled as he saw the school gates come into view. Turning the corner, he ran, face-first, into a body that caused him to lose his balance and fall onto his back. "Oww..." Looking up, he saw a girl that was about his age grimacing from her position on the ground. "Ah! Sorry! I didn't mean to, it's my first day and I didn't want to be late!"

The girl shook her head and Arashi had to admit, the silver-green hair looked rather interesting on her. "It is okay, just please, do not run around corners." She opened her eyes and he blinked as he saw a purple and a blue eye staring back at him. "Here, allow me to help you up." She said as she stood up.

"Thanks." Arashi took the hand as she helped him stand up. "Sorry, I need to go."

She nodded and watched as he ran off. She turned and walked towards her destination without saying anything else.

Arashi frowned as he entered the school. "...I don't think pink is a good color on her." Really, he only saw that color for a moment when he looked at her before she stood up, so why did it stick in his head so vividly?

(-)

Elsewhere...

Vivio looked at her classes and nodded in satisfaction when she saw what she had. "That's good, now then..." Her eyes sparkled as she saw two girls her age walking up to her. "Corona!" She called out to the girl with blue eyes and long, light blonde hair done up in two ponytails, "Rio!" Vivio smiled as the other girl, one with green eyes, a small fang protruding from her mouth and short purple hair waved at her. "Did you get your schedules?"

"Yeah!" Corona smiled at her friend. The two of them had been friends since the day they met each other almost four years ago. Sure, Corona didn't hang out with Vivio much outside of school, but that was mostly because Vivio had to meet up with a lot of people from the Bureau for different reasons and Corona was a bit shy.

Plus Vivio's friends and family were a little intimidating with how famous they were.

"Look!" Rio grinned, her small fang jutted out prominently from her mouth as she showed off her schedule to her friends. Unlike Vivio and Corona, she had only known them for about a year, and even then, it had taken a little bit before she had become friends with the two of them. Not because Rio wasn't friendly, but because Rio had thought that Vivio was more of a bookworm than a fighter.

After all, seeing Vivio spending most of her free time with Corona around the library and reading stuff didn't make her think that Vivio liked to fight. Though, that changed when she saw Vivio working out in the gym after school shortly after the mid-school break was over.

"Nice!" Vivio grinned as she looked at the other two. "Same classes!" She held up a hand and the other two clapped their hands against hers.

"Vivio..." A new voice spoke up and Corona and Rio both turned as they saw a girl with red hair smiling at them. "How are you?"

"Ixy!" Vivio smiled as she ran up and grabbed Ixpellia's hands. "It's good to see you again!"

"You saw me three days ago." Ixpellia stuck her tongue out at Vivio and looked at Rio and Corona. "Hello, you two must be Vivio's friends she keeps telling me about. My name is Ixpellia."

"...Ixy?" Rio asked, getting a sigh from Ixpellia.

"Vivio, you and Subaru need to stop calling me Ixy. I would rather people call me by my full name, not that short-hand script you insist on using." Ixpellia wasn't really upset, it was nice to have friends in her life for once.

"Okay, Ixy." Vivio just giggled as Ixpellia sighed and hung her head. "Come on! First class is history."

Corona scratched her head as they made their way to class. "Um... Ixpellia, aren't you an Ancient Belkan King?"

"Yeah," Ixpellia nodded at the question, "however, I have, for most of the past thousand or so years that I've been alive, been asleep, so my knowledge of history is very incomplete." Even so, Carim and Schach had found her information on the past to be an incredible boon to history books and languages that had been thought lost to the ages.

* * *

Vivio: YAY! It's my arc! Sweet!  
Rio: But doesn't Einhart take over the plot until we visit Lu-chan in canon?  
Vivio: DARN IT!  
Corona: Next time on Blood That Flows - ViVid, please read, this isn't canon after all.  
Vivio: GAH! I'm taking canon plot back! I swear!

I'll try to update more often, but, if I don't, I'm sorry.


	287. Second ViVid

Blood That Flows

Second ViVid

Of course I own nothing.

* * *

Hours later at the library...

"Aaaand send!" Vivio smiled as she sent a photo to all her friends and family, including her uncle Kyouya on Earth. Sure, she had never met him personally, but the Bureau's technology was pretty amazing, being that it could send photos and messages to the other side of the universe within a reasonably short amount of time. "So, now what?"

"You still haven't gotten your own device have you?" Corona asked, getting a pout from Vivio as she shook her head. "Isn't your family like super famous and rich?"

"My grandmother doesn't use a device." Vivio was quick to point out to her friend, "and she's the strongest magic user ever."

(-)

Reinforce had a sudden urge to find Signum and get into a sparring match to burn off some annoyance she felt for some reason. "So, Admiral, it's not often that you show up." She looked at Chrono, who smiled at her lightly. "What is the occasion for this visit?"

"I wanted you to know that Filia and I were going to Earth for a couple of days," Reinforce nodded and wondered if he'd let her get back to running the Riot Force in Hayate's stead. Sure, Hayate could run the Riot Force, but she was due within the month and Reinforce wasn't taking any chances with the baby that was on the way. "I was wondering if you'd let Hayate come with us."

"Why?" Reinforce narrowed her eyes at Chrono. "What are you..?"

"I plan to visit former Admiral Gil Graham." Reinforce stared at him. "We both know that his health has taken a turn for the worse lately."

Reinforce sighed and nodded. She had kept tabs on the man who nearly had her and Hayate frozen between realities, his health had been deteriorating pretty badly from all reports lately. "...This is probably the last chance she'll get to see him, won't it?"

"Yes." Chrono nodded at her. "She doesn't have to come alone you know."

Reinforce took a deep breath and nodded. "Go ahead, but..." She narrowed her eyes at Chrono, who gulped as he swore they started to crackle with power. "I swear to you, Chrono, if anything negative happens to my wife while in your care, I will make you pay. I do not care if you have a Dragon for a wife, I will go through her to get to you if I have to."

Chrono nodded at the threat. If the situations were reversed, he would be making the same threat to her. "Understood."

After all, unlike most people who could make that threat, Reinforce actually could go through Filia to get to him pretty easily.

(-)

"Even so, Vivio," Rio spoke up, "shouldn't you have your own device by now?"

Vivio scratched the back of her head nervously. "Actually, from what Shari told me, most devices won't work for me." She didn't know if Shari was making a device that she could use or not. Vivio's only hope was that it didn't turn out like Thoth Driver if Shari did make her one.

After all, it was funny when other people got mad at Thoth for those weird comments. She wasn't sure if she wanted a device that did the same.

Vivio blinked as her phone vibrated, picking it up, her eyes lit up as she got a message. "It's from my mama! She said she's got a surprise for me when I get home tonight!"

She couldn't wait to see what it was.

(-)

"I'm home!" Vivio yelled as she walked in through the front door a couple of hours later. "Arashi came with me, mama!"

"Hey, nee-chan!" Arashi waved as he saw his sister in the kitchen. Kicking off his shoes, he groaned as he sat down in the kitchen. "Vivio, if you don't keep your friends from trying to get me join in your sparring..."

"What?" Vivio grinned at him. "I think it's funny."

Arashi shot her a dirty look, pointed a finger at her and smirked as Vivio yelped as ice formed down the back of her shirt. "Hey! No fair!" Yelling, the blonde girl ran forward and tackled Arashi out of the chair. "I'll get, ack!" Vivio yelped as she suddenly found herself on her back and Arashi grinning down at her. "...How'd you do that?"

"I'm older, bigger and dad makes me learn this stuff." Arashi rolled his eyes as he tried standing up, only to find Vivio grabbing his legs and causing him to fall onto his back. "Oww!" He sat up and glared at his niece. "What the heck?!"

"Alright you two!" Nanoha yelled at the two of them while looking down at them, frowning softly. "If you're going to go fight, go outside. Vivio, go get changed, and Arashi," she sighed as her daughter stopped wrestling with Arashi and ran to get changed, "what are you doing here?"

"Your house is closer to the school." Arashi answered her. "I was almost late this morning, so I was wondering if I could spend some time here."

Nanoha raised an eyebrow as her brother stood up. "You sure? Wouldn't you rather live with mom and dad, not with your sister?" Nanoha didn't mind her brother staying over, but the house sometimes felt a little crowded, especially around meal times.

"Mom's got Dieci and Cinque with her, plus the shop, and dad can't teach me much of my Chaos magic." Nanoha sighed when Arashi looked at her pouting softly, "so, nee-chan, can I..?"

"Yeah, I'll send Miyuki over to get your clothes and we'll get you a room for the week, okay?" She sighed when her brother hugged her. "You're welcome, kiddo." Smiling, Nanoha rubbed his back before patting him twice. "Come on, I'll get you a room set up and talk to mom."

"Thanks." Arashi let go and followed her to a guest room. "Hey, nee-chan, how are things here anyway?"

"Well, they're about to get more exciting soon." Nanoha grinned as she walked, causing Arashi to blink in confusion. "What?" She asked as she turned and saw him looking at her in confusion.

"Uh, what do you mean by that?" Arashi asked, looking around slightly nervously. "Did Ixy lose control again? Or did Miyuki try and cook again?"

"I'm not that bad!" Nanoha had to fight back the urge to laugh as Miyuki rounded the corner and tackled their little brother, pinning him to the ground. "You take that back about my cooking! I've never done anything worse than burn the food before!"

"..What about that one time you tried to cook octopus?" Arashi asked, causing Miyuki to blush heavily and growl.

"We weren't going to talk about that ever again." Miyuki, Arashi and Nanoha all shivered from that memory and looked around for a moment. "Alright, anyway, I'm not that bad of a cook, and no, Ixy didn't go crazy again."

Arashi blinked and looked at Nanoha. "Don't tell me that you, Yuuno, Fate and Miyuki are all going to the beach again." He groaned, remembering the last time they were there. "I don't think they want you to play volleyball anymore."

"Vita-chan's the one who spiked the ball, that girl has no control over her strength when she gets excited." Nanoha grumbled and shook her head. "No, but it's not a bad idea."

"One of you is gunna marry Yuuno, right?" Arashi smirked as both of his older sisters suddenly froze up and looked around nervously. "What? I like him."

"Um..." Nanoha looked at Miyuki, who sighed and nodded to her. "It's a work in progress."

Arashi just blinked, wondering what Nanoha meant by that.

(-)

Lina sighed as she heard Nanoha's voice. "Alright, thanks. I'll get his clothes ready tonight then." Sighing, she hung up the phone and looked around, grateful that there was no one inside at the moment. "Shiro!"

"Yeah?" He and Cinque both popped their heads out of the kitchen, an identical look of confusion on both of their faces. "What's up?"

"Looks like Arashi's going to live with Nanoha for most of the semester, since her house is closer to school." He nodded and she smiled at Cinque. "Anyway, Cinque, why don't you take the next couple of days off?"

Cinque would blink, but her eye-patch was keeping that from happening easily. "Um, why?"

"You've been putting a lot of hard work lately, so I want you to have some fun, or at least hang out with your other sisters, okay?" When Cinque nodded and slipped into the back, Lina sighed and leaned against the counter, crossing her arms over her chest and looking down. "...Shiro? Is it normal to worry about your children, as well as everyone else because of an image you had in a dream?"

Shiro walked out of the kitchen and blinked in confusion. "I'm not sure what you mean, Lina."

Grimacing, Lina reached up to touch her left eye, "it's just, I had this dream, I think it was a vision... There was fire, someone with a sword in her hand, a lot of dead bodies and screaming, lots of screaming."

Shiro frowned softly. "Any clues?"

"Other than she had long hair and a body to die for?" Lina smirked at her husband, "no, nothing. The sword looked broken to me. The last thing I remember was someone saying something... 'Never forget, it's always the little things' and then I woke up."

Shiro had no idea what to say or do in this situation. He wasn't a mage, he didn't have the ability to foresee the future at all.

All he could do was be there for Lina if something happened and hope that it didn't.

Listening in, Arf frowned and wondered just what that was about before deciding to talk to Fate about it. If their mother was worried about something, then it would be a good idea to talk to someone before it was too late.

She couldn't help but be worried. After all, her mother never got worried about anything, or at least, she never admitted out loud so freely, so if she was doing that _now_...

Arf decided she would talk to Fate later tonight before going to bed.

(-)

"Hey!" A female voice spoke up as the door opened. "We're back."

"Fate! Yuuno!" Nanoha smiled as she greeted the two of them happily. Walking over to them, she hugged them both. "Mmm! Missed you two so much."

"We were only gone for a few days, Nanoha." Yuuno protested lightly, but still hugged her back. He had missed her too.

**"Hey boss, should we tell her about those tribal women that tried to kidnap you from Fate?"**

Nanoha raised an eyebrow and laughed at the look the two of them had. "Must have been some adventure."

**"Yeah, though I think boss really should be more careful around certain women, he ended up with..."**

"Thoth," Yuuno growled at his device, "finish that sentence and I will find a way to wipe out all of the porn on you."

**"Not the porn! Anything but that! Sorry boss, I'll be good."**

"Better." Yuuno grumbled and looked at Nanoha's amused face. "Trust me, it wasn't as much fun as it should have been."

Fate only frowned and walked into the house, her frown leaving her face as she saw Arashi turn the corner. "Hello, brother."

"Hi!" Arashi smiled at her before blinking. "You upset with Yuuno or something?"

"Or something." Fate admitted, sighing heavily. "The last..."

"Fate-mama!" Fate was interrupted and looked up, smiling as Vivio ran up, an ecstatic look on her face. "How are you?!"

"I can't really complain," Fate smiled as she stretched lightly, wincing as her back let out a popping noise. "So, Arashi, how long are you going to stay with us?"

"At least until the semester is over," he answered while waving to Yuuno, who was walking into the house more, "your house is closer to the school than mom's house is."

Fate nodded and smiled at Vivio. "How about you, Vivio? How was your first day today?"

"Great!" Vivio grinned at Fate. "Rio and Corona have the same classes as I do, and even Ixy's going to school with us."

"Come on, let's eat supper." Nanoha smiled as she walked over to the stove. "There's plenty here, so let's eat."

"Alright!" Nanoha wasn't sure what was more interesting, that everyone said it at the same time, or that Fate was among the louder ones there.

* * *

Vivio: Come on! Let's go, let's go! Whee!  
Arashi: She's too excited.  
Vivio: I finally get my arc! I don't want to waste it!  
Arashi: Next time on Blood That Flows - ViVid, um, Vivio, stop trying to freak Fate out, okay?


	288. Third ViVid

Blood That Flows

Third ViVid

Of course I own nothing.

* * *

"AHHH!" Vivio smiled as she leaned back in her chair and patted her belly. "Yummy!"

Nanoha fought back an urge to laugh as she finished up her meal. Even if Vivio wasn't a Takamachi by blood, she certainly ate as much as one. "Anyway, Vivio, I have a surprise for you."

Vivio's eyes widened as she and everyone migrated into the living room. "What is it?"

Nanoha walked over to the couch and pulled out a box from behind the far corner.

"You got Vivio a box?" Arashi asked, before doubling over as his niece elbowed him in the stomach. "Oh, come on! That was a joke!"

"Not funny!" Vivio stuck her tongue out at him. Turning back to Nanoha, she blinked as the box was opened up and inside... "A bunny?"

The bunny twitched and suddenly floated up, causing Vivio to let out a yelp and jump behind Arashi suddenly. "Ack! Ixy's gone from people to bunnies!"

"Not really," Nanoha laughed softly, "it's actually a new device." Vivio blinked as the bunny looked around. "Before you ask, I told Shari that if it acts _anything_ like Thoth, she and I would have _words _about it."

**"Oh, come on, I'm not _that_ bad!"**

No one in the room bought it for a moment.

"So, what's it for?" Arashi asked as Vivio walked over to greet her device. "I mean, Vivio's pretty tough even without a device."

"Let's just say that this one's special." Nanoha nodded to Vivio. "Come on, let's go outside."

Miyuki watched as Fate, Nanoha and Arashi followed out after Vivio, leaving her alone with Yuuno. "It's been awhile since we were alone," the smile on her face had him gulping slightly. "Oh come on, I just ate, I'm not going to bite."

"I'd hope not." Yuuno admitted, smiling at her.

Three seconds later, Miyuki's lips met his. Even if Yuuno wasn't too surprised by the kiss, it was rather sudden and it took him a couple of seconds to react.

Miyuki closed her eyes and enjoyed the sensation of Yuuno hugging her while returning her kiss. It didn't last long, which she was sad for, but understood why as they broke it. "Welcome back."

Yuuno smiled as she sighed and rested her head on his shoulder. "Thanks, Miyuki."

There was a flash of light outside and Yuuno and Miyuki both stood up, wondering what it was. Walking to the door, they both stared in shock at what they saw.

(-)

Vivio closed her eyes as a magic circle surrounded her and her new device. "Owner name, Vivio Takamachi, style Belkan with Mid-Childa Hybrid," she opened her eyes and looked at her device before nodding, "device name registration, Sacred Heart, nickname Chris."

Behind her, Nanoha gasped as she heard that. Why would Vivio name the device after her Raising Heart?

"Sacred Heart... SEEET UP!" Vivio let out a loud yell as she and Sacred Heart were engulfed in light.

When the light died out, Vivio stood there still, however, instead of the young ten year old girl standing there, a blonde girl in her late teens stood there, her long blonde hair was tied to the side in a ponytail. Her body was covered in a deep blue body suit that had a dark jacket covering her shoulders and arms, on her hands were armored gloves that she flexed with her fingers. "Wow! Mama!" Vivio turned and smiled at Nanoha and the rest of her family. "It worked!"

Nanoha smiled as well. "Alright!"

Arashi just stared at his niece, well, he was trying to, but he was a little distracted by how tight that body suit was around her backside and... His eyes widened as he saw her chest jiggle with her movements. '...Wow...' Vivio was going to grow up and look like _that_? And why was he so interested in what she would look like when she got older anyway?

Fate blinked and looked at Nanoha and then at Vivio before sighing. "I hope there's a good reason why Vivio looks like an adult now." She smirked when both Nanoha and Vivio looked at her nervously and giggled softly. "We've got time."

After getting everyone inside, Fate, who was sitting on the couch next to Miyuki, who was next to Yuuno, looked at Nanoha and Vivio with her arms crossed under her breasts. "Well?" She wasn't too worried about Vivio being in adult mode, but this wasn't something that had been discussed earlier.

Nanoha sighed and rubbed the back of her head. "Honestly, I wasn't sure if it would work. Besides, this was a gift for Vivio, the fewer people that knew, the bigger chance that it would be a surprise."

"I'd say it's a surprise," Yuuno looked at Nanoha and Vivio, "I thought that most devices wouldn't work for her." He looked at Thoth, "or did she need a device like Thoth here?"

Nanoha rubbed her forehead. "No, the device shouldn't be like Thoth, but, remember that I fought Vivio back on the Saint Cradle?" Both Yuuno and Fate nodded and looked back at Vivio. "Well, when the fight was over, her Linker Core still had that Relic fused with it."

Fate blinked at that, "but, shouldn't she be able to go into this form naturally then?"

Vivio shook her head. "The relic was kind of... Um..."

"Shut off," Nanoha supplied for Vivio, "it was there, but it didn't have a way to turn on properly. Apparently the Relics need the Cradle to work, and since it's gone..." Nanoha trailed off, letting the others figure it out for themselves. "So, Shari's been studying the Relics for awhile and figured out how to get a specialized device to activate them. And Vivio's new device is the end result of that research."

"Well," Vivio closed her eyes and a moment later she was back to being a ten year old girl, floating next to her was Sacred Heart, "see? It's not exactly the same as what happened before. And thanks to Sacred Heart, I don't need to worry about someone controlling me like that ever again."

"Yeah," Nanoha nodded at the unspoken question, "if someone tries to use the Relic to control Vivio, Sacred Heart has a shut-off mode that will cut power to the Relic and stop people from trying to take control of her."

Yuuno looked at Vivio, then at the device before nodding and looking at Nanoha, "I doubt it's perfect, but I'm willing to trust Shari on this." He sweat-dropped at the looks he got from Fate, Nanoha and Miyuki. "Even if she helped build Thoth and we all know that she can be crazy, she knows what she's doing."

"True..." Nanoha nodded slowly, "alright, what about you two?" She asked her sisters, hoping they wouldn't be too upset about all of this.

Miyuki shrugged at Nanoha and Vivio. "Just more weirdness in my life. I mean, it's not like the time you decided to bring home some aliens from another world into our home." She grimaced as Fate elbowed her in the stomach. "What I'm saying is," she gave Fate a flat stare in response, "it's not as bad as some of the things that I've seen, so I'm okay with it."

Fate threw her hands in the air and shook her head slowly. "Well, it's not like I can change your mind on this, so," she smiled at Vivio, "just don't use this to cause problems, okay?"

Vivio nodded and smiled at her. "Sure, Fate-mama."

Arashi tapped his chin as he looked at Vivio. For some reason, he just wanted to see Vivio in that more grown-up form again. He then slapped his forehead and groaned to himself. What the heck was he thinking?

(-)

Nove stretched as she walked through the late night streets. Sure, there wasn't much to do at the gym today. Tomorrow would be more interesting, since Vivio was going to be around with her friends. That was always more fun than sparring against people who didn't really treat Strike Arts as anything more than a hobby. "Urgh, I swear..."

"Do you now?" A new voice spoke up and Nove spun around, her eyes widening as she looked at the green-haired person looking down at her from on top of a light pole. Nove blinked as she looked closer at the person, the black visor across the eyes had her gulping slightly. "...Don't tell me that you're a Mariage." Sure, the person on top of the pole didn't look exactly like those Mariage that Ixpellia created before, but at the same time, the visor was bringing up bad memories.

"No, I am not," the person said with a soft voice before jumping off of the light pole and landing on the ground to turn and face Nove. "Would you prefer that I take the mask off?"

Nove smirked at the masked person and took in the appearance a bit more, the green hair was long and done up in a single loose ponytail, the jacket was white and actually looked pretty durable as it covered the person's entire upper body, including the arms, looking down, Nove raised an eyebrow at the white and green pants the person was wearing before taking in the person's fingerless gloves. "You know, it's a bit rude to appear out of nowhere with a mask on your face. I'm just a girl walking out alone at night, how do I know you aren't someone who wants to rob me or something?"

The person actually blushed lightly and reached up and removed the mask, revealing a purple and blue eye staring back at Nove. "I would not do such a thing. I saw how you moved and..."

"You're a stalker?" Nove stared in slight shock. "I mean, I know I'm good looking, and people hit on me all the time, but if you wanted to go on a date with me, you could have just asked." Nove was a little surprised that the mysterious person in front of her started blushing even more. "Though, if you wanted to take me on a date, I should warn you that I can be a bit of a problem..."

"That's not why I'm here." The person said, sounding flustered. "I want to challenge you to a fight."

Nove blinked and let out a loud sigh. "Just a fight? That's good. I don't typically get asked out on dates by strangers." She smirked as the person just seemed to twitch. One thing Nove found odd was that the person's voice was fairly soft. 'Almost like Otto.'

"Are you going to put on some protective armor or weapons?" The person asked Nove. "I must apologize, I seem to have forgotten my manners. You may call me the Emperor."

Nove blinked and stared at the Emperor. "...Are you going to put on metal boots that cover your shins and a big armor that has a cape in the back?"

The Emperor blinked in confusion. "I'm not sure what you mean by that," Nove watched as her soon-to-be opponent shifted to a wider base, legs spread slightly apart for balance, one arm pulled back as the hand was balled into a fist and the other arm was in front of the person, fingers pointed forward seemingly loosely, "however, I wish to find out where my strength compares to others."

Nove chuckled as she tapped her right foot on the ground behind her, her hands in her pockets. "And challenging me will help you find out, huh?"

The next thing the Emperor knew, Nove's knee was slamming into her arm and the redhead was already following it up with an electrified punch towards the Emperor's head. Nove watched as her opponent leaned backwards and did a flip kick, catching Nove in the small of her back and sending her backwards. "Very nice."

"Tch," Nove grimaced from the discomfort her hips were sending to her brain. "Well then, guess I don't have a choice, Jet Edge!" He called while pulling out a gem that was similar to Subaru, Ginga and Quint's devices in looks.

**"Set up!"**

It had been a gift to her after the events that ended six months ago. Quint never wanted to find out that her daughters had gotten hurt simply because they didn't have a device and a barrier jacket to protect them.

Nove wasn't sure she would ever get used to being naked from the transformation, even if it was only for a brief moment as a single body suit wrapped around her torso, leaving her shoulders bare and going down to her hips, covering her rear and crotch instantly, a short-sleeved jacket covered her shoulders as her gun knuckle covered her right hand and her roller blades covered her feet, stockings ran from her feet up to the middle of her thighs before straps went across the front of her legs up to the belt that snapped around her mid-section.

The Emperor nodded at Nove's change of appearance. "Good, I do not wish to harm you too much."

Nove snorted at her. "You want to test your strength against people? Why pick a fight with random strangers? Why not join an arena or something?"

The Emperor sighed softly. "It's not that, while I wish to prove myself, I do not wish to become famous for doing so."

"So, you break the law to do that?" Nove asked, anger starting to boil up. "Listen, if you want to fight with me, that's fine, but just stop picking fights with random people. One day that'll get you killed."

"If that is the case, then I deserve it." Nove twitched as she heard that.

"Stupid brawling idiot!" Nove growled at the Emperor. "Just stop this! Come with me, I'll show you nice places where you can fight to your hearts content and get stronger at the same time."

"Thank you for your kindness, but," the Emperor suddenly dashed forward so fast that Nove was hard pressed to follow the movements, "the answers I want are not to be found on a public stage!" A punch to Nove's face had her staggering back and the follow-up punch to Nove's stomach had her coughing hard. Jumping up and back, Nove grimaced and rubbed her stomach while landing on the ground some feet away from her opponent. "The kings of Ancient Belka, I must prove to be their superior, so that destruction can never come again to the land around me."

Nove twitched and glared at the Emperor. "That's it? Seriously? Ancient Belka's long dead, and the remnants that still exist are trying to live a peaceful life! What gives you the right to try and disrupt that?!" Nove rushed in at the Emperor, punching forward and grimacing as the Emperor managed to punch with enough force to drive her back.

"Then I must test the kings. If they are weak, then they shall perish."

"YOU IDIOT!" Nove screamed, finally losing her temper. "Don't you dare think for one moment that you'll be able to hurt those two!" She pointed her Gun Knuckle at the Emperor, who's eyes widened as a blue gas was launched from Nove's weapon. Jumping back as the gas expanded, Nove's opponent was suddenly jerked backwards as Nove's feet slammed into their stomach as Nove drove them both to the ground with a loud crash.

The Emperor grimaced in pain and shock, only to snap their eyes open and stare at Nove, who was blushing and jumped off her opponent. "You... You just..."

"Ah, sorry about that, my hand slipped, didn't mean to grab you between the legs." Nove's face was almost as red as her hair. "Well, I was curious if you were a boy or a girl, but now I have my answer."

"That answer may not be the one you think it is." The Emperor stood up and took a deep breath to try and calm down, as well as get rid of the blush that happened because of Nove's accidental groping. "I think I shall have to end this."

"Heh..." Nove smirked and rushed in. "It's not that simple!" Jumping up, the redhead spun and connected with her green haired opponent's arm, only to flip over the Emperor and smirk as she looked at her opponent's surprised face. Putting both hands on the ground, Nove spread her legs and rotated, spinning her body fast enough that her opponent was unable to do anything but roll away when Nove's legs knocked her opponent to the ground. Nove continued to spin until she was standing on her hands, her legs were still spread for balance as Nove walked forward on her hands, spinning her body as the Emperor got up and was forced to block her attacks.

"What is this?" Nove ignored the question as she suddenly rolled forward and slammed an elbow into the Emperor's face, knocking her opponent back.

"Capoeira," Nove smirked as she stood up and looked at her downed opponent. "Well, a variant of it anyway, so, do you give up?" She sighed as her opponent stood up with narrowed eyes. "Look, it doesn't matter, I'm going to beat you, so..."

"Is that a fact?" The Emperor said and shifted stances again. "I thank you for teaching me so much in this fight. I have a long way to go before I am the best, but I shall win now."

Nove narrowed her eyes and jumped up into the air before diving downwards with a kick. "You really think so? You little, over-confident..." She growled as her foot clipped the shoulder of the Emperor, who merely twisted away from the blow. "What the?" Nove's eyes widened as she found herself on the ground, wrapped up in chains.

"I told you, I was going to win... Take the name "Ingvalt" to heart as I win." Nove watched in some horror as Ignvalt's fist was pulled back with energy spiraling around it. "Hao... Dan... Ku..." Nove's eyes widened as an extremely powerful punch struck her in the stomach, her tongue hung out of her mouth as all the air was driven out of her lungs with one strike. "KEN!"

The last thing Nove knew was a powerful build up energy struck her body from that fist, exploding outwards and destroying her outfit, leaving her naked as she hit the ground and bounced away from Ingvalt before crashing into a fence rail.

Looking at Nove's naked form, Ingvalt turned and walked away. "You were very strong, to force me to use that technique..." Still, it wasn't perfected yet. After all, Nove shouldn't have ended up naked like that.

* * *

Nove: Ack! Pain... And nudity. Mostly pain... And I'm naked... ...If a tentacle monster existed right now, I'd be in trouble.  
Vivio: Nove's been looking at porn again.  
Nove: Have not! Next time on Blood That Flows - ViVid...  
Vivio: It's my story! Why is everyone stealing my spotlight?


	289. Fourth ViVid

Blood That Flows

Fourth ViVid

Of course I own nothing.

* * *

Panting, Ingvalt grimaced in pain and ducked into an alley. "Must have... Hit me... Harder than I thought she did." There was a flash of light and Ingvalt shrank to reveal a young child with green hair in black and white clothing. "What was that attack?"

A moment later, the child was on the ground and out cold.

(-)

**"Are you okay?"**

"I can't move, I feel like I'm going to throw up if I do anything more than breathe and I'm butt naked. Of course I'm not okay." Nove couldn't be too upset at Jet Edge, it was just trying to help after all. "Make a call to Subaru, Ginga or Teana for me." She knew her mother was going to find out, but she really didn't want her mom to come and pick her up. And who knew what the younger two kids would say to her when they found out.

Though, she suspected that her dad would be amused more than anything else when he found out.

A few seconds later, a screen popped up in front of Nove's face. "Subaru... I..."

_"NOVE!"_ Subaru's eyes widened as she looked at her younger sister. _"What happened to you?!"_

"Got into a fight, got beat up, ended up naked... And I can't move right now." The redhead gave Subaru a flat stare. "Can you come pick me up? And bring a blanket. I kind of don't want people to see me like this."

"I'll be there soon!" Nove sighed as the screen turned off and closed her eyes. She just hoped that no one came by and got a free show. She doubted she could live it down.

Five minutes later, Nove opened her eyes as she heard Subaru's voice. "Hey." She groaned as Subaru put a blanket over her. "Damn, what the hell kind of punch was I hit with?"

"I'm not sure." Subaru helped Nove up while keeping the blanket over her. "Where'd your assailant go?" She looked around, not seeing anyone.

"Up for carrying two people?" Nove asked, smirking at Subaru, who just nodded slowly.

(-)

Nove, in a loose fitting shirt and shorts, smirked as the child in front of her started to stir awake. "Well, good evening, Emperor Ingvalt..." When the child's eyes widened, she laughed before wincing and groaning. "Urgh, okay, whatever you hit me with, hurts... Miss Einhart Stratos."

Blue and purple eyes stared at the redhead in shock. "How did..?" Einhart started to ask, but was cut off as Nove flicked a small plastic card at her.

"If you're going to do anymore brawling in the streets, I really suggest you don't carry your school I.D. with you." Nove rolled onto her back and groaned. "I have two questions for you. One, why are you trying to prove your strength like that?"

Einhart looked away and bit her lower lip. "Weakness is a sin, if you're weak, you can't protect anyone." Her eyes widened as Nove laughed at her. "What? It's true!"

Nove ignored the hurt and angry look in Einhart's eyes. "You should meet my other sisters... They'd probably disagree with you."

"How did you find me?"

Nove closed her eyes and took a deep breath as the pain finally started to subside from her body. "Remember that blue gas I shot at you?"

"How could I forget?" Einhart asked as the memory of that attack came back.

"Yeah, well, you should know that the gas was loaded with micro-tracers that cling to your clothes, skin and hair." Nove couldn't help but grin as Einhart stared at her in shock. "And the gas is pretty similar to sleeping gas, but it takes a few minutes to kick in."

Einhart twitched and glared at Nove as she spun on the bed to look at her more fully. "That was a dirty trick."

"If it wasn't a street fight like it was, I wouldn't have used it." Nove sighed at her. "Listen, Einhart, you need to stop with what you were doing before you get hurt." Einhart mumbled something that Nove didn't quite catch, causing the cyborg to sigh. "What was that?"

"I said that I wouldn't get taken by surprise again. After all, people don't really know it's me when I fight them."

"Oh yeah!" Nove shifted on the bed so that she was laying on her side. "Tell me something, just _why_ do you use transformation magic to turn into an adult _guy_?"

Einhart blinked at the question like it was the dumbest thing she had ever heard. "While I can become an adult female, I figured that it would not be hard for people to know who I was if I went from a child to what I would look like as an adult, so I decided to fight all of my street fights as an adult male so no one could figure out who I was."

"Well, you probably should make your adult form have shorter hair if that's the case then," a new voice spoke up and Einhart gasped as she spun around, seeing an older teenager with short purple hair standing at the doorway. "Nove couldn't even tell if you were a boy or a girl until she..."

"Subaru!" Nove growled as she and Einhart both turned red from the memory. "Not exactly something I want to think about... But, how did you get it to be so accurate?"

Einhart looked at Nove and shrugged. "The library has lots of books, and there's the internet." She wondered why both Nove and Subaru just groaned at the answer.

(-)

"So," the older woman said as she looked at Einhart, "you're the one who beat my daughter up?" For someone who actually managed to hurt Nove so badly, the girl was rather fidgety. When she nodded, the woman sighed softly. "Well, I guess I need to increase her training. I mean, really!" She walked off towards Nove's room. "Losing in a street fight! I thought I taught you better!"

"Don't worry about mom, she can get like that when martial arts comes up." Another girl, this one was almost a carbon copy of the woman who ran off, minus a few stress lines and other indicators of age. "My name's Ginga Nakajima, you beat up Nove, Subaru brought you home, and you just met my mother, Quint Nakajima." She was glad that Aston and Cecilia were asleep right now. "Dad's not around, but..." She trailed off as she heard the door to the outside close. "Hey, Teana," she waved without looking over her shoulder.

"Ginga." Teana nodded as she walked into the kitchen. "Urgh, what a day..." She raised an eyebrow as she saw Einhart looking at her. "Subaru, did you bring home another orphan?"

"Oh, come on, Tea!" Subaru stuck her tongue out at the redhead. "I didn't do anything of the sort."

Teana sighed and nodded before smiling at Einhart. "My name is Teana Lanster, and you are?"

"Einhart Stratos." The girl replied, grabbing her dress and bending at the knees slightly. Seeing that, Subaru, Ginga and Teana all had one thought running through their heads at that moment.

_'Too cute.'_

Ginga shook her head and looked at Einhart and then at Subaru. "So, Subaru, what are you going to do with her? She was picking fights in public, we're just lucky no one's been too badly hurt."

"OWWW! MOM!" Nove's voice was heard coming from her room.

"Like I said, too badly hurt," Ginga ignored the yell. "Still, it's been bad enough that the police are asking questions about who's been causing fights."

"It's mostly a domestic issue, but," Subaru looked at Teana, who nodded to her.

"I'll see what I can do, but I don't think she'll get into too much trouble," Teana smirked at Einhart, who was looking back and forth silently, "after all, who wants to admit that they got beaten up by a little kid?" Teana sweat-dropped before clearing her throat, "at least a little kid that hasn't saved a few worlds before she was fourteen."

Both Ginga and Subaru nodded at that. "Better." After all, Ginga still had an urge to beat Nanoha up at times, she knew that she'd never be able to defeat the redhead in combat. And Subaru?

Well, she still idolized Yuuno and he had been there with Nanoha in every major case after all.

Teana idly wondered what would happen if Nanoha or Yuuno knew what Ginga and Subaru thought about them. She then shrugged it off and just figured they would either ignore it or find it amusing.

"So, may I leave?" Einhart blinked when she saw Ginga smirk at her. "I guess not?"

"Well, you _did_ beat up my little sister," Ginga's grin was almost predatory, "so, I think if you have to stay here overnight and wait for Nove to get better..."

"Yeah, that's fair," Teana nodded and smiled at Einhart. "And don't try sneaking out, okay? I'd really hate to have to track you down, okay?"

Einhart sweat-dropped but nodded. Oh well, she probably did deserve this for beating up that redhead after all.

(-)

The next morning...

Walking into the bathroom, Subaru, covered in nothing but a towel, closed the door behind her before blinking and grinning as she saw who was washing herself off. "Tea!"

"Not so loud, it's early." Teana muttered as she scrubbed her hair. She heard a rustle of cloth before feeling a body press up against her wet and soapy back. "...Subaru, I swear..." She twitched as Subaru giggled and pressed her breasts into Teana's back.

"Hmm?" Subaru grinned and reached around to grab Teana's breasts. "Aha! I was right! Tea's boobs have grown!"

Teana felt her eye twitching. "Subaru, you have two seconds to let go of my breasts and..." She trailed off as she felt Subaru's fingers move forward and rub two rather hard points. "That's it!"

"Ack!" Subaru yelped as Teana suddenly stood up and caused her to fall on her back, her legs spread apart. Before she could recover, Teana had spun around and was pinning Subaru to the ground. "Tea?" Subaru found her face going slightly red since Teana had her pinned to the floor, her arms holding down Subaru's, the redhead's breasts were pressing against Subaru's chest. The whole sight was a major turn-on in Subaru's opinion.

Panting softly, Teana narrowed her eyes and leaned in. "Really, Subaru," she said with her face inches from Subaru's, "how many times have I told you now? Stop groping my breasts so much!"

"I can't help it, you've got such nice, oww!" Subaru winced as Teana pinched her arm. "Tea! Come on!"

"Why?" Teana asked Subaru tiredly. "You keep groping me, you keep fondling me and if I stop trying to stop you, you never stop groping me."

"I can't help it," Subaru whined at her. "You're so pretty and your boobs are so nice to squeeze, I can't help myself!"

Teana growled at Subaru and pressed herself down on the cyborg, causing Subaru's eyes to widen as their breasts were pressed together. "And what would it take to get you to stop?!"

Subaru looked at Teana and smiled lightly. "...You really wanna know?"

"Yes!" Teana growled at her. "What would it take to get you to stop groping me all the time?!" She wasn't sure what Subaru's answer was going to be, but she really wanted to know.

"Well..." Subaru trailed off and smiled at her. "Remember, you asked me."

"Well, whammph!?" Teana's eyes widened as Subaru leaned up and kissed her on the lips. Before she could even think about pulling away, she found Subaru's legs wrap around her legs and Subaru's arms suddenly slipped up and wrapped around Teana's back, pulling her down.

Subaru had her eyes closed as she pushed her tongue forward against Teana's lips, when Teana opened her mouth, Subaru mentally cheered and was grateful Teana wasn't pushing her away.

"Oh, dammit!" A voice suddenly broke through the air, turning, both Subaru and Teana went red as they saw Nove and Ginga, both wrapped in nothing but towels that only covered their breasts and barely covered their hips, standing in front of the open door, Nove was frowning and blushing while Ginga looked at them in amusement. "Really, can't you two do that in your own room? Do you have to make a mess in the bathroom?! Some of us need it you know!"

"Now, now..." Ginga smirked at Teana and Subaru as they broke apart, "I'm sure that if they made a mess, they'd be willing to clean it up... Though they should be thankful it was us and not Aston or Cecilia. And imagine what Einhart would do if she saw you two making out like that."

Teana twitched and glared at Subaru. "Now look what you did!"

Subaru just giggled as she looked at her sisters. "Um, so..."

"If you two are going to make out, go back to your room and do it, I want to take a bath." Nove made her way in and stripped the towel off. "Well?"

"I'll be good." Subaru muttered as Nove, Ginga and Teana all stared at her.

"Good, Ginga, can you..?"

"Sure." Ginga nodded, closed the door behind her, dropped her towel and got behind Nove to help her wash her back.

(-)

Quint raised an eyebrow as she walked outside to get some early morning air. Out there, in the yard, was Einhart, doing some practicing of her own. While Einhart did have some moves similar to Strike Arts, the elder Nakajima could easily see the differences between the two that a casual eye would miss.

The way Einhart's feet were more solidly planted than a Strike Arts users feet would be, the heavier emphasis on striking with fists over kicking with feet was enough that Quint couldn't help but be mildly impressed with Einhart's prowess in her style. "Not too bad," she smirked when Einhart let out a shriek and spun, panting hard, "I have to admit, Einhart, I've never seen someone so young so far along with their style."

For some reason, Einhart looked upset at that. "Is something wrong?"

"My skill is not exactly natural." Einhart turned around and went back to practicing her moves. "My ancestor's memories, the Hegemon Emperor that existed at the same time as the Saint Kaiser Olivie Segbert... I inherited his memories and his fighting abilities." Closing her eyes, Einhart held her right hand above her head, fingers pointed to the sky while her left hand was balled into a fist by her side. "These Kaiser Arts that I inherited allow me to fight well..."

"But they're his memories, huh?" Quint asked, getting a nod from Einhart. "I don't really understand how you can have his memories, but I wasn't kidding when I said that you were skilled. Even if you have his memories, you had to train your body to be able to use that style."

"I thank you." Einhart nodded and looked at Quint. "You have some training yourself, and you are Nove's mother?"

Quint gave Einhart a small smile. "Oh, I'm just an old lady well past her prime that just works for the Bureau part-time these days and raises her family when she can." Rolling her shoulders while stretching her neck from side to side, Quint walked out onto the grass. "However, I would not mind a demonstration of these Kaiser Arts of yours."

Einhart closed her eyes and Quint raised an eyebrow as her body changed, becoming taller and actually curvier. "Huh..." Quint blinked as she looked at Einhart's new form. "I thought you turned into a man?"

"As I told Nove," Einhart began as she took a stance, both hands held in front of her mid-section, "I can take a female adult form."

Quint nodded as she looked at Einhart's dress, which was mostly white, save for the sleeves and the skirt around her legs, which was incredibly short, just barely covering her hips, and stockings that went up most of her legs, save for her upper thighs, on her hands were two finger-less gloves and Quint noted that Einhart's older form did not seem to be too well-endowed in the chest department.

The next thing Quint knew, Einhart was in close and driving a punch into her unguarded ribs. "Got you." Quint smirked as Einhart's eyes widened. Grabbing the younger girl's head, she pushed down while driving a knee up, stunning Einhart for a brief second. Quint followed the knee blow with three strong punches to the stomach followed by a snap kick into Einhart's jaw, sending the younger girl tumbling through the air a few times before landing on her feet and sliding back a short distance.

Looking up, Einhart stared at Quint, who was lowering her leg. "You are better than Nove is."

Quint smiled at her. "While I thank you for the compliment, it's mostly experience." She narrowed her eyes as Einhart suddenly charged at her, energy spinning around her left fist. Leaning back and holding her hands in front of her, Quint wondered just what Einhart was planning on doing by rushing in like she was. An attack like that wasn't going to be too useful as... Quint's eyes widened as Einhart punched forward, sending a small burst of energy forward. Smirking, Quint jumped over it and gathered energy into her feet. Kicking forward twice, the energy that had been gathering there was launched at Einhart, who simply held her hands in front of her, palms outwards and _caught_the energy in her hands. "...Well, that's just..."

Quint didn't get to finish that statement as Einhart threw the energy back at her so fast that the older woman couldn't dodge in time and could only cross her arms to brace herself for the energy that slammed into her and sent her flying into the outer wall of the house. "Hmm, I see how Nove had such trouble with you." Quint grinned darkly at Einhart, who had a sinking sensation covering her. "One thing you need to know, dear, it's not raw talent, raw power, toughness, strength or skill that determines an outcome, sometimes it's just plain luck or experience."

"You keep saying that," Einhart said as she rushed at Quint, who had extracted herself from the wall and was taking up a stance as she waited for Einhart, "but I have yet to see it."

"Very well then." As Einhart punched at Quint, her eyes widened as she found Quint grabbing her arm and giving it a tug, redirecting her punch and knocking her off balance as Quint drove a knee into Einhart's stomach with enough force that the younger girl's eyes widened and she coughed hard. "Had enough?"

"What?" Einhart grimaced as she backed up slowly and took a guarded stance. "How?"

"The man who trained me to deal with dangerous missions is one of the strongest Knights in the Bureau, one trick I've learned is how to drastically increase my strength in short bursts." Granted, Nove, Subaru and Ginga wouldn't need the technique as much as she did, with them being cyborgs after all. Still, there was no need to tell Einhart that. "I think that's enough for right now."

Einhart blinked as Quint turned towards the house. "But..."

"I need to get breakfast ready." Quint smirked as Einhart just stood in the yard, sputtering. "When you're done, you can join us." As she got inside, she was greeted by her husband, who raised an eyebrow at her. "Yes?"

"Did you purposely pick a fight with a young girl, get her worked up and then called the whole thing off when you know that I could make breakfast for everyone?"

"Partially," Quint nodded to him, "but I was curious about her style, and I got my answer."

"That was still cruel, dear." Genya shook his head. "But, I'm glad you did stop, I doubt that the yard or the house could take the abuse if you two continued to fight."

Quint nodded and got to work getting food ready for breakfast. Even if it was a short fight, she couldn't help but notice that Einhart's attacks were similar to Nove's attacks...

Both had something lacking in them.

Quint wondered if either of them knew that or not.

* * *

Vivio: Come on! I didn't even get screen time in this chapter! Where's my chapter?  
Corona: Vivio got too excited about her arc, didn't she?  
Rio: Considering how it turns out in the manga...  
Corona: Oh yeah.  
Rio: Still, too bad we never got to...  
Vivio: GRRR! Next time on Blood That Flows - ViVid, I'm in the chapter! Right? Right?  
Arashi: Just check it out.  
Vivio: You're not helping me, Arashi!


	290. Fifth ViVid

Blood That Flows

Fifth ViVid

Of course I own nothing.

Sorry, I forgot to update last week.

* * *

Yawning as she made her way downstairs, Fate was wondering who was up making breakfast this early. After last night, she didn't think anyone in the house would be able to get up any sooner than she did.

Walking into the kitchen, she blinked at what she saw. The table was set and food was being put on it by the last two people she expected to see that morning. "Erio. Caro. When did you two come back?"

The redhead turned away from cooking over the stove and smiled at Fate. "Well, there's some new people to help watch over the preserve, so we were given a few days off. And we thought we'd surprise all of you by showing up."

"I am surprised." Fate smiled at him. "What time did you two get in?"

Erio blushed at the question. "Um, about three hours ago..." Seeing Fate's look of disbelief, he just rubbed his head and looked back to what he was cooking.

Caro rolled her eyes. "We forgot about the time difference and ended up here a bit too early." She pouted as she realized that she wasn't tall enough, even standing on a chair, to get to the glasses on the highest shelf. "Waaagh! This isn't fair! You people are giants." She turned and gave Fate an accusatory look.

"If Lu was here, she'd just say you're short." Erio pointed out, before yelping as something hard slammed into his rear. "Darn it, Fried, I was just teasing, you didn't need to headbutt me again!" He growled at the Dragon, who was currently in its tiny form.

The Dragon just stuck his tongue out at Erio in response.

"What's going on out here?" A male voice spoke up and Caro's eyes lit up as she saw who was walking into the kitchen at that moment.

"Yuuno-papa!"

"Ack!" Yuuno had to take a step back as a pink little typhoon grabbed him. "Caro! How are you?"

"I'm fine, Yuuno-papa. Erio-kun, Fried and I wanted to surprise everyone."

Yuuno laughed as he hugged her back. "Well, I'm really surprised. Wow, have you gotten taller?" Caro started blushing as Yuuno looked her over. "You're getting really beautiful. I bet you need to beat all the boys away from you."

"Nah uh!" Caro turned away, her cheeks as pink as her hair. "Don't be silly, papa."

"Oh, I bet you have all the boys wanting to give you stuff, you're so cute that they just want to hug you and never let you go, right?" Yuuno winked as Caro's face turned bright red and she shook her head. "No? Well, then they're stupid. You're a very lovely young woman."

"Papa..." Caro whined softly. Sure, it was nice but... "Come on, papa, you know that..." She blinked as Yuuno hugged her. "Papa?"

"I'm just glad you're home."

Caro smiled and hugged him back, sighing softly as she enjoyed her papa hugging her.

Watching the two of them, Fate just smiled and looked at Erio, who was blushing as he cooked the food. Walking over to him, she hugged him from behind and gave him a soft kiss on the cheek. "I'm glad you're back too, Erio." Seeing his blush get brighter, she giggled and let him go. "I'll go wake the others up."

Yuuno nodded and moved to help Caro set the table for breakfast.

(-)

Chrono took a deep breath as he stepped foot onto the planet that held a lot of meaning to him. Sure, he wasn't born on Earth, but he did spend a lot of time on this planet while growing up. "It's been a long time."

"Yeah," he looked behind him where Filia was helping Hayate out. His wife was smiling at him. "Though, this part of the world is more open than that annoying city at least."

Chrono chuckled softly and looked at Hayate. "Are you sure that you're okay for this?"

"I want to see him," she narrowed her eyes at the Admiral, "and don't think that because I'm about a month away from giving birth that I can't blast you into orbit from where you stand."

Chrono sweat-dropped and nodded as he looked at Filia, who was nodding at Hayate. "...You're supposed to be on my side!"

"She's also a pregnant woman, and, as someone who's had a daughter, I can safely say that I understand what she's going through." Filia patted Hayate's back gently. "Come on, dear, let's go inside before my mean old husband tries to make light of your situation."

Chrono just stared, mouth agape as he watched them walk towards the farm house in the distance. "...Since when is this my fault? I didn't get Hayate pregnant!"

Filia smiled as she walked with Hayate. Teasing her husband was rather fun, she just hoped that things at home were alright.

(-)

Sette blinked as Val tackled her to the ground. "...Yes?"

"Big sister! Amy-mama won't let me go outside and play this morning!" Val whined and Sette sighed softly.

"Do you not have school today?" She nodded when he complained how boring school was and he just wanted to play with her. "If you go to school today and not cause problems, I shall play with you afterwords."

Val's eyes sparkled. "Really? All over the park?" When Sette nodded, he squealed and hugged her tightly. "You're the best, big sis!"

Sette smiled as she hugged her brother back. "Come on, we should get to the table before Wendi decides to eat our share of food." Val's eyes widened as he jumped off of her and ran towards the kitchen.

Before Sette could get up, Mr. Snuggles jumped on her head and looked down into her eyes. _"Told you that they were annoying. Can I please scratch them now?"_

"I would rather you not try to harm my brothers and sisters, Mr. Snuggles. But thank you for the offer." Standing up, Sette wondered just how Mr. Snuggles was able to keep looking her in the face without falling off or even shifting his weight at all.

"Hey! Wendi's not even out here! Big sis, you liar!" Val's voiced tore through the house, getting a chuckle from Mr. Snuggles and a small smirk from Sette.

"Hmm, she's not?" Sette asked as she walked out into the kitchen. "I guess not."

Val whined as he sat at the table, putting his face into his hands.

Watching that, Amy just smiled at them. "Sette, would you be a dear and make sure that Wendi, Otto and Deed are up?"

Nodding, Sette left the kitchen to do that. "Mr. Snuggles, would you stop looking at me in the face like that?"

_"I was going to see if you were going to force me to get off or not."_ Mr. Snuggles moved from her head to her right shoulder. _"I was wondering if you've noticed anything about Otto or Wendi's tails lately."_

Sette blinked at the question. "I have not been paying attention, I admit. Why do you ask?"

_"Wendi's tail seems darker than I remember, and Otto's tail is brighter in color as well."_ Mr. Snuggles tilted his head in confusion. _"By the way, Sette, I never bothered to ask before, but why is it that Wendi's tail is different from her hair?"_

"What do you mean?" Sette asked as she went towards Otto's room.

_"I am not sure. Her hair seems to be darker than your hair, even though it's the same. But Otto's hair is..."_

Sette blinked and her eyes widened. "Wait, you can see colors?"

Mr. Snuggles raised his head up and blinked in amazement. _"That's what they're called? I was wondering why the world seemed so bright compared to what it was before the doctor worked on my body."_

Sette nodded slowly as she thought about it. "Hmm, well, I guess mom should know about this. You might want to be able to name what color you're looking at then."

_"Thank you."_

As Sette walked towards Otto's room, she stiffened as she felt something wrap around her waist before two hands grabbed her breasts. "Wendi, what are you doing?"

"Hmm, they've gotten heavier lately. What have you been eating?" Wendi asked as she gave Sette's breasts another squeeze.

"If you are done seeing if my breasts are watermelons or not..." Sette trailed off as a boomerang formed in her left hand out of nowhere. Seeing that, Wendi grinned and slipped away from Sette. "As for your question, just yesterday evening, I had two steaks, four kilos of mashed potatoes, four liters of milk and two liters of water, as well as two apple pies."

"What?" Wendi stared at Sette. "I know I can eat a lot, but that's more than I normally eat."

_"She was still hungry and went looking for food an hour later."_ Mr. Snuggles grinned as he watched Wendi face-fault to the floor. _"You do eat a lot, Sette._

"Does it all go to your breasts or something?" Wendi asked as she stood up, before looking at Sette's backside and tilting her head. "Well, your butt hasn't gotten any bigger, so... Where does it go?"

Sette just shrugged at her. "If you, Otto and Deed would practice using your Dragon magic more, perhaps you would start eating more as well."

Wendi sweat-dropped at that. "Uh, no offense, but I don't think I want to end up like you and have to eat all the time."

Sette shrugged at her. "Very well, but I was just making an observation." She wondered why Wendi looked uncomfortable at the idea of eating even more, but then shrugged it off.

It wasn't important. She was actually enjoying using her magic and learning new stuff.

(-)

"Chrono, Hayate," Gil smiled as he saw his former pupil and the girl that he... He shook his head to banish those thoughts, it was a long time ago and it looked like... His eyes widened as he took in Hayate's form. "Well, well, Hayate, you really have blossomed into a beautiful woman, haven't you?" He looked at Filia and blinked, trying to recall where he saw her from. "I know you, but..."

"My name is Filia Ul Copt-Harlaown." The blonde smiled at the elderly man. "I married Chrono and Amy both several years ago."

Gil snapped his fingers and nodded. "Ah yes. Now I remember. How is the family, dear?"

"Quite well, actually," Filia smiled at him as the four of them sat around in Gil's living room. Looking around briefly, Filia nodded in approval at the living conditions Gil had. "It's a very cozy house."

"Yes," Gil covered his mouth and started coughing hard, "it is a nice house." Sighing, he leaned back into the couch. "It is a shame that I never had any family to share this with."

"Don't be ridiculous." Hayate spoke up, causing Gil to look at her and blink as she smiled at him. "After all, grandfather, it has been a long time since I saw you last."

Taking off his glasses, Gil sighed as he closed his eyes and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Even after what I tried to do to you, you still call me that."

"I never blamed you for what you tried to do." Hayate stood up slowly and made her way over to him and eased herself onto the couch, wincing slightly. Getting up and down from a sitting position was hard when the baby was almost fully developed after all, since it put pressure on her hips that she didn't like too much. Lindy, Quint and Lina had given her plenty of information about the final few months of pregnancy and the annoyances that came with it. "You were in a bad situation, grandfather," she patted him on his arm and smiled, "but, it was a long time ago, please, stop blaming yourself for it." When Gil looked down, depressed, Hayate gently took his hand and placed it on her belly. "Can you feel that, grandfather?" He looked at her belly, a look of wonder on his face as he felt the life that was growing inside of her move around, "that's you're great-grandchild."

He smiled, his eyes watering up as he moved to hug her lightly. "Thank you, Hayate, but..." He let go of the hug, sighing heavily. "I do not think that I shall last much longer."

"That's why I came here, actually," Chrono spoke up, causing Gil to look at him in resignation, "Lotte and Aria both know that they're taking a toll on you. They've been in their cat forms for the past few months, and they want to release you from the strain of having them."

Gil closed his eyes and shook his head. "Those two... I can't just let them go. They're the closest I have to daughters."

"I admit, I'm not too... Up to date on all the particulars with a familiar," Chrono took a deep breath, hoping that he was right on this, "but, if you didn't have to sustain those two, your health wouldn't be deteriorating as fast as it is?" Gil nodded to him. "So, tell me, Gil Graham, is there a ritual to transfer a familiar from you to another master?"

* * *

Gil: Such a question...  
Chrono: I know.  
Filia: Next time on Blood That Flows - ViVid...  
Hayate: Read it or things might get weird. The baby kicked again!  
Chrono: Yep.


	291. Sixth ViVid

Blood That Flows

Sixth ViVid

Of course I own nothing.

Has it been a month? I am so sorry. I got the flu, then the car's engine needed to be repaired and stuff's been happening. Yeah, I'm sorry.

* * *

Gil raised an eyebrow at Chrono's question. "Shouldn't you just find it at the Infinity Library?"

"Even if it's more organized than what it was in the past, it takes forever to find correct information." Idly, Chrono wondered how the Infinite Library would be if he had managed to get Yuuno in there to organize it. "So, I ask you, Gil, if you were to be able to transfer the mana requirements to someone else, would you?"

"No." Gil closed his eyes and shook his head. "Chrono, even if I trust you, which I do, the mana strain for holding two familiars is incredible. The two would never forgive me or you if I put you under such a burden and you weren't able to handle it." Opening his eyes, he looked at Hayate and smiled lightly. "I wouldn't do that to Hayate either. She has to maintain so much and while pregnant..."

"Actually," Hayate spoke up, smiling at him, "Signum, Vita, Shamal, Zafira and Reinforce are free from being linked to my life. They're human now." Well, Reinforce wasn't, being a Unison Device, but Hayate still didn't need to supply her with mana. "Though, now that I think about it, Zafira still spends more time as a wolf than as man."

Gil smiled at her. "I'm glad to hear that, Hayate, but, I still can't..."

"Actually," Filia spoke up, getting Gil's attention, "Chrono and I talked about this ever since Aria and Lotte started staying in their cat forms full time. If it's possible, sir, I would be willing to be the one to sustain Aria and Lotte."

Gil stared at the young blonde woman. "I can't just trust someone to..."

"If you're worried about the mana requirements to keep them sustained, you need not worry," Filia stood up and curtsied to him, "I am one of the few Gold Dragons in this universe."

"A Dragon?" Gil blinked several times as he looked at her. "But, you're not..."

"Where Filia's from, Gil," Chrono stood up and squeezed Filia's hand, "Golden Dragons are considered the highest class of Dragon still alive, and it's easy for them to turn into human forms. Gil, even if you're worried about it, the thing I wonder is, are you worried about someone mistreating your daughters? Or is there something that worries you that you aren't telling us?"

When Gil looked down and sighed, Chrono was suddenly struck by just how [i]old[/i] the man really looked. "I guess I'm a selfish old man, but I've always known that those two girls wouldn't survive past my death."

"They worry about you, a lot." Filia smiled to him. "They said they would dismiss themselves if it gave you even two more days of life."

Gil shook his head, "those two," it was nice that they were willing to go so far, but, he couldn't do that to them. "Tell me something, Filia... Your species, how long can you live for?"

"I may be over a one thousand years old, however, to my race, I am merely a child who is just setting out in life. The former Supreme Elder of my clan, before he died, was more than four times my current age." Filia may not have had any good memories at the end, but she still could recall the happier times when growing up. "While my personal mana reserves are not tremendous for my race, I would have no problem shouldering the burden for two familiars."

"You make me feel useless." Gil sighed softly and gave her a gentle smile. "I have worried that my only legacy would be a ruination of my relationship with a student and a child who could have been my grand daughter."

"It's not," Hayate said as she gave his arm a squeeze, "grandfather, even if you only last a few more months, I would love to have you meet your great grandchild at least once." When Gil looked at her, his eyes watering, she wasn't the least bit surprised when he hugged her, "I worry about you too, grandfather."

Gil let go of the hug and sighed softly. "In the end, we're all just pieces of dust, here for a short while, then gone. I'm not afraid of leaving this world, and," Gil stood up slowly, nodding to Chrono and down to Hayate as he did so, "well, Chrono, Filia, shall we begin? I can transfer Aria and Lotte to you, miss Filia, please, my only request is that you take good care of them."

"Of course." Filia nodded as Chrono let go of her hand. "Here, show me where we can do this, I have no idea about familiar contracts."

"Of course," Gil nodded to her and motioned for her to follow him.

Watching them leave, Hayate sighed and looked at Chrono, who had a troubled look on his face. "Is something wrong?"

Chrono closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "Even if Amy or I manage to live for two centuries, Hayate, Filia will live for much longer. She has to watch us and our children get older and pass on... I don't know what to think about it."

"Then make as many happy memories with her as you can," Hayate answered as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Live happily and without regrets, so she can look back and remember you, Amy, Karel and Liera with fondness." The pregnant woman took a deep breath as she closed her eyes and rubbed her belly. "I've talked to Reinforce, Agito and even Ixpellia about their memories of the past. And, I've come to the conclusion that what you do in life is only as important as the people you leave behind."

Chrono smirked at her. "Since when did we become old people?"

"You and I both know we walk a razor's edge every time that we go out on missions, Chrono." Hayate shook her head and shifted on the couch, "all I can hope is that I come back alive every time."

Chrono nodded at her. "Still, Hayate, thank you." Hayate just grinned at him as he turned to leave the room.

Hayate closed her eyes and had to admit, she might have talked big, but deep down, she was scared, not of losing her own life, but what would have happened had Reinforce stayed dead back in the cradle. Shivering, Hayate rubbed her belly and fought the urge to suddenly cry.

That was something she never wanted to experience again.

(-)

Reinforce rubbed her forehead as she fought off the urge to sneeze for some odd reason. "What is it?" She asked as the door to the office opened up. "Vita. You're here early."

The redhead raised an eyebrow at Reinforce's appearance. "Actually, mom, I popped over to the house to talk with Signum about something, and, you haven't been home the last couple of days. Is something up?"

Sighing, Reinforce groaned as she pushed the papers in front of her forward. "Urgh, too much paperwork at times."

"You have ten sheets on your desk, and we both know that you only see paper work if someone needs to transfer or you need new supplies and debriefing reports." Vita narrowed her eyes as she walked up to the desk. "Mom, talk, what's going on? I know dad's on Earth right now, and Signum told me that you allowed it to happen, so, what's going on?"

Reinforce was silent as she looked at the papers in front of her. Despite the fact that Vita was one of the most passionate people around and enjoyed things to their fullest extent, she did have patience. After all, one who had no patience tended to end up dead on the battlefield quite often.

It was a lesson she had learned over and over again through the centuries of being a construct for the Book of Darkness. And while she didn't have all her memories of the time spent as a construct, she recalled enough.

Still, it wasn't easy.

Before Vita could speak up again, Reinforce snapped her fingers and Vita blinked as the windows and door to the room closed. "Vita, I don't want this getting out. In fact, Hayate doesn't even know." Her red eyes bore into Vita's blue ones, "I don't want to put stress on her right now. So, if you want to know, I need your word, as a Belkan Knight, one who gave her word in the days of Belka, to never utter a word about what you're about to hear."

"On my honor, I, Vita Yagami of the house Yagami and Knight of the Time-Space Administration Bureau, give my word that I shall never utter what I hear in this room to anyone." Vita said with complete conviction.

"Good," Reinforce took a deep breath. "I've been getting rather disturbing reports from various agents, both normal, Enforcers and even the less than legal informants." Vita nodded, wondering what Reinforce was talking about. "Did you know, Vita... That outside of Bureau jurisdiction, there are several criminal organizations with power that can rival even our Riot Force?"

"The power that eclipses all?" Vita raised an eyebrow as Reinforce nodded. "I heard that it's a powerful anti-magic ability. Zelgadis said from what he was able to figure out that it was different, but similar to what Mazoku do when fighting against magic users. Why?"

A screen popped up in front of Vita and she blinked at the information. "Tell me, Vita... What do you see here?"

Vita's pupils shrank as she saw a familiar looking being near a shirtless male. "...You have got to be kidding! She's still alive?!"

"Apparently, it gets worse." Another screen popped up and Vita grimaced as she saw what was standing around the two of them.

"Well, shit, I thought we were done with those things." Vita had no idea what Levi and those Megahs were doing, but if they were teamed up with someone who was part of those criminal organizations... "What are we going to do?"

"Shari and Mary have been looking into this stuff for awhile now. You would not believe some of the stuff they've come up with." Reinforce thought about it and shook her head. "Never mind, it's those two, they could probably find a way to build giant robots that could alter the gravitational constant of the universe."

Vita snorted at that. "Give them enough funding and time, I bet they could create an armor that completely nullifies magic attacks and can be used to hurt Mazoku."

"Actually..." Reinforce trailed off, smirking as Vita gawked at her. "Yes, they're working on something. Apparently, they were inspired by the story of the Zanafar creature from Zelgadis and Lina's home world."

"Now those two are starting to scare me." Vita shook her head. "So, how long until we get prototypes?"

"The problem is, we're not sure how that Zanafar creature came into being, and despite how crazy they can get, neither of them want to have something like that come to life." Reinforce didn't blame them. A creature that had natural immunity to almost any spell, including something like the Nemesis Breaker? "Still, right now, the project's stalled unless we somehow get a piece of a Zanafar or something."

Vita snorted but didn't say that it wouldn't happen. She had seen way too much weird stuff in her life to completely disregard it. "Is that all?"

"Yeah." Reinforce nodded to her. "And, Vita..." She smiled at the redhead. "Thank you."

(-)

Looking at the clock, Shamal let out a small sigh as she looked at her patient. "Well, Kyrie, I think that you've come a long way." The younger girl blinked at Shamal, before smiling happily. "In fact, we can start scaling back these sessions if you want." Shamal blinked as Kyrie's mood suddenly evaporated. "Is something the matter?"

"I guess you want to get rid of me too, huh?" Shamal blinked at that. "I thought..."

"Kyrie," Shamal interrupted before the girl could get depressed, "I'm not tossing you aside, if that's what you're worried about. I thought you'd be happy to know that I think you're becoming more adjusted and could probably live without having to have me look over your shoulder all the time."

"I still get nightmares and sometimes..." Kyrie blinked as Shamal put a hand on her shoulder. Looking at the doctor, she wondered why Shamal was smiling at her.

"Kyrie, nightmares are normal. You've only been here for about four years. I've known people who suffered far less than you have and still have nightmares over it for many years." Though from what she heard from Nanoha, those nightmares were very rare these days, only happening if she was either really stressed out or really worried about something. "I'm just saying, Kyrie, is that you don't need to have as many sessions with me. We meet four times a week as it is, wouldn't you like to be able to have more time to yourself?"

Kyrie looked down at the floor, uncertainty in her eyes. "But I like spending time with you. I don't mind talking with you for three or four hours a day. It's better than what I used to get."

Shamal sighed softly, she wasn't quite sure if Kyrie was backsliding or just really nervous. "Alright, Kyrie, if you feel that strongly about it, then I won't push the issue. I just want you to be able to live without being forced into anything." Kyrie nodded while still looking down and Shamal gave her shoulder a squeeze. "So, Kyrie, our time's up, how does tomorrow sound?"

Kyrie looked at her and blinked in confusion. "Huh? Oh, sure. Say, Shamal..." She trailed off and Shamal raised an eyebrow, wondering what was on the girl's mind. "Would you mind meeting up with me later?"

"Well, I don't know..." Shamal trailed off and sighed at the hopeful look in Kyrie's eyes. "Alright, where do you want to meet up?"

"Well, there's this really nice diner and..." Kyrie trailed off as Shamal held up a hand.

"Kyrie, if you're asking me out on a date, I'm going to have to refuse." Shamal shook her head in disappointment. "I've told you before. You're very lovely and I'm flattered that you think that I'm beautiful, but you're my patient, I can't date you."

Kyrie shook her head. "No, no! Not that kind of date! I just want to have a meal with you. Your cooking is really good, but I, ah..." Kyrie's eyes went white as she tried to stammer out an excuse. "Please? I won't do anything like kiss you."

"Oddly specific." Shamal thought about it and sighed as she saw Kyrie's hopeful look. "Five thirty tonight, okay?" Kyrie's eyes widened and she launched herself out of the chair to hug Shamal tightly. "Yes, yes... You're welcome."

Kyrie smiled as she rested her head on Shamal's chest while hugging her tightly. "Thank you, thank you, thank you."

Shamal found it hard to fault the girl's happiness and just smiled at her while rubbing her back. "Just mention the place, Kyrie." The girl nodded and Shamal could have sworn Kyrie was almost crying softly.

Oh well, overwhelming happiness had this effect on people sometimes.

(-)

As she walked out of the building a few minutes later, Kyrie pulled out a small device and pushed a button, her eyes sparkling as she saw Amitie on the screen in front of her. "She said yes."

Amitie actually smiled back. Sure, she was hot-headed at times, but of the two, Kyrie was more prone to smiling than Amitie was. "Good, so, it's all set up then?"

"Five thirty at that diner we found last week."

"Good." Amitie nodded to her. "Alright, let's make this work."

"Yeah!" Kyrie pumped her fist into the air while jumping in happiness.

(-)

"Nanoha..." Miyuki trailed off as she looked at her sister. "Listen, what are we going to do about this?" She pointed to something that was burning slowly in the middle of the kitchen and Nanoha sighed, shaking her head.

"Honestly, I'm not sure. How did this happen?"

"I think I might have put in a bit too much Brandy into it." Miyuki shook her head. "Sorry." Nanoha just shrugged at her and poked the smoking pile with a broom, wincing as it suddenly flared up.

"Don't worry about it. We both know you're almost helpless with anything that's not baking." Nanoha giggled as Miyuki narrowed her eyes. "Oh come on, it's not too bad. You were trying a new recipe out. Do you have _any_ idea how many times something like this has happened around here."

**"You once destroyed the kitchen, Mistress Fate accidentally blew a wall out, Master Yuuno covered everything in chocolate sauce that somehow caused the paint to peel and Vivio covered the floor in flour, which she then poured water on to make flour snow balls."**

Nanoha twitched as she listened to that. "Thank you, Raising Heart, that will be all."

**"Of course, my master."**

Miyuki put a hand over her mouth to fight off the urge to laugh. "Chocolate sauce, really?"

"It was that weekend you were helping mom out at the shop." Nanoha shook her head. "Well, at least we got a new paintjob out of it." Nanoha could easily put the fire out if she had used her magic, but then Fate and Yuuno would get mad when they found out, and Nanoha really didn't want to be on their bad side over this.

After all, it sucked when they made her sleep in one of the spare bedrooms by herself for a few days.

Well, that and she didn't want to have to replace any damages to the walls that might happen if she put too much power into her magic spells.

"Hey!" Yuuno called out from the entry way, "I'm back and..." He trailed off as he saw the mess in the middle of the kitchen and looked around. "Seems rather small, what happened this time?"

"New recipe." Nanoha clarified, getting a nod from Yuuno in understanding.

"Makes sense. At least it's not all over the walls this time." Yuuno shook his head. "So, this is what? The third time something like this has happened here?"

Nanoha thought about it and nodded. "Probably." She grinned as she poked the burned pile again. "Well, at least it's not burning anymore."

Miyuki took the broom from her sister and sighed. "You're taking this way too well. And I think you made that up about destroying the kitchen."

Nanoha scratched the back of her head and giggled nervously. She didn't want to explain that her accident had been because she had been watching Fate and Yuuno play with Vivio, Erio and Caro in the yard one day. It just wasn't fair! Fate and Yuuno were way too sexy in swimsuits for their own good.

Distraction was never a good thing when one was cooking after all.

As Miyuki walked out to throw the burned food into the garbage cans outside, Yuuno looked at Nanoha, who sighed softly. "Think we should do something for her later?"

Thinking for a few moments, Nanoha smiled. "How about we take her out to that amusement park?" She held up a hand before Yuuno could speak. "And I was thinking, just the three of us should go tonight."

"Fate will get mad." Yuuno said, but internally he was finding himself getting anxious about this.

Nanoha put a finger on his lips and smiled at him. "Let me worry about Fate, okay? I just think that Miyuki should have some fun tonight, and maybe the two of us should make sure she has some, okay?" Her smile turned into a grin when he nodded. "Excellent. I'll go give Fate a call and explain then." She quickly left the kitchen, followed by Raising Heart.

**"Well boss, maybe there should be a mess in the kitchen more often."**

"Shut up, Thoth."

(-)

"You want to do what? And without me?" Fate asked Nanoha as she looked at the communication window. "Nanoha..."

"Listen, Fate..." Nanoha clasped her hands in front of her and gave Fate a pleading look. "Miyuki was feeling really bad about screwing up in the kitchen, so Yuuno and I want to help her out."

"Were the pipes corroded again?" Fate asked, remembering just why Vivio got water all over the flour that day.

Nanoha shook her head. "No, she just poured too much Brandy into something she was cooking, to give it the taste of the stuff, you know?" Fate nodded, that was how cooking with alcohol generally worked, boil off the alcohol and then pour the liquid into the food. "Well, she used too much and tried to overcompensate and turned the heat up too high."

"Oh." Fate felt bad for getting upset. "And then the food she was cooking was neglected, right?" Nanoha nodded and Fate chuckled softly. "Well, at least she didn't accidentally destroy part of the wall."

"Yeah..." Nanoha narrowed her eyes. "Just how did you do that?"

"I'd rather not say." Besides, it was embarrassing. Accidentally destroying a wall because she had been so lost in thought that she over-reacted when she got startled. At least that happened when they were still living on Earth, even if it had been hard to explain to the neighbors. "And it was just a little mess, right?" Nanoha nodded and Fate laughed softly. "Well, at least it wasn't all over her skin."

"Like Yuuno's chocolate was?" Nanoha leered and Fate blushed. At least the idea of food on a person didn't seem so bad after that.

"I'll be home in a few hours then." Fate nodded to Nanoha, who smiled as the screen turned off. "Bardiche..."

**"Yes sir."**

"Can you schedule me to have this weekend off?"

**"Done three weeks ago, sir."**

Fate smiled softly at that. "Thank you." She was glad, after all, this weekend was the day that Precia had passed on from the world and Fate wanted to visit her grave again.

* * *

Vivio: Hey! After a month, I get no screen time! What a gyp!  
Einhart: There are other people, you know.  
Vivio: I know that! But I've been waiting for at least two arcs since I was introduced to get an arc to myself.  
Einhart: Next time on Blood That Flows - ViVid  
Rio: I think Vivio's still mad about the lack of screen time in canon.  
Corona: I guess so.


	292. Seventh ViVid

Blood That Flows

Seventh ViVid

Of course I own nothing.

Hey guys, guess what?

Two years ago, today, I started posting Blood That Flows to this website.

Man, has it really been two years? Wow. Anyway, enjoy the next chapter.

* * *

"Ixy!" Vivio called out as she, Corona and Rio saw their friend. "What are you doing here?"

"It's Ixpellia." The girl sighed as she looked at Vivio's smiling face and found it hard to stay upset at her. "As for what I'm doing here," she indicated the gym behind her, "Nove called and asked for me to show up after school."

"Weird, she said the same thing to me." Vivio looked at Rio and Corona.

"I don't know," Corona shook her head. "I might be good in class, but I can't read minds..."

Rio shook her head and waved her arms back and forth when Vivio looked at her. "I can't see the future!" Sure, she had pretty good abilities, but seeing the future? Whoever heard of someone doing that?

Vivio almost wished Arashi was there, but he was going to go meet up with Caro and Erio today. 'That reminds me, I need to show them my adult form too.' She thought to herself. Oh well, she was sure they'd be surprised about it.

(-)

Caro twitched and looked around. "I feel something bad..."

Arashi looked at Erio, who shook his head. "Okay..."

"It feels like someone just got bigger than me again!" Suddenly Caro teared up and glomped Erio. "Say it isn't so! I'm not a midget! I'm not! I'm not like auntie Nanoha, am I?"

Erio shook his head. "Nah uh. You're not like Nanoha." Though, if he thought about it long enough, he really didn't want to point out that if she was like Nanoha, then Lutecia was Fate, and he would be...

Arashi blinked as Erio suddenly went blue in the face and trembled. "...Are you okay?" His eyes widened as Erio and Caro both looked at him with blank white eyes and tackled him to the ground. "WAGH! No fair!"

"Waaah! I'm not Yuuno!" Erio shuddered and Arashi just groaned, wondering what he did to deserve this today. Seriously, was everyone around him neurotic or something?

Oh well, Arashi had a hard time staying mad at these two when they were like this. After all, they were family, and family stuck together.

It didn't stop him from blushing when people laughed at the scene though.

(-)

As they stepped inside the building, Ixpellia blinked at how many people were inside. "I did not think the building was so large."

"It's not, silly." Vivio giggled at her, finding it actually kind of funny how Ixpellia found some modern things so amazing. "But it has three floors and a big pool on the third floor."

Ixpellia blinked at that. "A pool? That's for swimming, right?" Vivio nodded and Ixpellia tapped her chin. "I see, is it used to teach people how to swim up rivers or across lakes?"

"No." Corona shook her head. "Most people swim to have fun and relax." She tilted her head at the stupefied look that Ixpellia gave her. "What?"

"I know life is more peaceful now, but... Learning to swim just because?" Ixpellia's look became one of wonder. "So, I would not need to find a way to swim against powerful currents?" The idea was positively unreal to her. "I should have found out about pools sooner."

"Doesn't the Saint Church have a pool?" Corona looked at Vivio, who shrugged at her.

"I'm not sure myself, actually. If they do, Carim never lets anyone use it." Maybe she should see if Sein, Tre or her great aunt knew if there was a pool there.

"Where's the pool?" Ixpellia was looking forward to this.

"We didn't bring swim suits." Rio pointed out, blinking at the look Ixpellia gave her. "What?"

"You need special clothes to swim?" Ixpellia asked in confusion as the four moved towards the gym. "Why not just take off your clothes and go swimming?"

"Well, typically you don't do that," Vivio said as they entered the gym area. "If it was a hot spring or something, then you could go naked, but a swimming pool, well, unless it's a private one, you have swimsuits on."

Ixpellia shrugged and looked around, waving as she saw Tre walk over to meet them. "Tre, what brings you here?"

"Well, I heard her majesty and her highness were both going to be here, so I thought I'd show up to supervise."

"Don't call me that!" Both Vivio and Ixpellia yelled at her while closing their eyes and waving their hands up and down comically.

"Of course, your majesty, your highness, I'll remember not to call you those names." Tre smirked as both girls let out groans of frustration. "Anyway, it seems that Nove's already here with the person who wished to meet with you."

Rio tilted her head to look around Tre and her eyes widened as she saw a girl with silver-green hair standing next to Nove. "Ah! Nove!"

Nove turned and nodded as she saw the four girls. "Rio, Corona, Vivio, Ixpellia, this is Einhart Stratos, she's been wanting to meet you two," she indicated Vivio and Ixpellia with a nod of her head, "for awhile now."

Einhart stepped forward and looked at Vivio and Ixpellia, before bowing. "My name is Einhart Stratos, I am a descendant of the Hegemon Emperor, and I wish to do battle with the two of you."

"Why?" Vivio blinked, though, if this girl wanted to have a fight, Vivio wasn't going to say no. After all, Rio became her friend after they beat each other up after school that one day. Plus everyone in her family had said that they made their best friends by beating them up first.

She wasn't sure why, but apparently violence was the best way for making new friends.

"I simply wish to know," Einhart looked at Vivio and Ixpellia with her eyes narrowed, "just what is stronger, the Kaiser Arts, which were passed down from Claus Ingvalt himself, or the skills of the Saint Kaiser and the Underworld King?"

Before anyone could answer, there were several loud thunks. Looking down, Einhart's eyes widened as she saw three knives sticking out of the ground around her shoes. Taking a step back, she looked up and stared as Ixpellia had six more knives in her hands, one between each finger, and a very cold smirk on her face. "So, Einhart, you wish to know if you are a strong fighter?"

"Ixy!" Vivio gasped and jumped her friend. "No killing people who challenge you!"

Looking at Vivio, she sighed and put the knives away. "Fine."

Corona leaned over to Rio and whispered to the other girl. "I watched her pull the knives out and put them away, but where does she _hide_ them?" Her sleeves were way too short to hide them there, and she wasn't wearing a bracer or anything like that...

Rio scratched her head in confusion, it wasn't like she knew either.

"I'll be your opponent then," Vivio bowed to Einhart, who nodded at her. "Um, we might want to move those knives though."

"I'll get them." Nove rolled her eyes and pulled them out. "Ixpellia, stop using knives and darts so much."

"It is how I was trained to defend myself." Ixpellia wondered why so many people were against that. Really, she didn't even aim at Einhart's body. Some would say that was an improvement.

"You have some really interesting friends, Saint Kaiser," Einhart said, causing Vivio's eyes to widen. "Yes, I know about... You?" She trailed off as a bunny suddenly floated out of Vivio's discarded bag. "...What the?"

"Oh, hey, Chris." Vivio smiled at her device, who wiggled its ear at her. "No, that's okay. You don't need to."

"You have a device, I see." Einhart sighed softly, hoping that the Saint Kaiser wouldn't have need of a device like most mages and fighters in the world.

Vivio held up a hand and pointed a finger up, her eyes went white and blank. "Um, just how did you know about me being the Saint Kaiser anyway?"

Einhart twitched, sweat-dropped and then she started sweating as she tried to think up a reason for why she knew.

"Oh, just go with it, Vivio!" Rio called out, causing Vivio and Einhart to look at her in confusion, "in all the stories I've ever read, it's just best to ignore that question so we can get to the good stuff."

"I guess so..." Vivio trailed off and nodded to Einhart. "Well, shall we?"

Before anyone could say anything, Tre put a hand on Vivio's shoulder, much to both Vivio and Einhart's shock. Vivio knew Tre was supposed to be about as fast as Fate or Erio, but to actually not see her move, that was something else. Einhart, on the other hand, had barely caught a glimpse of Tre until she was behind Vivio.

Einhart was sure of her skill, but she didn't want to fight someone who was so fast that she couldn't keep up with her movements.

"You should get changed first, your majesty. While I'm certain that you could fight her well in your skirt, if something were to happen to it, you would have to walk home in damaged clothing, and I doubt that you want everyone to see your underwear." Tre fought back a smirk as the two girls nodded. "Go on." Vivio ran off to the changing room and Tre idly wondered what Sein or Luna were up to, before ignoring that thought.

It was probably best to not find out.

(-)

Chrono nodded as he watched the ritual finally end. "Filia, Gil..."

"It's done," Gil said, his voice full of sadness and surprisingly, hope. "Please, take care of my girls."

"Of course," Filia smiled at him. "But, why do you sound like you're not going to see them again?"

Even though he was tired from the transference ritual, Gil rubbed his eyes and sighed. "I'm no fool, Filia, I know that I'm not going to be allowed back to Mid-Childa anytime soon."

"Actually," Chrono spoke up, getting a surprised look from Gil, "I've done some paper work. And, Gil, you've been here for over ten years. At the very least, allow your last days to be where you spent most of your adult life."

Gil sighed as he looked around his house slowly. "I don't know..." He grimaced before coughing. "Sorry, I'm fine... But, even so, I have no place to go, no place to live if I move back." Though, he would like to see Mid-Childa at least one more time before he passed on.

"I can get you an apartment not far from my place." Chrono said, surprising the older man. "Gil, even if you were planning to do something horrific, you never went through with it."

"I still shouldn't..."

"Enough!" Filia interrupted Gil, who stared at the Dragon in surprise. "If you don't want to go because you like it here on Earth, that's fine. If you don't want to go because you want to be buried on Earth when you pass away, that's fine too. But," she narrowed her eyes at him, "if you wish to stay here because you're ashamed of what you did, then that's not fine!"

"Filia..."

She ignored her husband to look at Gil, hard, "I know that it's hard to do, to let go of the past. Do you know why I live on Mid-Childa now?" Gil shook his head. "Because I was ashamed of what I did, what my people did back home that I left them all behind. Unlike you, though, I was an outcast of my people, and Dragons don't like outcasts, even if they're from another clan." She poked him in the chest, her eyes still narrowed in repressed anger. "You, on the other hand, wronged two people, both of whom are willing to forgive you and are even willing to help you move back to Mid-Childa. What about your familiars? Even if you gave them to me, they'd be ecstatic to see you again!" Lowering her finger, she took a deep breath to try and calm down. "Even if you tried to harm Hayate and her family, they're happy now. And a new life is being born to this world. You almost committed a terrible crime to stop something even worse from happening. As for my people?" Gil watched as she shook her head in sadness. "We nearly wiped an entire race of Dragons, a very peaceful race, out of existence. There are only three of that clan left, the rest are dead and gone. All because my people were jealous of a powerful object that the Ancient Dragons had. I can't change the past, all I can do is help Val, my son, become the best Ancient Dragon he can be."

"Grandfather..." Gil, Filia and Chrono all looked as Hayate walked into the room slowly. "Please... Come back to Mid-Childa with us. You need to see my family again.." She smiled softly. "They're so strong these days. Especially Vita-chan. She got engaged recently."

"Chrono..." Gil looked at his former pupil. "No matter what happens to me, please, promise me, when my time comes, bring my body back to this place to be buried with the rest of my family."

"Of course," Chrono nodded at the older man, "have you made your decision then?"

"Well, I think a little city life would be good for me." Gil chuckled softly, before walking up to Filia and giving her a hug. "Thank you for that." Releasing the hug, he walked over to Hayate and put a hand on her shoulder. "Well, grand daughter, do you mind helping me move back to Mid-Childa?"

She hugged him, tears streaming down her face happily as she squeezed him tightly. "Of course not, grandfather."

Chrono walked over to Filia, who sighed softly. "You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm just reminded how horrible my people were, that's all."

"Don't worry about it," Chrono squeezed her hand. "You might be a Golden Dragon, but you're not them. You'll never become them. After all," he smiled at her confused look, "from what I recall, they were all stuck-up jerks that needed to get laid once in awhile."

"CHRONO!" Filia yelled while her face went totally red. "H...How dare you say that?!"

"After all, they wanted to put you in sexy lingerie and prance around for them, they must have been hard up for some time."

Filia twitched and glared at him. "That was a humiliating experience, and you know it!"

"Well, there was one thing it was good for..." Chrono grinned at her.

"What?"

"It let me get a sneak peek to the goods I was going to get when I married you."

Hayate and Gil both watched, amused as Filia suddenly pulled Chrono into a hug and kissed him deeply. "I knew Aria and Lotte's training would work out sooner or later," Gil nodded, happy for his protege.

Hayate wished that she had been there during that mission. She still needed to know what a Dragon's breasts felt like! After all, all breasts were beautiful.

* * *

Vivio: Yeah! It's time to fight! Finally, I get to show my skills off!  
Einhart: But didn't you do that back in StrikerS?  
Vivio: I was under mind control. And how do you know that?!  
Einhart: I've been reading the backstory.  
Vivio: ...Cheater.  
Einhart: Next time on Blood That Flows - ViVid, read it or Vivio might do something crazy.  
Vivio: Yes, that's right!


	293. Eighth ViVid

Blood That Flows

Eighth ViVid

Of course I own nothing.

Just so you know, I'm still alive, I know what I want to do for the rest of the story, just getting to it takes awhile, plus my muse isn't being cooperative.

Let's just say that it'll be fun when I get to the good stuff.

* * *

"So, we're all set?" Hayate asked Chrono as the two of them, Filia and Gil were finally in the Bureau ship not long after Gil had decided to go back to Mid-Childa.

"Not quite." Chrono nodded as the ship moved from above Europe towards Japan. "We have one more stop to make."

Hayate smiled brightly as the ship got close to Japan and, a few moments later, two people that she hadn't seen in a long time appeared. "Arisa-chan! Suzuka-chan."

"Hayate!" Both of them said as they ran up to her and gave her a hug.

"Are you sure that Chrono's not the father?" Arisa narrowed her eyes in amusement. "Because, if it's Yuuno, I can handle him."

Hayate blushed and shook her head. "No, no. It's not Chrono-kun or Yuuno-kun. Besides, I'm sure that Filia-san would kill me if her husband got me pregnant."

"No," Filia said as she walked out to meet the guests, "I wouldn't kill you. I'd just punish you, make you sleep on the couch and then watch what I do to Chrono next."

"I'm not sure what's worse," Chrono muttered, "that my wife wouldn't want to kill someone who managed to seduce me or that she already knows what she'd do to both of us if she found out."

Filia smiled, and it wasn't nice. Chrono, Hayate, Arisa and Suzuka all gulped as they looked at it. "Why dear, I have no idea what you mean. After all, a Dragon protects what's hers. And if they have to pull in more stuff after they get it back, then they do."

After a few moments, Suzuka giggled at the situation. "I doubt Hayate-chan would try to steal Chrono-kun from you, Filia. Arisa-chan on the other hand..."

"I would not!" Arisa spun and glared at her friend. "I'll have you know that I don't try to steal other people's men!"

"Well, what about Yuuno-kun?" Suzuka nearly laughed as Arisa twitched at the question. "Don't you have competition from Nanoha-chan, Fate-chan and Miyuki?"

"That..." Arisa twitched and shook her head. "That doesn't matter, okay?!"

Hayate blinked as Arisa stormed off. "Is she going to be okay?"

Suzuka nodded and sighed softly. "I took it too far, but I think Arisa-chan knows that even if she wanted to, she probably couldn't get Yuuno-kun to like her as much as he likes Nanoha-chan and her sisters."

"She's upset about that?" Filia asked.

"No, it's more like..." Suzuka tapped her chin as she thought about it until the answer came to her. "She knows that Caro likely wants her and Yuuno to be together, and she wants to make Caro happy, and she wouldn't mind being with Yuuno, I think, but, he's already got three women after him."

Chrono really couldn't say anything, neither could Hayate. They both knew that relationships weren't meant to be easy to figure out, but both of them had gotten lucky with who they had.

"So, it's less that she's upset and more that she's unsure about what to do with her life."

"You put a lot of thought into this, huh?" Filia asked, getting a chuckle from Suzuka.

"Well, I read lots of relationship advice books and found some similar stories out there."

(-)

Arisa found an open room and flopped onto the bed tiredly. Even if what Suzuka said bothered her, the fact was, she really didn't want to pursue a relationship with Yuuno, not so long as Nanoha and Fate were. They were her friends, she wasn't going to try and get between her friends and someone they liked after all.

If it had just been Miyuki after Yuuno, Arisa would have declared open season already. 'Well...' Her thoughts trailed off as she thought about it long enough. If Fate wasn't interested in anyone, then Arisa probably would have went after her at least once.

The blonde groaned and slammed her face into the pillow several times. "Gah... Why do I like my best friends so much?!" It wasn't fair, damn it. Why did she like them enough to give up so she wouldn't interfere with their happiness?

"Why does everything have to be so damn complicated?" Arisa sighed and closed her eyes. Well, she needed a nap anyway and it was a long trip back to Mid-Childa.

(-)

"Sorry that took so long," Vivio bowed as she walked out of the changing room in gym clothes. "Shall we begin?" She ran to the mat where Einhart was and took a stance.

"Fine, this sparring match lasts until one of you is knocked out, gives up or I say that it's over," Tre narrowed her eyes at both girls, "begin."

Stepping back, Tre watched as Einhart rushed in, punching at Vivio's head, the younger blonde moved her right hand up to parry the attack and punched forward to try and hit Einhart. The older girl twisted, grabbed Vivio's arm and spun quickly before letting go, causing Vivio to stumble forward. "Got you!" Einhart quickly landed two strong punches into Vivio's back before kicking her away.

Grimacing, Vivio used a quick burst of magic at her feet to flip around in mid-air. Her eyes widened as Einhart was just inches from where she was. Quickly ducking the punch at her head, Vivio grabbed the extended arm with both hands, drove her feet into Einhart's side and fell backwards, pulling the girl with her, before kicking her away.

Twisting in mid-air, Einhart grimaced and held a hand out. "Blue Hadou." She snapped her hand back as a swirling mass of wind and magical energy rushed out at Vivio.

"That's not blue at all!" Rio protested as she watched Vivio counter with two energy blasts, the first one caused Einhart's attack to dissipate and the second one went right for the floating girl. Rio tilted her head as she saw Einhart suddenly grab the magic attack out of mid, hold it for a moment before launching it back at her with more power and speed than Vivio has used in her attack. "How'd that work?"

"It's a counter," Tre said as she watched Vivio take the hit and go sprawling across the gym floor. "It's not the easiest thing to learn how to do, but once you learn how to catch magic attacks that are coming at you, you can counter any attack, with some exceptions, that comes your way."

"Really?" Corona blinked as she looked at Tre. "Sounds like it's hard."

"It is." Tre nodded. "It's easier to learn how to use barriers and shields as a fighting style than to use most counter-based attacks. I never managed to learn it myself." She wondered how Einhart managed to learn to do even one counter-style attack. "Typically, you channel your magic into what's being used against you, grab it, and then return it with some of your magic."

As she watched Vivio jump away from a diving kick from Einhart, Corona wondered what the trick to counter magic was and if she could learn even the basics of it.

Ducking under a right cross from Vivio, Einhart grabbed her still extended fist, planted her feet firmly and pushed upwards, lifting Vivio off of the floor and putting pressure on her shoulder as she pushed up. "GAH!" Vivio winced before remembering a trick she had been taught for this situation. Ignoring the pain, she swung her body and wrapped her legs around Einhart's neck and pulled, causing Einhart to let out a grunt as she was flipped over and slammed onto her back. "Give up! I got you."

"Do you?" Einhart asked and Vivio's eyes widened as Einhart pushed off the ground and stood up with a grunt. "Take this!"

"Waaaah!" Vivio let out a cry as Einhart started to spin, and spin, and spin, going faster and faster with each rotation. "Waaa...aaaaa...AHHHH!"

Corona and Rio both winced as they saw Vivio's leg hold loosen up and Einhart grab her legs, shifting Vivio so she was no longer on Einhart's shoulders, but instead was being held out as Einhart gripped her ankles.

"GO!" Einhart let out a yell and let go of Vivio's ankles, sending the girl flying and crashing across the gym into a heap. "Waaauuuhh..." Einhart wobbled as the room spun around her a few times. "I don't like the dryer anymore..." She muttered before falling to her rear end.

Vivio shook her head as she sat up. "Oww..." It wasn't often she felt an attack, and even that one didn't really hurt her, but being dizzy never helped anyone. Looking at Einhart, she suddenly rushed at the downed girl. "Stop this one!"

Einhart shook her head and gasped as Vivio rushed in close and created a large sphere of magical energy. "Oh cr..."

"Divine Buster!" Vivio yelled as she punched forward. Sure, it wasn't as powerful as her mother's version, and it wasn't even pink for crying out loud! But she still knew how to do it.

Einhart let out a cry as she crossed her arms, blocking as much of the attack as she could. Even though she was blocking the attack, she was still sent tumbling end over end for a few feet. "Nnngh..." Standing up, she gasped as binds wrapped around her body. "This is..?"

"The end!" Vivio yelled as flames spiraled around her fists. "Flame... Sphere..."

"Okay!" Tre suddenly appeared behind Vivio and put her in a headlock. "You finish that attack, Vivio, and you'll be cleaning all damages you do to the gym by hand."

Vivio pouted and nodded as she powered down, "so, I won?"

"I would say so," Tre nodded as she let Vivio down.

Nove shook her head at the results. "Ixpellia, is that what she was like in the past?"

Ixpellia shrugged at the redhead. "I never met with Olivie Segbert myself, however, all tales did say that she was an unstoppable fighter."

Vivio rubbed the back of her head nervously. "Eh heh... I would have lost if it wasn't for the Saint Armor."

As the binds around her vanished, Einhart frowned softly. "Am I not far enough yet?" That thought didn't bother her as much as it should have, though. She would have been more bothered by the thought of the Saint Kaiser being weaker than her.

After all, even if Vivio was better than her right now, Einhart knew that the fight was still pretty close. "Vivio..." She walked forward and bowed to the blonde. "Thank you for the match. Might I ask for a rematch at a future date?"

"Sure!" Vivio's eyes sparkled as she looked at Einhart. "When and where?"

"We would need some training grounds, but I would like to have a re-match in a week, if that is okay?" Vivio nodded, smiling happily. "Until then, Vivio."

Nove smirked as she watched Einhart walk off. "Good job, kiddo." She walked up to Vivio and ruffled her hair. "Don't slack off. Einhart won't."

"Of course!" Vivio squeezed her right hand into a fist and nodded. She couldn't wait for the rematch.

(-)

Nanoha smiled as she, Yuuno and Miyuki walked through the amusement park. "Come on you two, aren't you having fun?"

"Yeah," Miyuki nodded at the question. "Though," she looked at Yuuno, who was looking somewhat uncomfortable, "I think Yuuno doesn't feel too good here."

Yuuno sweat-dropped heavily. It wasn't that he was feeling too uncomfortable about being on a date with both Nanoha and Miyuki, it was the looks he was getting from the guys. Most of them were either jealous of him, which was fine, that was easy to deal with. But every so often, he'd see someone with a look of glee in their faces and that disturbed him the most.

It wasn't like he was a pervert or anything. Just because he was interested in more than one woman didn't make him a pervert.

At least Yuuno didn't think so.

"Hey, Yuuno..." He blinked and looked to the side where Nanoha was grinning at him with her eyes narrowed in amusement. "Are you thinking naughty things?" She giggled when Yuuno stepped back and shook his head. "I'm just teasing you."

Yuuno gave her an annoyed look. "Sure you were." He fought the urge to blush when she giggled and stuck her tongue out at him. Damn, she could be childish, but she was rather beautiful at the same time.

"Hey!" Nanoha snapped him out of his musings and pointed to the rides. "Let's go. We're here to have fun, not worry about the others right now."

"Where does she get her energy from?" Miyuki asked as Nanoha grabbed her and Yuuno and dragged them off.

"I have no clue." Yuuno admitted, but then again, Nanoha wouldn't be Nanoha if she wasn't the way she was. Besides, there wasn't any reason for Nanoha to be serious right now anyway.

Miyuki smiled as her sister led them through the park, trying ride after ride out and lots of various games. She had to laugh when Nanoha tried the shooting game out. Not because her sister missed every shot, but rather because she not only hit every shot she was aiming at, but she also managed to get herself completely soaked when the hose suddenly burst, drenching her.

Nanoha held her arms up and shook her hands, trying to get the excess water off of her. "Well, that's one way to tell you that you won."

"At least you got any prize you wanted," Yuuno muttered as he looked at the two he was carrying. "Though, I have to ask, why did you get a ferret plushie and fox plushie?"

Nanoha squeezed her hair, wringing it out slightly and shrugged. "I have no clue why. It just felt like a good idea at the time." Nanoha wouldn't admit it, but there was something about the yellow-orange fox that appealed to her. "I'm naming the fox Kuon."

Both Yuuno and Miyuki blinked before looking at the fox plushie and shrugging. At least she didn't name it Kurama or Yoko, it might have been expected to have great power, only to fail to live up to the hype miserably.

"Wish I had brought a change of clothes with." Nanoha muttered and brightened as she reached into her wet pocket and pulled out Raising Heart. "Think that I'll get in trouble for transforming?"

"Yes." Both Miyuki and Yuuno said at the same time, causing Nanoha to sigh.

"Fine, let's find a place that's kind of secluded, I'll just dry myself."

"Sure." Yuuno and Miyuki nodded. As they followed after her, Yuuno had to gulp. Just why in the heck did Nanoha's pants have to cling to her ass so tightly? At least she wasn't facing him again. Seeing a wet shirt cling to her chest like it was made it hard for him to think straight.

A few moments later, Yuuno and Miyuki found themselves on a bench while Nanoha hid in the bushes behind them using her magic to get her clothes dry.

"You know, it probably wouldn't be hard to do that anywhere..." Miyuki spoke up.

"I'm drying my underwear too, it's hard to do if I'm wearing soaking wet clothes." Nanoha said from behind them. "I'll be done in a few seconds."

Yuuno fought the urge to laugh. "Well, at least this has been interesting." He looked at the elder Takamachi and smiled as she looked fairly relaxed. "Enjoying yourself?"

"Yeah." Miyuki closed her eyes and smiled. "Thanks for taking me out guys."

"No problem." Yuuno grasped her hand and gave it a squeeze. "You know I care for you." He blinked when she sighed. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing." Miyuki said, only to let out a small protest as she felt an arm wrap around her head and a hand drive into her skull. "Oww! Nanoha!"

"Nah uh!" Nanoha broke the hold as she walked out from behind the bushes, totally dried off. "Something's bothering you, what is it?"

"Nothing." Miyuki narrowed her eyes at her sister. "Absolutely nothing."

"Why am I reminded of Fate when she got drunk?" Nanoha asked Yuuno, who was standing up and looking at them both. "How about you, Yuuno? Think that my sister's being stupid?"

"I think there's more going on here than she's willing to tell." Seeing Miyuki fidget, he tapped his chin. "Then again, maybe if we weren't in such a public place..." He trailed off as Nanoha grabbed Miyuki's wrist and started dragging her older sister away from the bench. "Nanoha!" He yelled, following after them. "Where are you going?"

"Hey! Come on!" Miyuki managed to pull her hand away from her sister. 'Sheesh, when did she get so strong?' "What's gotten into you?"

Nanoha took a deep breath and turned around. "Listen, Miyuki, Yuuno and I are worried about you, and if you don't want to talk in public, we can either find a secluded spot in the amusement park." Which was completely unlikely, considering the amount of people around them, "we could go to the car and talk," which wouldn't be too comfortable, considering how warm it was outside still, "or we could find a spot that'll keep anyone from listening in."

"What?" Miyuki asked as she looked at the two of them. "High in the sky? I can't fly you know." She was suddenly hit with dread as Nanoha grinned at her. "This is going to be bad, isn't it?"

Yuuno shrugged, wondering what Nanoha had in mind for the three of them.

(-)

"I admit," Miyuki started as she, Nanoha and Yuuno sat in the Ferris Wheel as it went up, "I didn't expect this."

"What?" Nanoha giggled at her, "think I'd take you to the mirror house or something?" When Miyuki leaned to the side, put her cheek in her palm and sighed, Nanoha looked at her in worry. "Okay, sis, what's wrong?" She held up a hand to keep Miyuki from speaking too soon. "We're not going anywhere for at least a few minutes, and that's just with them loading everyone into the different seats," Nanoha smirked at her, "so, we have time."

"You're not going to let this go, are you?" Miyuki sighed as Nanoha shook her head. "Fine..." Why did she have to have a sister that was so annoying and worried about her so much? "I think it was a mistake." Both Yuuno and Nanoha looked at her in confusion. "Liking Yuuno, I mean." She shook her head. "Just listen, both of you. I'm thirty years old, the guy I like is twenty-three." She was going to be thirty-one soon, but she didn't need to tell them that, they already knew. "Seven years isn't a lot, but..." Another sigh and Miyuki looked down at the floor. "I feel like I'm well past my prime and that I've got nothing left."

Yuuno felt like rubbing his forehead. What was with him and women who had problems of one sort or another? "Miyuki..."

"Don't..." She shook her head and sighed again. "Face it, Yuuno. You'd do better with Nanoha, or Fate or Arisa. Or heck, that Subaru girl. At least you wouldn't be stuck with an old maid."

The next thing that Miyuki knew, Nanoha was next to her. "Miyuki... You're an idiot."

"Huh?" Miyuki looked up and yelped as Nanoha grabbed her shirt and pulled up. "Hey! My shirt!" She lunged forward on top of Nanoha, trying to get her shirt back. "What's the point of this?"

"If you were an old maid, Yuuno wouldn't be looking at your breasts." Nanoha giggled as Miyuki turned to look at Yuuno, who was gulping.

**"If you're an old maid, then boss slept with everyone in the Riot Force."**

Miyuki twitched and glared at Yuuno. "Can't you get your device to..."

"Miyuki..." Yuuno gulped and took a deep breath. "Damn, you really are lovely, aren't you?"

"Huh?" She stopped what she was going to say and stared at Yuuno in shock.

Chuckling nervously, Yuuno rubbed the back of his head. "What can I say? You, Nanoha and Fate, I really do like you three. And you were my first after all."

Nanoha had a sudden cough come up before she shook her head. "Oh, nothing, nothing at all..." She idly wondered if what Yuuno said was what she thought it meant, or if he meant that she was his first girlfriend.

'Then again...' Nanoha's eyes narrowed suspitiously as she thought about something. "Wait a second!" She pointed at the two of them. "You two... You didn't..."

"I was sixteen, Nanoha." Yuuno rolled his eyes. "What do you think?"

**"I would have said something sooner, but boss threatened to delete my personality if I said anything."**

Nanoha suddenly laughed, surprising both Yuuno and Miyuki. "Well, that explains a lot, doesn't it?" She leered at them. "Anyway, Miyuki, I don't think you're an old maid, even if you're thirty years old."

"Miyuki, just because you're a little older doesn't mean that I'm going to cast you aside." Yuuno rolled his eyes. "I thought you knew me better than that."

Putting her shirt back on, Miyuki sighed and slumped. "I'm sorry, I just... I was just worried that you wouldn't want an old..."

"Okay!" Nanoha snapped, "that's it! Miyuki," she pointed at her sister, "you are _not _an old maid, got it?" When Miyuki looked ready to protest, Nanoha sighed. "What's it going to take to convince you otherwise?"

**"I can offer a few suggestions."**

"Quiet you." Yuuno muttered.

Blinking a few times, Miyuki's face quirked into a smile before she started giggling and holding her sides. "Oh wow... Ha ha ha... Thanks, guys." She leaned back in her chair. "I... I guess I've been stupid, haven't I?"

Yuuno shrugged at her. "Hey, no one's perfect and we all get mopey at times."

"Now, if that's done." Nanoha grinned at both of them. "Let's have some more fun, and, sis, you get bummed out anymore today and I'll get upset, okay?"

Miyuki chuckled and nodded. "Sure, no problem." The honest truth was, she did feel better after talking about it. Even if Nanoha had to threaten her somewhat, she still felt better now.

* * *

Vivio: Whoo hoo! I finally had my chapter! Did you see me? Yeah!  
Rio Yes, yes we did.  
Corona: Well, it went better than in canon.  
Vivio: Darn right! Next time on Blood That Flows - ViVid, read it or we'll really cause some trouble.


	294. Ninth ViVid

Blood That Flows

Ninth ViVid

Of course I own nothing.

* * *

Shamal took a deep breath as she walked into the diner that Kyrie had pointed her to. "What am I doing?" It wasn't that she didn't like the younger girl. Really, Shamal found it flattering that she was still found attractive. But Kyrie was still her patient and if word got out about what was going on... "Excuse me," she smiled at the cashier. "My name is Shamal Yagami, I was told to meet someone here today."

"Ah!" The girl's eyes lit up. "We got a call about you twenty minutes ago. Right this way." Smiling, she led Shamal to a table that was around a corner. "Here's your seat, ma'am, and a menu." She smiled as she put a menu on the table. "I'll check back in a few minutes."

Shamal looked at the person sitting against the wall in a bit of shock. Then again, the person was looking at her in shock as well.

"Well, it's not often that I'm fooled when it comes to eating out, miss Shymal."

"It's Shamal, Mr. Kuma." Shamal sighed softly as she sat down across from him. "I have a feeling that Kyrie and Amitie set this up."

"Those two," Kuma shook his head and chuckled. "Well, I have been hoping that they'd show more initive in their lives. Though, I'm fairly certain that this isn't what I had in mind."

"You and me both," Shamal nodded as she picked up her menu. "So, how have they been adjusting?"

"Fairly well, actually." Kuma chuckled as he thought about the two of them. "I still find them in my bed in the morning. I think they just prefer having someone close by to sleeping alone."

"Most people do, actually." Shamal nodded. "How about you? Why did you take them in?"

Kuma shrugged as he leaned back against the wall. "There was something about them. They reminded me about my brother." He flicked the hair that was in front of his face upwards as he sighed softly. "I met him when he was just a punk, must have been over ten years ago, now that I think about it. Found him on the streets, so I brought him in and looked after him for awhile."

"Neither Kyrie nor Amitie mentioned you having a brother."

Kuma smirked at her. "Well, to be honest, I haven't always lived on Mid-Childa. While I do own that fabulous building outside of Cranagan, I spent a lot of my earlier years traveling from one world to another. When I left my brother, he found himself looking after a young girl." He laughed at that. "Of course, that was about six years ago, so she's not so young anymore. What about you, Miss Shymal?"

"It's Shamal."

Kuma chuckled and rubbed the back of his head. "My bad. You see, I'm not so good at remembering names. But, why have you tried to hard to help Amitia and Kyrie out?"

"I have my reasons." Shamal really didn't want to admit that she had seen the same look plenty of times over the past few years. Even if none of her family let it show very often, she could still tell when a rather painful memory of the past suddenly assaulted them.

"Fair enough." Kuma nodded to her. "There is no real reason for you to stay if you don't wish to."

Shamal shook her head. "Well, I can't say that it's unpleasant," she flipped through the menu, looking it over some more. "Besides, even if it was a surprise, it is nice to be with different people."

"I'll drink to that." Kuma laughed as he sat up straight. "To new people then." He held up a glass of water and Shamal followed suit, gently tapping her glass against his.

"To new people." She nodded and took a drink.

(-)

"Well, Ami?" Kyrie asked as the two were hiding in some bushes, from across the street, and spying on both Kuma and Shamal. "How does it look?"

Amitie nodded, turning to Kyrie and smiling brightly. "We got them on a date. Your plan worked."

Kyrie giggled as she pulled herself out of the bush and bowed. "Yes, praise me, my plans are awesome."

Amitie got out the bush as well and stretched. "Well, now what?"

"I have no clue." Kyrie giggled as Amitie face-faulted to the ground. She giggled while sticking her tongue out at her sister. "Oh, don't glare at me, like you had a plan."

"Let's just go find something to do." Amitie shook her head. Oh well, she couldn't complain about her sister too much.

(-)

"Something wrong, Erio?" Caro looked at the taller boy, who was looking around nervously. "Did something happen?"

"I don't know..." Erio trailed off as he looked at Arashi, who was frowning in confusion. "You okay?"

"Yeah," Arashi nodded, looking around. "I don't know, something seems to be missing here."

Caro gave him a sly smile and elbowed him in the stomach lightly. "What? You miss Vivio already?"

"What?!" Arashi stared at her like she was crazy. "You nuts?! I like hanging out with you guys." He groaned as Caro giggled at him. "Erio! Can't you control your girlfriend?" It was rather amusing to see Erio's face turn as red as his hair. Caro stopped giggled and blushed as well. "...What?"

"We're not... That is..." Caro poked her fingers together. "We're not really boyfriend and girlfriend, I don't think we are that is..."

"It's um... Kind of complicated."

Arashi just frowned while practically closing his eyes in annoyance. "I don't get why it's so hard to figure out for you. You two like each other, right? What's the matter then?"

"Um, you ever wonder why we don't always spend a full four months around here at a time?" Erio looked around nervously. "See, um, we have a friend on another planet and..."

"We've been spending a lot of time with Lutecia..." Caro said, her face somehow going even redder as she remembered the last visit to her friend. "She's really happy to see us all the time too."

"Yeah, and, well, if your a boyfriend and girlfriend, you stick together a lot, right?" Erio chuckled nervously and looked at Caro, who nodded.

"Um, but Yuuno has three girlfriends," Arashi pointed out as he held up his fingers, "he's got Nanoha-nee, Miyuki-nee, and Fate-nee, and he does stuff with others." Flexing his hand, Arashi walked past them. "Really, I don't see why this is..."

"I'm not like him!" Erio blurted out and Arashi turned, blinking at him. "I'm not like that... That..."

"Hey!" Caro frowned at Erio. "Why don't you like Yuuno-papa?" When Erio grimaced, she threw her hands up and down wildly. "Come on! Yuuno-papa's done nothing wrong to you, why do you always dislike him?!"

"Something about him irritates me." Erio twitched as he started to walk away. "Plus I don't like how he looks at Fate." He glared when Arashi started to snicker at him. "You... It's not funny!"

"Yes it is." Arashi ran away from him, sticking his tongue out as Erio chased after him, Caro following a moment later.

Up above them, a teenaged girl with shoulder-length purple hair looked on and smiled as she watched the trio. "Perhaps it won't be as hard as we thought it would be."

And even if it was, she still had time, she could afford to watch them for now.

(-)

"So, that's what happened, huh?" Carim took a sip of tea as she listened to Tre's recounting of what happened. "The third king was reborn, huh?" Putting down her tea, she sighed heavily as she held up her stack of cards. "I really wish that she hadn't shown herself."

"Why?" Tre tilted her head and looked at the cards. "Something you saw?"

"Yeah, I wasn't sure what it meant though." Sometimes she wondered just why the visions couldn't be more specific.

"What did it say?" Tre tilted her head and Carim sighed again as she stood up. "What?"

"It gives me more room." She smiled at Tre as the cards suddenly floated upwards and surrounded her. Taking the one in front of her, Carim began to read.

_"In a time long past, rulers of three fell, one by one, until none were left._  
_In the current time, they will rise again._  
_Unseen by many, feared by all._  
_The rulers shall answer._  
_A new day shall fall._  
_The scion of gold changes all."_

Tre blinked as the cards stacked themselves on Carim's hands again. "Any thoughts?"

Carim shook her head. "Since Einhart's revealed herself, I'll go ahead and contact Nanoha. If something does happen, she deserves to be warned ahead of time." After all, if she held back this information and Nanoha found out, well, Carim was pretty certain that the church would be the center of a new glass lake when all was said and done.

(-)

"Nanoha's not here right now." Fate said as she looked at Carim. "But, thank you, I'll have this relayed to her. And, Carim, tell me, this prophesy you got, are you sure that it's those three? There are many descendants of Ancient Belkan royalty that live here.

"Yes," Carim nodded at that. "I do hope that this is just coincidental, but you have to remember, the Saint Kaiser, the Hegemon Emperor and the Dark Ruler of the Underworld were the three famous kings from that time. Though, like I said, I might just be paranoid, but then again..."

'Coincidence doesn't exist in our lives." Fate interrupted her, rubbing her forehead. "Coincidence, unfortunate timing, some greater power manipulating everything, it doesn't matter. I just don't believe that anything's coincidental when it comes to my family."

Carim nodded to her, understanding as well. "Considering how many disasters your family has been at the center of in your life..."

"Or were connected to in some way," Fate bit her lip. "We'll keep an eye out, but if it's what you say it is..."

"Don't worry, Fate," Carim smiled at her. "I believe that you and your family will do everything in your power to make sure that nothing bad happens. When the time comes, do what you can to help, but pray for the best."

"Of course, thank you." Fate smiled as the screen turned off. "What a mess..." She rubbed her forehead and walked to the kitchen. "What's going to..."

"Fate!" Fate looked up and smiled as she saw her familiar walk into the house. "Hey!"

"Arf!" Fate knelt down and opened her arms as the young-looking girl ran up to her and hugged her tightly. "Mmm! I missed you. How is the rest of the family doing?"

Arf smiled, her eyes closed while her tail waggled behind her. "Missed you too, Fate. Mom and dad are doing fine, Cinque likes to work at the shop and Dieci had to stop working there."

"Oh? Why?" Fate asked as she stood up, still hugging Arf.

Arf let out a pleased sound as Fate slipped an arm under her legs to keep her from falling down or squeezing the blonde's neck too tightly. "Whenever Dieci worked, all the boys would try to hit on her and never buy anything. Mom finally told her that she didn't have to work there anymore."

Fate sweat-dropped at hearing that. "Mom fired Dieci?"

"It wasn't Dieci's fault, the boys knew when she'd be working and then they'd crowd around her and keep her from working. Wendi stops by in the morning and hangs out with Dieci all day, except when mom wants Dieci to work on some magic."

"Please stop talking about that, Arf," Fate blinked and let go of the hug, though she still held onto Arf, as she looked at the doorway, "I don't really like talking about that, you know." Dieci said while rubbing the back of her head and blushing.

Smiling, Fate put Arf down and walked over to the younger girl. "How are you?"

"I'm fine." Dieci smiled at Fate. "Wendi keeps me busy. Thanks for asking... Auntie." Seeing Fate blush made her giggle. "I was hoping to check on Arashi or spend some time with Nanoha, if that was okay."

Fate smiled at how nervous Dieci was looking. "You're family, unless the door's locked and no one's home, you're always welcome here." She put an arm around Dieci's shoulders and walked her into the house. "So, you wanted to practice some magic?"

Dieci nodded as Fate let go of her shoulders and motioned for her to follow. "Um, Fate, I was wondering... Um... How did you deal with boys when you were growing up?"

Fate tapped her chin. "Well, I never had to, really..."

"She was too busy with Arisa and Nanoha to notice too many boys, even if she got a dozen love letters every day." Arf giggled as Fate's face turned red.

"Yes, well, what did you want to ask, Dieci?" Fate tried to ignore the way that Arf was giggling at her.

"Uh, how do you deal with boys when they get grabby?" Dieci blushed as Fate and Arf both looked at her in concern. "Nothing bad happened! Wendi got me away from them before something did, but, the boys start talking about stuff and they compliment me and then, I feel a bunch of people start grabbing my rear end and... Then Wendi's pulling me away from them and I'm not sure what to think."

"Well, so long as nothing bad happened..." Fate sighed softly and put her hands on Dieci's shoulders. "As for dealing with grabby boys, remember this, Dieci. If they touch you and you feel uncomfortable with it, tell them to stop. If they don't stop, you're allowed to hit them with just enough force to let them know that you mean it. If they still don't stop, feel free to beat them to a pulp." Fate gave her a rather unsettling smile, "and if that doesn't work, blow them up."

"Huh? Fate, um, this isn't like you." Dieci really started to sweat when Fate gave her a sweet smile.

"Sorry, I was emulating mother." Fate giggled at the look Dieci gave her. "Anyway, I do agree with her on that, though. Dieci, if they're giving you too much trouble, give them a good smack..."

"But, if I lose control..." She didn't want to think about it. It was the biggest reason why she didn't like confrontations. If she lost control of her strength or abilities...

"Then work to control them." Fate said softly, causing Dieci to look at her, startled. "Nanoha, myself, Yuuno, Hayate and her family, we all have to control our powers very carefully when we face humans. Our spells are so dangerous that one small mistake and we'll have a bunch of dead bodies on our hands."

"How do you handle it?" Dieci asked Fate, her body trembling softly. "How do you handle the fact that you have all this power that wants to unleash itself and destroy everything?"

Fate smiled at her niece. "That's what I have Nanoha and Yuuno around for." Dieci blinked at her and Fate cleared her throat. "Um, sorry, I shouldn't have..."

"They're stress relief." Arf giggled and Fate twitched, glaring at her familiar. "Hey! Not my fault that you three are never quiet."

Fate rubbed her forehead. "Yes, Dieci... It's more than just stress relief as Arf put it." She stepped outside into the back yard. "Whether sparring, just being together or other things, we help each other. Just knowing that we can rely on each other helps a lot."

"It's... A lot of pressure, isn't it?"

Fate nodded at Dieci. "Yeah. So..." Fate gripped Bardiche and smiled at Dieci. "It's a large back yard, the walls are reinforced against most magic. I'll help you train your magic." Dieci looked at her in worry and Fate just grinned. "You forget, Dieci, I've trained with Nanoha, Yuuno, Hayate, Signum and Vita most of my life. I've helped Arashi, Erio and Caro out at times with their magic. I know how to help you control your power so it's not building up to such dangerous levels."

"Is it safe?" Dieci took a deep breath as Fate called up her Barrier Jacket. "I mean, this is..."

"Nothing is safe, Dieci." Fate said as she gave the younger girl a sharp look. "One of the first things I learned after meeting mother is that something that looks harmless, like a woman who happens to be your opponent's mother, can turn out to be the most dangerous thing in the world. So, it's okay. We're just going to work on control and letting you understand your power easier, okay?"

Dieci nodded at her. "Thank you."

"Now then, first thing you need to do is..."

(-)

"So, you had an exciting day, I take it?" Quint smiled at Nove as she led Einhart into the house.

"It was interesting..." Nove turned and gave Einhart a glare. "And why didn't you tell us that you're living alone?"

"I am fine, I've been alone for at least two years now." Einhart's eyes widened as Nove was suddenly in her face. "Y, yes?" She asked, her face instantly going red as Nove flicked her forehead. "What was that for?"

Nove flicked Einhart's forehead again, getting a yelp from the girl. "One, you're an idiot if you think we're going to let you live by yourself ever again, and two, you didn't tell us."

"But..." Einhart let out a gasp as Nove grabbed her sides painfully and picked her up. "Uh..." Her face was almost glowing in embarrassment by this point, "please put me down?"

"Listen, Einhart, even if you've been alone for awhile now, that doesn't mean you have to stay that way." Nove gave her a smirk as she tried to squirm away. "So, from now on, you're going to live here!"

"E... Eh?!" Einhart stared, flabbergasted, wondering why Nove would bother with her.

"You better do what big sis Nove tells you." Quint giggled as Nove almost fell over. "After all, if you try to leave, she'll sick Subaru on you and then you won't get away."

"M...Mom!" Nove turned, her face red as she tried to glare at her mother and failed as Quint continued to giggle at her.

"...Big...sister?" Einhart looked at Nove. "...But I'm almost as big as she is."

Quint lost it at that and had to grab the counter to keep from falling over as she laughed. "That's, hahahaha, not what I, hee hee, meant."

"Hey!" Einhart looked up as a young boy popped his head out from the living room. "Do we have another big sister now?"

"Um, well..." Einhart was finally put down by Nove and she blushed as Aston and Cecilia ran up to her and started calling her big sister. "I... I guess so..."

"Great!" Quint smiled as she stood up and clapped her hands together. "When Ginga gets back, Nove, myself and Ginga will go to your place and help you move all your stuff over here."

"But, that's not..." Einhart raised a hand and tried to protest as the twins grabbed it and led her through the house. "That's not..."

Nove sighed and shook her head. "Welcome to the madness, Einhart. Your stay will be a long one." Still, she couldn't help but smile. It would be nice to have more sparring partners around when she wanted to get some practice in. Well, that and she liked the thought of being a big sister again.

Things were going to be interesting at least.

* * *

Vivio: Huh, what was this all about?  
Corona: I don't know, but I do know that real life is a pain in the butt for the author.  
Rio: Next time on Blood That Flows - ViVid, eh?! Einhart's device?  
Einhart: Please read it.


	295. Tenth ViVid

Blood That Flows

Tenth ViVid

Of course I own nothing.

It's a shorter chapter than most. Sorry about that.

* * *

It was two days later when Quint pulled Einhart aside after breakfast.

"Is there something you want?" Einhart hoped that Quint wasn't angry at her. After just a couple of days at the Nakajima household she was finding it rather pleasant, even if Subaru could be noisy, she was fun to spar against, seeing as she never truly quieted down and never stopped smiling.

When Einhart learned that Subaru was good friends with both Vivio and Ixpellia, things made a lot more sense, though why the middle Nakajima sister was so friendly with Belkan royalty, Einhart had no clue. She wouldn't be surprised if Subaru was supposed to be destined to unite Ancient Belka but had been born in the wrong century to do so.

"Actually, Einhart, I've been talking to the Yagami family about something." Quint chuckled as Einhart blinked in confusion. "While I know you don't need one, I've gone ahead and requested a device for your own use." She put a finger on Einhart's lips, causing the poor girl to blush hard. "Listen, you're very skilled and you know how to use your magic well, I won't argue that. However, from what Nove told me, you want to have a rematch with Vivio, correct?" She pulled her finger away as Einhart nodded. "Nove told me, you're more skilled than Vivio is, but it's pretty hard for you to harm her."

"The Saint Armor was present in the past as well. The previous Kaiser was a nearly unstoppable force of nature because of it." Einhart knew that it didn't prevent her death, though Klaus was never certain as to what killed Olivie off in the past. "I should be able to adjust for it."

"Perhaps," Quint nodded to her, "however, Vivio has a device of her own, which allows her to fully access her power as the Saint Kaiser." Smiling as Einhart bit her lip lightly, Quint turned and called up a video screen. "So, after thinking about it, I decided to ask the best experts on Belkan styles to help design a device for you."

Before Quint could make the call, Einhart blinked as she caught sight of a small fairy-like creature flying towards them. "Hello, Sylph."

"WAGH!" Einhart blinked as the unison device suddenly jumped into the air and hit her head on the ceiling. What made it more impressive was the fact that Sylph was already in mid-air. "Owwie... Oh, Einhart, hello."

Einhart nodded at the device as Quint smiled and made the call. "So, tell me, Sylph, what were you doing?"

"Just coming in, but, I was thinking... Um..." Sylph fidgeted slightly. "You see, I'm..."

"Hey!" Sylph was interrupted and she and Einhart turned to look at the screen. Einhart's eyes widened as she saw two girls, one with silver hair and blue eyes and the other with blue eyes and red hair, on the screen. "So, this is Einhart, huh?" The one with silver hair grinned as she looked at the girl through the video screen. "I heard you're a really good fighter."

"I guess word gets around." Einhart said softly. "Um, this is about a device, right?" Both girls on the screen nodded. "Well, I would rather not have one."

Sylph looked startled at that and sighed softly before floating away while Quint, Agito and Rein Zwei were focused on Einhart. 'Should have known...' She thought to herself while slipping out of the room.

"Why?" Agito tilted her head. "There's no downside to getting a basic device at least."

"Most devices are staves, spears or swords. None of which would work for my skill-set. I do not see myself having a watch or even rings."

"Well, there's been some advances in device technology lately. Besides," Rein Zwei shrugged at her, "even Raising Heart," she nodded as Einhart's eyes widened, "so you know of that device?"

"One of the few ancient relics that predates even Ancient Belka. My ancestor met someone who had a sword named Raising Heart at one point."

Rein Zwei tapped her chin in thought. "Hmm... Well, it is a device that can become any weapon its master wills it to become." Which was rather odd, since most devices had a single form and could shift parts to become a variant of their basic form. Raising Heart was one of the few devices that had ever existed that could take any form the master would will it. Then again, after learning about the Knight Valkyrie Armor, it made a lot more sense, since the device was meant to work with several other devices that could take different forms. "Anyway, even Raising Heart was designed to be a support unit, it wouldn't be hard for us to make something that would not impede your abilities."

"Yes, well..." Einhart looked down. "I do not know... Even if it was something like a metal glove, it would still affect how I perform."

"How about making a device like Vivio's?" Quint spoke up, causing Einhart to look at her in surprise. "I don't know much about the details, but it is a support device, plus it doesn't get in the way when she uses it." She giggled when Einhart stared at her. "Nove does spar with Vivio and gets to see the device in action."

"I see," Einhart thought about it for a moment, "so, what about this device?"

"Well, it would be a support device, mainly to help support your body, make your style of combat easier, plus it'll help you use your spells easier." Rein Zwei smiled at her. "It'll take us a few days, but we'll just use the data Shari had when making Sacred Heart and modify it for you."

"We'll need more combat data though." Agito pointed out. "So, it might take more than just a few days. But," she winked while pointed a finger upwards, "it should be less than a month. Spar with Nove and Vivio as often as possible and get us as much information as possible."

Einhart nodded and looked at Quint. "I think Nove talks too much."

"Don't hold it against her." Quint said as the screen turned off. "I made her tell me everything and report every little detail concerning you."

Einhart tilted her head as Quint walked out of the room. "Why?"

"Because I'd like to know more about her cute little sister." Quint smiled as she walked out, knowing that Einhart was blushing. That girl was so easy to tease, it was almost a crime.

"Hey, mom..." Nove was looking a little upset and confused, which wasn't too unusual for her, but something about this seemed off. "Why'd Sylph come out of the room looking upset?"

Quint just tilted her head in confusion.

(-)

"Figures..." Sylph sighed as she sat on the roof of the Nakajima house. What were the odds of finding someone who might be really compatible with her and actually want to use her? Then again, what was the point of wanting her? She was pretty damaged, even if she had her mind back, she still was missing so much from her past. "Still wouldn't mind a real master." She pulled her knees up to her chest and lowered her head, trembling.

"Here you are." A familiar voice spoke up. Sylph didn't even bother uncurling herself as she felt someone sit next to her. "Nove was worried about you." There was no response from the Unison device. "So, what's wrong?"

"I want a master." Sylph finally answered as she lifted her head and looked at the person who was sitting next to her. "Subaru... I think Einhart might be good for me."

"Are you worried about leaving?" Subaru asked and lightly swung her legs over the edge of the roof. "I don't think she will, not for awhile yet." Teana still lived with them after all. "Or is there something else?"

"She doesn't want me." Sylph slumped as tears welled up in her eyes. "If she doesn't want a device, why would she want something like me? I'm damaged and..."

"Okay, that's enough." Subaru sighed and rubbed her forehead. "Hey, Sylph, come on, don't get so down." If anything, the device looked more depressed as Subaru tried to cheer her up. "Hmm... OH! I know! Sylph, come on, I wanna try something. Can you unison with me?"

Sylph wondered what Subaru had in mind before nodding. "Unison... IN!"

There was a flash of light and Sylph disappeared, bonding with Subaru's body. "Wow, I didn't think it would work." Subaru giggled as she felt Sylph's power flowing through her. "Feels a little off though."

"I was able to bond with your mother," Sylph's voice came from inside of Subaru's head, "so why couldn't I bond with you?"

Subaru grinned and called up Mach Calibur. "Well, I need to test something. Mach Calibur, let mom know that I'm heading to the training park."

**"Alright buddy."**

"Won't you get into trouble for using your device outside of the park?"

Subaru grinned and shook her head. "Only if I use my magic. Let's go!" She cheered and rushed forward, only to crash into and through the outer wall. "Oooh..." Subaru did a couple of dizzy spins as she tried to shake off the results of that experiment. "Okay, note to self, Sylph lowers wind resistance."

"Oww... What happened?"

Subaru shook her head as her hair, which had turned green from the unison, fluttered in the morning breeze. "This is what I wanted to work on. Alright, let's try that again." Gathering her bearings, Subaru faced the direction of the park and took off running down the street. "WHOOO HOOO!" She was already fast normally, but being able to run without much in the way of wind resistance was just incredible. "This is awesome!"

Subaru let out a small grin as she felt Sylph's mood turn from dejection to something close to happiness. "...Why do I think I'm forgetting something?"

(-)

"MOM!" Cecilia yelled as she looked outside. "There's a Subaru-hole in the wall!"

Quint sighed as she walked outside. "Nove, come and give me a hand getting the wall off of the side walk. Subaru will fix it when she gets back."

"Alright." Nove said as she walked outside and stared. "...How did she manage to make a hole that looks like her?"

* * *

Vivio: Stupid short chapter. What's the next one about?  
Einhart: Hmm, oh, that's neat.  
Vivio: ...Yeah, it is. Next time on Blood That Flows - ViVid...  
Rein Zwei: I can't wait!  
Vivio: ...Where did you come from?

Yeah, sorry about the delay, people. Really am. Hopefully I can pick up the pace of my writing soon.


	296. Eleventh ViVid

Blood That Flows

Eleventh ViVid

Of course I own nothing.

And this is why the last chapter was shorter.

* * *

"So," Rein Zwei looked at Agito, "what do you think..." Her voice trailed off as she heard something crash to the floor behind her. Turning, both Agito and Rein Zwei looked at Hayate as she grimaced and rubbed her belly. "Daddy?"

"I think..." Both Agito and Zwei blinked at the rather unusual faces Hayate was making as she twitched while standing and holding her belly. "I think... Um... Can you... Get... Reinforce... The baby wants to..."

As she started to take deep breaths, Agito zipped off, yelling for anyone in the house to get to the living room. "REINFORCE! SIGNUM! SHAMAL! ZAFIRA! IF YOU DON'T GET OUT HERE NOW, WE'RE GOING TO HAVE A NEW BABY IN THE LIVING ROOM!"

"I didn't..." Hayate was panting between breaths, "mean it... Like that... Agito."

Reinforce was the first into the room and over to Hayate's side in an insant. "Are you sure?" Hayate was gasping and nodding rapidly. "Alright then, Signum, you'll need to get us there."

"Why me?" Signum asked as she had several bags under her arms. "What's wrong with you?"

"She has my hand and won't let go." Reinforce muttered as she held up her hand to reveal Hayate squeezing it. "I thought you weren't supposed to squeeze until later?"

"Feels... Weird..." Hayate whimpered and looked at Reinforce. "Scared..."

Everyone in the house were then treated what had to be the most interesting sight ever...

Reinforce looking nervous and worried. In all the time any of them had known her, that wasn't a look they had really seen on her face.

Signum looked at Shamal as she was getting the car keys. "No you don't." She marched over to Shamal and grabbed the keys from the blonde's fingers with her teeth. "I'm driving." It was a little weird seeing the keys flap as Signum spoke, but Shamal kept herself from commenting, seeing the look in Signum's eyes.

"I do know someone who could get us to the hospital in record time." Shamal commented as she took some luggage from Signum. "Or at least, Hayate and Reinforce."

Signum thought about it for all of four seconds before paling and shaking her head. "No, no, hell no, there is no way that you are getting your boyfriend to drive Hayate to the hospital. We want the baby to be born, not have Hayate have a mis-carriage due to fear and stress."

Shamal twitched at what Signum said. "I've only had a couple of dates, he's not my boyfriend." She grabbed the luggage and stormed off to the car. If Agito hadn't come in yelling at them, she probably would have chewed Signum out for a bit more. "Zafira, can you call Vita?"

"Already did." The large man said as he put more stuff into the trunk of the car while Hayate was helped into the back seat. "Agito, Zwei and myself will catch up, Shamal, you and Signum get to the hospital first."

"Actually, Zafira," Shamal gave him a dirty little smile, "why don't you go with Signum? I know someone who'll give me a ride."

Zafira nodded and got into the car after closing the trunk. Signum gave Shamal one last look as she got into the car and took off. She could find out what was going through Shamal's mind later, right now, she had to get Hayate to the hospital.

"Come on," Shamal smiled at the two devices, "we'll catch up with them in a little bit."

Both Agito and Zwei blinked in confusion and hoped that Shamal wasn't going to drive them. Oh, she was a decent driver on the streets, when she didn't somehow miss that the light in front of her was red, nearly hit a car, truck or random pedestrian that was trying to cross the street at a crosswalk. And the less said about Shamal's parking ability the better. Rein and Agito shuddered as they remembered what happened the last time Shamal tried to park in a nearly full parking lot.

Bumper cars were safer than that.

Shamal pulled up a video screen and smiled as she saw who answered. "Hello, Amitie. Before you ask, no, nothing's wrong. Say, is Kuma around? I need to talk to him."

Amitie just tilted her head and blinked.

(-)

"ALRIGHT!" Kuma let out a yell while shifting gears and tearing down the highway. In the back of his car, Kyrie, Amitie, Reinforce Zwei and Agito were strapped in tight. Well, Kyrie and Amitie were, Rein and Agito were in their smaller forms and hiding between the girl's breasts and trembling at the speeds that Kuma was tearing down the highway. Shamal sat in the passenger seat. "The real secret to everything in life is that speed equals things getting done and the more speed you put into something the faster you can do things. I find that just standing around and waiting does no one any good at all, so, full speed ahead ladies! Hahahahahahaha!"

"Oooh! So much fun!" Kyrie grinned as Kuma took a turn so hard that she would have flown into her sister had they not been strapped down. "Can we go faster?"

"Well, if that's what you want..." Kuma's eyes narrowed while he grinned savagely and hit a button. The car suddenly lurched forward at such speeds that everyone was forced against the backs of their chairs. "WHEE HEE HEE! Look at that! Estactic! Fantastic! I LOVE it!"

Shamal shivered as she heard his voice go up in pitch, which happened when Kuma started to really get excited. "We there yet?"

"Hmm? Well, I'd have to say..." Kuma smirked as he hit the breaks, turned the car sideways and shifted out of drive. "Yep!" He chuckled as the car's wheels hit the side of the curb, tilting it upwards before settling it back onto all four tires. "AH!" Kuma jumped out of the car and held his arms straight into the air. "Two minutes and four seconds, my fifth best speed ever. I love it! Ten more seconds to live!" He turned and blinked behind his sunglasses. "Um, are you two okay?" He asked as Rein and Agito were both on the steps to the hospital, kissing the ground. "What's with them?" He asked as he walked up to Amitie, Kyrie and Shamal. "You'd think," there was a crashing sound and Kuma turned to look as his car suddenly fell apart. "Well, it only fell apart this time."

"He's a maniac!" Agito whimpered and hugged Rein Zwei.

"Let's go inside." Shamal shook her head as she walked up the stairs. Besides, the less people were looking at what was going on, the better it would be for all of them.

Kuma sighed, oh well, he'd take care of it later. He didn't feel like removing the car from the street at that moment. He blinked as Amitie smiled at him while holding her arm out. "Amita?"

"I want to see the baby." Amitie said as she ran up to him and grabbed his arm. "Come on!" She ignored the way Kuma laughed and pulled him into the hospital. "Do you think it's here yet? I hope not. I've... Um..."

"Never seen a new born?" Kuma asked, getting a nod from the elder Florian sister. "Well then, how about we visit the maternity ward? You can see a bunch of babies."

"I'd like that." Amitie smiled as they entered the building.

Shamal looked back at them and sighed softly. 'Why did those two set me up on a date with Kuma?' Oh well, she wasn't upset. The man was nice to be with, and she did like taking rides in his car. At least she didn't have to worry about others teasing her about her driving abilities.

It didn't take them long before Hayate was wheeled past them, followed by Reinforce. Shamal looked back to where the wheelchair had come from. "Signum..."

"...I'd ask how you got here so fast..." Signum looked at Kuma, "I think I know."

"If it makes you feel better, you were right." Shamal fell in step with her fellow knight. "If Hayate had been with us in Kuma's car, I have no doubt that she would have been under more stress. I guess I was just insulted by you grabbing the keys before I could offer them."

Signum sighed softly and nodded. "My apologies for not asking."

Before Shamal could reply, the doors practically burst open and a frantic-looking Vita stood there, looking around wildly. "Did I miss anything? Has Hayate given birth yet?! Is she okay?" She spotted Signum and Shamal and ran up to them, ignoring Kuma, Kyrie and Amitie, "tell me! What happened?"

"Calm down, Vita," Signum smirked at Vita's obvious worry, "we just got here. Hayate's only going through the first parts of labor..." Something then occured to her. "...Does anyone have any idea how long it takes for a baby to be born?" She started to sweat-drop as Vita, Zafira, Kuma, Kyrie, Amitie and even Shamal all shook their heads negatively. "Just great. I knew one of us should have gone when Lina was giving birth to Arashi."

(-)

"Come on, Father." Aria said as she helped Gil walk through the hospital. "We don't wanna miss Hayate's new baby, do we?"

Gil smiled as he put pressure on the cane he was using to walk. While he could get around his house easily enough, he found that his legs were giving him trouble and walking was becoming more and more of a chore some days. Sure, he could use magic to make it easier to walk, but he found that his health was getting slightly better after transferring Aria and Lotte to Filia. 'At least I'm not hunched over.'

"I'll be fine, Aria," he smiled at her and affectionately rubbed her head, getting a blush from the familiar, "I'm far from crippled."

"If Filia hadn't..." Aria sighed softly and blinked when Gil lightly bopped her on the head.

"Please don't prove that you're my daughter," Gil gave her a small smile, "I've got enough regrets for all of us."

"AHHHH!" Both Gil and Aria turned to see Lotte dropping some bags onto the floor. "My shoulders hurt, Lotte!" She teared up as her sister frowned at her. "Come on! Why do I have to carry all the presents up?"

"We decided one of us would help father here and the other one would carry the presents. You got to carry the presents."

"Don't see why we couldn't get Sette, Wendi, Deed or Otto to carry them." Aria puffed her cheeks out in annoyance while crossing her arms under her breasts.

"Because Filia took them and Val out of the city for something special. Said that it had to be done where no one could see it." Aria shrugged at Lotte's confused look. "I know just as much as you do."

"I wonder what she's teaching them."

(-)

Filia nodded as she looked around. "Alright, Val, this should come easy for you... Otto, Deed, Wendi, Sette, I do not know how easy it will be for you. Considering your natures, you may not ever be able to do this, or it may just take a long time, but I wish for you to see with your own eyes."

The five of them looked at Filia expectantly as she stepped away from them and concentrated.

"Woah!" Wendi's eyes widened comically as Filia suddenly glowed brightly and changed, going from a woman of average height to a full-sized Dragon. "THAT'S your true form?!"

"Yes." Filia nodded at her children. "All Dragons can transform like this. However, as I said, your circumstances are unique, so I cannot say for certain if you'll transform or not."

"How come you neer transformed before?" Deed asked as she went over the transformation in her mind. "Why wait until now?"

Filia actually blushed lightly. "I have no excuse, I should have shown you sooner, but..."

"Even if we had the ability to transform," Sette spoke up, "I doubt that we would have had the energy to transform fully. Even if Otto or Wendi are just using their laser breath, it hurts them to do so, and I tend to get very hungry if I use any Dragon powers for too long."

Otto sweat-dropped heavily. "Sette, you eat more than the rest of us." Sette nodded and Otto actually face-faulted. "Wait, you get _hungrier_?"

"Yes." Sette looked away from her. "I do not know why, either. But, perhaps mother knows?"

"Ah, well... I'm not sure either..." Filia rubbed the back of her head. "Half Dragons aren't too common, even where I'm from, so I'm doing a lot of guess work, but..."

"Cool!" Val let out a cry of happiness as wings sprouted from his back. "I got wings now!" His eyes widened as black, feather-like scales grew over his arms and his fingers changed into claws. "Woah..." His eyes lit up as he looked up at his mother in happiness. "This is neat!"

There was a sudden flash in Val's mind as something came to him.

_"Damn, Mazoku..." A gruff voice coughed as he looked up at a very tall man who was grinning at him. "Go ahead, finish me off."_

_"Now why would I do something stupid like that?" The man with long red hair grinned at him. "You want your revenge, don't you, young Val?"_

_"As if I could get it... If I could, I'd swear loyalty to anyone."_

_"Well then," the man grinned as he pulled out a long sword and pulled Val up to his feet, "allow me to kill you and give you my name... From now on, your name will be... Valgaav!"_

_The sword puncturing his chest didn't bring him any fear or sorrow. Instead, all he felt was..._

_Relief._

_Even as black magic poured into him, twisting his body and soul, he still felt nothing but relief for what was happening._

_After all, the gods had abandoned his people. His own kind were betrayed by their allies. Why not become evil itself? At least he knew what he was getting into ahead of time._

"Val!" Filia had returned to her human form as she saw him suddenly stagger and fall over, shuddering and whimpering. "Val. It's mommy, okay?"

"M...Mama?" Val looked around, fear in his eyes. "Why... Who was that guy with the sword? And why did he name me... Valgaav?"

Filia's eyes widened, before she sighed. "...Val... No matter what, I still love you." He blinked at her in confusion as she sat down and looked at her four worried daughters. Well, it was a little hard to tell with Sette, but she still seemed concerned about what happened. "Val, you... You know you're an Ancient Dragon..." He nodded and she sighed again. "Back, just after I was born, my people, the Golden Dragons under the Fire Dragon King, Vrabazard, betrayed the Ancient Dragons, murdering all of them... Except one. A little Dragon named Val..."

"..Me?" Val stared in shock. "But, but, but..."

Filia looked away, shame and disgust covering her features. "I would not know of this until a thousand years later. But, before you were to join the rest of your people, a Mazoku by the name of Gaav, one of the strongest Mazoku in our world, found you and turned you into a Mazoku like him. A thousand years later, you would finally have a chance to have your revenge on my people... On the world..."

"NO!" Val jumped away from his mother, tears forming in his eyes. "That's not true! You're lying!"

"Val..."

"NO!" Filia held out a hand and watched, helplessly, as her boy suddenly turned and flew away at high speeds, leaving her alone.

"Why?" Filia asked herself softly as tears welled up in her eyes. "Why is it so hard to tell him?" She looked up and blinked a few times. "...Where did Sette go?"

(-)

"No!" Val's voice rang out throughout the trees as several things crashed around him. "NO! I didn't do that! Why would I do that?! WHY?!"

"Val." Val spun around and glared at his tall sister. "Please, calm down."

"Calm? CALM?!" Val screamed and punched a nearby tree, causing it to topple over. "I nearly killed mom! I nearly killed the world! How can I be calm?!"

"Because, you are Val, not Valgaav." Sette shrugged as if it was completely natural. "You love to play with your friends, rough house with myself and Otto, your baby sister adores you, the maids like you and Amy-mother and father love you. If you were Valgaav, they would be afraid, right?"

Val blinked at Sette. "...Why? Why would I do that though?"

"Because," Sette walked over to him and knelt down, "you did not have mother to take care of you when you were younger. Now you do. And we will not let anyone hurt her, our sisters or our other parents, will we?"

Val shook his head and hugged Sette. "Thank you. Um, is mom mad?"

Sette hugged him back and stood up. "I think she is nervous that you are. Perhaps, when we get back, we should have a large steak dinner to relax over."

Val laughed at the suggestion. "But you like your steaks really bloody."

"It is... Quite delicious that way." Sette nodded as she carried her little brother back to the others. "Are you okay now?"

"Yeah..." Val hugged her again. "Thanks, sis."

Sette nodded, a small smile on her lips. "You are welcome."

(-)

Listening to Hayate from the waiting room, Zafira had to admit, being a wolf most of the time had some real advantages. Especially since, with his hearing, he could tell just how much pain she was going through.

He grimaced as he heard a loud, to him at least, he doubted most people could hear it over Hayate's screaming, crack that came from the room. "That's the fifth bone in Reinforce's hand that's broken."

Signum sweat-dropped and was silently grateful that Reinforce was in there. She wasn't sure if she wanted to be anywhere near Hayate at that moment. "I didn't think Hayate was that strong."

"Daddy isn't normally." Zwei shuddered as she heard Hayate scream out in pain again. "Does having a baby hurt this much all the time?" Looking around, she whimpered as none of the people in the room had any answers. "WAAAH! Daddy's going to be in there forever!"

"I don't think it lasts forever." Gil spoke up. "But it might seem like it." He sighed as, instead of calming Rein Zwei down, it only served to make her more agitated. "She'll be alright. Believe me, Rein, lots of women go through this."

"But, what happens if something goes wrong?!" Rein's face was full of panic as tears started to well up in her eyes. "No! I don't wanna lose her!" She turned and raced for the door. "DADDY!"

"Knock it off!" Agito tackled Rein Zwei in mid-air before pinning her to the floor. "Hayate'll be fine. Nothing bad's going to happen to her, okay?" She sighed as Rein's eyes teared up when they heard Hayate cry out again. 'This is going to be a loooong day, isn't it?'

(-)

Fate knew Hayate was due any day now, however, she had something more important to do. After all, this was something important to her.

Standing in front of the grave stone that marked where they buried Precia Testarossa, Fate knelt down and put her hand over the grave. "Hello, mother. Yes, I know, it's been awhile, hasn't it?" A small smile tugged her lips as she put a single flower on the grave. "It looks like whoever kept sending you flowers over the years has kept doing it." She wished she knew who it was that kept remembering her mother. It would have been nice to finally meet them. "You should see your grand-daughter, mother. Vivio's so lively. I'm sure you'd love her."

Fate sighed and shook her head. "I really do miss you. Even with all that you did, I still miss you. But, I'm not sad. I just wish that everyone could have known the real you. The one who loved Alicia, I mean." Fate closed her eyes and put her hand on the ground. "I guess I just..." She trailed off as she looked at her hand. "...Did it rain recently?" The ground was unusually soft for a graveyard. "I need to go, mother." She put a hand on the gravestone. "I'll try to visit more than once a year at least."

As she walked out of the graveyard, Fate couldn't help but frown to herself. The ground felt like it had been recently disturbed and then put back to normal. After all, it didn't look damp.

Then again, a dog could have come in and buried a bone there.

At least, that's what Fate was hoping.

(-)

It was roughly an hour later when the doctor finally emerged from the delivery room. Looking at the small group, he nodded. "They're both fine, though, I think that Reinforce needs to get her hand looked at."

He stepped aside as Shamal, Signum, Vita, Zafira, Rein and Agito went into the room. He looked at Gil and the two catgirls as they stayed outside, he raised an eyebrow. "Aren't you three going to go in as well?"

Gil shook his head. "No, I'll wait until she comes out. I'm not quite as nimble as I used to be, I'm afraid." He chuckled and leaned back, smiling. "I'm just glad that she had the child safely."

"Three of our friends went to go look at the other babies, so we'll just wait for them here." The girl with long hair smiled up at him while she rubbed the older man's arm gently. "Lotte!"

"What?" The short haired girl pouted and stomped her foot onto the ground childishly. "I just wanna see the baby too!"

Gil chuckled as he opened his eyes to watch his daughters argue with each other. Had they always been that way? He wasn't sure. But one thing was certain, they never got boring.

(-)

"Oooh!" Rein Zwei stood on Hayate's shoulder as she looked down at the little bundle in her arms. "This is..."

"Your little sister." Hayate smiled at Rein Zwei and looked to the side where Reinforce was getting the bones in her hand set properly. Wincing, Hayate knew that she'd have to make up for breaking Reinforce's hand in at least six places.

Agito gasped as the little girl opened her eyes, revealing bright purple eyes, though Agito could have sworn she saw a hue of red in them. "...Do babies have their eye colors right away?" She found it interesting that the baby's skin was fairly pale, and the little bit of hair on her head was fairly dark.

"Some do." The nurse spoke up as she finished fixing up Reinforce's hand and put in a cast. "Use that for a few days so your bones settle before you use any healing magic." Reinforce nodded at her. "As for the name, what is the little dear's name?"

"Can it be Reinforce Drei?" Rein asked, her eyes sparkling at the thought. "Then I can go 'no, Drei, you can't have all the ice cream, I want some too' and treat her like a real little sister and..."

"Actually..." Hayate smiled as she took a deep breath. "I already decided... Her name... Is Kyouka Yagami."

Hayate had two reasons for naming her girl Kyouka. The first was that she thought naming her daughter Reinforce Drei would be a bit tacky. And the second...

Kyouka meant reinforce anyway.

"Where's grandfather?" Hayate looked around, a little sad. "I thought he'd be here."

"He's outside." Shamal said while Signum slipped out to get the man. "He didn't want to overcrowd you, I think."

Hayate chuckled softly as she closed her eyes and panted, giving birth had taken a lot out of her today. "I'm okay, just tired. Takes a lot to give birth."

"Hayate," she cracked an eye open and smiled as she looked at Signum as she led Gil to the bed side.

"Grandfather..." She held up her baby. "Say hello to Kyouka."

The smile on Gil's face, combined with how happy she was to have her baby, and the look of love Reinforce was giving her...

Hayate could honestly say that it was the happiest day of her life. Only the day she got her family even came close.

* * *

Vivio: *Sniffle* That's so sweet!  
Einhart: Yeah.  
Rio: For once Vivio wasn't upset. Well, next chapter is...  
Corona: Oh, come on! Aren't we in it?  
Nove: Doesn't look like it. Just read what happens next time on Blood That Flows - ViVid.


	297. Twelfth ViVid

Blood That Flows

Twelfth ViVid

Of course I own nothing.

Very short chapter, but I'll make up for it with the next one.

* * *

"Fortis," Levi spoke up without even looking back. "What are you doing here?" She didn't want to be disturbed right now. "Did you manage to somehow convince Arnage or Cypha yet?"

"No, but I was wondering, just how much longer until we get to where you want to go?"

Levi grinned at that. "Not far from here. Besides, haven't you had fun with all those new requests? But, if that's all, I'd like to be left alone."

Fortis looked at the large tube and the naked woman that floated inside. "Tell me, Levi, what is the purpose of this? If you don't mind me asking that is."

"You know those Megahs I have?" Levi asked rhetorically, "I can build them, and thanks to a certain foolish Unison Device, I can create a power source for them. I'm trying to see if I can make humans to power an army."

"I see," Fortis's voice showed no emotion, but Levi knew that he was both awed and disgusted by what she was doing. "What about the woman in the tube?"

"Oh, her?" Levi turned back to look at Fortis, and it took all his willpower to not flinch from the insane grin on her face. "Let's just say, this is a personal project of mine." She waved her hand to dismiss him and turned back to the naked woman in the tube.

"Of course." Fortis stepped out of the room.

Levi grinned as she looked up into the tube. "Quite a reversal from what it was before, huh?" Her shoulders shook before she threw her head back and let loose a bone-chilling laugh. "Yes! This time... This time things will be different. Won't they... Mother?"

Inside the tube, Precia Testarossa gave no response.

(-)

"Fortis," Cypha narrowed her eye as she saw the androgynous male walking down the hallway. "What's next on the agenda?" Oh how she hated the fact that Fortis, Deville, Veyron and even Curren had accepted the pledge with that Mazoku. Cypha refused outright and she refused to let Arnage take that pledge herself.

Fortis shrugged at the dark-skinned woman. "It doesn't matter right now. Apparently miss Levi is finally getting us to the destination she is aiming for."

"I see..." Cypha turned and walked away from him. "I need to do something. And I'm taking Arnage with me."

Fortis nodded and sighed softly. "If we didn't need to refill the ship as often as we do..."

"I'll go find you a little girl to pilot the ship if you want," Cypha rolled her eye in disdain.

Watching her walk away, Fortis blinked. Cypha usually was cool and sometimes gruff, but that was the first time he had heard her speak with something bordering on resentment.

"Now that I think about it... What do I know about her?"

(-)

Cypha took a deep breath to try and calm down. "Of course, I just had to say that, didn't I?"

"Talkin' ta yerself again, Cypha?"

Turning her head, Cypha snorted at the person who addressed her. "Arnage, you're lucky that..."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," the redhead rolled her eyes, "dunno why ya helped me when ya did, but I don't complain about bein' alive." She narrowed her eyes at Cypha, "though, that deal that the others took sounds appealin..."

"Don't." Cypha narrowed her eye at the redhead. "Whatever you do, do not make a deal with that thing."

Arnage just blinked in confusion. "Uh... Okay..." It wasn't the first time that Cypha had stopped her from even talking about making a deal with Levi, and it probably wouldn't be the last. "So, Cypha, what're we doing now?"

When Cypha grinned at her, Arnage felt like she needed to run out of the room, get a change of underwear and hide under the bed for a few hours.

"Practice."

"Mommy, I'm sorry that I lost control when I did." Arnage whimpered as Cypha grabbed her arm and dragged her to the training area.

(-)

_"What..?" She gasped as she looked around in horror. "What did I?"_

_"Oh my, my, my..." A female voice spoke up and she turned, staring at the other woman as she smirked at the devastation. "I never thought I'd see so much... Destruction. That Eclipse stuff is really potent."_

_Growling, she stood up and gripped her weapon. "Why?"_

_Raising an eyebrow, the mysterious woman smirked at her. "I would think you'd be happier now. A chance to truly live? More power than you ever thought possible?" Seeing the way that she trembled, the other woman shook her head. "Really? You're upset that you killed them? You should be thanking me. After all, they thought you were dead and gone. If I didn't infect you with the Eclipse, you'd either be dead or suffering right now."_

_Trembling at the words, she grabbed her sword and rushed forward. "DIE!"_

_Laughing, the woman seemingly disappeared. "Is that all you can do?"_

_"Not at all!" She snapped and spun around, swinging her sword and gasping as nothing happened. "...What?"_

_"My, my..." The woman laughed at her. "Your magic's useless, and your weapon won't register your power at all. Well, this is where I shall take my leave, but first..." The woman smirked and held a hand up to her. "Goodbye." The last thing she knew was a blinding flash of light and a powerful magical blast overwhelming her defenses._

(-)

Cypha snorted as she looked at Arnage's bruised form on the floor. "You're not that badly hurt."

"You stink." Arnage muttered as she forced herself to her feet. "What's the point? I'm immune to magic anyway." Her eyes widened and she dodged to the side as Cypha threw her sword right through where Arnage was a moment ago.

"Because not everyone uses magic." Cypha said as she stalked towards Arnage and pulled on the cord that was attached to her sword, pulling it back to her hand. "Some worlds don't use magic and instead rely on mass weapons. I know of a few that have enough mass weapons that they could slaughter at least ten worlds before they run out."

Arnage gawked at Cypha. "...How do they not kill each other?" Cypha shrugged and turned around. "Cypha?"

"We're done, go get cleaned up. We'll be reaching a new planet tomorrow." As Cypha walked off, Arnage wondered why the dark-skinned woman had mentioned a new planet and then shrugged it off. Cypha had her own madness after all.

After all, she was, by far, the oldest member of the Huckubein.

* * *

Vivio: Hey! No fair peeking in on the Huckubein!  
Einhart: Don't worry, I'm sure that there's a reason for it. Hmm, next chapter... Um... Ah.  
Vivio: Oooh! About time for you to get him. Next time on Blood That Flows - ViVid, we finally meet him.  
Einhart: Yes, yes we do.  
? ? ?: Mraw!


	298. Thirteenth ViVid

Blood That Flows

Thirteenth ViVid

Of course I own nothing.

I hope people are still enjoying this fic.

* * *

Three weeks later...

"Einhart..." Quint called out to the back yard and smiled as she saw Einhart sparring with Nove. While it was true that Einhart had more skill than Nove did, Nove still had things she could offer the younger girl. Nove was, ultimately, a very brutal sparring partner. "If you and Nove are done, do you want to come inside for a few moments? I need you to talk to someone."

Einhart blinked and nodded. "Very well." She looked at her current position and sighed. "After I get untangled."

Quint nodded as Einhart tried to pull her hands and feet out of a few of the pot holes that she and Nove had created that morning. Oh well, Nove had it just as bad, seeing as she had her right hand and left leg stuck in the ground as well.

"Nove, if you are this good of a fighter, why did you lose when we first met?" Einhart asked as she finally pulled her feet out of the ground. "If you had decided to tear up the park..."

"I would have had to put it back together." Nove said as she pulled herself out of the ground. "Besides, cement is harder to break apart than soft ground is. If I broke the ground, my foot would have gotten stuck and then you would have beaten me easier." Stretching, she smiled at Einhart. "Go on ahead, I'll fix the yard up." Einhart nodded and left.

When she got inside, Einhart looked at Quint as she called up a communication screen. "Yes?"

"Ah, good. I'm making a call to Hayate Yagami about your new device. Agito and Rein got the information they needed for a base, but they want to leave the final details up to you."

'Hayate Yagami,' Einhart mentally shivered. 'The leader of the Riot Force, currently on leave. One of the five strongest magic users of all time, three of the remaining four work under her and the fifth one lives among the people.' She couldn't imagine how fearsome Hayate Yagami had to be. 'It was said she overcame a personal trial and personally led an assault on the Saint's Cradle itself.' Einhart had no idea what happened, but the rumors she heard were that Hayate had to single-highhandedly take on an army of giant humanoid robots and then fight one of the other five strongest magic users ever. 'She must be a very strict person if she's able to do all of that.'

Einhart was prepared for a stern looking officer, a woman in a military outfit, or just someone who gave off a feeling of intimidation, even over the phone.

When the image of a panda face appeared on the screen, Einhart couldn't help but stare stupidly at the image with her eyes white and her jaw hanging down slightly.

Giggling, Hayate pulled the mask away from her face and smiled. "The look on your face, Einhart-chan." Hayate then lifted up a small baby with dark gray hair who was squirming slightly in Hayate's grasp. "Wave at Einhart-chan, Kyouka." The baby just grunted and kicked her feet in the air. "Sorry about that, seems my daughter's a little grumpy today."

Quint giggled and nodded. "Oh, trust me, babies are like that some days. Has she been awake long?"

"Hmm, just woke up a couple minutes ago." Hayate giggled as she ran her fingers over her baby's belly. "So, Einhart-chan, you're going to be getting your own device soon. We have the basic AI set up in place, the only question is, what kind of device do you want?"

"Well, I'm an unarmed fighter, but I do not think that gauntlets would be good for me. I've seen Subaru, Ginga, Quint and Nove use them, but they seem bulky to me."

Hayate nodded, remembering that Zafira commenting that he never had to worry about such a thing himself, since he had been created to use his gauntlets, but other people found it hard on them. "I suppose that metal gloves might be hard to use. How about arm guards?"

Einhart cupped her chin in thought. "While they would be useful for parrying weapon blows without using a shield," she shook her head negatively, "no, I do not think that it would work for me. Something like that would put the device in danger unless it was properly armored."

Hayate and Quint both giggled at Einhart, who blinked in confusion. "Einhart-chan," Hayate smiled at her, "devices are supposed to be used. Unless you're like Yuuno-kun or Vivio-chan, who keep their devices safe..." She trailed off as an idea came to her. "Hey, wait a second, how about a device like Vivio-chan then? It's kind of like a miniature unison device, it bonds with your body, so it's never in any real danger from most attacks."

"Would that be good? I've seen her device, and, I do not think that a rabbit suits me."

Hayate just smiled at her. "Who said that it needed to be a rabbit?"

(-)

Sein sighed heavily as she and Schach walked through the church's hallways. "Man..."

"Is something wrong?" Schach looked at Sein with a raised eyebrow. "You've been sighing a lot lately."

"Oh, nothing, it just feels that I've been ignored forever." Sein shook her head and bit her lip.

"Jealous that Tre is spending more time with Luna?" Schach smirked lightly as Sein twitched. "You know she's not trying to ignore you."

"I know that." Sein hissed as she glowered while walking forward. "I want Tre to be happy, so, why do I feel like I'm being ignored for some reason?"

"You're jealous." Schach smiled at Sein, who stared back at her in shock. "You think I don't know what it's like? Seeing Verossa get so close to Vita..." She took a deep breath and shook her head. "We're still friends, and I try to beat Vita's face in each time we spar, but as long as he's happy, I can't complain too much."

Sein sweat-dropped as Schach shrugged at her. "Wait, you try and beat Vita's face in? Um..."

Schach blushed lightly as she scratched her cheek. "Well, I try to. But it doesn't turn out too well most of the time. She's really skilled, even if she's a bit reckless." The problem with sparring with Vita was the girl's incredible strength. As far as Schach knew only Suzuka was known to have more strength than Vita...

And that was without any magic boosts. One day Vita was going to have to show off how strong she really was, if only to answer the question in her head.

Sein, on the other hand, was frowning thoughtfully. Well, as thoughtfully as she ever got. "Excuse me." She bowed to Schach and walked off, looking at nothing in particular.

"Good luck, Sein," Schach chuckled as she went to go find Shante. The girl needed some more work on her forms after all.

(-)

Sein turned a corner and her eyes lit up as she saw Tre in the gym working with some of the trainees on their forms. Sighing softly, Sein slipped to the far corner and waited. It wasn't like combat was too boring. After all, she participated with her sisters when they were working for Jail. How bad could it be with a bunch of beginners?

Ten minutes later, Sein felt like she was going to fall asleep. Who knew watching a bunch of newbies train would be so _boring_? Then again, Sein wasn't really the best person to teach anyone anything. Her own I.S. didn't lend itself to learning much for beginners, and her device, the Nemesis Heart, wasn't something that she was allowed to have very often.

Privately, Sein wondered just how useful the Knight Valkyrie Armor would be with someone who was an actual magic user.

After nearly thirty more minutes, Sein found herself being shook awake by Tre. "Huh?" She blinked as she realized she fell asleep. "Uh... When did I..?"

"About ten minutes after you sat down in the corner." Tre smirked at her and offered her a hand up. "You looked so cute like that I told them to not bug you." She snorted when Sein blushed softly. "So, what's wrong? You wouldn't bother coming to see me in class unless something was wrong, and considering that you fell asleep, I guess it wasn't toommmph!" Tre's eyes widened as Sein leaned up and put her lips against the larger girl's. Tre wasn't sure what was going on as she felt Sein's arms wrap around her.

"Sein?" Tre asked as the smaller girl broke the kiss. "What's wrong?"

Sein pouted and planted her face on Tre's chest. "...You're always spending time with Luna lately. I don't see you anymore."

Tre sighed softly and moved to sit down. Not because Sein was heavy, but because it was a little awkward to stand there. "Sein, you know I..."

"No!" Sein shook her head against Tre's chest. "You're always spending time with her. Why?"

"Because," Tre wrapped her arms around Sein, "I want to know how I feel about her." Tre rocked softly as Sein trembled. "I was ignoring you, wasn't I?" Sein nodded against her chest. "Then, for that, I'm sorry. Forgive me?"

"You're taking me out on a date Saturday." Sein looked up at Tre with narrowed eyes. "And you aren't getting out of it, got it?"

Tre nodded and patted Sein's back. "Yeah, I got it."

Sein smiled and rested her head against Tre's chest while the taller girl chuckled softly. Even though Sein didn't mind sharing, she still wanted to have _some_ of Tre's time to herself.

(-)

"So, we'll have the outer shell be like that, huh?" Hayate smiled as Rein Zwei and Einhart both made the final corrections to what her device would be. "We'll have it ready in two days." She winked at Einhart. "Just don't complain if it feels longer than that."

Nodding, Einhart let go of a breath that she was holding before turning to Quint as the screen turned off. "Are all really strong magic users weird like this?"

Quint chuckled and winked at the younger girl. "Welcome to our world, Einhart. Enjoy the insanity." She laughed as Einhart shuddered visibly. "I'm just messing with you, Einhart. We're just having fun." Quint walked to the door before turning to look at the young girl again. "You have to realize, Einhart, we might act silly, but it's better than being too serious all the time. It's a way for those of us with lots of magic to vent how we feel without doing anything dangerous." She sighed at the confused look Einhart gave her. "I'm not saying that you should go and tell jokes and fool around, but it never hurts to take a step back, relax and have fun that's not related to training, magic or fighting. You'll either hurt yourself physically or lose yourself to some form of madness if you don't."

As Quint left the room, Einhart looked at the ground, frowning softly. 'Am I on a road of self destruction?' She heard about fighters who fell down that path, it was never pretty when they finally met their end.

Einhart shivered at the thought of becoming a monster who could only live by fighting. 'No... I won't become that. I swear I won't.'

Still, she had some things to think about now.

(-)

It was a day later when Einhart and Nove found themselves at the Yagami home. "Hello," Signum nodded as she opened the door to let them inside. "It's just Hayate and myself with Kyouka today, and she was just put down for a nap, so please, keep your voices down." Even though Kyouka wasn't too noisy or fussy, she could still cry loud enough to wake anyone in the house up.

After she had been jolted awake at three in the morning for what had to be the eighth time in two weeks, Signum suddenly envied Vita for moving in with her fiance. Signum wondered why babies couldn't understand that other people wanted to sleep at three in the morning and not be up so early.

Granted, Signum could go a week without sleep if she had to, but it was still irritating to wake up when the baby started crying, even if Reinforce or Hayate would take care of Kyouka a few minutes later, it didn't make it any easier to get back to sleep.

As they walked into the house, Einhart stared as she saw Hayate picking some toys up that were scattered on the floor. "Oh," Hayate smiled as she stood up, "just a moment, I need to put these away."

"Here," Nove walked over to take some of the toys off of Hayate's hands, "lemme help you." Hayate smiled in thanks and led Nove to Kyouka's room.

Signum ignored the two of them and looked at Einhart more closely. "You've had some training, I see."

"And you are very experienced." Einhart could see it in the way the woman walked and moved. "You're a sword user."

Signum had to fight the urge to smirk as she heard Einhart's question. "Interesting, what makes you think that?"

"I could explain everything that makes me think of it, but, I should just say that, when I was looking up information about the Saint Kaiser or the Underworld King, I saw an image of you with a sword battling a young man with red hair who held a spear." Einhart blinked as Signum smirked at her. "Was I wrong?"

"Just a little bit, but that man was someone I spar against, his name is Erio Mondial. If you hang around the Nakajimas long enough, you'll meet him and the rest of the people who are close to Vivio."

Einhart frowned lightly at the name. "I see..." The details of the person who was raising Vivio were pretty sparse, though, from what she had gathered, the woman who adopted her was rather famous in the Bureau. "Unfortunately, I could not find too much in the public records about either Ixpellia or the reborn Saint Kaiser."

Signum nodded, knowing that most of the information about Vivio and her family was actually in the Bureau's database, not the public one. And while Einhart could find out that Vivio's last name was Takamachi, it wouldn't be as helpful as what she would get if she was a full-time Bureau member, which had a full run-down on Nanoha and her family, parents, aunt, siblings and children. Signum was beginning to wonder when Nanoha would add spouse to that list, but the last time she had even hinted at it, well...

Signum knew that people reacted differently to being embarrassed, but Nanoha's reaction was a bit over the top. 'A sparring session is not how you cover up sudden embarrassment, Takamachi.' Signum mentally grumbled to herself. And Nanoha wondered why Signum had started just calling her a thing lately.

"Sorry that took so long," Hayate smiled as she and Nove walked back into the room. In Hayate's hands was a small box. "This little fellow's all ready to go, you just need to name him and activate him."

Einhart took the box from Hayate and put it on the floor before opening it. "Cute," she couldn't help herself from muttering that word as she looked at the small device insde. It looked like a tiny plush snow leopard with a red collar around its neck.

"Well, what are you going to name him?" Nove asked as Einhart put her hand on top of the device's head, causing it to squirm and look up as it opened its eyes.

"Asteion..." Einhart smiled as the device tilted his head at her. "But I shall call him... Tio otherwise." She didn't know why, but it seemed appropriate.

"Mraw!" The device let out a cute sound and Einhart's eyes widened in shock as the device suddenly pounced. The next thing she knew, she was on her back and the device was letting out an honest to goodness purr while nuzzling her cheek. Einhart could feel her cheeks heating up while Tio let out happy mewls and purrs.

Hayate had to put her hand over her mouth to keep from laughing as she saw the young girl so utterly defeated by her device. Her eyes lit up as she called up a view screen and snapped a few pictures of Einhart and Asteion bonding. "Seems that he likes you." Einhart nodded shakily and her whole face flushed as Tio actually licked her cheek. Her blushing wasn't helped when Hayate, Nove and Signum all started chuckling at her predicament.

"Not... Funny." Einhart pouted as the trio chuckled more.

Between her blushing, pouting and Asteion's antics, the scene was incredibly cute.

* * *

Vivio: Aww! That's so cute!  
Einhart: not really... Um...  
Vivio: Yay! I'm in the next... Oh dear.  
Einhart: Eeek! I don't think I'm supposed to see that!  
Vivio: I don't think Yuuno-papa was supposed to see it either. Next time on Blood That Flows - ViVid, please read it.  
Einhart: Well, at least it was Yuuno-san and not Fate-san.  
Vivio: I'm completely red here, just read it, please?


	299. Fourteenth ViVid

Blood That Flows

Fourteenth ViVid

Of course I own nothing.

* * *

**"I swear boss, I did nothing this time."**

"Thoth..." Yuuno rubbed his head. "Quiet." It wasn't that he had a headache, he was just exhausted that morning.

**"But, boss, if you'd just give me some access to the net again..."**

"The last time I did that, there were a bunch of _interesting_ pictures of Nanoha and Fate all over the net." Yuuno narrowed his eyes at the device. "Now, how do you suppose an image of Nanoha getting a massage from Subaru while Nanoha's top was undone got out there?"

**"I have no idea, boss, but I swear, I'll find the pervert who took those images and thank him from the bottom of my CPU. By the way, what should I do with the images of you and Fate from last night?"**

"I'd tell you to delete them, but I know you, so just store them in a secure spot, okay?"

**"With the rest of my porn, got it."**

Yuuno just slapped his forehead and groaned. Really, what did he do to deserve a device like Thoth anyway?

When he turned the corner into the kitchen and saw Nanoha in an apron cooking breakfast while Miyuki was setting the table, he knew what he did to deserve Thoth.

After all, having to deal with a perverted device was only fitting, since he couldn't help but love Nanoha, Fate and Miyuki.

"Yuuno, could you go make sure that Erio and Caro are up?" Nanoha jerked a thumb to the window, "Arashi and Vivio are outside playing." She giggled when Yuuno raised an eyebrow. "They're not using magic this morning, so they're just playing." Even if the sparring could get violent, it wasn't anything horrific.

**"Master, Vita is calling about training."**

"Thanks, Raising Heart." Nanoha smiled as she pulled up a view screen. "Vita-chan, hi."

"Hey," the redhead smiled at her. "Sorry about calling so early, but I need to let you know about some of the changes to the training schedule."

Yuuno chose that moment to slip out. It wasn't that he didn't like hearing Vita complain about how the new kids weren't as good as Nanoha or he had been when they were nine, but he didn't want her to get any ideas about dragging him along for the training.

After all, the last few times he took part, a few of the female trainees accidentally had their barrier jackets burned off from some of his spells. The fact that Thoth wouldn't shut up about it only made the women angrier about their predicament.

Still, what Yuuno found the most odd was the fact that those same female recruits would later thank him for what he did. It wasn't until Vita later explained that she had used that as a lesson on how to keep calm when on the battlefield that he understood.

After all, if having your underwear exposed and commented on while in a friendly environment could prepare a person for something similar happening in the field, all the better.

Sighing, Yuuno stopped in front of Erio's room and opened the door. "Hey, Erio, are you..." He trailed off at the sight in front of him. "I... Guess you are..."

"PAPA!" Caro let out a shriek as she looked at him from over her shoulder. Her face was completely red as she realized that Yuuno was getting an eye-full of her naked backside.

"KNOCK FIRST!" Erio yelled as Caro rolled off of him and ducked under the blankets.

Yuuno quickly closed the door and shook his head. "...That was the last thing I expected to see this morning."

**"Your little girl's growing up."**

Yuuno just groaned, he did _not_ want to walk in on Caro and Erio doing _that_. "This isn't going to be a fun conversation." Part of him wanted to go back into the room and set Erio on fire, but another part realized that Caro would get upset at him if he tried.

And he really didn't like that thought.

(-)

Erio and Caro both walked into the kitchen and gulped at the looks they were getting. "This is going to suck, huh?" Erio asked and winced at the choice of words.

"I hope you two are taking care of yourselves." Nanoha said softly, her eyes narrowed and both Erio and Caro couldn't help but shudder in fear. "While laws concerning people underage are very lax in administrated worlds, due to magic users maturing faster, I wonder if you two have any idea what you're getting into."

"Um..." Caro poked her fingers together. "We kind of do... We're being careful." She gulped when Nanoha raised an eyebrow. "B..Besides, papa does it too!"

"I'm also an adult, Caro." Yuuno sighed softly. "I'm not going to get mad at you two for doing that. All things considered, it wouldn't be right for me to get mad about it." Caro let out a sigh of relief when she heard that. "However," he narrowed his eyes at the two of them, "if anything happens unexpectedly, you two are going to take responsibility, got it?"

Both of them nodded at that.

"And, really," Miyuki grinned at them, "if you're going to go that far, make sure to lock the door so no one just barges in, okay?" She laughed when their faces turned red.

"So, you're not mad then?" Caro asked, sighing when Nanoha shook her head.

"No, not mad, just worried." Nanoha stood up and walked around the table to kneel down and look Caro in the face. "Just be careful, okay?" Caro nodded, causing Nanoha to smile. "And, Erio..." She grinned while looking at him. "You get to tell Fate."

"Tell me what?" Fate asked as she walked in, a robe around her body and her hair disheveled. "...Did I miss something?"

(-)

Vivio panted as she put her hands on her knees and looked at Arashi, who was currently on his back. "Um..." She looked at Sacred Heart as it flew out to them. "Is he okay?"

"WHAT?!" A yell broke out and Vivio spun, staring at the house in shock. It wasn't the yelling, sometimes it could get loud, but the fact that it was Fate-mama who was yelling was shocking.

"...What happened?" Vivio muttered softly.

"Anything that can make big sis Fate yell like that can't be good." Arashi shivered as he sat up. "Um... Wanna stay outside for awhile longer?"

Vivio nodded and decided that finding out what happened could wait. Preferably after Fate-mama had a chance to calm down. "Race you around the house!" She took off running in the opposite direction of the door as Arashi yelled at her and followed as fast as he could.

(-)

"So..." Fate started as she, Erio, Caro and Nanoha sat in the living room. "When did you two start?" The only reason Yuuno and Miyuki weren't there was because they went to check on Arashi and Vivio. That and no one wanted to deal with Thoth's comments at that moment.

"Two months..." Caro said as she blushed and looked away.

"No, Caro, do not look away from me." Fate's tone of voice left no room for argument. "Two months... Have you two even thought..." She trailed off as Nanoha squeezed her shoulder.

"Fate, calm down." Nanoha squeezed tightly as Fate took a deep breath. "Erio, Caro... Since Fate's too upset to talk normally, I'll ask, how did it start?" She held up a hand to stop their immediate questions. "I know that I'm not upset, but I'm still curious as to the hows and whys."

"Um, well, it started a couple of months ago..." Erio gulped when Fate narrowed her eyes. "Bu, but we were doing other things before that!" He missed Nanoha slapping her forehead when he said that. "I mean, we, uh, we were..."

"We've gone on dates and kissed and other stuff!" Caro cried out before Erio could make it worse. "We only took that last step a couple of months ago and..."

Seeing Fate twitch, Nanoha sighed heavily. "Go, you two, go outside for right now. Let me talk to Fate." The two nodded and quickly left the room. "Fate..."

"It's too soon!" Fate growled out, her hands twitching. "None of us..."

"Fate." Nanoha grabbed her arms and held them. "Calm down." She put a finger on Fate's lips to get her to remain quiet and got an angry look in response. "One, none of us did that as fast as they did because we were really busy in our lives," she sighed as her mind went over that time in her life, "not to mention, Fate..." She pulled her finger away from the blonde's lips, "Erio and Caro are more mentally balanced than we were."

"Nanoha?" Fate blinked at her. "What are you?"

"Fate, think about what we went through when we were nine... We still had troubles when we were their age." Nanoha moved closer to Fate and wrapped an arm around her shoulder. "They've had it better than we did. They're more adjusted than we were." Nanoha smiled at Fate as she started to calm down. "And, besides, if you try to stop them, you'll only get them to resent you."

Fate sighed and looked down. "But..." Her eyes widened as Nanoha kissed her on the cheek. "Nanoha?"

She winked at Fate. "If you can't stop it, you can at least make sure that they take all the precautions..." A rather mean grin came to her face. "Plus, we don't have to make it easy on them, do we?"

"What do you have in mind?" Fate knew Nanoha could be mean, but she didn't always know what was going through the redhead's mind.

"Well..." Nanoha giggled softly. "I think it's time that Caro gets an exam..." She winked at Fate, who's eyes widened as she caught on. "And maybe make them watch all the videos that we had to for health class back in school."

Fate shivered, that wasn't going to be fun. "Do it." A thought came to her. "We won't be able to embarrass them like we were."

Nanoha smirked at her. "Who says we have to do that? We can give them a few scares at least." After all, if they were going to go through with this, they had to accept all of the consequences of their actions. "Actually, other than the exam for Caro..." She trailed off. "I'm going to ask Vita-chan for a little favor."

Suddenly, Fate thought that having to watch the videos that she did when she was younger would have been kinder.

(-)

"Do you think we'll be okay?" Caro asked as she and Erio walked down the street. "Do you think they'll tell us to stop?"

"I hope not." Erio said as he gave her hand a squeeze. "Wanna go see a movie?"

"Sure." Caro smiled as they continued their walk. Maybe if they took some time away from the house, everyone would calm down.

(-)

"So, Caro and Erio are in trouble?" Vivio asked Yuuno, who sighed heavily. "Something wrong, papa?"

Yuuno nodded and knelt down. "Let's just say that I caught them doing something that I didn't think they'd be doing and it made Fate upset."

Vivio nodded, though she wasn't sure what he meant. "Um, okay..."

Arashi looked at Miyuki. "Is big sis Fate gunna freak out again?" When Miyuki shrugged he sighed. "I'm hungry too."

"Come on then," Miyuki rolled her eyes as she grabbed Arashi's shirt and lifted him off the ground before spinning and putting him down. "Let's go eat, before Fate and Nanoha realize they haven't eaten either." When Arashi and Vivio suddenly rushed towards the front door, Miyuki laughed softly. "They're too excitable."

"Like we were any better." Yuuno chuckled as he and Miyuki walked into the house after the two younger kids. Still, he couldn't get the thought of Caro and Erio doing that out of his head. And he just wasn't sure why it bothered him so much.

* * *

Vivio: It's finally time! Yes! Time to show off!  
Einhart: I have not been playing around this last month.  
Vivio: I'll show you that I'm as strong as you remember!  
Einhart, Vivio: Next time on Blood That Flows - ViVid, it's the rematch we've been waiting for.  
Einhart: Check  
Vivio: It.  
Vivio, Einhart: Out!


	300. Fifteenth ViVid

Blood That Flows

Fifteenth ViVid

Of course I own nothing.

300 chapters to this story. Wow. Just wow. I want to thank everyone who's kept up with the story so far. I will say this, there are another two arcs after ViVid.

* * *

Elsewhere...

"So," Nove looked at Einhart, "are you ready?" She took a stance as she activated her barrier jacket. "Let's see the changes."

"Tio, set up." She held her plush snow leopard in front of her.

Tio's eyes lit up and raised his head into the air. "Mraaw!" A flash of light engulfed Einhart for a moment, and when it was done, she was standing in front of Nove, in her female adult mode.

Nove raised an eyebrow as she looked at Einhart's outfit and hair style. "Neat." It had changed slightly, though, Nove wondered if Einhart planned on flashing everyone with her underwear when she fought, since her skirt didn't look that tight around her body. "Ready?"

Einhart nodded as Nove charged her with a knee raised. Leaning back, Einhart caught the knee and was about to redirect Nove when the redhead grabbed her shoulders, pushed up so that Einhart was supporting Nove completely. Smirking, Nove pushed up, spun in midair before flipping and driving her feet into Einhart's back and sending her flying forward.

Grimacing at the hit, Einhart flipped over, planted her hands on the ground to stop her forward momentum and pushed back, flying back at Nove in a high speed drop kick.

Nove's eyes widened as she felt Einhart's feet drive into her stomach, as she was sent backwards, she saw Einhart twist in mid-air, move so that she was able to drive her feet into the ground and dive forward, her arms crossed in front of her, driving into Nove's ribs, just under her breasts and sending the short redhead flying backwards even harder. However, Einhart wasn't done as she tumbled into a roll forward, planting her hands on the ground and pushing upwards, driving her feet into Nove's chin and Einhart's skirt to flip up.

Tumbling through the air a few feet, Nove called up her Airliner so she could stop in mid air and look down at Einhart as the younger girl looked up at her cautiously. "Not bad." She had to admit, Einhart's device did help increase her strength slightly. Of course, for her, slightly went from petite powerhouse to someone who could probably break a car with ease. "My turn."

Einhart took a defensive stance as Nove suddenly rocketed forward. She brought her hands up to guard her face as Nove lashed out with several fast, strong kicks towards her arms, causing her to grit her teeth as she was forced back. "Nnngh..." The next thing that she knew there were several strikes coming from her side aimed at her head.

The first hit made her stagger, the second hit managed to break her guard and Nove's third round house kick sent her tumbling end over end before she landed on her head, slid to the side and spun around before ending up falling onto her back. "...Ow." She muttered as she stood up and looked at Nove.

"Well?" Nove tilted her head as Einhart threw a few punches forward followed by a high kick.

"It seems that this will do. Sufficient body reinforcement for both offense and defense." Einhart made a fist as she walked up to Nove. "Tell me," she relaxed, letting her hand unclench, "why have you been helping me with my training?"

Nove stretched her arms above her head. "Mostly because I can use your help in my own training. But also because I like a good scrap. Vivio's not like you." Einhart blinked, "she's more of a normal girl than you or I are."

"I don't have all of Claus's memories, I admit, but," Einhart gave a soft smile as she looked up in the air at something that Nove couldn't see, "Olivie, despite being a king like Claus or Ixpellia, was a kind ruler who, despite being the best in combat in all of Ancient Belka, she disliked fighting and preferred to read books and play with animals."

"Sounds like Vivio, though she enjoys fighting, she just enjoys fighting because she can. You, on the other hand," Nove chuckled softly, "you dedicate yourself to this. And me? I train a lot as well."

Einhart nodded as she canceled her transformation. "Yes, I noticed that. Still, I think that I am ready for a rematch against Vivio now."

Nove nodded at her. "Good. I'll get the rematch set up." She turned to walk away as she canceled her outfit. "Oh, and Einhart?" She turned to look back at the confused girl, "black lace panties aren't good for combat."

Einhart's eyes widened and a blush adorned her cheeks while Tio floated upwards and landed on her shoulder. "It... It's not my fault! I would never wear something so... Mooouuuu!" Nove actually laughed as Einhart's face turned so red that it looked like her blush would become permanently attached to her face.

(-)

It was two days later when Vivio found herself facing Einhart yet again. "Are you ready then?" Einhart asked Vivio as the two stood facing each other.

Vivio nodded as she held up Sacred Heart. "Yep. Let's go, Chris! Set up!" She was engulfed in light as she began to transform.

"Tio." Einhart said as she held up Asteion, "Set up!"

"MRAAWW!" Tio let out a yell as Einhart was engulfed in similar light and began to transform as well.

Not too far away, Arashi looked at the others who had shown up. "Ixy..."

Ixpellia twitched and glared at the boy. "It's Ixpellia."

"Ah, right," he smiled and rubbed the back of his neck. "Were you kidnapped to watch too?" He could understand Nove, Rio and Corona being there. Rio and Corona went practically everywhere with Vivio and Nove was involved with both girls and their martial arts.

Ixpellia shook her head. "No, I was merely out walking when I saw Nove and Einhart, so I followed them here." Well, that and Nove had explained what was going on. She was mostly curious about this 'adult mode' that Nove had mentioned.

Arashi nodded and looked back at the battle field. His and Ixpellia's eyes widened as they saw Einhart's adult mode. Vivio hadn't made any effort to hide her adult mode, so they both knew about it, but Einhart's adult mode...

"Pretty..." Arashi muttered as he watched both Vivio and Einhart take a stance across from each other. "Can you do that?"

"Never tried to." Ixpellia muttered, wondering what she'd look like as an adult. It was somewhat justified as she was over a thousand years old, even if she had the body of a young girl. Then again, she wasn't sure if she could, she hadn't bothered to use much magic since she had gotten free from being forced to produce Mariages and she wasn't sure if she wanted to use magic again. Even if she had been told by the doctors and others that her magic could be used for other things, Ixpellia still worried about accidentally creating Mariages once more.

After all, she didn't trust Karma to not screw her over again.

Vivio made the first move in the contest as she rushed forward to punch at Einhart's head. Einhart moved her head to the side to avoid the punch and then grabbed Vivio's arm, spun around, placed her body against Vivio's and with a push of her legs, send the blonde flying over her shoulder with a throw. "Blue Hado." Einhart snapped her arm forward as a spiraling energy blast rushed out towards Vivio. Einhart almost had a grin on her face as the energy connected with Vivio's back, sending her tumbling through the air.

Grimacing, Vivio slammed her left hand onto the ground to stop her tumbling and allow her to spin and face Einhart while she slid a few feet back. Looking up from her three point stance, she grinned and stood up, spreading her arms wide. "Oh, Einhart, how about we up the ante?"

Einhart nodded and closed her eyes. If this was going to be an energy attack, she could handle it.

Unseen to Einhart, Nove's eyes widened as she looked at the stance Vivio was in. "Oh, don't tell me that she knows mom's technique." It was one thing to know Quint's best technique, Nove, Ginga and Subaru all knew it, none of them could actually pull the technique off even if they had two gauntlets covering their fists, but if Vivio could do the technique, well, that just wouldn't be fair.

Nove let out a sigh of relief when all Vivio did was form balls of magical energy in her hands and then threw them forward. Though, Nove found it interesting when the balls of energy suddenly shattered into smaller balls of energy that flew around the two of them in a dazzling display of light and energy. "What is that girl up..." Nove's eyes widened as she realized what was going on.

As she watched the balls of energy fly around, Einhart had a sensation of unease in her stomach. That sensation only increased as the balls of energy suddenly stopped moving around them and shot at Einhart at varying speeds from all different angles. Grunting, Einhart spun and batted a few balls away, ducked under some that were heading right for her head from behind and kicked a few others out of their path and into other balls.

Vivio watched, amazed. She never saw anyone fight like that against her version of her mother's Axel Shooter before. Most people tried to dodge until the shots were all in front of them and then use a barrier to block them before counter-attacking. "Too bad you didn't guard, Einhart." Vivio whispered as she pulled her hands back, more multi-colored energy forming in them before she punched forward, letting the large balls fly before they shattered and converged on Einhart's body faster than she could dodge or parry them.

There was a massive explosion as the energy converged on Einhart. "Got you." Vivio had to admit, she was a little disappointed that it was over so easily. Her eyes widened as the dust cleared, revealing Einhart still standing, one hand holding up a blue-green triangular barrier while her other hand had a large amount of energy in it. "What?"

"I don't always parry." Einhart said before throwing the large energy at Vivio so fast that the blonde had no way of reacting as it slammed into her with enough force to send her flying backwards. Einhart tensed her legs and flew after her a moment later. "Nor do I always wait for my opponent to attack."

Arashi winced as Einhart caught up to Vivio and drove a knee into Vivio's back with enough force that the crack could be heard across the training field. "Ouch."

"Vivio!" Rio and Corona cried out at the same time as Einhart dropped Vivio to the ground and jumped upwards in what looked like a move to finish her off in one strike. Both of them sighed as Vivio swung her leg upwards and drove it into Einhart's stomach, knocking the breath out of the older girl and forcing her to back off.

Einhart grabbed her stomach as she took a defensive stance while Vivio flipped up to her feet. "Just as strong as my memories say you are."

Vivio shook her head. "No, you're better than I am, I might win the fight, but you're a better fighter than I am." Vivio knew that she wasn't a bad fighter, having sparred with all her parents at different times over the past four years, but in her heart, she wanted to be something more than just a clone of the Saint Kaiser, which was probably why she tried out as much as possible to find something new to do.

Einhart took a deep breath as she stood back in her combat stance. Vivio was probably right with her assessment, even if she was a natural at fighting, Einhart had been training as long as she could remember. Sure, her memories gave her a leg up, but she really did have to make her body work to get the techniques, moves and skills down. Not to mention that she had to work to get her body strong enough to be able to fight without tearing her muscles apart when she tried a complex maneuver. "False humility is an annoyance." She rushed in and prepared to knee Vivio in the stomach. Her eyes widened as Vivio took the knee to the stomach and grabbed Einhart's shirt right between her breasts and lifted her up.

"You can be annoying too." Vivio said as her hand suddenly glowed with power. "Explosion!"

True to what Vivio said, there was an eruption of magical energy that sent Einhart flying away from Vivio at high speeds.

Grimacing at the pain she was feeling from her chest, Einhart opened an eye as she soared across the battlefield. "Nnngh..." Biting her lip, she flipped over in mid-air and slid back several feet before coming to a complete stop. "That hurt." She muttered and rushed forward as she saw Vivio rushing towards her as well.

As he watched Einhart rush back, Arashi couldn't help but blush as he watched her fly away. "...Black..."

Nove just groaned and slapped her forehead. She told Einhart to fix that problem when they sparred two days ago.

As she got closer to Vivio, Einhart slid to a stop and slowly pulled her right arm back while balling her hand into a fist, energy swirling around her as she prepared to end this fight in the next attack. She held her arm up in a defensive posture as Vivio came in with a high kick, causing Einhart to tilt her head to the side while moving her arm up to divert Vivio's attack and leave the blonde open. "Hao..." She started to punch forward and Vivio's eyes widened as that fist came in fast and hard towards her stomach. "Dan... Ku... KEN!"

There was an explosion of energy that erupted from Einhart's fist and sent Vivio flying away from her, bouncing and tumbling along the ground as she suffered the effects of Einhart's attack.

As she watched Vivio bounce away, Einhart had to fight the urge to shake her hand in pain. She didn't know how, but Vivio had apparently managed to boost her defense around her stomach at the last moment and Einhart could have sworn she was hitting something harder than flesh. 'Sheesh, Claus, is this what you went through when you fought Olivie?'

As she watched Vivio slide to a stop, Einhart let out a soft sigh. "It's over." It had to be, taking that attack was hard on anyone. Even if they had some really... Her thoughts trailed off as Vivio struggled and pushed herself up slowly. "...What?" She could see that Vivio was in pain and trembling hard as she tried to get back to her feet. "Vivio, come on, you don't..." She took a step back as she saw Vivio getting to her feet, her face pained. "...What?"

"That... Hurt." Vivio grimaced as she fought the urge to throw up right then and there. Her stomach was injured, her ribs bruised from that attack, her shoulders and legs felt like they just went through the meat grinder from the after affects of that attack, but still...

Einhart took a deep breath and was about to offer Vivio the chance to surrender when she found her arms bound to her sides with several binds around her body, legs and even between her arms, legs and chest. "...Vivio, what is..." She tried to squirm out of the way, but it was a little hard when the binds were holding her tightly.

"Divine... BUSTER!" Vivio screamed out as a multi-colored energy beam erupted from her palms and slammed into Einhart, knocking her over. The blonde jumped into the air and flames erupted from her hands. "FLAME BUSTER!"

Einhart couldn't help but let out a cry of pain as flames engulfed her body.

When the attack ended, Vivio fell to the ground, landing hard on all fours and panting as she looked at Einhart's twitching form. "You... Give?"

Einhart nodded and twitched as Vivio smiled and fell forward. "...Hey! Undo these binds, hey!" Her face was turning red as Ixpellia, Nove, Rio, Corona and Arashi ran out to make sure that they were okay.

She didn't know why, but when Arashi got to her first, she felt like she wanted to shrink down to ten inches and hide in the ground for a long time, since she was still in that weird binding that Vivio put her in. 'This sucks.' She thought to herself as Nove looked at her, smirking.

Einhart had a feeling she wasn't going to live this one down for a long while.

Especially when Arashi blushed hard and turned away. Just WHY did her outfit have to burn mostly off, leaving most of her breasts, thighs, stomach and arms exposed anyway?

* * *

Vivio: HA! See?  
Einhart: Yes, you did beat me, that was fun.  
Vivio: What's next then?  
Einhart: It seems we're going traveling. Next time on Blood That Flows - ViVid, please read it.  
Nove: And Einhart, stop wearing black silk panties when fighting.


	301. Sixteenth ViVid

Blood That Flows

Sixteenth ViVid

Of course I own nothing.

* * *

Two weeks later...

Nanoha looked up at the door as Vivio, Rio and Corona rushed into the room. "Well, aren't you three excited?" She giggled at the three of them when they gave her an annoyed look. "Well, I suppose you have a reason to be, huh?" After all, it was a four day weekend and Lutecia had invited Vivio and her friends to come try out the newly finished resort.

Nanoha was looking forward to it as well, since Fate, Yuuno, Teana and Subaru were all able to get the four days off as well. "So, do you have everything packed up?" The three girls nodded and Nanoha chuckled. "Alright then, go get changed, huh? We'll take off in a couple of hours." They just needed to collect everyone who was going before heading out.

"Alright!" Vivio grinned and rushed to her room.

"Thank you for having us." Rio and Corona said at the same time.

"You're Vivio's friends, why wouldn't we let you come with?" Nanoha smiled at them. "I'm glad that your parents don't mind you coming with."

"Well, Einhart's going to be there, I need a rematch against her!" Rio growled, her eyes practically lighting themselves on fire as the air around her seemed to turn red. "Grr! I'll show you! I'm not so easy to beat this time! I've got some secret weapons!"

Nanoha merely smiled and was reminded of how she was when she was that age when she fought against Signum, Vita or Fate. "Alright, you two go get your stuff together, I've got to make some calls."

When they left, Nanoha smiled as she called up a view screen. "Quint! Are Nove and Einhart ready?" She nodded and Nanoha told her that Fate and Yuuno would pick the two up before they left, after that was done, she made a call to her mother. "Hey, mom, is Arashi ready?"

"Yeah," Lina chuckled at her, "thanks for taking your brother with. Though..." She trailed off and looked to the side, "Arashi, why are you taking Ixpellia with you?"

"I wish to go with," Ixpellia's voice was heard and Nanoha blinked as she listened in, "I wish to meet with Lutecia. She was helpful in identifying what happened during the last crisis, after all."

Nanoha nodded and smiled. "It's no problem, Ixy..."

"It's Ixpellia!"

Nanoha ignored her and continued on, "the trip out to that place is pretty open, I'm sure they'll have an extra seat or three, it might cost a bit more, but we can get the ticket for you."

"Thank you." Ixpellia said as she walked up beside Lina. "By the way, Nanoha, your mother makes excellent chocolate cake."

Nanoha sweat-dropped and nodded at that. "Yeah, just don't eat too much, you'll get a stomach ache." She had learned that the hard way when she was six years old. It was not fun getting so sick that she couldn't move for over three hours. "Anyway, mom, make sure to have Arashi ready in about an hour, I'll be over to pick him up. Yuuno and Fate are picking up Caro, Erio, Nove and Einhart."

"Just have fun, Nanoha." Lina smiled at her. "And try not to destroy the entire resort like you do training grounds." She laughed as Nanoha rolled her eyes at her. "Don't worry, I wouldn't be any better."

Nanoha nodded, chuckling. "Alright, I'm hanging up now, we'll be there soon." After the screen turned off, she turned to her device. "Are you ready, Raising Heart?"

**"Clear to go, my master."**

Nanoha grinned at that. "And so, we begin again, on a new stage."

**"Yes. But why so dramatic?"**

Nanoha scratched her cheek and giggled some more. "I always wanted to do that." She giggled more as Raising Heart seemed to sweat-drop at her answer. "Anyway, let's go."

**"Right."**

(-)

It was nearly five hours later when Vivio stepped off the ship that had taken everyone to Carnaaji. Stretching her arms above her head, she yawned and looked around. "Wow, that was longer than I thought it would be."

"You slept most of the way here," Arashi rolled his eyes as he pulled some suitcases off of the ship. "Now get your clothes before I throw them down."

"Ack!" Vivio's eyes went blank and she spun around, waving her arms up and down. "Don't you dare!"

"Your uncle has you pegged, Vivio." A new voice spoke up and Vivio spun around, her eyes lighting up in delight.

"Lu-chan!" Vivio ran at full speed and hugged her older friend tightly. "Missed you." Her smile seemed to increase as Lutecia hugged her back. "How are you?" Sure, Lutecia wasn't as close to her as she was with Caro or Erio, but Vivio still considered her a good friend.

Lutecia grinned and knelt down to look Vivio in the eye. "So, Erio and Caro with you?" She grinned when Vivio nodded. "Excellent!" She stood up to her full height and smiled broadly at the group as they walked off the ship. "Welcome, my friends!" She swept her arm out to the side, showing the last couple of years of hard work that she, Garyuu, Due, and her parents had put into the planet to make it worthwhile. "As you can see, the excellent Alphine hot springs is ready, as well as our training facilities for those who wish to train their minds, bodies and their magic. We haven't finished everything yet, but for now, please allow us the honor of servicing you in any way possible."

"Practicing for when you get people other than your friends, Lutecia?" Teana asked, smiling at the younger girl. "How are you?"

Lutecia smiled at Teana and ran over to her, hugging her. "Mmm... I'm feeling good, glad everyone's here. It's a bit late to do extended training. So, let's get everyone to the lodge," Lutecia let go of the hug and grinned, "you'll just love the hot springs!"

"Sounds good." Teana smiled at her. She couldn't wait.

Not far away from them, a pair of yellow eyes watched the group get the last of their belongings off of the transport shuttle and head towards the lodge. "Well now... Let's see what happens next." The person giggled as they disappeared. "Still a little more time, I'll have to decide tomorrow then."

(-)

"Thanks for having us here," Nanoha smiled at Megane as the two of them cleared the table from dinner. "I'm surprised you had enough to feed everyone."

Megane giggled at her. "Oh please, your ability to put away more food than most squads in the Bureau is legendary, Nanoha." Nanoha blushed and giggled in embarrassment. "Thank you for helping me clear the table off. Where did those kids go?"

"Most of them went to check the hot springs out." Privately, Nanoha couldn't wait to get into the hot springs with Yuuno and Fate and just relax. Preferably after everyone else had gone to bed. And maybe get some spells up to muffle noise "Say, Megane, I... I was wondering if maybe you could give me some advice."

"Hmm? What is it?" Megane was putting some plates away when Nanoha asked that question.

"Well... A couple of weeks ago, Yuuno accidentally walked in on Caro and Erio in the same bed, naked and..."

"Having sex, huh?" Megane turned to her and sighed. "Before you ask, I didn't read your mind, I don't have that ability." She giggled at Nanoha's flat stare. "Okay, sorry, couldn't resist. But, why talk to me about it?"

"Well, I'm just..." Nanoha sighed heavily. "No matter how I say it, it's going to sound bad, so, I have to ask, they've been together for several months like this, were they near Lutecia..?"

"Are you asking me if Lutecia came onto them and instigated something rather kinky and will no doubt color your perception of my daughter forever?" Nanoha grimaced at the question, that wasn't how she wanted to put it. "The question is, Nanoha, what will you do if I tell you?"

Nanoha shook her head. "Nothing, I just wish to know." If Lutecia was the one who started the whole thing... "No... If it was Lutecia..."

"I've already given both of them my blessing to be with my daughter." Nanoha's eyes widened at hearing that. "And I've talked to them, both of them, about taking precautions." Megane sighed and motioned for Nanoha to join her at the table. They both sat down and Megane shook her head again. "You have to understand, you know what happened to my daughter. Sometimes she has... Episodes and..."

"You decided that her doing that with those two was a good idea?" Nanoha stared at the other woman, who shook her head. "Then why? If I was in your shoes, I'd never..."

"Tell me something, if your daughter was suffering so much that the only way you could make it go away was to let her do something unsavory, what would you do?" Megane nodded as Nanoha stared at her. "When they started, Lutecia... Even with her memories suppressed, sometimes things bubble up, including that. Due explained to me that it was that Mazoku Levi who trained my daughter to be a sex slave..." She shivered and Nanoha could only stare at her numbly. "Even if she didn't remember, her body did, what am I supposed to do, Nanoha? Tell me."

"I... I..." Nanoha was at a loss for words, what could she say? She hadn't been in the same position that Megane was. "I'm not sure."

"Exactly." Megane sighed and put her head on the table. "Do you know what it's like.. When your daughter has to ask you why her body is burning and she wants to do stuff and she doesn't know what it is she wants? And all you can do is watch as she suffers? I... Please, don't blame Lutecia, I was..."

"You asked Erio and Caro to help, didn't you?" Nanoha sighed when she nodded. "I don't agree with your solution, Megane, but... If I was in your position, I probably wouldn't have done anything differently. Though, did you try buying her toys?" Nanoha's face was starting to turn red as this conversation continued.

"They worked, for awhile... But," Megane shook her head and Nanoha could only look at how distraught the woman was, "I never wanted this for her. What kind of mother am I? To do this?"

Nanoha had no answers for her, at least not easy ones. She could only watch as Megane shuddered and closed her eyes. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked that..."

"You were within your rights."

Nanoha and Megane just sat in the kitchen, both lost in their thoughts for some time after that.

* * *

Vivio: When did this get so heavy?  
Einhart: I believe it's hold overs from a previous arc.  
Vivio: Well, next time on Blood That Flows - ViVid... EEEK! Hey! What touched me?  
Einhart: Please read it for all our sakes.


	302. Seventeenth ViVid

Blood That Flows

Seventeenth ViVid

Of course I own nothing.

* * *

"Wow!" Vivio's eyes sparkled as she looked around the large hot springs. "This is so cool!"

"Yes, now, will you put your towel around your body, Vivio?" Nove rolled her eyes as she held her towel in front of her before pulling it off and slipping into the water. "Wow, this is nice."

"Yep!" Vivio grinned and threw her towel behind her before jumping into the water. "Ahhh!" She let out a shriek as two new bodies jumped into the water after her. "Corona! Rio!" She giggled as they popped their heads out of the water.

"Oh, come on!" Rio stood up fully, ignoring her nudity. "I bet I can run to the other end of this before you can."

"You're on!" Vivio grinned and took off with Rio, causing water to splash everywhere.

Einhart shook her head as she slipped into the water, her face was slightly red as she looked around. She had to turn away as she saw Subaru and Teana slip their towels off and join them in the hot water.

"Hey!" Teana scoffed at Rio and Vivio. "Calm down you two." She rolled her eyes when they ignored her. "Were we ever that bad?"

"I remember taking your towel off so Erio could see a naked woman." Subaru giggled at her only to let out a grunt as Teana elbowed her in the stomach hard. "Come on, it was just a joke."

"If you wanted to show him a naked woman, why didn't you just show him your naked body?" Teana grumbled and turned away from Subaru, who was trying to apologize to her.

"I have to admit," Ixpellia said as she slipped in with Lutecia grinning while looking around, "this is nice. Large enough to host an entire army."

Lutecia laughed at that. "You're funny, Ixy."

"It's Ixpellia." Ixpellia sighed as yet another person ignored her. Why couldn't anyone call her by her real name? Was that so much to ask?

"Corona!" Lutecia grinned as she jumped into the water. "I got that thing you wanted. It'll be done before we go to bed tonight."

Corona's eyes lit up at that. "Really? Thank you!"

"What did Lutecia make for you?" Nove asked, trying to ignore Subaru and Teana's flirting. Granted, it was more of Subaru groping Teana and Teana responding with some violence, but Nove still counted it as flirting. At least Wendi, Sein or Hayate wasn't there as well, she could only imagine the amount of groping that would happen if one of those three were there with Subaru. The thought made her skin crawl.

"Oh, I asked if Lutecia could make me a device like Rio and Vivio have." Corona rubbed the back of her head. She couldn't wait until she got her new device.

"Yeah, she asked me a couple of weeks ago. She might have asked someone else, but..." Lutecia looked at Corona, who was blushing.

"Um, I'm not sure if I wanted Hayate to make my device like Einhart's, and after meeting Thoth, I didn't want to ask Vivio's parents to help me get one." Corona was poking her fingers together as her face lit up. She couldn't imagine having a device that said even half of the things that Thoth did.

"So, what do you get out of it, Lutecia?" Nove was curious. She didn't think that Lutecia would ask for anything, other than experience, but everyone wanted different things.

Lutecia grinned and suddenly hugged the naked Corona, who let out a small shriek. "You caught onto my plan! I'm going to take Corona and tie her down and do all sorts of naughty things to her tonight! Then, when someone finds out, I'm going to kidnap her and Erio and run away together for a month!"

"Waaah!" Caro cried out as she heard that. "Bu...But... Lu-chan..." She sniffled and fell to her knees, her towel falling to the ground around her. "What about me? You wouldn't leave me behind would you?"

Lutecia moved one arm up and tapped her chin. "Hmm, you'd have to get Erio to carry you. Then we can do all sorts of naughty things with Corona as her repayment for the device." Lutecia fought the urge to laugh as Corona's whole body was completely flushed. The younger girl was trying, valiantly, to get away, but Lutecia wasn't going to let her prey go. It was too much fun. "Oh, the things we'll have to do together!"

"Is this true?" Einhart asked softly, her face almost as red as Corona's. "Are you really going to be going with them?"

"No!" Corona shook her head violently as she thrashed and tried to get away from Lutecia. "Lu's talking silly! I don't know what she means!"

Lutecia finally let Corona go and giggled as she did so. "You're too cute!"

"W...Wh...Whaaa?!" Corona's eyes swirled as Lutecia giggled and tapped her on the nose. "You were teasing me!" She pouted with Lutecia nodded. "That's not fair!"

Nove chuckled softly and let out a yelp as she felt a pair of hands grabbing her breasts. Growling, she turned around and glared at Subaru, who smiled at her. "What was THAT for?!"

"Just checking to see if Nove's grown any. Tea's gotten bigger again and I wasn't sure if anyone else has grown to match her and..."

Subaru was shut up as both Teana and Nove smacked her over the head, sending her flipping over and her legs and butt to flip out of the water. "Knock it off!" They both yelled at her as her legs twitched a few times.

"Did we miss something?" Rio asked as she and Vivio wandered back over, wondering what the commotion was. "What?" She blinked as everyone but Subaru, who was apparently trying to stand on her head underwater, stared at her, dumbfounded.

"Nevermind." Teana rubbed her forehead and gave Subaru's butt a push, sending the girl's whole body into the water. "Anyway, we should probably calm down before someone comes out her to see what's going on."

"Tea!" Subaru whined as she lifted her head out of the water. "That was so mean!" She teared up and suddenly hugged the other girl, pressing their naked breasts together. "Why are you so mean?"

"Gah! S...Subaru! Let go!" Teana growled as she tried to get out of the hug while everyone looked at her. "Come on, people are staring." Seeing the sad look on Subaru's face, she sighed and relented. "Fine, I guess I went too far, I'm sorry, okay?"

Subaru grinned and let go of her. "Okay."

Nove rubbed her head and sighed. If she didn't know Subaru was her sister, she'd swear that she didn't know the other girl at all.

Watching all of that, Einhart twitched and turned away, her face completely red. "That was... Hardly appropriate." She muttered, mostly to herself. She didn't even want to think about such images, and why the heck would she be interested in wanting to see those two kiss anyway?

"Reminds me of my mom..." Ixpellia shook her head as she thought back into the past. "She was more like Teana, but there was this one consort to both of my parents who acted like Subaru, but she never called me Ixy at least." She grumbled that last bit to herself as she sank into the waters, Caro, who had gotten in while everyone was distracted by Subaru getting beaten up, patted her on the head.

Nove just sighed and decided to slip away from the others and relax on the other end of the hot springs. After a few moments, she sighed and sat down, taking a deep breath to take in the warm air. "Feels nice..." She closed her eyes and smiled.

Stretching her legs out, Nove leaned against the wall of the hot springs and sighed again. It was so relaxing that she couldn't...

Nove's eyes suddenly snapped open and she jumped to her feet, looking down. "...Did something just grab my butt?" It wouldn't be the first time someone felt her up in the bath after all. Looking around and not seeing anything, Nove slipped back under the water, only to yelp as she felt something grab her butt again. "H...hey!" She growled and punched downwards, only to hit the rock and cause the water to splash everywhere. "...What the heck's going on?"

A few moments later, there was squealing and screaming from the other end as the girls seemed to be assaulted at all angles, strangely enough, Nove saw Teana covering her crotch as she bailed out from the water. "...Did something touch her there?" Granted, Nove could see the appeal, Teana did have a very nice body and...

"HEY!" Rio let out a yell as something grabbed her chest. "That's it!" There was a flash of light and Nove stared as Rio gained a good bit of height, a battle dress of some sort and a hair ribbon on her head.

"What the?" Nove wondered what Rio was doing when the younger girl suddenly kicked upwards and what looked like fire and lightning erupted from her foot, sending up a geyser of water out of the hot spring and onto the dock. "...Sein." She groaned as she saw who it was that Rio had attacked. "Suddenly, everything makes perfect sense."

"Sein?!" Teana stared at her friend, who was on the ground, in a white bikini and her eyes were swirling. "...What are you doing here?"

"That would be my fault." A new voice spoke up and the girls turned to see Tre in just a towel that just barely covered her breasts and couldn't even reach down to her crotch properly. "The two of us were on an errand for Knight Carim and we got done a couple of days early. We called Megane just yesterday to see if we could spend a couple days here relaxing." She gave Lutecia a confused expression. "Didn't your mother tell you?"

Lutecia blinked and tapped her chin, before her eyes lit up and she smacked her right fist into her open left hand. "Oh yeah, mom did mention something about that to me. But, um..." She looked down at Sein, who was sitting up and shaking her head, "Sein, why did you have to grope everyone like that? You could have asked."

"I thought it would be more fun to surprise everyone." Sein whimpered at the looks she was getting from Caro and Teana. "I'm sorry?"

"Waaah!" Corona whimpered and pointed at Sein. "You touched my butt!"

"She touched a lot of butts." Nove grumbled as she walked over to them. "She touched mine, twice." She narrowed her eyes at Sein. "You know, as punishment, I'd say we put her in binds and throw her to the boy's side of the bath." She ignored Sein's whimpering at that. "Then again, I'm used to you groping everyone. I think you need to apologize to the younger ones."

"I'm sorry!" Sein immediately got onto her knees and bowed to the group. "Please forgive me, I was just having fun."

"I dunno..." Lutecia grinned and looked at Sein. "Maybe we should have you run around the men's bath naked?"

"Erio's in there!" Caro protested loudly. "You can't have him see her naked!"

"I'll help cook breakfast tomorrow?" Sein looked up at Lutecia hopefully. "I'm not as good as Due, but at least I don't make the kitchen explode every time I cook."

"She's pretty good, actually." Tre smirked and looked at Rio, who was blushing. "So, who's this girl?"

"Ah!" Rio bowed to Tre. "I'm Rio Westley. Ah, I was hoping to keep this a secret until tomorrow, but, um..." She blushed as people looked at her. "I made my own adult mode, see?"

"Corona..." Ixpellia looked at the brown-haired girl. "If you have an adult mode, I might just cry." It wasn't fair, how come kids who weren't even thirteen had adult modes and she didn't? She was a thousand years old, why couldn't she have aged at least a little bit during that time? When Corona shook her head, Ixpellia sighed and suddenly hugged the girl for all she was worth. "You're the only normal friend I have!"

"So," Tre looked at Sein, then at the others, "will you forgive her?"

"Well..." Vivio trailed off and looked at the other girls, "I do. Just don't do it again, or I'll use you for target practice tomorrow before our big group battle."

Tre had a strange gleam come to her eye. "Group battle?" Vivio nodded and Tre gave her a smile. "Mind if I join in? It's been a long time since I had a good scrap with someone who could fight back properly."

"I don't mind." Vivio looked at the others. "What about the rest of you?"

Nove smirked as she looked at Tre. "Might be fun."

"Well, that's settled then!" Lutecia stood to her full height and pointed at Sein. "Tomorrow, you make breakfast, but for now..." She spun and jumped back into the water. "I'm going to enjoy this hot springs."

"Hey! Wait for me!" Vivio yelled and ran after her friend.

Teana sighed and looked at Sein, who grinned at her sheepishly. "At least wait until I'm not in a public place if you have the urge to grab me." Sein's eyes lit up and Teana scowled at her. "No, you can't come to my room tonight and give me a breast massage."

"Drat." Sein pouted. As the others got into the hot springs, she stood up and let out a small yelp as she felt Tre pick her up. "Tre?" A sudden urge to get away came over her, she wasn't sure why, but Tre's smirk probably had something to do with it. "What are you..?"

"I'm going to have to deal with your conduct later." Tre smirked, "but for now..."

The next thing Sein knew, Tre had stripped her naked and tossed her into the hot springs. "GAH!"

Tre chuckled and slid into the water after putting her towel down. Sighing, she leaned back and grinned as she heard the younger girls start splashing Sein for all they were worth.

It was moments like this that made life so rewarding.

* * *

Vivio: Whee! It's time! We're going to have the practice fight now!  
Nove: Einhart, please tell me you're not... Hey, who's that?  
Einhart: I am... Huh?  
Ixpellia: Next time on Blood That Flows - ViVid.  
Corona: Please read it.

I HAD to do the scene from the manga were Sein groped everyone's butts, boobs and, yes, she DID grope Teana's crotch in the manga.


	303. End of ViVid

Blood That Flows

End of ViVid

Of course I own nothing.

* * *

Einhart sighed as she opened up her suitcase to unpack some clothes. She didn't pack much, only about five or six different outfits. If the training was going to be as hard as Vivio hinted, she was going to need several pairs of clothing, they'd all be caked in sweat and dirt quickly enough. Einhart didn't mind the thought of being sweaty when fighting, sparring or training, but she would wash it off as soon as she could.

After all, who wanted to walk around in sweat-soaked clothes?

Einhart's eyes widened and she stepped back as her panties suddenly stood up and moved around in her suitcase. "What the?" She stepped back, wondering if maybe a shrunken troll was in her suitcase and if she should burn her clothes to ashes.

"PWAH!" A familiar head popped out from under her underwear. "I thought you'd _never_ open that up!"

"Sylph?" Einhart blinked as she looked at the Unison Device. "What are you doing here?" The Device looked at her sheepishly. "...And why are you hiding under my underwear?"

"Ah!" Her pupils seemed to disappear as she swung her arms up and down. "I overheard Wendi telling Subaru that she wanted to be able to hide in Nove's suitcase so she could join in this weekend." Einhart nodded as Sylph continued her story. "So, I thought I'd hide in your suitcase, and, I wanted to talk to you." Einhart tilted her head in confusion. "Um, I was wondering if we could be partners."

Einhart blinked and was about to say something when she felt Tio suddenly jumped onto her shoulder and jumped at Sylph. "MRAW!" He seemed to growl as he landed on Sylph and pinned her against the bed. "Mraw! Mraw!"

Sylph's eyes widened. "Ah, no, no. Not that! I wouldn't replace you, Tio, I just wanted to work together with Einhart." She gulped when Tio narrowed his eyes and growled at her. "I promise! I'm not trying to replace you. I just want to help Einhart for the future is all. And..." She pouted and sniffled. "Is it so wrong for me to want a real master?"

"Mraw?" Tio tilted his head as his tail twitched behind him.

Einhart wanted to hug her plushie device, it looked so cute right now.

"Please?" Sylph's eyes teared up. "I won't kick you out, you'll still be her main device, I just want a master of my own to help out."

"Sylph," Einhart stepped forward and pulled Tio away from the Unison Device, "why me? I don't have any wind magic." She blinked as Sylph shook her head. "Okay, I can use wind magic, but I'm not a natural with it and..."

"Does it matter anymore?" Sylph floated upwards and smiled at her softly. "Considering that everyone can use elemental magic these days, even if it's really draining on lower ranked mages and knights..." Sylph blushed at the looks she got from both Tio and Einhart. "I hang around Quint a lot and I overhear a lot of conversations."

"Yes, well, with that information, you know that you could partner with anyone, why me?"

Sylph sighed softly. "Because there's something about you that resonates with me. So, please?"

Einhart rubbed her forehead. "I am not sure that we could be compatible, however, if we are, I will work with you for awhile."

Sylph smiled brightly. "Thank you."

Einhart held up a finger. "However, any work to be compatible with each other will have to wait until after this weekend. We are going to have morning training and after lunch some mock battles." Einhart didn't know what was planned exactly, would it be just a bunch of one on one fights or maybe a team battle? She didn't know if she would work well with others in a team battle, but at least it wasn't like anyone had lethal spells that they would use in the battle.

(-)

A couple of hours later...

Nanoha nodded as she and Raising Heart looked over the team match tomorrow. Tre asking to join them tomorrow in training had been a welcome surprise. Nanoha was actually eager to get back at the tall cyborg after their fight a couple of years ago.

Oh, she forgave Tre for nearly giving her a scar from that fight. Despite everything that she thought she knew about Tre, the older woman was actually a pretty decent person, even if she was a bit on the 'cool' side when dealing with most everyone. Plus it wasn't in Nanoha's nature to hold a grudge.

It didn't mean that she didn't want another shot at her though. She was sure that Fate would forgive her for the team pairings. "Myself, Yuuno, Subaru, Vivio, Corona, Lutecia and Caro against Fate, Teana, Nove, Tre, Rio, Einhart and Erio." Megane and Due had opted out of the sparring match, she didn't know if Arashi wanted to join in and Zest...

"Mind if I join in?" Nanoha spun around to look at Zest, who was looking at her intently. "It would make things more interesting."

Nanoha nodded at him. "Sure, I don't mind. I'll need to think so that the teams aren't too unbalanced of course." He nodded and she turned back to the planner, before sighing. This was going to keep her busy for awhile.

"Why don't you go and relax in the hot springs?" Zest said as he stepped up to where she was. "Megane and I can look this over and organize the teams." Nanoha nodded her thanks to him as she went that way. "And don't worry about Sein making a fuss, Tre said she'd keep her busy." He smirked as Nanoha stumbled.

(-)

Fate looked up as Nanoha, having just a towel on, slipped into the hot water with her. "Hey..." She smiled as Nanoha ducked into the waters until her head was the only thing poking out. "Feels nice, huh?"

"We should turn some of the rooms we have at home into a hot tub room." Nanoha leered at Fate. "Then we could all get into the hot tub and do so much as the jet streams made the water all bubbly."

Fate giggled softly and blushed heavily at the thoughts that suddenly came to her mind. "We'd have to change the water a lot." She let out a small yelp as Nanoha giggled and splashed her with water. "Hey! Nanoha... Knock it off." Her eyes widened as Nanoha got close to her. "Ah... Nanoha..."

"Faaaateee..." Nanoha grinned and before Fate could say anything, the redhead suddenly grabbed Fate and pulled her into a kiss, pressing their bodies against each other as tightly as she could. Both girls shuddered and groaned as tingles went up and down their spines.

"Nanoha..." Fate gasped as they parted several minutes later. "That was..."

"Exciting." Nanoha was grinning while she panted. "Sorry, but I couldn't help it, you looked so... Yummy like this."

Fate blushed heavily. "Um, I invited Yuuno to join us..." She gulped as Nanoha grabbed her rear. "N...Nanoha!"

"Good, he'll get a show then." She grinned as Fate's face turned even redder, if that was possible. "Now, now, Fate... We're going to have some fun."

Fate let out a yelp as Nanoha kissed her on the neck. She mentally hoped that Yuuno would take Thoth off before joining them later at least.

(-)

The next morning...

Lutecia stretched and winced as her back popped. "Hee hee... Maybe I should have taken it easy on those two last night." A leer came to her face as she thought about what she had done last night. At least Erio remembered to lock the door this time.

Lutecia still got a giggle when she thought about her partners forgetting to lock the door when having fun like that.

"Still..." She muttered to herself, wincing slightly and sighing. If she didn't like Caro and Erio as much as she did, she would probably hate what she was doing all the time. "Corona!" Her eyes lit up as she saw the only other person who was up so early. "What are you doing up so early?"

Corona smiled and held her device up. "I wanted to get some time to bond with my device, Brunzel." Brunzel, a device in the shape of a five petal rose crystal, flashed in response. "So, where's Caro or Erio? Vivio told me they get up pretty early, but then she said that sometimes they smelled bad and..." She trailed off as Lutecia giggled and grinned. "What?"

"Oh, nothing, let's just say that I kept them up until a couple of hours ago." Lutecia winked at Corona, who just looked at her in confusion. "OOOOH! You are so CUUUUTE!" Lutecia suddenly jumped and hugged Corona tightly. "I want to keep you all to myself!"

"Didn't you say that yesterday?" Corona looked relieved as Lutecia let go to look at Ixpellia and Rio standing there. Ixpellia shook her head at the two of them. "Vivio, Einhart, Nove and Arashi will be joining us soon." She shrugged at the looks she got from Lutecia and Corona. "I looked into all the rooms before coming here, and those four are the only ones awake right now."

"Thanks, Ixy." Corona smiled at her.

"It's Ixpellia." Ixpellia sighed, wondering why no one _ever_ got her name right.

"Anyway..." Lutecia ignored that and sighed. "Excuse me," she took off into a run and the other three girls blinked as she ran off.

Rio shrugged and looked at Corona. "That's Brunzel, huh?" Corona nodded and Rio grinned. "Good, now I can finally get a proper sparring match against you!"

Corona paled at that thought before sighing. "Fine, but it'll have to wait until later."

"Sure!" Rio grinned and turned as she heard Vivio call out to them. "Vivio! Arashi!"

"I'd still be asleep, but this dummy wouldn't let me sleep." Arashi grumbled as he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes.

"Ah! Who cares about that?" Rio smirked at him. "I can't wait to get to the fun stuff! It gets boring waiting!"

"Careful when you say that," Corona spoke up, "someone might make you work extra hard."

Rio grinned at her. "Good! I hate being bored."

"That's funny," a new voice spoke up and the group looked up and gasped as they saw a petite teenage girl in a skin tight black body suit sitting in mid-air. "So do I." She had yellow eyes and long silver hair. "I'd be cliche and say something like 'sorry about this', but... I'm not sorry at all." She smirked and snapped her fingers, an array snapped around Corona, Rio, Ixpellia, Vivio and Arashi before clear energy shot straight out of the ground, engulfing them. "Don't worry, you won't die, not from this."

"Vivio! Rio! Corona! Ixy! Arashi!" The girl turned her head to see Einhart and Nove rush to try and help out the five in trouble.

"I wouldn't do that if I was..." She trailed off as the two touched the energy at the same time and disappeared. "Oh well, they'll need all the help they can get." The energy faded into nothing just as Lutecia came back and stared at the scene in shock. "Oh, hey, I need your friends for a bit, so... Don't worry, they're alive, but..." She shrugged and faded away herself. "How long isn't really my call. Later!"

Lutecia just stared in shock. "...What... What happened?" All she had to do was use the bathroom and when she got back, all her friends were suddenly gone. "...Vivio? Einhart? Arashi? Ixy? Corona? Rio?" She whimpered, wondering why everyone left her all of a sudden.

Standing up, she trembled as she walked back to the lounge.

This was... Not going to be fun.

- ViVid End

* * *

What? You thought I was going to follow the manga? When I wrote this, the manga was going very slowly, at least four different translator groups dropped the series and it had just announced the tournament arc. Yeah, I dropped it by then. I have no interest in the ViVid manga anymore. It was nice up through the training session at Lu's place, after that? I just lost interest, save for the one chapter where Vita relives her past, that was the only time I was interested after the tournament was announced.

Anyway, I can't tell you when I'll start the next arc, Revolution, because, well, I'm having trouble writing it. So, it's taking me a lot longer than it should for this next arc.

That being said, this story has only two more arcs before it's finished. Yeah, that's right, we're coming up on the end of this story. After 300 chapters the end is in sight.

Maybe that's why my muse is slowing down, she doesn't want to see this end anytime soon. Well, we'll see you when I get to it.

Till next time.

Sneak peek of Revolution

* * *

It was several minutes later when some male voices were heard coming into the clearing. "I'm telling you boss, this is the best score you've made in years."

"I know!" The second person said as he came into view. "Heh, they thought that horseless carriage would help them escape? I might be old, but I'm not stupid."

"Hey!" The two and the eight behind them turned to see Nove glaring at them. "Just what are you two talking about?"

The leader of the group took one look at Nove and suddenly trembled and started walking backwards slowly. "Oh gods no... The... It can't be... But..."

"It's LINA INVERSE! RUN!" The taller of the two yelled as he and the boss threw their arms up and ran as fast as they could. "WE'RE ALL GUNNA DIE!"

"I THOUGHT SHE WAS GONE! WHY DID SHE COME BACK?!"

Nove sweat-dropped and looked at the group. "For some reason, I feel an urge to blow them up. Anyone care to do it?"

"I will!" Vivio grinned and pulled her fist back. "Divine... BUSTER!"

"AAAAAAAH!" The group screamed as a rainbow colored beam descended on them with a violent explosion, sending them flying.

"I knew we should have stopped being bandits years ago!" The leader cried out as he disappeared.

* * *

Those bandits never catch a break.


	304. Revolution Start

Blood That Flows

Revolution Start

I own nothing but the OCs, which were inspired by Hajime Kanzaka's awesome series Slayers and Lost Universe and some of the spells I made up, which are inspired by the Nanoha franchise.

Anyway, I know it's been a long, long while, I'm not done with this arc, but I thought I'd start posting it here so everyone can see it. I'll try for once a week and hope I don't get caught up too quickly.

So, read, enjoy, drop some comments. The chapter's a bit short, but I hope you like it.

* * *

Groaning as the light around them faded, Nove stood up and quickly looked around. From what she could see, they were in some sort of grassy plain. 'Very grassy.' She thought to herself as she saw that it wasn't maintained at all and in haphazard lengths, suggesting that local animals grazed there often. Still, at least the grass only came up to her knees. She may have been the tallest one of the group, but Nove was still rather short by anyone's estimation.

"Where are we?" Rio asked, looking around nervously. "...Are we dead?" She yelped when someone kicked her in the rear and sent her falling flat on her face. "Oww!"

"There's your answer." Arashi muttered as he got up after kicking Rio in the butt. "I don't know where we are though."

"Jet Edge," Nove was looking around and nodding as she saw no hostile beings near them, "can you contact a Bureau ship and let them know where we are?"

There was a pinging noise before Jet Edge responded to her. **"No Bureau ships within range."**

"WHAAAAT?!" Rio and Corona both screamed loudly and Nove sighed as the two of them, Vivio and Einhart all asked their devices to work together to try and boost the signal.

"We're alone..." Rio fell to her knees, trembling. "We're all alone and we're going to..."

"Knock it off!" Nove took a step forward, her eyes narrowed at them. "First of all, you have no freaking idea how huge the universe is, do you?" All of the children shook their heads slowly. "It's huge, okay? The Bureau doesn't have enough ships and manpower to patrol the whole universe, so, it's very possible that we're on a planet that's outside of their normal patrol areas." That seemed to calm the nearly panicking children down. "I'll have Jet Edge keep sending up signals every so often. Eventually someone's going to eventually come across it. It might take a couple of weeks at most, but we'll be okay."

"What makes you think so?" Corona asked as Nove continued to look around.

"Well... I can tell you that despite everything else," Nove pointed to herself, "I'm the daughter of two high ranking ground forces soldiers. My mother is a front line fighter and my father is a colonel," she then pointed at Einhart, "she's my mother's ward on top of that. And Vivio there is a valuable person to both the church and the Bureau, seeing just who she's related to, and Arashi there is related to just as many people as Vivio is, and then there's Ixy..."

"It's Ixpellia," the redhead said absentmindedly as she looked up at the sky and wasn't paying too much attention to the others.

"Right, well, she's a ward of the Saint Church," Nove looked at Rio and Corona, "and you two might not have the same connections as we do, but if you stick with us you should be okay." She then looked at Ixpellia and narrowed her eyes. "Ixy, what are you doing?"

"It's Ixpellia. And I'm trying to figure out which direction is which." The redhead pointed at where the sun was. "From what I can tell, it's either fairly early in the morning or late in the afternoon. So, if this planet is like others that I know of, that way is East or West. Of course, I could be wrong and that way is North or even North-West." She shrugged and turned to the others. "At the very least, we'll be able to watch where we're going, don't you agree?"

Nove nodded, smiling at that. "Good. Now, let's pick a direction and go that way." Ixpellia pointed directly behind Nove. "...Why that way?"

"Because there's no reason not to? Plus I saw some birds flying from that direction." Ixpellia smiled at her.

"Sure." Nove nodded and turned to start walking. "Hopefully we'll find some people before too long."

"How does Nove know this stuff?" Corona whispered to Vivio.

"Her parents work with the Bureau, and she used to be a terrorist." Vivio answered bluntly, much to Corona's shock. "What? Her sister kidnapped me once." Corona stared for several moments before shaking her head and running after the group. She was really thinking about making a golem to travel faster, or at least be able to see further, it sucked being small some days.

Nove sighed and almost rubbed her forehead. Well, at the very least, nothing bad should happen if they were just going to walk in a random direction.

(-)

"Hurry up with that!" A man yelled as several people ran around the village, smashing stuff and tearing stuff apart. He was fairly tall and lanky with white hair and gray eyes. He was wearing black pants and an over-sized blue shirt on his body. If one was to look at him, they would say that he had a pretty face, however, his eyes were incredibly cold as he looked around. "After we're done here, we need to move onto the next village."

"Why are you doing this?" An elderly couple looked at the man, trembling in fear as they watched their home get torn into.

"Well, you have nothing to worry about." The man smiled at them as he turned and knelt down. "You see, my boss recently lost a couple of tools of his and we've searched everywhere back home for them. So, we can only assume that they're not at home and we came here, looking for them." The man chuckled at their confused question as he pulled out a picture. "Yes, these two, have you seen them?"

Looking at the picture, both of them shook their heads. "N...No. We've not seen anyone like that." The male of the two said, his voice shaky.

Sighing the man put the photo away. "Blast, but still, perhaps they were here and moved on a long time ago, we need to make sure that they didn't leave any clues." He chuckled and turned away from them. "After all, who knows where they are these days?"

"Boss!" One of his underlings slid up to him. "Lord Gram, we have found nothing here."

Gram twitched and nodded. "Fine, we'll just move on then. We have more important things to worry about than this." He started to walk away when someone yelled at him. Turning, he raised an eyebrow as one of the younger villagers glared at him. "What is it, boy?"

"You... You can't just come here and destroy our stuff and then leave!" He glared, his hands squeezed into fists so tightly that his knuckles were white. "I won't let you get away with that!" When Gram chuckled at him, the boy grabbed a rock and threw it at him, hitting him in the shirt.

"Boy..." Gram stopped chuckling and walked towards the boy with measured steps. "You're very lucky I wasn't wearing my white suit today. I would have to kill you then."

"Get out!" The boy screamed and grabbed another rock to throw it at Gram. Before he could do so, Gram was in front of him, grabbing the boy's wrist and lifting him up. "Let go!"

"Now, now..." Gram narrowed his eyes at the boy. "Why should I do that? I graciously let you and your village survive. I could just order my minions to slaughter everyone, couldn't I?" He chuckled and threw the boy through a hut. "Next time, stay down, idiot. You don't have a chance to survive anyway."

A moment later, another rock bounced off of his head. Sighing, Gram turned to see who had attacked him this time before blinking. "A bunch of children in weird garb coming to challenge me?"

The blonde girl with mismatching eyes glared at him. "What are you doing?! Attacking people for no good reason?!"

"Oh, he attacked me first, and I was just looking through this village for something, nothing more, nothing less." Smirking, Gram snapped his fingers and several of his underlings appeared around him in almost an instant. "Now, now, if you wish to fight me... I could arrange it, but what guarantee do you have that these villagers wouldn't be caught in the crossfire?"

"Vivio," a redheaded woman put a hand on her shoulder, "let me talk." The blonde girl nodded and the redhead narrowed her eyes at him. "Just what are you doing here?!"

"Like I said, I was looking for something, but it keeps slipping away from me. Though, I suppose if you know where it is, then I can stop terrorizing people and leave with it."

"And just..." The redhead growled at him, "what are you looking for?"

Gram smirked, pulled out a photograph and tossed it towards the redhead. "You wouldn't happen to know where that is, would you?"

The redhead grabbed the picture and held it in front of her, staring in shock. "...This is..."

"Ah! You do know!" Gram grinned at her. "So, just tell me where those two are, and we'll be on our way."

"No, I won't." She narrowed her eyes at him. "Those two are living a happy life now, they're finally recovering from whatever it was that you did to them and you want them back?!" Gram shrugged, chuckling at her rage. "It's not funny!"

"Oh, but it is, you think they're human? They were made to serve my master, nothing more, nothing less."

"Their names..." The redhead growled as she crushed the photograph in one hand and pulled out a green gem with her other hand, "are Amitie and Kyrie Florian!"

"Huh..." Gram blinked and nodded. "I do recall that they were called that, yes. I mean, who can tell what all their tools are called when they're the same thing? It's like knowing the difference between a flat screwdriver and a cross screwdriver. They're both screwdrivers after all." He smirked and waggled a finger at them. "Ah! Ah! Ah! If we start fighting here, we might accidentally hurt the villagers." He smirked at the hesitation that the others showed. "Then again, what do I care? Get them."

His minions let out a scream and rushed the group. Gram raised an eyebrow as five of the group of seven were suddenly surrounded in light for a moment. When it dimmed, the redhead that addressed him was in different clothing, three of the girls had actually changed sizes and clothes while a forth girl changed clothes, but not sizes and the last two didn't change at all. "Might be fun after all."

(-)

"Dammit!" Nove cursed, this was not how she wanted to spend her vacation! Ducking under a swipe at her head, she did a back flip and drove her foot into the creature's head. Her eyes widened as the skull seemed to fracture, before splitting down the middle. "What the?"

"Geeheeheehee!" The creature chuckled at her and punched her in the stomach, sending her flying back.

"Damn, no wonder I was worried!" Nove groaned as she flipped to her feet. "Mazoku!"

* * *

Nove: What the hell?! We've been here less than a day and we're being attacked by Mazoku? This isn't going to be fun, does anyone know any spells to deal with these things? Next time on Blood That Flows - Revolution, shock and awe, new enemies come! Read it, or I might get upset.  
Rio: N...No way...


	305. Revolution Two

Blood That Flows

Revolution Two

Copyright law doesn't care if I put a disclaimer up, I just do it out of habit.

* * *

Arashi's eyes widened when he heard Nove call that word out. His mother and sister had drilled him for years about Mazoku. Most weren't very nice beings to humans, since they needed to draw upon negative emotions to survive.

He may have been wrong, since he sometimes fell asleep during the lectures that he was given about them.

Ixpellia stepped in front of Arashi and narrowed her eyes at the oncoming creatures. "I take it that these things are unpleasant?"

"You could call them demons." Arashi muttered as a red sphere with golden flecks formed in his hand. "I think mom said something about them being immune to normal magic and weapons."

"Gyhahahahahaha!" A creature that looked like an unholy cross of spider and monkey leapt at them. "Your mother's smart, kid, too bad you're not as smart!" It blinked as Ixpellia threw a knife right at its face. "Ha ha! Fool!" Opening its mouth, it swallowed the knife whole. "See how useless it is, and now I... I..." It blinked and looked down as where its stomach area would be started to sizzle. "What the?"

"Oh, I'm sorry," Ixpellia grinned as she flicked her wrist and many more knives appeared in her hand, "I thought to use some Holy-imbued weapons against you. I hope you don't mind."

"You... You little..." The monkey spider hissed as it forced the weapon out of its stomach and onto the ground. "How dare..?" It groaned and twitched as it looked at Ixpellia and Arashi. "Well, this sucks."

Ixpellia grinned at it. "Yep."

"Well then..." The monkey-spider grinned and Ixpellia and Arashi both stared as several copies of it seemed to form out of thin air. "Can you handle eight of me?!" They all said at the same time and rushed forward.

Ixpellia narrowed her eyes. "Fine. Arashi, use your magic to cover me." She ignored Arashi's protest and sent out several blades in front of her and grimaced as the demonic creatures seemed to disappear and reappear, causing the blades to miss them.

"I'm not that good with magic!" Arashi protested, but still threw a gold-flecked fireball at one that almost grabbed Ixpellia.

"Ha!" The Mazoku laughed as the flames washed over its body. "You think that you can hurt me with..." It trembled and fell to the ground, screaming in pain. "THAT... IMPOSSIBLE! URRGH!" Growling, it glanced up and glared at Arashi. "KILL THEM! DON'T LET ANY SURVIVE!"

Ixpellia tensed as the Mazoku started to circle them. This wasn't going to be good.

(-)

Corona let out a yelp as a gout of flame erupted from the fingertip of the Mazoku that had chosen her as an attack target. "Brunzel," she whimpered to her device, which looked more like a dagger than a rose in its activated form, "call it up."

"I have to admit," the Mazoku that she was facing seemed to _purr_ at her, "that outfit is so cute on you. Though, I think you'd look better with blue than black and white like you've got." The Mazoku nodded as it looked over Corona's outfit, which had a black top, sleeves and finger-less gloves, but somehow left the shoulders bare, and a white, flowing dress around her legs. "Though, if you're going to..." The Mazoku trailed off as a giant stone creature formed behind Corona. "Oooh! You can summon Golems, huh?"

Corona gulped as the Mazoku grinned at her. Why did she not like that grin?

"Well then, let's PLAY!" The Mazoku smirked and extended its arm to grab the Golem's head. "I mean, really, a normal stone golem? You'd have better luck putting out a volcano by spitting into it."

Corona's eyes widened as the Mazoku crushed the head of her Golem easily. "No way..."

The Mazoku grinned and turned to face her. "See? So easy. Now then, how about we see if your head is tougher than the Golem's head, hmm?" It slowly slinked up towards Corona, ignoring how the young girl was raising that weird dagger in her hand.

Corona pointed her device at the Mazoku. "Rocket Punch!"

The Mazoku blinked a few times before turning and gaping as a spinning, flying fist slammed into its body and sent it flying away from Corona.

"Thanks Goliath." Corona let out a sigh of relief as she reformed her Golem's head.

"My, my, my..." Corona's eyes widened as she felt the Mazoku's hand on her chin. "Such an attack from someone like you. Impressive, but..." Corona started to gag as that hand grabbed her by the throat and lifted her up, squeezing tightly and slowly crushing the young girl's windpipe, "futility, thy name is humans." Laughing as Corona grabbed at the hand slowly killing her, the Mazoku started swinging her back and forth. "You're so cute though, maybe I'll keep your body as a keepsake. Yes, a little doll for me to play with."

Corona couldn't answer as her eyes rolled into the back of her head and black spots formed around her vision.

"Oh, dying so soon?" The Mazoku chuckled and narrowed its eyes. "Well then, you were a fun little," the Mazoku jumped back, still holding onto Corona as the Golem punched at her. "Oh, you," pointing a finger at the Golem, the Mazoku smirked as the thing vibrated and then shattered into a multitude of pieces. "Nice try with your cute toy, but now, you need to die."

Corona could feel tears welling up in her eyes. She was going to die? Like this? It wasn't fair!

The Mazoku chuckled again and held Corona's body away from its body. "Well then, time to..." Several yellow shots ripped through the air, blasting through the Mazoku's arm until it was detached from the main body. "What the?!" The Mazoku turned, only to see a red and blue blur suddenly race through and grab Corona, who was on the ground, coughing hard. "Who the hell?"

"Nove Nakajima." The blur said as it stopped, revealing that redheaded girl from before.

Corona continued to cough as air was forced through her abused throat. "N..ove?"

"Hang on," Nove said as she activated her Airliner and took off, "we're not in any sort of position to fight back right now."

Corona could only nod. "Where..."

"We'll get to them!" Nove yelled, then cursed as she saw Vivio and Einhart fighting against three Mazoku. "Hang on, we're going to give them some support."

(-)

Gram watched, slightly bored as those humans fought back against his scouting team. It wasn't too impressive, though he found those redheads to have some interesting tricks at least. "That's it, I think it's time to step in." Smirking, he bent space and took one step forward, appearing just in front of the dark haired girl with a ribbon on the top of her head. "You, what is your name?"

"Rio Westley," the girl said as she jumped back and grabbed a chunk of the ground and lifted it up, tearing out a giant rock in the process.

"Not bad." Gram nodded to her, held up one hand and snapped his fingers, causing the rock to shatter into pebbles. "But, I'm afraid, I just wanted to know who it was that I'm going to kill."

Rio's eyes widened and the next thing she knew, Gram was in front of her, picking her up by her outfit and smirking. "What? Going to use me as a hostage?"

"Rio!" Gram turned to see that blonde with two colored eyes look at them in fear.

"Stop!" Gram ordered his minions. "That's enough of that." He smirked as they stepped back and the kids were able to gather together. "Now then, about my master's toys..." He sent a mental command to the Mazoku around him to keep those humans from getting anywhere near him.

"I wouldn't tell you anything about Amitie and Kyrie!" Nove growled at him. "Now let Rio go!"

Gram gave her an amused look, before sighing dramatically. "Fine." He let go of Rio, who fell to the ground. Her eyes widened in shock and delight, as did that blonde haired girl's eyes. Gram grinned evilly as Rio's feet were mere centimeters from touching the ground and pointed an open palm at Rio.

"What?" Rio's eyes widened as she felt a tremendous energy build-up. A second later she let out a cry as something hot and painful tore through her stomach area.

"Oh dear." Gram grinned as Rio stumbled backwards, clutching at her upper stomach. "That had to hurt."

"RIO!" The humans all cried out at once and Gram just pointed at the injured girl, blasting her with a purple blast that sent her flying backwards, parallel to the ground.

"Oh dear, that must hurt." Gram smirked, "especially since there's that cliff I just knocked her over. Oh well." He snapped his fingers and a spell array formed in mid air. It was just a simple circle with some runes etched around the edges of it. The fear he felt from the girl as the spell fired several dozen bolts of magical death down on her was just delicious.

When he heard a splash from below and the array, Gram turned to face the humans and grinned at them while holding up one hand and flexing his fingers. "Now then, perhaps you'll be more willing to talk? Or should I kill another one of your friends?"

Nove stared at the Mazoku as he grinned at her, she couldn't find her breath, she could barely feel anything other than the cold block of ice her blood had turned into. "R...Rio..."

"Oh," Gram's eyes were full of amusement, "is that the first time a friend of yours has died? So, just tell me what I wish to know and no one else has to die." He pointed a finger at them lazily, "or should I kill another of your friends first?"

The ice in her veins cleared instantly and Nove pressed something on her arm gauntlet. "Everyone, get ready to run." She said calmly as she narrowed her eyes. She didn't know what good it would do to run away, but they couldn't win, not like this. None of them had any weapons or spells that could deal with a Mazoku like this.

"And where are we going to run?" Arashi growled at her, wishing he could do different types of magic at that moment. Or at least be able to use his Chaos magic properly, since all he seemed to be able to do with it was generate random effects, allow him to teleport if he knew where he was going, and that was about it.

"I don't know, we're just going to run." Nove narrowed her eyes at the smirking Mazoku and pointed her Gun Knuckle at him. "I don't know if this will be any good, but..." A thick green gas was blasted out in front of Nove, quickly covering the Mazoku. Turning around, she grabbed Corona, who had gone into a state of shock, Arashi and Ixpellia before activating her Airliner and rushing off. "Vivio! Einhart! Let's go!"

"Right!" They nodded, rushing after her. They had fought these things, and none of them had the magic needed to fight back. Vivio knew Black magic, but, the spells she knew wasn't that good. After all, Blast Ash and Disfang didn't seem to do anything against these creatures and she couldn't call up the Nemesis Breaker for some reason.

Gram frowned as he looked at the green gas. "What is this?" For some reason, even his ability to see the mystical wasn't penetrating it. As it got closer to him, he touched it and his frown turned into a scowl.

The Mazoku around him started to scream in pain and Gram found his own hand starting to, amazingly enough, blister as if he was human and had a harsh chemical poured over his hand. "Impossible." Snapping his fingers, a gust of wind blew the gas away and he got his first look at his minions.

Twitching, Gram growled for a moment before calming down. While his minions were hurting badly, none of them were dead, not yet. "Interesting." He would need to think on these matters. "Pull yourselves back together. We're heading back to base."

As he faded, Gram wondered just who this Nove Nakajima was, and how she developed a weapon that could hurt Mazoku so badly. 'Well,' he corrected himself a moment later, 'low level Mazoku.' He suspected that even mid-level Mazoku would be in pain from that gas. But something like him? A General? It was only enough to make his metaphysical skin blister.

"Master..." He turned to one of the Mazoku and sighed, wishing that they had at least taken on genders, it would be much easier to remember them if they were male or female. "Are we heading back to that human kingdom?"

"Yes... Ruvinagald." Gram smirked, glad that he and his minions could use it as a base for their stay on this world.

* * *

Nove: Did we lose them? Urgh, what the hell should we do now?  
? ? ?: Well now, I didn't think you'd ever use that ability.  
Nove: You... It's impossible!  
? ? ?: Next time on Blood That Flows - Revolution. I shall laugh like a maniac.  
Vivio: The audience doesn't even know who you are yet!

* * *

So, someone said that with Einhart and Vivio, the group should be okay since Olivie and Klaus made Garoth worried.

The thing is, Garoth wasn't worried about them exactly. He was concerned that the child born of them would be able to challenge and kill him, so he had to nix that in the bud. Kind of like Cronus in Greek Mythology was scared of Hera, Zeus, Hades, Demeter, and Poseidon so he ate them.

As for Arashi as a Chaos battery, well, that's just it, that's really all the magic he has and since he could use it instinctively, though he never used it for any combat spells, it's a bit harder to teach him since, unlike Nanoha, he's only had one major threat on his life, the Mariage incident, and, well, he wasn't too needed there. Things are different this time.

Don't worry though, things will get better for them, just not right away.


	306. Revolution Three

Blood That Flows

Revolution Three

I own nothing.

Sorry about the delay, I lost motivation to do anything last month due to some major issues in life. Things are turning around, so, hopefully I can get back to the swing of things.

* * *

"Did we escape?" Nove asked as she looked around, expecting to be attacked at any time now.

"Looks like it." Einhart said as Nove put down the three kids she was holding. "Nove, what was going on back there? Nothing I or Vivio-san did worked on those things. What were they?"

"Mazoku." Arashi said, his voice repeating a lesson that had been drilled into his head for years. "They're creatures of thought and energy. What you saw back there was their shadow." He sighed at the confused looks he was getting. "Mom told me that their real bodies don't exist in the world. Or rather, we can't see them because we don't have special eyesight. What we saw and fought was just their shadows. We can't really hurt them, but..."

"They can hurt us." Ixpellia finished for Arashi. "How do we hurt them then?"

"Your knife things." Arashi pointed at her hands. "They seemed to hurt that one pretty good."

"From what I recall," Vivio tapped her chin, "they can only be hurt by Astral, Black and Holy magic, or weapons with those properties, right?" Arashi nodded and she sighed. "Great, maybe my Divine Buster is Holy, but I know Chris doesn't have those properties."

"For now," Nove spoke up as she rubbed Corona's back as the girl was hunched over and dry heaving, "we're going to travel and keep going until we come across a road or something." She sighed as everyone but Ixpellia looked at her in confusion. "From what I saw, this is an older world. Roads, even if it's just two dirt trails due to wheels going over a spot over and over again, would indicate that some sort of civilization is nearby. Even if we can't find signs of carts, we could probably find a dirt path where people walk on foot." Nove was never more thankful for Due, Tre and Uno drilling her and her other sisters on what to do if caught in a heavily undeveloped world without support. "We'll go in one direction, stay close to each other, Vivio, you take the front and look for anything that would indicate a village, city or even just a cottage, okay?" Corona finally stopped dry heaving and stood up, blushing hard.

Vivio nodded and started to walk while Arashi, Ixpellia and Einhart followed behind her while Nove and Corona brought up the rear.

"R...Rio..." Corona sniffled , looking more miserable than Nove had ever seen her or any of Vivio's friends look before. "W...Why?"

"Corona," Nove stopped and turned the younger girl to look at her in the eyes. "Can you keep moving right now?" She looked at Corona with an understanding sadness. "When we settle down for the night, you can let it out, okay?" Corona nodded and turned away, stumbling forward and sniffling miserably.

Nove sighed heavily, wondering how the heck they were going to get out of this one. "Jet Edge, scan for any sort of life forms for a radius of three kilometers."

**"Yes."**

"And don't be a smart-ass either, report as soon as you find anything." Nove grumbled, remembering some of the complaints that she had heard from her mother about some of the Intelligent Devices that were in the Bureau.

Though, Nove did wonder if her mother ever met Thoth. _That_ would have been interesting. Still, Nove wondered just who had the bright idea of putting a perverted program into an Intelligent Device in the first place. 'Probably Mary or Shari.'

As they walked along, Nove wondered if they'd find a way back home any time soon.

(-)

Back on Carnaaji, Nanoha narrowed her eyes as she felt dark energies slowly leak out from the spot that Lutecia had brought her and the others to. "Definitely Black magic here." She looked at Yuuno, who shook his head and sighed. "Damn." Yuuno was way better at teleportation spells than she was, and if he couldn't scry just how far away the kids were, then they could be anywhere in reality.

"See?" Nanoha turned to look at Lutecia. The young girl was smiling nervously at her, fidgeting and wringing her hands together. "See? I told you. I didn't... It wasn't... I couldn't..."

"Lutecia." Nanoha said softly, causing the girl to cringe softly, "I'm not upset at you." When Lutecia sighed, Nanoha mentally cursed Levi for what she did to the poor girl. "You did a good job." She smiled at the young girl, who finally relaxed. "Go back to the house, okay?" Lutecia nodded and turned around, running off towards the house and was met part way by Erio. "So..." Nanoha turned to look at Yuuno and Fate, as the latter walked towards them, worry clearly written on their faces. "What do we know?"

**"Black magic teleporation magic."** Raising Heart helpfully supplied for everyone.

"Thank you," Nanoha bit her lower lip, unable to stop herself from worrying. "Fate, Yuuno, can either of you..." She wasn't surprised when they shook their heads.

**"I can't say what this is, but I can say that it's unlikely it ended up anywhere in this universe."**

Yuuno, Fate and Nanoha all looked at Thoth in shock. "And... Why do you say that?" Yuuno asked his device, who seemed, despite not having a face, to be rather smug.

**"Because the level of complexity is way too high to be a simple spactial disruption. It's beyond what most humans could do, outside of using magic to tear the Universe apart. So it's possible that they're in one of the other three universes. Since the Dark universe is off limits to Mazoku and Shinzoku for the moment, it leaves only the Red and White universes."**

"And what makes you think..?" Nanoha began, only to get cut off as Thoth played a recording that she had long since forgotten.

**"This universe will be absorbed by this... Big Crunch... And then be reborn. Without Mazoku or Shinzoku to influence it this time around."**

Yuuno nodded and adjusted his glasses. "So, if it's unlikely they're in this universe, which of the other two would they be in?"

"It's not like we could preserve this and find a Mazoku to ask." Fate mused to herself and blinked when Yuuno and Nanoha both stared at her. "...What?"

"You do know that there's spells that keep magical energy from dissipating, right?" Yuuno pointed out as he knelt down next to the spot. "We could keep this pretty much preserved for a few months if we need to. As for finding a Mazoku..."

When Yuuno sighed, Nanoha grimaced. "Riksfalto?"

"It's not like we could ask Xellos or one of his bosses, could we?" Yuuno shot back to her. "I mean, it's not like..."

**"We could go to Hong Kong back on Earth."**

"Thoth... What are you..?"

**"If she didn't get bored of it, the last information I had of her has Mazoku Lord Zelas in charge of the criminal underworld in Hong Kong these days."**

Yuuno frowned at his device as he set up the field. "Thoth, I'm going to feel stupid for asking, but, how is it that you have so much information on Mazoku?"

**"I have over twenty files and two hundred sub-files regarding Mazoku, Shinzoku and any information on the Lord of Nightmares to pull up in a hurry. This includes all information on where they are at the current moment. No data on the unknown White Staff universe, all Shinzoku of this universe are unknown, the only known Mazoku include Garoth, sealed into the Sea of Chaos, Levi, currently fate unknown, possibly alive due to footage from the outer rim areas of the Bureau,"** Yuuno and Nanoha both looked at Fate, who shook her head. They all knew that it was probably her, but without concrete proof they had nothing to go by, **"next Mazoku that is known is Lucefer, last seen years ago talking to Lindy Harlaown at a social gathering, presumably stays on Earth most of the time. Mazoku Neph was defeated by Agent Lanster three years ago during the Mariage crisis, its former host, Runessa Magnus, is currently living a peaceful life on Cranagan. Mazoku of the Red Staff universe include Riksfalto, who travels to worlds in war, Xellos, who spends most of his time on his home world, Mazoku Lord Dynast Sherra, who was only seen once on this staff, Mazoku Lord Deep Sea Dolphin was last seen some years ago and Mazoku Lord Greater Beast Zelas Metallium took over the Hong Kong underworld before leaving behind a proxy of herself."**

Nanoha bit her lower lip, dealing with Riksfalto would be bad enough, but having to deal with a Mazoku Lord... "So, do we try and find Riksfalto or take a trip to Earth?" She grimaced as both Yuuno and Fate agreed going to Earth would be faster. "Alright. We'll go then." This was going to be a pain in the ass. She didn't want to deal with Zelas if she could help it. "But, I'm going to call mom up, maybe she can figure out what happened here first."

"I hope so." Fate said, knowing that Lina's knowledge of stuff like this was beyond most people's, even if she did pass on as much as she could. Sometimes, even if you knew something, you could miss something that other people would notice.

(-)

The sun was starting to go down when Nove called it a day. Seeing the kids sigh in relief, she shook her head and cleared her throat. "Alright, listen up, we don't know what's going to happen, so, first thing's first, Arashi, you and Ixy clear an area out that we can build a campfire."

"It's Ixpellia." The redhead replied automatically as she went to do what was asked of her.

"Einhart, Vivio, find some dead branches and wood and bring it back here. Don't go too far though." They both nodded and took off. Nove was just grateful they stuck to their adult modes for now. "I'll find some rocks and other stuff. Corona..." She sighed when Corona looked at her blankly. "Just... Just help Ixy and Arashi, okay?" Corona nodded at her as Nove went to find some rocks to use to help control the campfire.

"It's Ixpellia." Ixpellia called after Nove.

(-)

It was hours later, after the sun had long gone down, that the group found itself around the campfire. Arashi, Einhart and Vivio had long since fallen asleep, followed by Corona, who was occasionally sniffling in her sleep and finally Ixpellia had finally laid down to rest her head.

Nove sighed softly as she looked at the group. Even if they were trying to be strong, she could see that what happened to Rio was affecting Vivio and Einhart just as badly as Corona. Considering the way that the two of them were twitching in their sleep and mumbling Rio's name, she wouldn't be surprised if they did something stupid to try and avenge what happened to Rio.

Rubbing her forehead, Nove tried to figure out what to do next. Other than finding a city and hopefully getting into contact with the Bureau, the most she could do was try to make sure that they all survived this adventure. "What I wouldn't give for some advice right now."

"Now, now, Nove, you really shouldn't be talking like that." A familiar voice spoke up and Nove paled as she looked around, wondering if a Mazoku was messing with her mind. "Didn't I teach you better than that?"

"Doctor?" Nove stood up and looked around. "What's going on?" She gripped her device tightly and was prepared to fight when she heard another voice that should have been impossible to hear.

"Maybe if you stopped squeezing your device, you could find out."

"Un-nee?" Nove gasped and held up her device, staring in shock as it flashed several times. "...Jet Edge, what's going on?"

"Sorry," Uno's voice spoke up and Nove gasped as miniature holograms of Uno and Jail suddenly appeared in the palm of her hand, "I hacked this device, we're the OS now." She crossed her arms under her breasts and smirked. "Not a bad device, I have to admit, but it could use some tweaks to it."

"H...H...How?" Nove was trembling as she fell to her butt in shock. "You two are dead. I didn't get this device until after you were dead, how the _hell_ are you two in it?"

Jail grinned at Nove. "Have you forgotten? I'm a mad scientist! I can do anything! Hahahahahaha!" He threw his hands up as he laughed at the question.

"Yes, and the fact that you slipped a little program into Nove's Gun Knuckle has absolutely nothing to do with it." Uno rolled her eyes at the other hologram's antics. "Yeah, that's what happened. Shortly after the doctor created your Gun Knuckle's modifications, he made a program that would sleep until you ran across a Mazoku for real. Or at least battled one directly." She shrugged, deeming it unimportant. "But, dead? Really?" Uno raised an eyebrow at Nove. "You sure that we weren't just badly injured and people thought we were dead?"

"Bah! As if death could stop me!"

Uno snorted at Jail. "Yes, because things don't die when they're killed."

Jail coughed, which Nove found weird, considering he was a hologram. "Anyway, if you're curious, Nove, the gas weapons that I incorporated into your Gun Knuckle..." He grinned at her. "While they're mass-based weapons, they don't hurt humans too much, do they?" Nove shook her head. "Well, it's interesting, but I found a nice little side-effect to the gas mixtures I was making. While it could, at most, irritate skin and eyes, and do some other not so harmful effects, the gas was a nerve toxin to Astral based beings. I admit, the Shinzoku Sirius was a big help in that regard."

"So... You just gave me a weapon that works opposite of what most weapons and spells are supposed to work against Mazoku?" Nove stared in shock as Jail grinned at her. "...How the HELL did you pull that off?"

"I'm an evil genius." Jail laughed at her and fell over when Uno smacked him hard. "Oww!"

"Knock it off." Uno rolled her eyes. "Anyway, either Jail or myself will be around if you need to talk, Nove." She frowned as Nove looked at them weirdly. "What's wrong?"

"It's... Good to see you both." Nove rubbed her eyes with her free hand, wiping away the tears that were forming there. "Even if you're just a program in my Intelligent Device, I've missed you a lot."

"If I was alive, I'd probably tell you the same thing." Uno smiled at her. "...Are you _sure_ that I'm dead? I mean, did you recover a body?"

"Due-nee told us that a Mazoku possessed Quattro and then used her to stab you in the back and the doctor in the front and then the Mazoku took your bodies to get rid of them." Nove sighed and fought back a pang of sadness as she spoke about it.

Jail frowned and looked at Uno, who shrugged. "Well, if you say so, but I really don't think we're dead."

"It's been over three years." Nove rubbed her eyes. "Going on four now. I think you two are gone."

"Fine, fine." Uno waved her off. "Anyway, we're still scanning for anyone who's human or not, but so far, it's just your group." She smirked at Nove. "So, when did you become a babysitter?"

Nove just groaned. Even if it was just a hologram, it was nice to see Jail and Uno again.

"Nove?" The redhead looked up as Ixpellia walked towards her. "Who are... Ack! Spirits!"

"Actually, we're extremely advanced holographic images with personalities and information of two people that are apparently dead uploaded into Nove's weapon systems and currently hijacking Nove's Intelligent Device." Uno explained for Ixpellia, who stared at her. "But, it might be easier to think of us as ghosts."

"AAAH! Ghosts!" Ixpellia paled as she looked at the holograms. "Bad ghosts! Go away!"

Uno smirked and her eyes went white. "I am the ghost of your first..."

"He was a boy!" Ixpellia snapped at Uno, and blushed as Uno, Jail and Nove stared at her. "That is, um..." She sighed and walked over to Nove, sitting down. "They're not really ghosts, are they?"

"Not really." Nove shook her head. "It wouldn't be inappropriate to call them that, but... Well, Ixy..."

"It's Ixpellia." The smaller girl rolled her eyes as Nove smirked at her. "You're doing that on purpose."

"Yes." Nove chuckled at her. "This is Jail Scagiletti, the man who raised me, and Uno, my eldest sister."

"Ixpellia?" Jail looked at the younger-looking redhead. "As in, Ixpellia, the Underworld King?" Ixpellia grimaced at the title, but nodded in response.

"The only one of three major kings to have survived the ages." Nove sighed softly. "Is it important, Doctor?"

Jail chuckled at Nove as he looked at Ixpellia. "She's probably the oldest person alive right now." Uno, Nove and Ixpellia all looked at him in confusion. "After all, what can I expect from someone who's descended from the survivors of Al Hazard?"

"...You know of my great-great-grandparents?" Ixpellia asked him, stunned as Jail chuckled. "I remember reading a book about how they, just after they got married, had to escape a giant city from a monstrous attack."

"Not personally, but I've done research into you. Your name appears way too soon in the history books after Al Hazard fell." Jail smiled at her. "It's good to know that you survived."

"Even though none of my kingdom survived, I am glad to meet someone who also survived from that time?" She was shocked when he shook his head. "What do you mean?"

"I lived during the time of Al Hazard, I died during the final hours of the great city." Jail's hologram gave her a shrug and held his hands up helplessly. "The Jail who raised Nove was a clone of him."

"Ah." Ixpellia nodded at him. "Between the cyborgs, clones, artificially born mages and aliens from other dimensions, I sometimes wonder if there are any normal humans left alive in this time."

Nove laughed. "It's good to hear something like that... Even if Rio..." Sighing, she felt her good mood evaporate instantly. "I don't think that I can keep that out of my mind."

Ixpellia sat next to Nove and surprised the other redhead by giving her a hug. "You did well, Nove." She gently cradled Nove against her chest. "If you didn't do what you did, we'd all be dead right now, not just Rio."

"Doesn't make it any easier." Nove's tone was extremely distressed, but the way Ixpellia was rubbing her head did make her relax somewhat.

"If it did, you wouldn't feel anything."

"Or you're a psychopath." Uno supplied for Ixpellia.

* * *

Nove: So now we have Un-nee and the Doctor back, but we're still horribly lost and I...  
Uno: Hey, new people coming, ten-o-clock.  
? ? ?: Oh COME ON! Not again!  
Nove: Find out next time on Blood That Flows - Revolution

Yeah, again, sorry about the delay, life was beating me down and then kicking me when I was trying to get up again. Hopefully it'll wait just a few weeks before doing that again to me.


	307. Revolution Four

Blood That Flows

Revolution Four

I own nothing.

Urgh, really bad news, my computer crashed and took everything with it. That includes the master copy of Blood That Flows. Thankfully I still have everything saved up online, but still, very annoying, plus I lost all my notes, which is really annoying, because I had scenes written out for the future.

* * *

Elsewhere...

"You're back."

Gram smirked at the human who ran a section of the Ruvinagald Kingdom. "Ah, Duchess," he bowed to the redheaded woman, "how have things been going?"

The Duchess narrowed her eyes at him. "Perfectly fine, you don't need to worry about me."

"Of course not." Gram chuckled as he saw the Duchess' beastman bodyguard glare at him. "Keep staring like that and you'll be frozen like that forever."

"Did you find anything on your trip?"

"Sadly, no." Gram sighed as he looked at her. "If you'll excuse me."

Growling, the tiger-like beastman glared at the Duchess. "Why would you put up with that..."

"Because, if not for him, my mother..." The Duchess growled out that word like it was a curse, "would still be in charge." The young girl stood up to her full height, which, considering that she was still growing, wasn't that impressive. "Duclis, I told you, unlike my mother, I have no desire to create war, however..."

"That doesn't mean you don't want control." The beastman nodded at her. "I told you, so long as you help me get what I want, I'll help you."

"Revenge against those countries that let your country fall to ruin, huh?" She smirked at him. "That's fine. That Zanaffar Armor will be more than enough for that. How is the complete version, anyway?"

Duclis chuckled and closed his eyes. "I feel like I could take an army out easily." Being cut off the Astral plane had its advantages, of course, as did the total immunity to almost any sort of magic. "Still..."

"You're worried about the rapid advancement of technology." The Duchess frowned, wondering who was making such discoveries. "Still, I wouldn't worry too much." The fact that there were now steam-powered trains and rapid advances in medicine was just something that people had to deal with.

"Still, I'm surprised that woman would ever bother to have a child." Duclis snorted, but knew that the late Gioconda had to know that she wouldn't live forever.

"Don't be stupid." The young Duchess snorted at him. "That woman only had me by mistake, I'm glad she's dead and gone."

"Still..." Duclis snorted and turned away. "I don't trust our allies..."

"They're Mazoku, they never hid that, and they've been open about their plans in this country." The young Duchess smiled at him. "Still, if you're here, I'm sure that the Zanaffar Armor will help you protect me." Duclis smiled in return.

(-)

"Nove, you know that you can sleep." Uno rolled her eyes at her sister. "I'm not going to get tired and since Jail's looking over the data to find out what you've been up to since the last time we saw you."

"Can't help myself." Nove leaned back and looked up at the sky, seeing a few stars, but not recognizing any of their positions or formations, not that she expected it to be any different, considering that they were on a different planet. "Any idea where we are?"

"I'm not scanning the sky to compare the positions of the stars and see if it's ever popped up in the Bureau's database and if so, if such information was uploaded into your device." Uno smirked at her younger sister. "Get some sleep, I'll wake you in about four hours, okay?"

Sighing, Nove nodded and slid back to close her eyes and drift off to sleep.

Uno frowned to herself and her image disappeared as she went over the information as well. If anyone came within a mile of the group, the scans would pick them up instantly. Right now, she had information to go over.

Maybe there would be something in the database that she could use to her advantage. After all, it wouldn't do if Nove died on some misbegotten, backwater planet that didn't even have one major city within a hundred kilometers of where they were.

Four hours later...

"Nove... Nove... Nove..." Uno grumbled and took a deep breath. "WAKE UP EVERYONE!" The hologram smirked as everyone suddenly shot up, wide awake. "I'm going to need to get used to not needing to breathe anymore. Anyway, looks like there's... About ten people heading this way. Might want to get ready in case they aren't friendly."

It was several minutes later when some male voices were heard coming into the clearing. "I'm telling you boss, this is the best score you've made in years."

"I know!" The second person said as he came into view. "Heh, they thought that horseless carriage would help them escape? I might be old, but I'm not stupid."

"Hey!" The two and the eight behind them turned to see Nove glaring at them. "Just what are you two talking about?"

The leader of the group took one look at Nove and suddenly trembled and started walking backwards slowly. "Oh gods no... The... It can't be... But..."

"It's LINA INVERSE! RUN!" The taller of the two yelled as he and the boss threw their arms up and ran as fast as they could. "WE'RE GOING TO DIE!"

"I THOUGHT SHE WAS GONE! WHY DID SHE COME BACK?!"

Nove sweat-dropped and looked at the group. "For some reason, I feel an urge to blow them up. Anyone care to do it?"

"I will!" Vivio grinned and pulled her fist back. "Divine... BUSTER!"

"AAAAAAAH!" The group screamed as a pink beam descended on them with a violent explosion, sending them flying.

"I knew we should have stopped being bandits years ago!" The leader cried out as he disappeared.

Arashi scratched his head and frowned. "What was that about?" For some reason, he felt that he knew them from somewhere.

Elsewhere...

"Hmm..." Gram frowned to himself as he thought about those children that had shown up and gotten in the way of his plans.

"Master?" Gram turned to look at ten of his minions as they formed in his personal room. "You called for us?"

Chuckling, Gram nodded as ten black diamond shaped objects floated around him. "Listen to me well, those children that interfered with us yesterday..." He narrowed his eyes in thought. "I want you ten to hunt them down and kill all of them, well, except for the redhead with that large chest of hers."

"The one who nearly killed us with that weird gas attack!?"

Gram waved it off. "Yes, yes, anyway, she has information that I want. I'd get it myself, but I'm rather busy..."

"But, they don't look like they're from here. Think they might be from the Dark staff?"

"Possible..." Gram nodded, but he doubted it, after all, Dark Star's staff had seemingly disappeared quite a few years ago. He didn't know if the rumors he heard about Dark Star trying to destroy all four staffs were true or not, but it wasn't really worth worrying about at the moment. "But, if she's here, there's also a possibility that those two are here. I'll be continuing the search for those toys of our master."

"In other words, you don't want to get your hands dirty." One of the Mazoku laughed at him, only to explode as Gram narrowed his eyes and focused his power.

"Any more smart-ass remarks?" Gram snorted as the remaining Mazoku. When none spoke up, he continued, "You nine are to attack those children. Before you ask, these crystals, they were given to me by our master." He smirked as the Mazoku gasped in shock. "I know not if these are what he says they are, but I do know that they're pure crystallized essence of Black magic."

"You mean..?"

Gram smirked and nodded. "According to our master, one of Lord Death Fog's direct subordinates, these ten crystals are small fragments of Lord Death Fog's power!" Nine of the crystals floated outwards towards the group. "Without a tenth member..." Gram smirked at them. "The tenth crystal shall be the reward for whoever gets me the information that I seek."

"Question!" The Mazoku closest to him spoke up, "how come we don't just send out the weakest members of our group after those brats in wave after wave until they die?"

"It's been done, I'd rather not give those humans a chance to get stronger." Gram grumbled, remembering the last time that he had sent out his weakest minions to deal with humans. Who knew humans would get so strong when faced with a life or death situation? "Anyway, you'll get a lot stronger than what you are, and maybe you'll _finally_ get a sense of identity." Gram grumbled as the Mazoku all looked at him in confusion. "Never mind that, just absorb those things and take some new forms while you're at it."

Gram sighed as the Mazoku absorbed the energy and their forms shifted and changed. Raising an eyebrow, he nodded in appreciation.

At least he could tell the difference between the nine of them now.

* * *

Nanoha: Wait, it's our turn now?  
Fate: Seems that way. Time to face the music, huh?  
Nanoha: Oi. Next time on Blood That Flows - Revolution, read it or I'll really befriend people.  
Fate: You really should calm down sometimes.

So, yeah, my computer went ka-put, everything died and couldn't be recovered. Very sad day.


	308. Revolution Five

Blood That Flows

Revolution Five

I own nothing.

Sorry guys, didn't mean to take so long to do this, just been a bit busy and it slipped my mind.

* * *

Back on Carnaaji...

"Mom..." Nanoha, sitting in the main room of the Alphine household, sighed as she finished telling Lina what happened. "I don't know what to do right now. So, please..."

Rubbing her eyes, Lina nodded thoughtfully. "Give me a second, I'll be right over." Nanoha nodded her head in thanks and was about to turn off the connection when Lina shook her head. "What are you doing? I said I'd be right over."

"Uh..." Nanoha stepped back, trying to figure out what her mother meant by that before nearly yelping as Lina appeared in front of her in a flash of black and gold. "Ack! Mom! What the?"

Lina rolled her eyes and turned off the connection. "Forgot I could do that?"

"Considering that I haven't seen you do that since I was..." Nanoha trailed off, trying to remember when the last time she had seen her mother actually use that Chaos teleport power.

**"Master."** Raising Heart flashed near Nanoha. **"Just after you were given me."**

Blinking, Nanoha thought about what her floating device said. "...Oh yeah, that did happen, didn't it?" Really, trying to remember something that happened when she was nine was an exercise in futility. There was too much that happened just after she got her powers.

Lina nodded as she took her apron off. "Before you ask, you were going to shut the communication off before I could take it off. I can't warp to places I can't see or haven't been to, remember?" She chuckled when Nanoha gave her a flat look. "Well, it has been years since I used it last, I suppose I can't blame you."

As they walked out of the main room, Lina blinked at the looks she was getting. "...What?"

"Weren't you on Mid-Childa?" Yuuno asked, getting a sigh from Lina. "What?"

"I can warp to any place I can see or I've been to, remember?" Lina twitched when Yuuno shook his head. "I practically froze my soul just to get over here and none of my kids can even remember that I have this ability. I feel so unloved right now."

"Mom..." Nanoha sighed as Lina cleared her throat. "Please remember why you're here."

"I'm not senile yet." Lina rolled her eyes. "Come on, let's go see where this happened." She followed Nanoha out of the room.

Looking at the place that her daughter led her to, Lina frowned as she attuned all her mystical senses towards the energies she felt leaking from what was leftover from the teleportation matrix. "Well, I agree with Yuuno. This array is way to complex to randomly warp someone to a different part of the universe." It was possible that Vivio, Arashi and the others were in some part of space that was so far away that a complex teleportation array was needed, but Lina doubted it.

"So, can you..?" Nanoha trailed off when Lina shook her head. "Why not?"

"I might be good, Nanoha." Lina stood up and sighed. "I know more about Mazoku secrets than most humans, but they're still that, secrets. I don't know everything, and something like this, forcibly warping someone from one universe to another, is beyond what I know."

"So... We're going to have to see Zelas then?" Nanoha bit back the urge to curse when Lina nodded. "Can't you just activate it and follow them?"

"And what do you propose? I use Chaos magic to forcibly jump start a gate that's no longer complete? I don't know any Black magic that can do what happened here, I sure as hell am not good enough with Holy or White magic to try something like that." Lina sighed when Nanoha flinched. "Listen, I know, we should hurry, but if we rush into things too fast..."

"I know!" Nanoha snapped at her mother. "I know that Vivio can take care of herself, and Nove's tough and good with the kids and I know that my brother can do some crazy things. But I still worry about them and..." Nanoha trailed off as Lina suddenly hugged her. "Mom?"

"Have some faith in them." Lina said softly. "You think I didn't worry whenever you were out doing stuff? Remember when we first went to my old home?" Nanoha nodded as Lina released the hug and stepped back. "I was worried sick that something bad happened to you every moment I was away from you. Same with Fate and Yuuno, and I'm sure that Lindy was scared out of her mind when Chrono was out there. But, I had to trust that what you knew and what I taught you was enough to let you survive until I got back."

Lina smiled as Nanoha visibly relaxed. "So... It's okay to worry about them?" Nanoha laughed as Lina rolled her eyes. "Thanks, mom. I was just..."

"I know. So, what are you going to do now?"

"Can you warp us to Earth?" Nanoha sighed when Lina crossed her arms under her breasts and thought about it for a few moments before shaking her head. "Any reason why?"

"I don't mind warping a few thousand miles or to a place that I can see directly, even if it's on another planet, but Mid-Childa and Carnaaji aren't that far apart, Nanoha... Earth's way on the other side of the universe. Even at my best, too much could go wrong if I used Chaos to warp there." Nanoha sighed, looking dejected and Lina patted her on the shoulder. "Trust me, it's safer this way."

"I was hoping I wouldn't have to ask Hayate to get me a ship back to Earth." Nanoha knew Hayate would order it right away and wouldn't have any trouble getting it, but political situations always got messy if someone had to use the military for personal things. "Come on, mom."

Lina nodded as she followed Nanoha back to the house. One thing that bothered her was how she could have sworn that the magic array wasn't pure Black magic. 'But the only way that makes sense is if a Shinzoku was working with a Mazoku...' Of course, it was possible that Xellos was doing something.

Lina wouldn't put it past that fruitcake to try something like this.

(-)

"You know what the worst part about walking through the woods is?" Ixpellia asked as they finally found a path and started to follow it. "The ticks." She grabbed at her neck and pulled a black insect from her skin before throwing it away. "Disgusting things."

"You're telling me." Nove scratched at her arm, feeling ticks that may or may not have been there. "Well, at least we're on a path now."

"Yes, and there's only a one in twenty chance that this leads to a dead end." Uno rolled her eyes as Nove glared at her. "Oh, knock it off, unless you want to deal with the Doctor..."

"Uno!" Jail popped up and caused the hologram of Uno to nearly fall over. "I can't believe this! After all that I've done, the Bureau can't come up with more crazy ideas to fight against Mazoku? I mean, really, Shine Swords? Come on! At least make it interesting! And what's this about five light weapons? There's only data on four of them! What about the fifth one?"

"That one's never been studied." Nove sighed as Jail looked at her in shock. "The owner won't let it get scanned at all." She ignored the way that Jail scoffed at her. "Even if the Bureau wanted the weapon, you have to ask yourself, what's the point of trying to piss off a woman who can turn all of Mid-Childa into a wasteland in under a minute with just her magic, not including that weapon, which is apparently just as powerful as she is by itself." Nove didn't know all the details surrounding Galveira, other than it was so powerful that Lina wouldn't let anyone from the Bureau have it. Considering that those talismans that Teana had to boost her power were originally Lina's, it made Nove wonder just how powerful that bow really was.

Vivio looked back at Nove. "Grandma once told me that at its weakest, the bow she has could kill a Dragon in one shot, as well as everything in a three mile radius." She blinked as everyone but Arashi stared at her stupidly. "...What?"

"You have _no_ idea how hard it is to one shot a fully grown Dragon with any sort of magic, do you?" Uno rubbed her forehead to ward off a headache, despite the fact she was a holographic program and couldn't feel such a thing anymore. "It would take a S class mage with a heavy bombardment spell to do such a thing. And even that usually only knocks a fully grown Dragon out. You're telling me that your grandmother could kill a Dragon?"

"Mom told me that she once made an entire group of Dragons run away crying just because they heard her name." Arashi smiled as he spoke up. "But, that bow... Oh yeah! She cleared an entire street of those zombies that Mazoku summoned up when Subaru found Ixy."

"It's Ixpellia." The young redhead muttered automatically as she thought about what Vivio and Arashi were casually discussing. "Vivio, your family is nuts."

Vivio just looked at Arashi, who shrugged back at her.

"Finally..." Einhart said as they cleared the trees and saw open grass again. "Now what?"

Nove scratched the side of her head as she looked around. "...I guess we keep following the path. I have no idea where anything is."

The younger silver-green haired girl sighed and continued on, still in her adult mode in case something bad happened. She looked at Corona, who had been silent since last night and walked over to her friend. "Corona..." She raised a hand and could only shake her head in dismay as Corona started walking faster to get away from her. "...You need to talk..." Einhart stopped as she felt a hand on her shoulder. "Nove?"

Nove shook her head. "What she needs is a chance to let it out, but we haven't had a chance to sit down and let her vent."

"It's going to eat at her." Uno spoke up as she looked at the young girl. "It's better to get her frustration out before she does something stupid at a wrong moment." She sighed softly as no one answered her. "You know, despite everything else, this is boring, and since I can't actually feel the air, I'm going to go dormant. You too." Uno grabbed the Jail hologram by the ear and pulled on him as they both disappeared.

"I suddenly have a lot more respect for Yuuno." Nove muttered to herself. Having to deal with a device that didn't know how to shut up was... Interesting at least.

"Well, well..." A female voice chuckled as three creatures looked on at the group. "Seems that we were right to come this way."

"Shall we contact the others?" A raspy voice spoke up and the first one snapped at it.

"Are you crazy? That prize will be ours if we take them out. We just have to deal with that one." The creature indicated Nove, who was starting to look from side to side as she followed the group. "The others can't really hurt us like she can."

"Then again..." The raspy voice spoke up. "All she could do was hurt us, she couldn't kill us."

"It would still be an annoyance I don't want to deal with."

"Aren't we supposed to bring her back to master Gram alive?"

The first voice was silent for several moments, before letting out a stream of swear words that had the other two sweat-dropping heavily. "Okay, new plan, we only mostly kill them!"

"Sounds good to me." The second voice spoke up and shifted slightly. "So..."

"There's a person with a large sword coming this way." The third being in their group spoke up. "Something..."

"A swordsman?" The female voice laughed at the third voice. "Surely you're worried over nothing. After what master Gram gave us, we'll have no problem dealing with this rabble. Let's go!"

"Fine." The second voice said as the trio disappeared from view.

"Corona!" Vivio ran ahead to catch up to her friend. "Come on, don't get too far ahead of us."

"I... I just want to go home." Corona said in a very soft voice. "I'm not like you or Rio, I'm a normal magic user. I don't have a strong bloodline to draw from, I'm not a cyborg, I don't even like fighting, I'm just..." When Vivio put a hand on her shoulder, Corona spun around and glared at her friend with tears forming in her eyes. "Why? Why Rio? What did she do that was so horrible that she needed to die?" Corona shuddered as her eyes screwed shut and she looked down and away. "I'm not like any of you. I don't have any desire to be really strong, why couldn't this happen to me? At least then..."

"Knock it off!" Vivio grabbed Corona's shoulders, worry in her eyes. "Come on, Corona, don't talk like that. Please. I hate it too..." Vivio knelt down to look Corona right in the eyes, since she, like Einhart, had decided staying in their adult modes would be most useful until they could finally get to some place safe. "Rio was my friend too, I hate that she... I hate it..."

"Why?" Corona trembled, why did Rio have to die? What did she do? That was all that was running through the young girl's head at that moment.

"Gahahahahahaha!" Corona and Vivio were both startled as a female laughter filled the area. Looking around, they didn't see anything for a moment, but both of them noticed that clouds had started to cover the sky and darken the sun.

"Vivio!" Arashi called out as he saw them. "Above!" He, Nove, Einhart and Ixpellia quickly got to Vivio and Corona's sides as they looked at who was coming down.

Looking up, Vivio and Corona's eyes widened as they saw three beings floating in the sky. The first was female and Vivio almost felt like slapping herself as she realized that the female looked like some sort of large-chested catgirl with brown fur and black rings that were visible on her shoulders. "Seriously? What's with that look?" Vivio asked as she pointed at the female. "I mean, really, who the heck are you trying to impress looking like that?!"

The catgirl snorted and flicked her hair over her shoulder before landing on the ground. She wasn't wearing shoes of any kind, but instead had her ankles in a wrap, long shorts that covered past her knees and a sleeveless top, both of which were green in color, matching her eyes. "You should be grateful that I'm here instead of master Gram, you wouldn't last more than ten seconds," she smirked, showing off her teeth, "like your foolish friend that he killed."

"You..." Corona growled as she trembled in rage.

"Really..." A second, raspy voice spoke up as a cloaked figure touched the ground next to the catgirl. "That's all you can say?" A large scythe appeared in his hands and everyone stopped to gawk as a pair of eyes opened up on the blade. "Pawra, stop teasing them, let's just get this over with. My name's Death Seeker..."

"Eyes don't belong there." Ixpellia muttered as she held six long dagger blades in her hands. "Are these the same Mazoku we fought before?"

"Yep!" The last member said as he, and it was clearly a he, though why his skin was a bright pink, no one knew, touched down. He had short, messy black hair, long blue pants and a blue coat on his body and in his right hand he was carrying a single knife. "This weapon's mostly for show, but... I wonder how you'll look when I chop you into itty bitty pieces?" The male smirked and pointed a finger at Nove as she called up her outfit. "I wouldn't try that weird gas of yours again." His grin widened as a maniac look came to his eyes. "Or would you rather choke on your own fumes?"

"Like you scare me." Nove narrowed her eyes before grimacing as a strong wind kicked up, blowing her off of her feet and sending her back several several feet before she created her Airliner behind her to stop her from going any further back. "Okay, that wasn't..."

"Knock it off!" Ixpellia threw several of those holy-infused daggers at the pink male, only to stare as the scythe user cut them up easily. "...I never miss." She yelped as the Mazoku held out a palm and a torrent of fire roared out at her. The scythe blinked as a circular barrier popped up in front of Ixpellia.

"Leave them alone!" Arashi yelled as he finally got that blasted barrier magic to work properly. Most of the time, he'd be happy about that, but right now he was more concerned about not dying.

He turned his head to see that Pawra Mazoku fighting against both Vivio and Einhart at the same time. He grimaced as she laughed while slamming a fist into Einhart's stomach before grabbing her leg and using Einhart as a club to smack Vivio away from her. "Knock it off!" Arashi called out, but was tackled by Ixpellia as a large shard of ice passed through where he was a moment ago. "Thanks."

"It's no problem." Ixpellia nodded as she got off of him.

Corona trembled as she saw that pink male Mazoku walk towards her slowly. "St...Stay away!" She screamed, a giant golem appearing just in front of the Mazoku.

"Oh my... I remember this thing..." He grinned and suddenly darted forward slipping to the side as the Golem attacked with its Rocket Punch. "However!"

Corona trembled as her Golem shuddered for a moment before falling into pieces. "No..."

"Useless against a Mazoku, isn't it?" His eyes, so cold and cruel just glinted in the little light that was getting through the clouds. Chuckling, the Mazoku rushed forward and stabbed at Corona's chest, causing the girl to scream loudly as a fist of stone got between her and the Mazoku, catching his knife before it got to her. "Well, you really are a master at this, huh?"

Corona jumped back, trembling as her golem's fist shattered. "No..."

"Duck!" Corona did as she was told as several yellow bolts tore through where she was and blasted into the Mazoku. The young girl could only gape as the Mazoku smirked while the blasts tore through his body as though he was made of liquid and the blasts were small rocks being thrown into a pond.

"Is that all?" He smirked at Nove as he held his finger up to recast the wind spell and keep it blowing right at the redhead. "You aren't nearly enough to defeat me. I'll tell you what... If you just tell me what my master wishes to know, that is, where our two toys went to, we'll let you leave without killing all of you."

Corona's eyes widened at that, she could go home? She could leave this nightmare behind?

"Never!" Nove landed next to Corona and narrowed her eyes. "Those two deserve better than to go back to work for you, and even if you think..."

"Tell me, can you and their other protectors fight off one of Lord Death Fog's direct minions and all of his subordinates at once?" The Mazoku flicked his knife in his hand for several moments as he let that sink in. "I didn't think so."

Meanwhile, Mawra was grinning as she fought against Einhart and Vivio. "If I didn't want to tear your guts out, I'd actually enjoy this."

Vivio glared at the Mazoku as she grinned and flexed her claws. It wasn't the aura that was making her wish to murder this being with all of her might, no, it was the fact that the Mazoku had a bigger chest than she did! That just wasn't fair!

"I don't suppose you have something that can work on her?" Einhart panted as she landed next to Vivio. "The only time anything I use works is if she uses an attack spell on me. My fists and feet can't touch her."

"Your counter spell adds your own magic to what you're reflecting, right?" Vivio asked, getting a nod from Einhart. "Well then, can you aim at something besides who threw it?"

"Yes, why?"

Vivio smirked as she suddenly ran forward. "Follow my lead then!"

Mawra smirked and lashed out with a foot at Vivio's legs as fast as she could. Her smirk died a quick death when, instead of hitting the leg and getting a satisfying snap, she missed as Vivio slid under it. The only thing she managed to hit was the top of Vivio's chest. "Bitch!" She spun, only to see Vivio's hands cupped in front of her and a white light forming between Vivio's hands. "What?"

"My mama taught me this! Elmekia Flame!"

Mawra's eyes widened as an Astral spell was launched at her, she didn't recognize it, but she didn't care. Leaping into the air, she grinned as the attack missed her completely. "I don't know where you learned that, but it will be your... ARRRGH!" She let loose a scream as pain erupted along her back and sent her crashing into the ground in a smoking heap. "...H...how?"

Vivio ran a finger under her nose and smirked. "I only learned that a few days ago, so I didn't know if I could hit you with it, but..."

"If I caught the attack and sent it back at you, I'm pretty sure that I could hit you." Einhart said as she cautiously walked up to the fallen Mazoku. "Now then..."

"Got you!" Einhart jumped back as the Mazoku got to her feet in an instant. "You really think that a single attack, even as powerful as that can defeat me?!"

Einhart and Vivio both sweat-dropped as Mawra suddenly fell flat on her face and twitched. "I guess so?"

"Lies! I'm merely luring you into a false sense of security!"

Einhart turned to Vivio with dubious look on her face. "...She's not very smart, is she?" Vivio just chuckled while rubbing the back of her head nervously. A sudden scream had them both spinning around to see the scythe-using Mazoku had cut Arashi across his back while he pushed Ixpellia out of the way of an attack. "Arashi!" Einhart yelled as she ran forward, only to groan as a lightning bolt crashed into her back. Turning, she saw Mawra struggling to get up. "You..."

"Told... You." Mawra smirked at Einhart. "You're going to die here unless you tell us about those two toys that our master lost." She twitched as she fell forward. "This proves nothing!"

Nove grunted as her gas was blown back in her face. "Nngh!" Her eyes watered as she tried to ward herself from the effects.

"He did warn you about that." Uno spoke up from her shoes. "It might be better to just tell them what they want to know."

"No." Nove growled as images of Amitie and Kyrie flashed through her mind. "You don't know them like I do, Un-nee, they were broken, horribly broken and..." Her eyes glowed yellow as she took off into the air on her Airliner. "It's all their fault!"

As Nove rushed at the Mazoku, she glared at his smirk and reared her fist back to hit him. Even if it wouldn't do much, she needed to do something.

"Where's his knife?" Uno asked and Nove's eyes widened before letting out a cry of pain as the knife suddenly appeared in her upper chest, just below her shoulder bone.

As Nove fell to the ground in shock, the Mazoku snapped his fingers and the knife reappeared in his hands. "As amusing as this is... It's time to end this, you'll live, but the rest..."

"Stop hitting me with those blades!" Death seeker growled as he tried to knock Ixpellia's blades away as they flew through the air at him. "How many of those things do you have anyway?!"

"Enough!" The unnamed Mazoku growled as he grabbed Corona by her throat. "Stand down, all of you, unless you want this one to die like her friend." He smirked as Corona glared at him and a giant golem, easily twice as large as the one she used before appeared behind her. "I said... STAND DOWN!" He squeezed Corona's throat so hard that her eyes nearly bugged out of her skull. "This is your last warning."

"Best do as he says." Death Seeker chuckled as the eyes on his scythe spun around to take in everything. "Now then... Will you tell us what we want to know or not?"

Vivio twitched and lowered her arms as she glowered at the Mazoku. She knew they were powerful, but to be like this? "Mama, why didn't I pay more attention?" If she ever got back to her family, she was going to make them teach her as much about Astral magic as possible. This was insane, and these guys were apparently much weaker than that Gram guy.

The knife-wielding Mazoku grinned and laughed as he held Corona away from his body. "Well then, it's time for you..." His eyes widened as a swooshing sound was heard before his arm was severed from his body. "GAH! What the?" He spun only to find a large piece of metal slashing him between the eyes and cutting his body into half. "To think... I... Warned them about this guy..."

"Who?!" Mawra stared as she finally got to her feet and saw the unnamed Mazoku dissipate from a hooded person's sword attack. "How did you kill him?!" Normal weapons couldn't hurt a Mazoku, no matter how skilled a person was, a normal weapon just didn't hit the Astral plane, so how did this guy..?

"I don't care for Mazoku who attack women and children." The man said as he pulled his hood off, revealing a rather handsome face and blue hair on the top of his head. "I'll say this once, these six are under my protection! Leave and I won't eliminate you."

"And who are you?" The scythe-using Mazoku asked as the man grinned at him.

"Name's Lyos... Knight of the Aqualord, and you..." Lyos smirked as he snapped his fingers the scythe's eyes bugged out as he was skewered with several lances of ice. "Are quite dead."

"Not... Yet!" The cloak of the Mazoku seemed to drop to the ground as the Mazoku escaped to the air, revealing a faceless, hunched over body with bones sticking out at odd angles. "You'll die, Knight of the Aqualord! You'll..."

"Pokota..." Lyos smirked and pointed up. The Mazoku looked up and gaped as a long-eared plush bunny came floating down with a red sphere between its ears.

"Heh heh!" The bunny grinned and pushed its large ears out. "Dragon Slave!" The spell didn't have much power to it, not compared to what he could have done if he had chanted it fully, but the Mazoku was already dying from Lyos's earlier attack. And besides, if he used it at full power, he might kill those people down below.

Mawra trembled, she may not have known the spell exactly, but she could _feel_ the source of that magic. "I won't forget this!" She screamed as she disappeared to report to her master what happened.

"I wouldn't imagine you would." Lyos muttered as he sheathed his sword. Still, as he looked around, he had a sinking suspicion that things were going to get a lot more complicated really fast.

* * *

Vivio: At least now we have some friends who can help us.  
Nove: I wouldn't call them friends, Vivio, but...  
Lyos: Does it matter? We'll help you get where you want to go.  
? ? ?: Do I get to say anything this time, or are you just going to gawk for ages.  
Nove: What the hell?!  
Ixpellia: Next time on Blood That Flows - Revolution, I really hope the author picks up his pace again.


	309. Revolution Six

Blood That Flows

Revolution Six

I own nothing.

Stupid computer crashed again, and my my muse decided to take a nap. Looks like she's waking up finally.

* * *

"Arashi! Arashi!" Vivio ran over to her uncle and gasped at the tear on his back. "Hold on, I know some healing spells."

Arashi grimaced as white light emerged from Vivio's hands and covered his back, slowly mending the damaged flesh. "You stole that from Yuuno, didn't you?" He nearly laughed at Vivio's glare. It wasn't her fault that she was able to copy various magic just by looking at it. Well, only if she could understand it, which was why she had to actually learn how to use Astral magic first.

"Oh, shut up before you hurt yourself worse." Vivio groused at him, thankful he wasn't dead. She couldn't imagine how bad her mother, or worse, her grandmother would have handled it.

Einhart was looking around, partially for any more Mazoku, and partially because that bunny creature was interesting. It looked like a stuffed rabbit, but, it couldn't be, could it? After all, it had used magic, what kind of stuffed animal could use actual magic?

"What?" Pokota asked as Einhart looked at him. "Never seen a stuffed animal use magic before?"

"Most stuffed animals don't cast massive explosions like that." Einhart pointed out and was worried if this bunny ever met Tio. 'But then again...' Her thoughts trailed off as she imagined Tio suddenly pouncing the bunny and the two tumbling into a dust cloud of hilarious violence. '...Yeah, probably something like that.'

Pokota smirked at her. "What? You've never seen a Dragon Slave before?" He blinked when she shook her head. "Seriously? What kind of sheltered life have you lived?"

"Pokota." Lyos warned his companion. "Just because they don't know of the Dragon Slave doesn't mean that they lived sheltered lives. After all, even you..."

"Ah! Okay, I get it!" Pokota swung his short arms back and forth to quiet Lyos down.

"It is fine." Einhart sighed softly. "We have not been..."

"Why?!" Corona interrupted, yelling at Nove as tears welled up in her eyes. "Why didn't you take that offer?! We could have just told them..." She whimpered as her legs gave out on her. "I just want to go home..." She muttered as she sat on the grass.

"You really wanted to make a deal with a demon?" Nove asked, her voice cold and eyes harsh as she looked at the young girl. "You saw what they did to Rio. Do you think that they would just let us go?"

"They... They..." Corona whimpered, the harsh reality of what was going on around her was crashing down on her so harsh that she didn't know what to do. This wasn't something that she knew how to deal with.

Nove knelt down next to Corona and cupped the young girl's chin so she could look at Corona right in the eyes. "Mazoku aren't to be trusted. Even if they would let us go, there's no question that they would twist our words to benefit them." Corona whimpered and Nove let go of her chin. "Come on, can you walk?" Corona nodded and accepted Nove's hand as she was helped up.

"It's not my place, but..." Lyos spoke to Nove, "would you like to follow us? There's a small village about a half hour from here." He pointed North, parallel to the forest. "It's an old fishing village, but it gets a lot of information. Pokota and I were heading there to meet with an informant for a job I took."

"Lyos!" Pokota flew up at the older man and glared at him. "What the heck?! They don't need to know that!"

Lyos sighed at his companion. "True, but there's no reason to be secretive about what we're doing. Besides, they look like they've been having a hard time, and you annoy me at times." He smirked as Pokota exploded and started yelling about how he wasn't the best traveling companion himself.

"Thank you." Nove nodded at him. She could already feel stress starting to peel away from her with these two around. Even if they were still being hunted at least they could defend themselves now. "I... Corona!" She yelled as she saw Corona start to walk off. "Don't just..."

"I'll go." Ixpellia said as she ran ahead to keep up with her friend.

"Thanks, Ixy, but don't get too far ahead."

"Sure!" Ixpellia nodded as she followed Corona. "And it's Ixpellia!"

Lyos raised an eyebrow at Nove as Vivio helped Arashi up off the ground. "What was that about?"

"Her name's Ixpellia, but it can be a handful to pronounce at times, so we call her Ixy for short, but she keeps reminding us that it's Ixpellia." Nove shrugged and looked at Arashi. "You good to go, kid?"

"My back's hurting, but I'll be okay." Arashi didn't like how his back felt, but at least it wasn't too bad. He wasn't bleeding out all over the place at least. "Now what?"

Nove jerked her thumb after Corona and Ixpellia. "We follow them. Come on."

As they started to head in the direction Lyos indicated, Pokota flew back and glared at him. "Why would you ask them to come with? I know we need to meet up with Nila, but..."

"For one, you annoy me at times." Lyos smirked at Pokota's annoyed growl. "Secondly, they look like they need some help, and we're here. What's wrong with letting them follow? And lastly..." He smirked as he looked at Nove as she walked in front of him. "The view is a lot more enjoyable."

"...Huh?" Pokota looked at Lyos in confusion, not really understanding what he was talking about. He twitched as Lyos just smirked at him. "Damn it, stop treating me like that!"

"I have no idea what you mean." Lyos chuckled as he and Pokota walked off, leaving the battlefield behind them.

(-)

It was almost an hour later when Einhart finally saw the fishing village that Lyos had spoken of earlier. "We're almost there." Her face flushed when her stomach growled. "Not a moment too soon either."

"Come on, come on!" Arashi was looking back as Nove, Lyos and Pokota finally joined them. "We're almost there!"

"Excitable." Nove rolled her eyes, but was thankful that they were almost to a town. Even if it was small, at least it was better than being outside and completely vulnerable. She just hoped that the Mazoku didn't try attacking and holding people hostage in an attempt to get the villagers angry at them in an effort to drive them to an area where they could easily be captured.

"Nove, are you thinking something weird again?" Uno popped up as she looked at Nove. "Lemme guess, you saw this in a movie?"

"Nah, read it in a book, about a heroine who was apparently badly injured and transported to the future, but it turned out that she was a clone and had to fight against her friends and find out why the people she used to work for were so evil. It ended up being a complex and overly complicated plot by someone who was once thought long dead to go back in time and set things right." Nove sighed as Uno, Pokota and Lyos all looked at her funny. "It's a long story, the cliff-notes version just isn't as good."

Fifteen minutes later, the group was in a moderately sized bar and sitting at a table, waiting for a waitress to show up.

Lyos suddenly started chuckling loudly, much to the other's surprise. "I'm suddenly reminded of a situation years ago, when we stayed in a village for a few days and, oh, what happened..?" He leaned back, looking up, trying to remember, before he caught sight of a pretty girl in a waitress outfit and his eyes widened. "Oh yeah!" He suddenly snapped forward, leaning over the table. "Now I remember. Lina had Amelia, Filia and Sylphiel all dressing up as really cute waitresses and..." He trailed off at the stunned look that he was getting from the group. "...What?"

"Lina?" Vivio spoke up softly. "Lina Takamachi?" Lyos nodded, wondering how she knew Lina. "You knew my grandmother?"

Lyos stared at her. "...I didn't realize your grandmother was so old." Really, she didn't look _that_ old the last time he saw her. Then again, it was around ten years ago. He sweat-dropped at the glare Vivio gave him. "...I guess there's more to it..?"

"Mom's not that old yet." Arashi rolled his eyes at Lyos, who stared at him. "It's a little complicated, but I'm the youngest son of Lina Takamachi. Vivio here was adopted by my big sister, Nanoha."

"Never mind that!" Nove spat as she glared at him. "Why didn't you tell us that you knew Filia sooner?!"

Lyos sighed and shook his head. "What would have been the point? I didn't know that you knew either of them, and I only just remembered that incident. It was well over a decade ago."

As Nove sat down, Uno spoke up. "What my temperamental sister was trying to say... They've been wondering where they're at, and knowing that this is a world that the Bureau has in its data base makes it a lot easier to find and..." She trailed off and blinked. "Oh, lovely. So, not only are we on a non-administered planet, we're on 500? The only SS ranked planet that the Bureau knows of?!" She turned to Nove and narrowed her eyes. "If you don't wish to die a virgin, I'd suggest finding a guy right now, all reports that the doctor found on this world indicate that you'll end up dead in a week."

Nove's face turned red and she slapped her hand over Jet Calibur. "Knock it off!" Around the table, Einhart, Vivio, Corona and Arashi looked a bit confused, though Arashi and Einhart eventually turned red as they figured out what Uno had been talking about.

Ixpellia looked... Amused. "Really, Nove? You're lucky you live in this day and age then. Most people back when Ancient Belka was around were considered adults when they were eight and lost that when they were ten."

"Does that mean..?" Nove trailed off and twitched when Ixpellia just grinned and shrugged at her. "You're quite devious."

"Oh, I know." Ixpellia giggled at her. "Comes with being a king, you know."

"What are they talking about?" Corona asked Vivio, who shrugged. The two looked at Einhart and wondered why she was blushing hard. "...Einhart?"

"It's, ah..." She glared at Lyos as he laughed while Pokota was banging his head on the table. "it's not funny! We don't talk about this at dinner!"

"Meh, just go watch some pigs for awhile, it's how I learned the basics." Lyos shrugged at the looks he was getting. "What? Most kids back home learned by watching animals." Suddenly Lyos lurched forward as someone slapped him in the back of his head. Turning and glaring at the person, he was about to speak his mind when he saw who it was. "Ah, Nila, it's you."

The others at the table looked at the person and found themselves a bit underwhelmed. It was hard not to. The person was a little short, but wore a light colored hood that obscured their face and a cloak around their body that only revealed black pants and a green shirt.

At least the shirt was tight enough to show that this Nila person was a petite woman, though her breasts were a bit on the small side.

"This is Nila Vesnire." Lyos introduced the woman as she pulled up a chair and sat down at the table, snapping her fingers for a waitress. "She's really good at gathering information, but she doesn't talk much."

Nila snorted as a waitress finally made her way over and gave them menus. After the waitress left, she pulled out a rolled up scroll and dropped it in front of Lyos.

"A map?" He asked as he opened it up, getting a nod from her. "...You sure about these locations? I mean, it would take a week to travel on foot. And I don't have the money to even rent one of those new automatic vehicles for even a day."

Nila snorted at him and gestured to the others.

Lyos sighed softly. "They're traveling with me. Picked them up a bit ago..." He trailed off as she narrowed her eyes. "Fine. I'll make sure to look for any magical items while on this journey."

Nila nodded and looked at Pokota, who was trying to get a better look at her face. The cloaked woman held a hand up and a sphere of fire appeared in it.

"Hey!" Pokota jumped back. "You want to fight?!"

"I wouldn't," Lyos pointed out. "I like this place, if you two are going to fight, I'll freeze you both before you do anything." He nodded as the two of them calmed down. "Pokota, Nila doesn't like people looking at her face, that's all."

"So," Nove spoke up, "what's going on, Lyos? What's with that map?"

Looking at Pokota, the blue-haired swordsman bit his lip as Pokota suddenly looked nervous. "Pokota here is a survivor of a bad plague that wiped out his home country. Most of the people are magically sealed so they can't get any sicker, and there's a cure for the plague now, but..."

"Lyos!" Pokota growled at him. "You didn't need to tell them that much!"

"They're coming with us, Pokota, they'd find out sooner or later." Lyos knew what it meant to keep secrets, but there was no reason to hide something this basic from them. "Besides, you're just looking for a way to help everyone, right?"

"I suppose..." Pokota grumbled. "But no more secret spilling, got it!?"

Lyos nodded and looked at the map and narrowed his eyes at some of the notes there. "Hmm... You've got to be kidding me! That weapon-smith is still alive?!" Looking at Nila, who nodded, Lyos chuckled and put the map down. "That'll be the first place we go then. If anyone can help, he can."

"What about us?" Vivio asked Lyos, who thought about it for awhile. "What are we going to do?"

"Well, stick with me for awhile. We're not too terribly far from Seiryuun, about two or three weeks on foot." He sweat-dropped at the stunned looks he was getting. "I said on foot. It'll take less if we can hitch a ride towards Seiryuun. Anyway," he waved them off, "Seiryuun has a way to contact the world where you're from."

Nila looked at him sharply and Lyos shrugged. "It's not out of the way too much, and besides, I'll just meet you at the next town..." He trailed off as she shook her head. "...You're joining us?" She nodded and Lyos stared at her in shock. "...You usually work alone. What changed?"

Nila just shrugged and snapped her fingers again to get the waitress's attention.

Lyos sighed, he didn't know why Nila was so quiet, but he didn't mind. He had worked with her in the past a couple of times, but those were just trips into a trap-infested dungeon or cave, not a trip to find a weapon or item that could break a suspended sleep spell.

Oh well, he could think about it more when he had something to eat.

The waitress sweat-dropped as she got everyone's orders. None of them were overweight, so how the hell were they going to eat everything on the menu?

Oh well, it could be interesting at least.

Two hours later and the manager was crying about how he was ruined since it was an all-you-could eat special that day.

* * *

Nanoha: Wait, that's it? A month to update and that's it?!  
Fate: Well, the next chapter has us in it...  
? ? ?: I'm in the next chapter as well.  
Nanoha: Oh great, next time on Blood That Flows - Revolution, please read it.

Yeah, sorry guys, this last summer has SUUUUCKED for me and writing.


	310. Revolution Seven

Blood That Flows

Revolution Seven

I own nothing.

I need to update more often.

* * *

Meanwhile, back on the Blue Staff...

"What do you mean you can't help us?!" Nanoha slammed the palms of her hands on the desk of the small being in front of her angrily. It had taken them almost two whole days to get back to Earth and locate the miniature version of Zelas Metallium in Hong Kong.

"Well, for one, you blew my doors in. I liked those doors. Two, you took out all my men." She sighed dramatically. "I should have had Xellos make a miniature version of himself, it would be so easy right now. I could make him do my work and I could just drink. Three, I have no reason to help you. Four, I'm a Mazoku. Five, even if I wanted to, traveling across the Dimensional Sea isn't possible right now." Zelas sighed, waiting for the inevitable demands. Really, what did they want from her? She wasn't some god of reality, she was a Mazoku, and even though she could make it rain oil in the middle of Nevada, she couldn't do everything.

Fate stepped forward and put a hand on Nanoha's shoulder. "What do you mean by that?" She knew how upset Nanoha was, a mixture of fear for Vivio and Arashi, plus her own natural hatred for Mazoku and tremendous power made for a very bad combination.

It was just too bad the being in front of them could probably wipe the floor with both of them if she was serious. Even with Yuuno and Lina just behind them, Zelas, even a miniature form of her, was a lot stronger than any human could ever hope to be.

Of course, that depended on her ego, most Mazoku had such huge egos that they never took a fight with a human seriously or they wanted something out of the fight, which was why even Mazoku such as a Lord could be defeated, even if just barely.

Zelas let out a long-suffering sigh. "I keep forgetting that you're still so young. Alright, listen up. Every few centuries, for some reason or another, travel between the different pillars becomes impossible for a short period of time. The last time this happened, about four hundred or so years ago, well, it wasn't majorly important, but it lasted upwards of a month. The time before that lasted almost a week. Any Mazoku or Shinzoku that's strong enough can feel it, considering what's between the dimensions, as for why?" Zelas shrugged and pointed to Nanoha. "Why don't you ask the Golden Lord yourself? You're the one touched with her power."

"I... I never..."

"Nanoha, Fate, you two go outside with Yuuno," Lina interrupted and stepped forward, "let me talk with her." She didn't even acknowledge as they nodded and left the room. "Zelas," Lina narrowed her eyes as she leaned forward, "my son, granddaughter and their friends are in real danger. How the hell can this just happen?"

Zelas merely shrugged at her. "I have no clue why it happens, I only know that it does. You're a human and have no real idea..."

"What it means to channel the power of Shabranigdo or some other demon?" Lina raised an eyebrow as Zelas nodded. "I know. Our souls are protected from feeling the same things you do, which is why we can cast stuff like the Dragon Slave, but you, for all your power, can't." Zelas nodded at Lina. "Though, one thing that bothers me... Could a Mazoku from another staff cast the Dragon Slave if they were on your world?"

Zelas blinked, a rather stunned look crossing her face. "...I have no idea, actually. Though, they probably wouldn't risk it."

"Anyway..." Lina waved her hand to dismiss that topic. "There's nothing you can do?"

"Not directly, no."

Lina nodded and gave Zelas a tight little grin. "I suppose so, though, if anything happens to them..."

Zelas merely raised an eyebrow at Lina. "Even if something did happen, what would I be able to do about it? It's not like my granddaughters decided to play a prank on them and sent them to our home staff."

"Fine." Lina turned and left the room.

Zelas narrowed her eyes as she thought about what she was told. She wasn't lying about traveling between dimensions at that moment. How long it would last... That was another matter entirely.

A couple of thugs outside looked at Nanoha, only to stumble away at the glare she leveled at them. Normally they weren't afraid of a short girl glaring at them, they had seen worse from their superiors after all.

No, it was the fact that her eyes suddenly seemed to glow gold and her body was covered in a pink glow that had them terrified. If one had more sympathy for them, they might feel sorry that the thugs would never be able to look at pink things ever again in the future.

Nanoha had to take deep breaths to get herself to calm down. It wouldn't be right to blow this city apart with her magic, even if it would make her feel better.

"Nanoha..." She turned to see Yuuno and Fate look at her in worry. "Come on," Yuuno held his hand out for her. "I know a few planets that are mostly desert, you can vent there."

"Yuuno..." Nanoha bit her lower lip almost painfully. "I'm scared. My daughter, my brother, their friends, Nove... They're somewhere out there and they have no way for us to contact or help them. I... This is my fault... I thought that even if a Mazoku would cause problems..." She trailed off and walked up to Yuuno and Fate, sighing as they both hugged her without preamble. "I thought that, unlike mom, we'd have more time to teach them. I thought that because I'm younger than mom was when I got my magic, that I'd be able to be there when Vivio needed help. I... I'm so stupid."

"Nanoha," Fate hugged her tightly, "listen, you can't see the future. You made a mistake, but think, Nanoha, when you and mom saved me and helped Yuuno, it was just six of us, you, me, Yuuno, Arf, mom and Chrono that could do anything. Mom had to push our training hard." She sighed as Nanoha hugged her tightly.

"Vivio and her friends have us, Hayate and her family, all of the Riot Force, and new weapons and technology being developed," Yuuno continued as he squeezed Nanoha tightly. "There was never any reason to think that we would get separated for too long, plus, if they were sent to one of the other dimensions, we could trace them and follow if they went to the White one somehow..."

"I know, but..." Nanoha was grateful for their support, but it didn't mean anything, it was her fault and... "Are you two trembling?"

"I guess I'm scared too." Yuuno admitted with a chuckle. "I just wish we could send Arisa or Vita after them if we're stuck here." The three of them broke off the hug and stepped back, smiling nervously at each other. "So, now what?"

**"Get Hayate to get people on standby in case the way opens soon?"**

Yuuno, Fate and Nanoha all stared at Thoth Driver in shock. "Thoth, are you okay?" Fate had to ask slowly, hoping that the device was permanently like this now.

**"Sure I am. By the way, boss, Fate's breasts have been growing again."**

"Knock it off!" Yuuno yelled at his device, twitching. "Thanks for ruining the moment!"

"I'm glad it did." Lina spoke up as she walked out, the look on her face had the three of them hold back whatever comments they had. "Zelas wasn't lying. I didn't think much of it at the time, but my left eye's been throbbing pretty badly now." She grimaced and shook her head. "I'm not sure what's going on, but for now, the best we can do is hope they can survive until it clears up."

Nanoha frowned as she looked at her mother. "How did you warp to me when I called you? Don't you need to go through the Sea of Chaos?" Lina nodded. "But, if it's impossible to go between the different pillars, how could you..?"

"Because it's like saying that a cruise ship can't cross the ocean because of a bad storm, but people are skimming the beaches on speed boats. Dangerous, but doable." Lina scratched the back of her head before looking up into the sky. "As much as we like to think that we're in charge of stuff, we have to remember that the Lady decides everything. Thankfully she doesn't do much directly, but..."

"Sometimes I forget that you were consumed by her." Nanoha muttered as Lina looked at her. "Tell me, mom, you can communicate with her, why don't you talk to her and ask her about this?"

Lina grimaced at the thought of doing that again. "It's not as simple as you think..." She trailed off as something came to her. "Nanoha, I think it's time I actually taught you some Chaos magic." Nanoha's eyes widened as she took a step back. "I'm not going to ask you to cast the Giga Slave, but, if you want to talk to the Lady, you're going to need to learn how to control it..." She pointed at the gem that floated near her shoulder. "Without Raising Heart's help."

Nanoha sighed, slightly irritated. 'Well,' she grimaced, 'at least it'll take my mind off of what's happening for awhile.'

It didn't make her feel much better.

(-)

Elsewhere in the universe...

The lights in the room were dim as several pairs of eyes stared at the naked person who was kneeling and panting. "Now then..." One of the voices said and the ping of a button was pressed. "Let's see what happens to test subject 698."

The test subject, a young child with long, dirty hair and seemingly blue skin, screamed as several needles attached to tubes drove into its back, a red liquid pouring into the body. The child twitched as the needles were pulled out of its back. "Now."

There was a swishing sound as something passed by the body. The people watching the subject nodded as the arm was severed at the elbow, causing the child to fall over, screaming in pain.

"Impressive." One of the people said as the arm regrew instantly. "To think it's this useful. Keep the tests up. I want to know the limits." The group watched as the child was knocked from side to side, limbs flying in all directions, the chest and stomach being blown open and the insides spilling out before being removed. "So fast, even the hair regrows almost instantly."

"Yes, well, let's turn up the pressure, shall we? Let's see what happens if we do..." The person speaking trailed off as thumps were heard from outside of the room. "What is going on? I told those fools to not disturb us!"

The door crashed inwards and several bodies fell forward, all clearly dead. "Hey guys," a fairly tall and very busty woman with dark skin, blonde hair and a yellow eye grinned at them, "I'd ask if you want to see a dead body, but that would be redundant, wouldn't it?"

"Who are you?" One of the group asked as they looked at her. One of her eyes was covered behind some sort of leather and glass eye patch over her right eye. She wore a blue full bodysuit and had a pair of swords in her hands that were stained with blood.

"I'm Sigfried. And this is Roy." She stepped to the side as a girl with short boots, green short short that were unbuckled and partially unzipped with a belt hanging undone in the front. How it kept her shorts from falling off was a mystery. She had a weird tattoo that went from her left shoulder down to her left leg, black gloves on her hands and a black tank top that only barely covered her own impressive chest. Long red hair seemed to stick out at various points, looking almost like a porcupine, and on her eyes were a pair of round goggles that hid her eyes as she grinned at them.

"And you're a bunch of circus freaks." A large pair of Gatling guns appeared in her right hand and five RPGs appeared in her left hand. "So," the grins on the two girls increased as the redhead pulled the trigger, "goodbye."

About ten seconds later, all of the scientists in the room were nothing more than bloody smears on the ground.

"Cypha, why do you get to be Sigfried all the time?"

Cypha rolled her good eye and walked into the room, ignoring the carnage. "Because, Arnage, someone has to introduce a gun nut like you." She snorted as Arnage dismissed her guns and pulled her goggles up onto the top of her head. "Anyway..." Cypha narrowed her eye as she looked at the computers, the ones that weren't covered in blood or riddled with holes. "Thought so... Experimenting with the Eclipse virus, huh?"

Arnage blinked and looked at the computer. "Really? I can't tell... What language is that?"

"None of the common ones." Cypha admitted. "I can read it though." Cypha twitched as she looked over the computer. "Sunnvabitch!"

"What?" Arnage took a step back as Cypha sliced the computer in two. "What?" She watched as Cypha suddenly threw her Katanas as some large containers, cutting through them and causing the liquid to splash everywhere. "Cypha?"

"Don't let that stuff touch you. It reacts to the Eclipse virus and sends it into overdrive." Cypha recalled her Katana with the wire she had attached to it before turning and shattering the glass that held the experimental child, who was screaming and twitching. When the glass shattered, the child, who turned out to have pale, not blue, skin fell to the ground and panted as the pain finally left the body. Looking up, the child looked at Cypha with scared eyes. "What's your name?"

"S...St...ell...a..." The child screamed as she thrashed. "It hurts!"

Cypha picked Stella up and was about to leave when she heard footsteps. "Well, well..." It didn't take long for about ten armed guards to appear in the room, pointing various weapons at them. "How's the health plan, boys?" A grin appeared on her face as they seemed to point their weapons at her and Stella. "Apparently it's great!"

Arnage watched as Cypha slaughtered most of the armed guards, leaving two of them alive. "Cypha, what are you?"

Cypha put Stella down and gave the young child her katana. "Stella, if you want the pain to stop, you need to use that and kill them." It wasn't a pleasant statement. If it wasn't for the fact that Stella had been infected with the virus, Cypha would have handed Stella off to Arnage.

It took about a minute later before the two guards were dead and Arnage walked over to Cypha and Stella, the latter was currently puking her guts out. "So..."

"Sorry, kiddo." Cypha picked up Stella after she got to her feet unsteadily. "We'll find you some animals or something to slaughter, right now, we're getting out of here."

As they ran out of the building, Arnage smirked and pulled out her rocket launcher before firing several missiles that didn't seem to run out into the building, quickly reducing it to rubble. "So, Cypha... What was the point of coming out here anyway?" The planet was mostly plains and the temperature was nice, but there weren't many people.

"Levi wasn't on the ship and I wanted to stretch my legs." Cypha snort as she walked off. "Come on, Stella..." The little girl in her arms looked up in confusion. "We're going to deal with that stuff they put into you as soon as possible."

Stella nodded and put her head on Cypha's chest. She didn't know what was going on, but at least Cypha and Arnage seemed like nice people. And the pain she was feeling was no longer bothering her as much. Maybe they could make it go away completely.

* * *

Sorry everyone, no preview thing for the next chapter. Please forgive the massive delay.


	311. Revolution Eight

Blood That Flows

Revolution Eight

I own nothing.

I need to update more often.

* * *

Pawra trembled as she reported to her master. Already two of the nine that he had deemed worthy to get a power increase had been defeated. Gram would not be pleased, at all, about this.

"When you were no more than minor Mazoku, you were able to nearly kill that group. And with a power up, it should have been easy," Gram narrowed his eyes at the Mazoku. "Tell me something, why shouldn't I just wipe you out?"

"It's not my fault! This guy with a weird sword and Holy magic showed up..." She gulped when Gram held his hand up. "And there was this rabbit-like thing that fired black magic from this staff's Ma-Oh!"

"...Really?" Gram put his hand down as he thought about the implications. "For someone to do Holy magic... Perhaps a Shinzoku?" Though, why a Shinzoku would help someone who was attuned to Black magic didn't make too much sense to the General. "Anything else you can tell me?"

"Um... He called himself the Knight of the Aqualord and..." Pawra trailed off as a laughter was heard entering the room. "Who?"

"I couldn't help but overhear your problem." A male voice said as Duclis walked into the room, his unusual armor gleaming in the light. "Tell me, was that rabbit thing green and one of the ears with a ring on it?"

Pawra held up a hand. "Ah, I'm not sure. I was facing two beings that kind of easily tore through two of my allies with ease!"

Duclis chuckled heavily. "I wouldn't worry about it, I figured that little punk would return someday." Oh yes, he knew about his friend, he knew he'd be back. But he also knew that Pokota wouldn't allow him to get his revenge. Even if it took him a long time, he was almost ready now. "And he's traveling with that Knight huh?"

Gram gave him an even look. "You know something?"

"Mostly rumors," Duclis narrowed his eyes. "It's said that he helped supress a rebellion in another kingdom, fought against an invasion into this world by the mighty Dark Star and even ended up saving Seiryuun's defenders from an army of Mazoku led by the Dark Lord Shabranigdo himself." Duclis nodded at Gram's shocked look. "Even if they're not completely true, the fact is, you're not facing some novice fighter, Pokota alone could be a problem, but adding in the Knight of the Aqua Lord? He's almost a legend these days." Granted, the Knight of the Aqua Lord fell short compared to the legends of the Red Priest Rezo, the Knight of Cephied, the Demon Slayer and the Fifth Great Sage.

Most people still didn't believe too much about the Fifth Great Sage, and Duclis didn't care too much either.

"I see..." Gram narrowed his eyes in thought. "I don't suppose this means you'll be willing to help us?"

Duclis chuckled as a nasty smirk formed on his face. "The chance to kill the Knight of the Aqua Lord? How could I pass that up? But even if you used all of your forces, you'd probably end up short."

Gram snorted at him. "I shall join this one personally. If you think that I am so weak just because I am on the staff of Ruby Eyes, then you are mistaken."

Duclis smirked at him. "Oh, I think we have a few weapons that might interest you. Besides, wouldn't it be better to see what the group can do before truly engaging them? Who knows?" A red energy sword formed in his hands as his smirk turned into an evil grin. "Maybe we'll get lucky and take them out in the first attack."

Gram snorted and summoned up a chair just so he could lean back in it and press his fingers together. "I've seen too many heroes get stronger by not pushing the issue and become a major problem until either I or my master stepped in to deal with them personally."

"Believe me... I would let you take them on right now, but to fight that group," Duclis shook his head. "No, it's better to wait. Besides," he smirked as he turned away and walked out of the room, "wouldn't you want to see the world's best assassin fight?"

Gram raised an eyebrow. That sounded interesting, to say the least. "Might I ask who?"

"Zuuma." Duclis chuckled as he left the Mazoku behind.

Gram leaned back and narrowed his eyes. "Zuuma, huh?" This could be interesting. Those that were master assassins tended to be good at their trade.

"Master?" Pawra looked at him nervously. "What will this mean?"

"For now," Gram looked at her with narrowed eyes, "we'll let them go." Duclis did have a good point about having to deal with legends and someone who could draw upon a Ma-oh's power easily wasn't someone to take lightly. 'Besides,' he smirked to himself, 'what's the point of getting what you want if you don't have a little fun in the mean time?'

The next morning Einhart found herself and the rest of the group on the back of a wagon, sitting on some straw as it moved out of town. "We could walk, you know." She looked at Lyos, who smiled at her.

"I talked around town last night and found the farmer was heading in the same general direction, so long as we keep any bandits from attacking him, he doesn't mind giving us a lift. I figure it'll cut our travel time by half."

Before Einhart could answer, a bunch of straw was dumped over her head. Turning, she narrowed her eyes at Arashi and Vivio, both of whom were trying to look innocent and failing miserably. "You two..."

"No fighting." Nove, who was sitting next to her, said while putting one hand on Einhart's shoulder and using her other hand to dust the straw off of her. "If this cart breaks then we'll have to either repair it or walk this stuff to its destination."

"It would keep you from getting too out of shape," Uno chuckled from her spot on Nove's chest.

Pulling the string that was wrapped around her neck up, Nove flipped her device up and slid it down her shirt. "Keep quiet in there for awhile." She really didn't want to deal with Uno's snarkiness right now. "Anyway, despite this, we still have a big problem. Namely without you or Pokota, we're helpless against Mazoku."

"Actually," Pokota spoke up from his place on top of Nila's head, "Nila here is actually a pretty good spellcaster herself and can fight against Mazoku... At least that's what Lyos said."

Lyos sighed as Nila turned to look at him from under her cloak. "Yes, but she does have a point, if we're attacked, we'll be heavily outnumbered and out powered."

Before Pokota could respond to that, he found himself being lifted up and looking into the mismatched blue and purple eyes of Einhart. "Uh, yes?"

"Please, you know how to fight those things, teach me."

Pokota rubbed the back of his head and chuckled nervously at the girl's intense, but sincere, look and nodded. "Sure." It couldn't be that bad, she knew how to use magic at least.

Vivio and Arashi looked at each other and sighed, they were going to have to learn how to do this as well. They both knew their mothers wouldn't let them hear the end of it if they didn't at least try to do all they could to protect their friends.

Watching the group from the far corner, Corona sat with her knees up to her chest and sighed heavily. She just couldn't find it in her to do much of anything at the moment. The memory of what happened to Rio still burned in her mind too brightly. "Rio-chan..." She whimpered and buried her face against her legs. Why? That was still running through her mind. Why did Rio have to die like that?

"Hey..." Corona looked up to see Ixpellia smiling at her lightly. "If you don't smile, I'm going to think that a sadness monster took over my friend and left me with nothing." Ixpellia's smile dropped when Corona just dropped her head onto her knees. "It's hurts," Ixpellia said as she sat next to Corona, "losing people you like." The small redhead looked up at the sky and closed her eyes. "I can still see him. The boy that I was to wed, you know."

Silence passed between the two for several minutes, only the background noise of Pokota, Einhart and Vivio as well as the birds from far away broke up it up.

"What happened to him?" Corona finally said as she turned her head to look at Ixpellia.

"I killed him." Corona's eyes widened in shock. "My Mariage killed him." Ixpellia sighed as she looked at her. "He was the first victim of the Mariage curse, followed shortly by my entire kingdom and then the kingdom we were at war with."

"But that..."

"Happened a long time ago." Ixpellia shook her head and yelped as they hit a rock, causing everyone to jump upwards as the cart to jump up and back down quickly. There was a loud crack and the cart stopped. "What happened?"

"Hit a rock." Lyos grumbled as he pushed himself up from where he landed face-first in the straw. "Hold on, lemme check with the farmer. This might take a few hours."

"I'll join you." Nove hopped out with him. "I'm strong enough." Besides, it had been a few hours since they had gotten into the wagon, it would be nice to stretch her legs out somewhat.

"Sure." Lyos smiled at her. "The rest of you just stay here, if we need help, I'll call."

"So, what are we looking for?" Nove asked as she bent over to get a better look underneath. "Just tell me if I should see any cracks or not."

"You shouldn't." Lyos said from behind her as he looked over the wheels. "If the axel's busted, we're screwed unless he's got a spare in there." He couldn't help but sneak a glance at Nove and gulp as he saw how her pants formed around her rear end in just the right way.

Shaking his head, Lyos quickly went back to work looking over the wheel for any damage. He didn't want Nove to catch him ogling her rear end. The last time a woman did, they got quite upset at him.

Nove wiggled her hips as she crawled back out from underneath the wagon. "Nothing looks cracked down there, how about the wheel?"

"Looks good." Lyos nodded and walked around to the other side as a precaution. It didn't take him long to figure out that nothing was damaged there either. "We're good!" He yelled at the farmer, who nodded and cracked the reigns to get the horses to start taking off again.

"Hey!" Nove yelped as she fell off the wagon and landed on her rear end. "Ouch." She got up, rubbing her rear end and narrowing her eyes at Lyos. "At least wait until I'm back on, you jerk." She slugged him on the arm before running up and jumping onto the wagon.

Rubbing his arm, Lyos could only chuckle as he watched Nove get onto the wagon. Oh well, it wasn't like he did that on purpose. "Wait for me!" He ran after them and jumped onto the wagon after Nove.

Ixpellia giggled softly as she closed her eyes. "This is much better than what I had for so long." She only hoped that she got to live through this adventure and get back to her new home. "I wonder how Subaru will react."

She just hoped that the people back home weren't going insane with worry right now.

(-)

A few days later...

Einhart felt like growling as she tried to use this Blast Ash spell. Vivio had commented that it would be easier to learn what Pokota did, the Dragon Slave, if she knew how to draw upon Black magic in general first. Looking at Vivio, she almost groaned as the girl was turning various trees into ashes with the spell. "Why is this so difficult for me?"

"Vivio cheats," Arashi said to her, at least he wasn't doing too much better than she was, "she can just watch someone do spells and learn the basics from that. I wish this was easier though..."

"From what I understand," Nove spoke up as she dropped some firewood down onto the small campfire that they had set up a few hours ago, "is that the spiritual energy that Black and Shamanistic magic uses is different than just using our Linker Cores."

Einhart nodded, that much had been obvious. "So, we're getting to that place tomorrow then?" She asked Lyos, who nodded at her while he practiced swinging his sword a few times.

"Yep. If we leave just before dawn, we'll be there in the late afternoon at the latest."

"GAH!" Pokota grabbed his head and rubbed it hard. "This is nuts! It shouldn't be this hard for you to use Black magic. Even if you have almost no aptitude for it, you should still be able to use some of the basics!"

"Might I suggest letting me link up with your device?" Uno said as her hologram popped up from where Jet Edge rested on Nove's shirt. "It's probably not a good idea to leave it on all the time, you know." She smirked at Einhart and looked at Vivio, who was walking back to them. "You too. It's probably not a good idea to be in those adult forms all the time."

Vivio and Einhart looked at each other before a flash of light engulfed them both and they reverted to being in their shorter child forms.

"What the heck?!" Pokota yelped as he stared at Einhart and Vivio. "Some sort of Mazoku?"

"It's just basic transformation magic." Nove explained for the rabbit. "It's not commonly used, however, most people who use it just change their basic appearances. It's fairly low-maintenance though." Smirking, she looked at Arashi and Vivio. "In fact, can't Yuuno turn into a yellow ferret?"

Vivio gave her a flat look while crossing her arms over her chest. "Just because Yuuno-papa can turn into a ferret doesn't make him one. Anyway, I'd like you to meet Chris." Vivio gestured to her bunny device, which twitched and bowed to everyone. "He's my Intelligent Device."

"Ah," Einhart blushed softly as she held a plush snow leopard in her hands, "this is Tio."

"Mraw!" The device got a strange gleam in its eyes and jumped away from Einhart and jumped at Pokota.

"Whaaa?!" Pokota jumped back as the cat landed in front of him, growling. "Oh, you think you're so tough, huh?" His ear hands rose up and started moving around in a manner meant to make himself far more intimidating.

Tio growled and prepared to jump at Pokota before Einhart grabbed him and lightly bopped him on the head. "Mraw?"

"Bad Tio, bad." Einhart frowned at her device lightly. "We don't try to attack people who are helping us." She turned to Pokota and bowed. "I'm sorry, he gets excitable."

"I... I see that." Pokota stared at the device, which growled at him. "Just keep that thing away from me and it'll be okay." Really, it wasn't his fault that he was jumpy, that thing made him nervous. Actually, it wasn't just the device, it was the two girls that suddenly became younger. Who knew that was possible? Didn't Mazoku do stuff like that? But as he looked around, he didn't see anyone else reacting to it, so it must have been common or something.

"Hey, Nila," Lyos turned to the last member of the group, "what do you have to do out here anyway?" Quietly, Nila reached behind her to pull out a broken short sword from a sheath. "Oh." Well, it made sense, if you wanted your sword fixed, you take it to a weaponsmith. "You could have done that anywhere. Why here?"

Nila just sheathed the sword and snorted, walking away from him.

"Urgh, some days..." Lyos grumbled as he sat down. Sometimes he forgot how hard it was to deal with that woman when she wasn't talkative. Then again, she was never talkative, so it was just annoying.

Uno rolled her digital eyes and looked at Chris and Tio, both of which suddenly turned to look at her. "Yes, good plush bunny and kitty, auntie Uno has something good for you."

Nove just sweat-dropped as both devices ran up to her and sat down, looking at her device. "If I didn't know what was going on, I'd say that they were staring." Actually, if either of them had anything like Thoth's personality, she would have thought she was being ogled, but that wasn't happening, so she didn't worry about it. It still didn't make getting looked at any easier.

"So, this'll make it easier for us to use Black magic then?" Vivio asked, getting an absent nod from Uno. "That's good, right?"

"Yeah." Einhart looked at her and gave her a soft smile. "Maybe we can take care of those..."

"Don't get ahead of yourself." Pokota warned her. "Even if you know how to cast Black magic, that doesn't mean that you're well suited for it." He closed his eyes as he waggled a finger at them. "And even if you're suited for it, knowing just one spell is a bad idea, it takes time to cast the Dragon Slave and just knowing how to cast it doesn't make you too threatening. If a Mazoku knows that all you can do is the Dragon Slave, they have a chance to rig a counter-attack, the best thing is to know enough spells to avoid getting trapped using only one thing."

"I know that much." Einhart nodded to him. Getting reduced to a single point of ability was just bad form. After all, only the most foolish of opponents fell for the same trick over and over again.

"Right, well," Pokota looked at Einhart, Vivio and Arashi, who was just watching everything silently, "come on, let's see if you can learn anything new now."

"I saw it, I don't believe it." Pokota muttered and looked at Tio, who looked like it was grinning at him. "Really? You can do that now?"

Lyos laughed at him. "Well, I told you, didn't I? The people from where they're from learn really fast."

Pokota nodded as he watched Einhart and Vivio run through the various spells he was teaching them really fast. Arashi wasn't doing as well, but he wasn't too far behind them. "I'm almost worried that I'm going to get replaced or something."

Lyos snorted as he leaned back on the grass. "I'd just relax. It's not like we're going to forget you anytime soon. Anyway, Pokota, I'm going to rest, you take the first watch."

Pokota looked around and saw Ixpellia and Corona already out cold while Nila was leaning against a tree, her hood pulled down and over her eyes, not giving off any indication that she was awake or asleep. Sighing, Pokota just wondered what her deal was. Oh well, it wasn't his place to worry about it.

* * *

We're finally getting to the good stuff, I promise it'll get really good.


	312. Revolution Nine

Blood That Flows

Revolution Nine

I own nothing.

Well, here's a present for all of you. I wish to quote Stephen Colbert and Home Alone in a parody quote so...

Enjoy your filthy pagan holidays, you filthy animals!

And have a Happy New Years!

Now that that's out of the way, enjoy the next chapter!

* * *

"So, this is it?" Nove asked as the group found a rather small, non-descript shack, late in the afternoon the next day. "Doesn't look too impressive..."

"Most wizards build their laboratories underground." Lyos pointed out to her, he then pointed to what looked like a large box that was connected to the shack. "Besides, I said he made magic weapons, didn't I?"

"Among other things." Nove said as she walked ahead of the group towards the hut.

"Stop staring at her, let's go." Pokota grumbled as the group made their way to the shack.

"Halt." A female voice spoke up as a woman in a reddish, long-sleeved maid outfit stepped out from behind the shack. She had her eyes closed, but her red hair was only down to her shoulders. "What is your name?"

"I'm Lyos," the blue haired man said as he stepped forward. "These are my companions."

The woman nodded. "What is your business here?"

"To see the old man about some seal-breaking items. He should have gotten my letter a few days ago."

She nodded again. "What is your..."

"Ozel..." An older voice spoke up as the door to the shack opened up. "What's going on? Do we have guests? I like guests."

"No." Ozel turned to look at him, despite not opening her eyes, "now get back inside and write me into your will."

The man was wearing dark pants and a ratty, dirty colored white coat, he had a mostly bald head, except for a ring of hair around the side of his head with long hair that stuck out at odd angles behind him. He had a weird monocle on his left eye. Well, it looked like a monocle that was combined with several magnifying lenses. "Ozel," the man's high pitched voice sounded amused, "now, now, is that any way to treat me after I found you and fixed you up all those years ago?"

Ozel gave him a flat look. "I would say something rude, but you are not worth the effort, Masha."

Masha sighed and shook his head. "I swear," he looked at Lyos and gave the young man a smirk, "if you ever encounter a doll that has shut down, word of advice, don't fix her up and give her a more interesting personality, it comes back to bite you in the ass."

"Yeah," Lyos nodded at him, "can we come in?"

The man looked surprised, before laughing. "Of course, of course... Though, I only expected two of you, not this group."

"Can't be helped, we're here now." Lyos shrugged as he followed Masha into the shack.

"Wow!" Vivio, Ixpellia and Corona couldn't help but gasp in awe as they saw the various beakers and chemicals all around.

"I wouldn't touch that if I was you." Masha warned Ixpellia as she got close to a large flask that had liquid that was changing colors rapidly. "The last person who did got turned into a toad." He smiled as Ixpellia's eyes widened and she backed off from it quickly.

"Yes," Ozel nodded, "however, he got better."

Corona looked at the chemicals and frowned. "This seems more like a chemistry lab than a weaponsmith's lab." When Masha opened a large door in the back, she could only blink at the small hallway that had two doors in it. "What?"

"Well, I may be a weaponsmith, but I'm also a magic user, little girl." He chuckled as he walked to the end of the hallway and opened the door. Most of the group grimaced at the heat that rushed out of the room.

"Ooooh!" Ixpellia's eyes widened as she saw what was in the room. "Shiny!" Her eyes started to sparkle as she walked into the room.

"I think I'm going to just go wait outside." Arashi spoke up and looked at Vivio and Einhart. "You two coming with?" Einhart nodded and he looked at Corona and smiled. "Hey, come on, it'll probably be boring in there anyway."

Corona nodded and followed after him.

Vivio looked at Ixpellia as she looked around the room. "Ixy, are you going to be okay?"

"It's Ixpellia..." The young girl muttered as she looked at the various swords lining the walls. "Shiny!"

"I wouldn't touch them." Nove warned her and turned to look at Masha. "Tell me something, I'm not really up to date on what you use for chemicals around here, but wouldn't having chemicals that can turn people into toads be kind of dangerous if they get too hot?"

Masha smiled at her. "Well, I dabble with chemicals and sometimes when I'm forging the swords, I use the chemicals to give a sword a bit of an edge." He chuckled at his own joke before coughing. "Sorry, I'm just getting old." Sighing, the old weaponsmith walked over to the far wall and pulled out a long, thin blade. "As for you, Lyos, I hope this works for you."

"Hmm?" Lyos looked at it, it didn't look that remarkable, but he knew better than to doubt the man who had fixed his Banisher a few times over the years. "So, this is supposed to break seals?"

"Without damaging anything under the seals, I admit, that was hard, yes..." Masha nodded and jumped as he turned and saw Ixpellia holding a white short sword, well, short to most people, but it was almost a full sized broadsword for the young girl as she moved it around while looking at it in awe.

"Wow... This is so light, but it's beautiful... And this cross guard, it looks like a flower..." Ixpellia could only stare in awe at the sword. "What is this?"

"Well," Masha rubbed his chin, surprised that the girl knew what a cross guard even was. "About eight years ago I came across the ruins of a city, I can tell you this, I was shocked that such a beautiful city so destroyed, not to mention the giant tree." He sighed and shook his head. "So, as I looked around, I found pieces of a sword that were on the ground and I've spent the past couple of years trying to fix it up, but, well..." He sighed and shook his head. "I haven't had much luck other than putting it together. I'm just not sure, it seems like it needs something else." He shrugged his shoulders and winced when they popped. "Well, you can have it if you want it." He blinked as everyone stared at him in shock. "What? It's a magic sword, it's meant to be used, and I just put it together on a whim."

Before anyone could say or do anything, Nila walked over and took the sword from Ixpellia and ignored her shout of disappointment. "...Blessed Blade..." She whispered softly.

"Blessed Blade?" Ixpellia blinked as Nila handed it back. "What's that?"

"Isn't that the sword that was said to be able to weaken and contain miasma from the Demon Beast Zannafar and even minor Mazoku?" Masha looked around the room, getting shrugs from the people in the room. "Well, if that's what it's called... How did you know that was the name, young lady?"

"...Familiar looking."

Ixpellia tilted her head as she focused on the voice. Nila didn't speak much, but for some strange reason, she could have sworn that her voice sounded somewhat familiar.

"Anyway..." Lyos's eyes widened as an explosion rocked the shack. "What the..?"

"The kids!" Nove was already rushing out of the room, followed by Lyos, Pokota, Nila and Ixpellia.

"Sir?" Ozel looked at Masha.

"Well, I didn't rebuild you just to hear you make annoying comments." The old man waved her off. "Show them why you're my bodyguard."

"Of course." The maid nodded and crossed her arms over her chest before extending her arms out to the sides, blades taking the place of her arms. "They can bite my shiny metal blades."

"Why did I have to mess with her personality when I was drunk?" Masha rubbed his forehead. "Oh right, I'm brilliant when sober, but a mad genius when I'm smashed." He still had no idea how that was possible. He just hoped that his place was still standing when the excitement was over.

(-)

Outside...

Arashi rubbed his eyes as he, Corona, Vivio and Einhart got out of that shack. "Ugh, too hot." He couldn't imagine how someone could work in such conditions so easily. "Now what?"

"Hope that Lyos will take us to somewhere we can get into contact the Bureau." Einhart leaned against the shack and sighed heavily. "I'd rather not face things like these Mazoku again." She could barely touch them, how the heck could anyone hope to harm them with anything if they weren't really there? Even with her progress with Black magic, she doubted that she'd be too much more effective against them than she already was. 'Maybe if I had that Dragon Slayer spell that Pokota used?'

Einhart's eyes widened as she saw a large red sphere heading their way. "Watch out!" She tackled Arashi out of the way as the sphere passed by where he was a moment ago, hitting the ground with a thunderous explosion.

Blinking, Arashi looked at Einhart, who was only inches away from his face. "Ah, thanks." She nodded and got off of him as Teo flew over to her and activated, allowing her to go to her adult mode just as Vivio did the same with Sacred Heart.

Corona gripped Brunzel tightly, wondering what she could do in this situation. She gasped and stared in shock, along with the others as monsters of all shapes and sizes moved towards them. "What are they?"

"Lesser Demons!" Corona turned to see Lyos, Nila, Pokota and Nove rush out of the shack. "Damn, there's a lot."

"What's a Lesser Demon?" Nove narrowed her eyes. "Some sort of Mazoku?"

"Incredibly weak though, they're bonded with physical items, so you can beat them with normal weapons and spells, but they're as tough as a boulder." Unsheathing Banisher, the man grinned as water started to spiral around the large blade. "Not that it matters to me in the slightest."

"You might want to reconsider your position." A gruff voice spoke up as a beast man that looked like a humanoid tiger in an unusual armor stepped forward. "After all, Knight of the Aqualord, you'll have to deal with me."

"Duclis!" Pokota couldn't believe that his old friend would work with Mazoku of all creatures. "What's going on? Why are you attacking?! You know that I've..."

"Ah, Pokota," the beastman's growling voice was almost sorrowful as he spoke. "It's been so long, I thought you had died."

"No way!" Pokota swung his arms to the side. "Come on! Help us! We finally have an item that might just break the seal on Taforashia! We can finally."

"It won't matter." Duclis closed his eyes as he shook his head. "The kingdom's long gone and its people forgotten. There's nothing left..." A red blade snapped to life in his right hand. "Except revenge against all those who refused to help.

"Duclis..." Pokota couldn't keep the shock off of his face. "Why?"

"Even with all the advances in technology, especially to medicine, no one has tried to save Taforashia. For that, they will all die."

"I didn't even know there was a Taforashia." Vivio grunted as Einhart elbowed her in the side.

"Not now." Einhart muttered and looked around, wondering how to deal with these things.

"Knight of the Aqua Lord, you're mine, as for your friends..." Duclis raised his left hand and snapped his fingers. "I hope they can handle Lesser Demons, some Mazoku and a magic tank."

"No! You didn't!" Pokota stared in shock as he looked past Duclis and saw what looked like a deformed elephant head on wheels heading his way. "Duclis!"

"Destroy all of them!"

The Lesser Demons let out a scream and rushed through the air towards the group.

A second later, a piercing white light crossed over the group, destroying the lead attackers in an instant. The other Lesser Demons stopped their assualt and looked at the one who had attacked them.

"Nila!" Lyos saw her out of the corner of his eye. "Think you can take them out?"

She nodded and pointed her right index finger at the Lesser Demons again. "Abyss Flare." Was all she whispered when another similar beam of white lanced out, burning away the Lesser Demons in its path.

Lyos smirked at Duclis and ran forward, his sword slammed into Duclis' much thinner energy blade. His eyes widened as the water around his sword dissipated. "What the?"

"Surprised, boy?" Duclis threw his arm to the side, knocking Lyos off balance before grabbing his clothes and throwing him over his shoulder. "Knight of the Aqua Lord you might be, but the Zannafar Armor makes me immune to your magic."

"Zannafar, huh?" Lyos rolled to his feet and narrowed his eyes. "I've heard of that, it's dangerous, but it makes you unkillable normally." Water formed around his blade before hardening and becoming ice. "I wonder, what's better? Your armor or my sword?"

Duclis snarled and rushed Lyos, his energy blade slashing into the Banisher. Duclis' eyes widened as the ice only gave a slight crack but did not shatter. "How?"

"This ice is so dense that I could use it to cut a mountain into pieces." Lyos smirked and pulled his sword back before swinging horizontally at Duclis, which the beastman parried with his energy blade . "You think you're good enough?!" Lyos yelled as he brought his sword around and over his head, dropping it down on Duclis, who leaned out of the way to avoid the strike.

A sudden concentrated burst of water sent Duclis flying backwards. The beastman growled and threw his arms to the side, breaking the water apart. "Fool!" He glared at Lyos as his energy sword shrank in size. "You think that you can stop me with something so pathetic?"

"Well, usually I don't have to work much harder than that." Lyos smirked at him. "Usually my enemies are pretty pathetic." He smirked as the air around him started to waver. "Shall we see just what I can really do with water?"

Duclis just sneered at him as a second energy blade formed in his left hand. "Let's see you be cocky when I'm done with you." He suddenly threw the energy blades in his hands forward like a spear, shocking Lyos enough tha the was just barely able to create a wall of ice to stop the attack cold.

"Didn't know you could do that." Lyos admitted as the air continued to waver. "Guess I can't play anymore." With a yell, he rushed in, his sword held high above his head as he twisted around a couple of more thrown energy spears before slashing downwards, striking Duclis on his chest and getting the beastman to grunt in surprise and his eyes widened as the sword slammed into him with such force that he was sent flying backwards into and through a tree, causing it to break and collapse around him.

Duclis looked up with narrowed eyes, that attack didn't hurt him at all, but it was obvious that he had seriously underestimated the Knight's strength. When Lyos pointed his sword forward, Duclis wondered what was going on, until he saw the air boiling around the sword. "Oh hell."

Lyos smirked as the boiling water spun around his sword before launching itself at Duclis in such a way that it looked like a coiled spring. The water raced at him so loudly it sounded like a thunderclap had gone off as it tore the ground asunder and slammed into Duclis with the force of a stampeding dragon and sending him crashing to the ground several feet away.

Duclis growled as he got up. This was starting to get annoying.

(-)

"Stay back!" Nove yelled at the girls as she called up her Barrier Jacket. "Just stay back here, I'm not losing anymore of you!"

Arashi nodded as Nove used her Airliner to rush towards the Lesser Demons. "Good luck." He whispered and turned around as he heard the door to the shack suddenly opened. "Ixy, we're in trouble."

"It's Ixpellia." She muttered as she held her new sword in her right hand and looked at the descending demons that Nila was destroying from just a few feet away. "This is bad." She muttered and jumped back as several dark hands erupted through the ground. "What the?"

"Come here..." A female voice spoke up from somewhere. "Come play with Grelia."

Turning around, Nila pointed her hand at the ground and several white beams of energy pierced the ground, getting a scream from the shadows.

"Excuse me." Ozel said softly as she chopped another hand apart. "I cannot let you harm these children." She looked at Nila. "Continue to deal with those creatures, these blades were created to harm Astral creatures."

Nodding, Nila turned back to the Lesser Demons and ran forward, launching several large spheres of fire into the group.

"You think normal swords can stop me?" Grelia's voice was heard around the group as the multiple shadow arms lashed out at them. "I'm not so easy."

Ozel slashed through three arms and watched as they disappeared. "Could have fooled me."

"Hey!" Vivio yelped as she formed a multi-colored sphere in her hands. "Watch where you're grabbing!"

"Oh ho?" Grelia chuckled as more hands formed out of the ground and shot at Vivio. "Don't like it when I grab you, huh?"

"Divine... BUSTER!" Vivio let out a scream as she punched the sphere, sending out a burst of magical energy that had Grelia screaming in pain. "Take that!"

"How?!" Grelia hissed as steam came out of the ground. "I'll kill you!"

"Vivio!" Ixpellia yelled as she saw several hands erupt out of Vivio's own shadow and wrap around her body before grabbing her throat and squeezing. "Vivio!"

Vivio grabbed at her throat as her air was cut off but found that she couldn't grab anything as the shadows were completely incorpreal.

"Vivio!" Einhart yelled as she spun around and held an open palm out at her friend. "Hold still! Elemekia Lance!" The energy blade she launched at Vivio hit her square in the chest, but it made Grelia hiss in pain and let go of Vivio's throat.

Vivio dropped to her knees as the hands let go of her body and gasped to get air back into her lungs.

"Vivio!" Einhart ran towards her friend but jumped back as a hand shot straight out at her. "Are you okay?"

Vivio nodded and rolled away, quickly getting to her feet and looking around. "Worse than I thought." She mumbled to herself.

Meanwhile, Corona whimpered as she quickly backed up against the shack. What could she do? Her golems were next to useless in this kind of fight. Even if she could create a golem to fight against those Lesser Demons, what would happen if one of those Mazoku things came after her?

"Why?" She whimpered and fell to her knees. "Why am I so weak?"

A snapping noise drew her attention and Corona turned, only to go pale as she gasped. "No..."

The last thing she saw before darkness claimed her was a grinning face.

(-)

Pokota grumbled as he blasted another Lesser Demon while making his way to the magic tanks that were firing down at the shack. Well, trying to, he was quick to intercept the attacks as he got close. "I'll take you out from here, you bastard!"

"Oh? We haven't even met yet, it's quite rude to call me a bastard." A male voice spoke up and Pokota spun around to see a trim man in what looked like a skin tight black body suit, blonde hair that was combed back and a handsome face...

Well, half of a face, the entire right side was just white, as if it was paper for an artist who had grown bored with the drawing and just stopped.

"Do I frighten you? My name is Vizea."

"Mazoku." Pokota growled and glanced at the tank as it took aim at the shack again. "Oh no you don't."

"I think it does." Vizea smirked as black spiraling spears shot out of the white of his face.

Pokota's eyes widened as he had to dodge out of the way of cannon fire and the black spears. "Dammit!" He screamed as he watched the attack got near the shack, sending his companions sprawling.

"Oh, too bad." Vizea smirked at him. "If only you had time to cast the Dragon Slave..." Pokota glared at him and the Mazoku chuckled. "I imagine that the reason you didn't cast it before was because there were too many Lesser Demons between you and the tank?"

"Elmekia Flame!"

"Now, now!" Vizea jumped backwards, twisted to the side and bent backwards to avoid the attacks. "Is that any way to talk to me?" Chuckling, the Mazoku flung his arms out at Pokota, causing more spears of darkness to fling at the rabbit. "After all, Mr. Duclis was so kind as to tell me so much about you over the years." When Pokota stared at him in shock, the Mazoku continued, grinning at him. "Who would have thought that such a puny little animal was actually a prince, hmm? Maybe we should tell your companions what you're hiding? How it was your kingdom that once had these weapons."

Pokota growled and grabbed at his chest, revealing a zipper in the middle of it. "You... Shut up!" Pulling it down with his long ears, he reached inside and pulled out what looked to be a sword hilt. "Light Come Forth!"

For the first time, Vizea looked rather stunned. "What? The Sword of Light? But that's impossible! It was sent back to the Dark staff years ago!"

Pokota would have answered, but he was distracted by a cannon firing. "Damn you!"

"That won't work!" Vizea snapped his hands out as Pokota tried to fly to the tank again, sending several black spikes in front of the rabbit. "You won't be interfering with our plan."

Pokota narrowed his eyes at the Mazoku. "Fine! Dark MIST!" He clapped his hands in front of him and a blanket of darkness covered the immediate area, blocking out all light. Pokota was a bit dismayed to find that he could barely see the Sword of Light in this darkness, but he could live with that, he knew what he needed to do.

"Blocking my sight?" Vizea snorted as he looked around. "My eyes are beyond anything a mere human has. I don't need to see you to find you."

"Oh, I know that." Pokota's voice came from his left. "But I didn't use this to hide from you."

Vizea snorted as he fired several dark spears into the mist. "It doesn't matter, you're going to die."

"Yeah, you are." Vizea's eye widened as he heard Pokota's voice from right behind him. "Got'cha!"

"What?!" Vizea jumped back, but not before his left arm was removed from his body. "GUH!"

"I missed." Pokota muttered as he flew through the mist. "Oh well, that should buy me enough time."

Grunting, Vizea fell to his knees and gripped his arm. "Damn, I was careless, I'll just..."

_"Darkness Beyond Twilight... Crimson Beyond Blood That Flows Buried in the Stream of Time Is Where your power grows I pledge myself to conquer All the Foes that stand Against the mighty gift bestowed In my unworthy hand Let the fools who stand before us be destroyed by the power you and I possess..."_

Vizea could only gape as the Dark Mist spiraled and gave way to a grinning rabbit holding a red and black sphere above his head. "No..."

"Yep!" Pokota grinned as he thrust his ear-hands forward. "DRAGON SLAVE!"

Vizea's eye widened as his pupil shrank in fear. "Damn you." He muttered as the spell rushed in on him.

Pokota nodded as the Dragon Slave easily destroyed the magic tank and the Mazoku disappeared in the explosion. "That's one less..." He trailed off as a brilliant light caught his attention. "What the heck is that?"

(-)

Nove growled as she kicked another Lesser Demon's head off. At least most of these things seemed made out of gargoyle statues and not something worse. She was thankful for the support from down below, though she suspected something bad was happening. "This is too easy."

"You think so?" Uno's voice spoke up from her left foot. "I mean, it's not like these things are made of granite even. I think it's just some softer stones."

"I'd be more worried about the fact that the shadows seem to be attacking our friends." Jail spoke up and Nove's eyes widened as she spun around on her Airliner and saw the dark hands trying to attack her friends.

"Dammit!" Nove cursed and started to move forward, but stopped as several Lesser Demons got in her way. "Fuck! They're just a distraction!"

"A dangerous one." Jail said as the clawed hands of the Lesser Demons suddenly got longer and sharper than before.

"Obviously!" Uno snorted at him. "Though, I have to wonder, if they're just a distraction, what for? Do any of us have anything their master would want?"

"Now's not the time!" Nove growled as she jumped back and reactivated her Airliner. "Just..." She kicked one in the arm and grinned as she kicked through it. "GET OUT OF MY WAY!" The cyborg screamed as she quickly spun around and slammed her feet into the Lesser Demon's face, causing it to fall apart. "...I'm beginning to think that these aren't Demons at all."

"Figured it out?" A whispered voice reached Nove as she looked around for the source of it. Surprisingly, the creatures around her weren't moving. "They aren't true Lesser Demons, but rather stone constructs, similar to your friend's golem that she used before."

"What about Corona?" Nove hissed as she reached for her gauntlet and did some adjusting to the device.

"Oh, is that her name?" The voice whispered some more. "I wouldn't know, all I know is that it was interesting. And making these constructs look and feel like Lesser Demons was so useful."

"You were after Corona, weren't you?" Uno's voice broke into the conversation. "What good is a girl who can only create golems anyway?"

"I'm afraid that's not my place to tell you. But if you survive, maybe you'll find out." A snapping sound was heard and the constructs let out a bellow and rushed in.

Nove smirked and held her arms to the side. "Why don't you just... Chill?" She spun around a few times as a blue cloud erupted from her gauntlets, instantly freezing the constructs and sending them to the ground below, where they shattered into pieces.

Ignoring them, Nove rushed back to the shack and hoped that she wasn't too late. Sure, from what she could see, everyone was still alive and well, but they were still so far away from her. "What I wouldn't give to know how to teleport." She muttered as she moved as fast as she could.

(-)

Duclis smirked as he threw a tree at Lyos. He doubted it would do much to this guy, but it would suffice for what he needed.

Lyos slashed the tree in half, letting it fall on either side of him. "What was the point of that?"

"A distraction." Duclis said from behind him.

Spinning around, Lyos gasped as Duclis' energy sword pierced him in the chest. "D...Damn..."

"You lose." The beastman grinned at him. "Too bad you decided to fight me alone, if you had help you might have..."

"Duclis!" The beastman gasped and jumped away from Lyos as Pokota flew in and swung down with the Sword of Light. "How _dare_ you ally yourself with a Mazoku?!"

Duclis shook his head slowly. "You'll never understand. Even after all this time, all you want to do is restore Taforashia. Don't you get it, Pokota?" He held an open hand out at his friend. "The kingdom's been destroyed, there's nothing left there. Even us, our bodies are sealed away with the rest of them."

"So?! That doesn't mean you have to work with a Mazoku!" Pokota threw his arms to the side while his ears held the Sword of Light in front of him. "Come on!" He begged his old friend. "Please? Whatever you're being offered by the Mazoku..." He trailed off as Duclis laughed at him. "Duclis?"

"You think a Mazoku made me an offer?" He grinned at Pokota. "Vizea works for me! Not the other way around!" He smirked at Pokota's shocked look. "I should let you know, we will soon have completed Zannafars. And with that..." He laughed as he brought his hands up in front of him. "We'll make them all pay."

"Duclis..." Pokota could only stare in dismay.

"You think..." Lyos looked at him and grinned, despite the pain. "That I'd let you?" He chuckled and forced himself to his feet.

Duclis stared at him. "...How?"

Lyos chuckled and removed his hand, revealing that there was minimal damage. "To master Holy magic means that you can control all attributes of that element. My element's water, you know what the human body is made up of?"

Duclis snorted. "So, you can heal. Big deal. That won't be enough when we make our move!" He turned his back to the two of them and started to walk away. "Next time, you won't be so lucky, Knight of the Aqua Lord."

"Duclis!" Pokota screamed and flew after him. "You get back here!"

Lyos didn't try to stop the rabbit, he knew Pokota would be okay, the Sword of Light was one of the two weapons that was said to be able to hurt the Zannafar after all. 'An army? How could he control that? The last Zannafar was supposed to be uncontrollable and destroyed everything.'

(-)

Ixpellia frowned as she watched her friends have to deal with the shadow-like hands that kept raising themselves out of the ground and attacking the group. "Watch out!" She yelled at Ozel, who turned a half a second too late. "No." Ixpellia's eyes widened as Ozel's head was removed from her body, flying several feet and rolling in the grass as her body fell down harmlessly.

"That's one. Who's next?" Grelia sing-songed as the shadow arms danced around the attacks that Einhart and Arashi were launching at her. "I don't know just what you're doing, but I do know that I don't like it."

Ixpellia looked around and frowned as she noticed something unusual about the grass and dirt that they were on. 'Why is it..?'

"You can't fight the shadows, who knows where I'll strike from?"

"Shadows?" Ixpellia muttered before pulling out one of her long, thin blades and throwing it into the ground hard enough to bury it to the hilt. When Grelia let out a scream, she nodded in satisfaction. "Thought so."

"HOW?!" Grelia screamed as the ground seemed to shift and spin before pulling itself upwards, revealing a tall, multi-armed creature with no face. "How did you..?"

"Know? You said the shadows and then I noticed the ground was dark." Ixpellia grinned at the Mazoku. "Now we can deal with you."

"I'll kill you, brat!"

"No, you won't." A soft voice spoke up and Grelia turned around to see Nila pointing an open palm at her. "Blam Blazer."

Grelia let out a scream as the blinding white light tore a hole through her body. "You..." She hissed as she faded away. "I'll kill all of you..."

"Thank you." Ixpellia nodded at Nila and looked at the creatures still in the sky, heading towards them. "This is..."

"Ixy..." Vivio spoke up as she noticed something.

"It's Ixpellia!" The redhead glared at her friend. "What?" She blinked when Vivio pointed at her sword. "What the?"

"The Blessed Blade was designed to absorb miasma, you know." An older voice spoke up and Ixpellia spun around, yelping as she saw Masha smiling at her. "You must have unlocked it's power somehow. That's good news!"

"When did you get out here?"

"It doesn't matter!" Masha shook his head. "Now, I should mention that all my swords have nice effects, that one I can't figure out, but I'm sure that it'll be good."

Ixpellia looked at the sword in confusion and waved it up and down, blinking in shock as the air seemed to be displaced by pure energy. It was only for a moment and the energy dissipated as quickly as it had came.

Looking up at the creatures, Ixpellia held her sword out to the side. "I wonder, old man, Masha, what was it you were trying to do with this sword?"

Masha shrugged his shoulders and grinned. "I'm not sure then."

Ixpellia looked at the sword and concentrated, pouring a small amount of her magic into it. Sure, she didn't use her magic for much these days, but maybe a small amount wouldn't...

"Ixy, what are you..?" Vivio trailed off and jumped back as a magical silver-colored aura surrounded the blade and erupted outwards.

Ixpellia's eyes were focused ahead of her. "Blessed Blade, please, live up to your name and clense the skies."

"Think we should move?" Vivio looked at Einhart, who was already running past her and behind Ixpellia. "Hey!"

Jumping up and onto the roof of the shack, Nila watched with some interest what Ixpellia was going to do next.

Ixpellia gripped the sword with both hands and bit her lower lip as the thing shook in her hands. "What... No... This is..." She looked at the skies with a determined expression. "The Blessed... BLADE!" Letting out a wordless scream, she swung it across her body at the enemies.

For a moment, nothing happened.

"...Was I wrong?" Ixpellia muttered, before falling down in shock as the air shimmered for a moment before a large wave of silver light rushed outwards and towards the creatures in the sky.

"...Woah..." Einhart could only stare, wide-eyed as the energy crashed into the oncoming enemies, causing them to shatter and explode in mid air as the attack continued on, unabated.

"Oh, so THAT'S what it can do after absorbing some energy!" Masha slapped a fist into his open palms. "This is good news! Yes..."

"Hey! Is everyone okay?!" Lyos' voice was heard as he ran back to them. "I saw the light and thought..." He trailed off as he looked at the group. "Looks like everyone's okay then." He looked at Nila as she touched down next to him. "So..?" She shook her head. "Too easy?" When she nodded, Lyos felt like swearing.

Nila looked him over and frowned as she saw him putting his hand on his chest. She was about to touch his arm when she heard a voice interrupt them.

"Hey!" Nove yelled as she rolled over the ground to look at everyone. "What happened? Where's Corona?!"

"Corona?" Vivio looked around and paled as she couldn't see her friend. "Where is she? Arashi? Where are you?!"

"Over here!" Arashi yelled as he came out from around the shack. "I saw Corona was missing awhile ago and I slipped away to make sure she was okay." There was worry written all over his face as he shook. "But, I couldn't find her anymore. She disappeared!"

"DAMMIT!" Nove screamed as she realized she was too late, again. "Corona!

(-)

Several miles away, Vizea grimaced as he reformed in the real world. "That... I can't believe that! He could use the Dragon Slave?!" It was no minor miracle that a Mazoku such as himself had been able to survive that. Hell, even Generals and Priests had trouble surviving that spell, and he was nothing more than a minor Mazoku. "And that Sword of Light..." Snarling, the Mazoku disappeared from the world again. He had revenge to plot against that rabbit thing.

"And next time, you will die, I swear it." His voice lingered in the air as he disappeared.

* * *

Longer than usual, huh? What happened to Corona?

If anyone was curious about Ixpellia's Blessed Blade and how it works... You have to know her Japanese Voice. It's Saber from FSN and Fate Zero. So, yes, Actor Allusion. Just thought I'd clear that up right away.

So, hope you enjoyed, see you in the next chapter.


	313. Revolution Ten

Blood That Flows

Revolution Ten

I own nothing.

Hope you all enjoyed the New Years.

And I've just realized that this fic is going into its fourth year. My original hope had been, last year, to be done or almost done with it.

I hope that I can complete it this year.

* * *

"Lord Gram! Lord Gram!" A Mazoku that looked like a blue skinned, humanoid creature, though he had what looked like weasel's head in place of a human one appeared in front of the Mazoku General with Corona dangling from his outstretched arm. "Isn't it great?"

"Calm yourself, Sneavel." Gram rolled his eyes as he looked the young girl over. "Well, well, it looks like I have an interesting specimen now, don't I?" He raised an eyebrow at what he was feeling from the girl. "Interesting, normally I don't get this reaction from people just from being in their presence." Some fear was common, but sheer, shark terror? That was new.

Corona couldn't bring herself to answer, she could only remember this monster holding Rio before killing her in cold blood in front of all of them. "R...Rio... You..."

Gram chuckled as he walked around the girl, who found herself dropped to the floor as Sneavel quickly stepped back from her. "Tell me something, girl, how have you enjoyed your time here?" He smirked as she whimpered and tried to curl up on herself. "You were there when I killed that other girl, huh?" Corona could only tremble as Gram slipped up next to her and knelt down. "Tell me something, girl, that Golem you created, what did you use to make it?"

"J...Just what was around me." Corona shivered as the Mazoku ran a finger down her backside.

"Just what was around you?" Gram looked at her with some shock as he thought about that. "To be able to do something like that though..."

"I just... Want to go home." Corona whimpered, finally losing her nerve as tears fell down her face.

"Oh?" Gram smirked at her as he stood up and started to walk away. "Why should I let you go home? What could you possibly offer me?"

Corona's eyes snapped open as a memory came to her. "You said you were looking for two people, right?" She looked up at him with hope in her eyes. "If I tell you, will you let me go?"

"Provided that you can give me everything I want about those two..." Gram trailed off, but nodded. "Now, where are they?"

"C...Cranagan, on Mid-Childa!" Corona shivered, she hated this, but she wanted to get out of this alive.

Gram frowned in confusion. He had never heard of Mid-Childa before. "So they did escape our world..." But he had done scouting of this staff with minions before and there was very limited life other than this one planet. "And since we still can't access the Dark Staff..."

Many of the Mazoku looked at each other in confusion when Gram suddenly threw his head back and laughed a chilling, heart-stopping laugh. Well, if any of them had hearts that is.

"So much suddenly makes sense. How those two got away from our master, why we could never find them, and this!" He gestured to Corona. "Even those who have the ability to create Golems from raw materials like you do can't do it the way you do."

"I still feel that punch!" A Mazoku in the group yelled at Corona.

"Now, now..." Gram waved that Mazoku down and looked at Corona with an intrigued expression on his face. "Tell me, girl, how about that Golem? Could you make it right now?"

"Lord Gram! You can't possibly..." One of the Mazoku began but was silenced when Gram looked its way.

Corona gulped and closed her eyes and a golden circle formed around her on the floor. Unnoticed to her, Gram raised an eyebrow, both at the color and at what he was feeling from her. 'Interesting.' He snorted as he saw the large black golem stand there motionlessly. "I thought maybe something interesting would happen," he closed his eyes and started to walk away. "Put her in it."

"Yes!"

Corona started scooting away as she saw several Mazoku walk towards her, one of which had a silver-colored breast plate in his hands. She may have not known what it was, but the instant she saw it, all her mind could do was scream at her how dangerous that thing was. "Get... Get away from me! No!" Her arms and legs were quickly grabbed and she was lifted up as the Mazoku with the breastplate got closer. "NO!"

Gram suddenly turned around as he heard the breastplate hit the ground. "...Interesting." The Golem had struck the Mazoku in the side, sending it flying and was turning on the others that held its creator down. "I was wrong, but..." His eyes narrowed and the Golem suddenly shattered into tiny pieces. "I never told you to attack." Corona shook her head and he merely raised an eyebrow. "...Are you telling me that your Golem attacked to protect you without you giving it an order?"

"I was just scared and..." Corona was lifted to a standing position as Gram turned away from her, thinking about it.

"Get her into that thing!" One of the Mazoku grabbed the breastplate and lifted it up. "Don't worry, this is the Zannafar Armor, you'll be safe when you're in it." The armor split apart and one Mazoku put the back against Corona and just before the front was touching her, Gram ordered the Mazoku to stop, causing it to turn to the General in confusion.

"I just realized something..." Gram pulled the breastplate away from Corona and looked at her with glowing eyes. "Yes, I only just realized it, you have an extra organ in you." Corona blinked in confusion as he reached out and tapped her on the upper chest. Her eyes widened and she paled horribly when a glowing ball formed in front of her. "I see... Interesting. An organ that harnesses your magic directly. No need to draw it from a power source and form it into what you want." The Mazoku General suddenly smirked and chuckled as the final pieces fell into place.

"Lord Gram?"

"You can't see it, can you? She's from the Blue staff, Chaotic Blue's staff." The name alone had several of the Mazoku in the room murmuring amongst themselves. "Even if she can't hurt us directly, the fact is, her Golem was made up of common materials. If she had even a little talent in Astral, Black or Holy magic..." Gram trailed off and a gleam came to his eyes. "I wonder..."

Corona felt faint as she saw a bubbling black mass of energy form in his hands. Whatever it was, it felt dark, deep and pure evil.

"What would happen if the raw essence of our Lord Death Fog bonded itself to this organ that processes your magical power?" Gram's smile was cold as the energy shot out with tendrils and wrapped around Corona's Linker Core before merging completely.

The screams of pure pain and suffering was music to all the Mazoku present. Especially as they got louder and more high pitched while black flames started to surround and consume the young girl.

Gram wondered if she could handle it, before mentally shrugging. What did he care if a human lived or died?

(-)

Vivio's eyes suddenly widened as a cold chill ran down her spine. Clutching her chest, she fell to her knees. "No..." She wasn't sure what was going on, but for some reason, she felt that something really, really bad had happened. "Corona..."

"Vivio!" Einhart and Arashi yelled at the same time and grabbed her as she trembled. "Vivio, what's..."

"Corona." Nove said, a disgusted look on her face. "Something happened to her." Growling, the redhead turned to a nearby tree and blasted it to kindling. "DAMMIT!"

"The worst part is, we have no idea where to start looking for her." Ixpellia spoke up, looking at the group sadly. "If we just had a clue..."

"We do!" Ixpellia turned to see Pokota flying towards them. "The Ruvinagald kingdom."

"You sure?" Lyos looked at Pokota, who nodded as he landed on Ixpellia's head. "Fine. That's pretty close to Seiryuun, we can drop..."

"No!" Vivio shot to her feet and glared at Lyos. "Something happened to Corona and we're going to save her!"

Lyos saw the look in her eyes and sighed heavily. "You remind me so much of that little girl that I knew a long time ago... Nanoha, I think..."

"You knew mama?!" Vivio fell over in shock, and Lyos could only stare at her, stupefied. "You knew my mama, Nanoha Takamachi?!"

"...Wow, I know you can get older, but still... How old was she when she had you?" Lyos scratched the back of his head. "And, yeah, I fought alongside her a few times when I was younger."

"I'm adopted." Vivio pointed out to him. "But, wow, I didn't know that. Mama said that she had a lot of things happen in her life."

Lyos nodded. "Well," he looked at Vivio, then at Ixpellia and Pokota, then at Nila before finally settling on Einhart and Arashi, "if we're going, we better get going now. Even at our best speed, it'll take us awhile to get across the continent." He sighed at the questioning looks he was getting. "We're currently near the edge of the countries Lyzeille and Dils, Ruvinagald is closer to Elmekia and Zefielia, so at the very least, we have to travel through either Dils into Kalmaart to get there, or through Ralteague and Saillune, and personally, I prefer to go through Kalmaart."

"Why?" Nove looked at him curiously as he shrugged.

"Less of a hassle, that's all." Either way, it would take them a good length of time to walk that far.

"Ah!" Masha spoke up as he looked at the Blessed Blade. "Before you go, I'll put that sword into a sheath for you." Ixpellia smiled and nodded at him. "And you can keep it. Anyone who can do that with that sword deserves to keep it."

"I would like that." Ixpellia nodded at him.

(-)

Gram raised an eyebrow as the black flames started to die down, as did the girl's screams. He had lost count of how long the girl had been consumed by the darkness, but he had to reason it had been a couple of hours. "So, you did survive." He smirked at the girl who was floating there with a dark aura surrounding her. He found it interesting that her clothes had dissolved, leaving her in just her undergarments.

"Brunzel." Corona's voice whispered as she held out her hand. Her dagger suddenly appeared in her hand and she grinned. "Set UP!"

There was a surge of Black magic from the girl as energy raced along her skin, from her feet upwards, changing her skin's color got paler, her hair turned white while her eyes became red in color. Black shoes covered her feet as did stockings that went up past her knees, a black dress with white frills covered her lower body and a black top with matching white frills covered her torso. The top had a very low-cut back, stopping just centimeters above her waist while poofy black shoulders held the top up. White gloves that went up past her elbows appeared on her hands.

Corona suddenly grinned and a black circle appeared under her feet. "Goliath." She whispered as her Golem came forth once again, however, much to even Gram's surprise, the Golem was covered in spiraling black flames. The Golem knelt down and held out its hand, letting Corona climb onto it. "I do believe our business is done, Mazoku." The grin on Corona's face was one of barely held in maliciousness. "Yes... I feel... So free..." She looked at the breastplate on the ground and snapped her fingers, causing it to fly towards her. "I could use this. Now, if you'll excuse me."

"Lord Gram!" One of the Mazoku ran up to the General. "Shouldn't we stop her?"

"Why?" Gram raised an eyebrow at the Mazoku. "I said I'd let her go after she gave me the information I wanted, so, why shouldn't I live up to my end of the deal?"

"Oh yes..." Corona spoke up just before she and Goliath left the room. "You brought me here, didn't you?" She giggled at Sneavel next to Gram. "Yes, well... Goodbye." Black energy surrounded Corona for a moment as she pointed her finger at the Mazoku. The next thing any of the Mazoku in the room knew, a huge blast of pure Black magic tore into the Mazoku, utterly vaporizing the body. "Hee hee hee. Yes... This will do nicely."

Gram merely smirked at the maliciousness he was feeling from the girl. 'Yes, she will do nicely.'

(-)

Corona grinned as she looked out at the scenery in front of her. For some reason the overcast sky, the strongly blowing winds and the shade that covered the land just felt... Right.

Stretching, she giggled as she looked around. "Hmm..." Her eyes narrowed as she looked towards the North. "Something's there." What, she didn't know, but it was a long ways away, she could feel it. "Let's go... Balmung." No, Corona didn't know why she changed her golem's name from Goliath to Balmung, but it felt... Right.

Especially since he had black flames erupting around his body at all times.

(-)

As they walked away from the hut, Lyos, who was in the back of the group, looked at Nove with concern. "Hey, Nove, if you're tired, we can..."

"I'm fine." Nove shook her head as she looked around, her eyes on the lookout for any threats. "Let's just hurry up and get going."

Lyos frowned as she started to walk forward fast enough that she got ahead of the group and took point, forcing Nila to step back into the group. The Knight of the Aqualord could only shake his head and sigh as he followed the group.

"Hey..." He looked up at Pokota, who was resting on his head, "what's wrong with her?"

"Considering that she's been here less than a month, seen someone she thought of as a friend die in front of her face and had another friend kidnapped and that Ozel thing isn't coming with us..." Lyos shook his head. "Anyway, how have Vivio and Einhart's magic lessons been coming along."

Pokota's ear reached up to scratch his head. "It's kind of weird, but Vivio learns pretty quickly and Einhart's no slouch. I bet they'll have the Dragon Slave down pretty fast." He looked at the group and frowned to himself. "Something about this doesn't seem right, you know? They don't seem like the type to have to go through with this."

"Yeah." Lyos nodded, he knew exactly what Pokota was talking about. "Then again, it was about ten years ago when I met Nanoha, and she wasn't any older than they are." But that girl seemed to have a better idea of how to protect herself than this group did.

Lyos raised an eyebrow as Nila stepped back so that she was walking beside Arashi. '...What's that about?'

Arashi turned to look at the hooded lady, and even though he was looking up at her, the hood on her face was blocking a good look at her. "Yes?" Nila smiled at him softly and said nothing, as usual. Sighing, the young boy continued to walk, wondering if Corona was alright, and hoping that his family wasn't freaking out too badly.

After all, he was still okay.

"I can help you." Arashi nearly fell over as he heard Nila's soft voice. Turning to look at her, he wondered what she was talking about.

"Help me?" Nila nodded at his question. "With what?"

"Your magic." She whispered and stopped as he suddenly stiffened and stared at her in shock. Nila didn't say anything more as she pulled out a small book and opened it up and showed him the page in question.

"...Ragna... Blade?" Arashi stared at the book as he read the words over. "Where did you get this?"

"Found it." She shrugged and pushed him along so he wouldn't fall behind.

"Blade of the cold dark void?" Arashi frowned in confusion. Why did those words seem... Familiar? "Power that can..." He was startled as a hand gripped his shoulder, turning, he saw Lyos glaring at him. "...Did I do something wrong?"

"That spell you're reciting, just be careful. I've run across someone who could use that spell once before. Your mother is Lina Takamachi, right?" Arashi nodded and Lyos let go of his shoulder. "Just be careful, it's rare to run into someone who can use the Ragna Blade, but not impossible." Thankfully the only person he had met to use the Ragna Blade had been Lina herself, and he only knew that from what he had been told, since he hadn't been able to see it in person. 'Seriously, who uses that kind of spell with a Weapon of Light anyway?'

Nila walked slower so that she was behind most of the group. After a few minutes of walking, Lyos had Pokota rest on Arashi's head as he stepped back to talk to Nila. "Okay, seriously, I don't know that magic, but something about it terrifies me." He supposed that it had something to do with him being part Shinzoku, but he wasn't sure. "What's the idea of giving him your personal spellbook, Nila?"

All the hooded woman did was shrug at him.

"...You can't answer why you just gave your personal spellbook to a kid you've barely known?" Lyos felt like slapping his face in annoyance. "Urgh, I swear, sometimes I just can't understand you." Lyos felt his eye twitched as she smiled at him. "...Yes, I get it, considering you don't talk much, I'm surprised I can understand you at all."

Ahead of the two of them, Einhart turned around and waved at Pokota to fly up and join her and Vivio near the front. "So, can you explain what the difference between Astral magic and Black magic is?"

"The simplest answer is that Black magic draws upon Mazoku for power and can affect things physically while Astral magic strikes at creatures from the Astral plane and doesn't directly affect the real world too often outside of things like making weapons strike the Astral plane very often." A ear moved towards his face and he tapped his chin. "I dunno if that makes a lot of sense, you said that your style of magic is a lot different and..."

"No, that's fine, I understand that it's not meant to attack a person physically, which is good, because these Mazoku things can't be hit physically anyway." She looked at Vivio, who was in thought about something. "Vivio, what is it?"

"Well, I was thinking of the Dragon Slave, and I remembered something mama told me about the Nemesis Breaker and suddenly," she snapped her fingers and her eyes lit up in recognition. "Oh yeah! Mama said that grandma made the Nemesis Breaker similar to the Dragon Slave and even used some phrases from the Dragon Slave to help craft it!"

"So what does that mean for us?" Nove looked back at Vivio for a moment. "Just because you know that doesn't mean a damn thing for us right now. Doesn't that Black magic spell need Chaotic Blue to work?" Nove blinked as the girls stared at her. "...What? I've done research into Black magic. I didn't learn how to draw upon its power, but I know the source at least."

"That's public knowledge." Vivio nodded, well, public to anyone who was in the Bureau or the Church, anyone who used magic and wasn't part of the Bureau most likely didn't know, since the only person who could teach them was Lina and she wouldn't teach a bunch of random people how to cast Black magic anyway. "But maybe I can't use the Nemesis Breaker, but now that I think about it, if grandma based the Nemesis Breaker off of the Dragon Slave, I should be able to use the Dragon Slave..." She trailed off as Nove, Pokota and Einhart stared at her. "Um... I know how to cast the Nemesis Breaker, but, you know, it destroys cities, so I can't use it back home at all... So..."

"You could have done the Dragon Slave at _any_ time?! And you didn't tell us?!"

"No!" Vivio shook her head at Nove's accusation. "No! I couldn't do it at any time, there's no videos of that spell, and Raising Heart never showed me anything, so I didn't know and it's been so..."

"Nove!" Lyos called out to the redhead. "Calm down, I know it's been stressful, but yelling doesn't help anything." Sighing and seeing that it did nothing to calm anyone down, Lyos pointed ahead of them. "There's a town in that direction, about an hour or so from here. How about we get there and try to recover before we do something stupid, okay?" He couldn't believe that he was the one to try and calm them down. "Besides, I need to send some messages out." He grinned at the confused looks he was getting. "With any luck, we'll have back-up when we meet up with the one who sent Duclis and those Mazoku after us."

(-)

Corona sighed as Balmung continued to walk across the land. Sure, it was awesome to ride on a giant golem, but it was... Slow, and boring. "Urgh, can't you go faster?" She still had this Zannafar Armor and she wasn't sure what to do with it. "If only you could fly and..." The white haired girl's red eyes widened in glee as she said that. "...Why not?" A magic circle formed under her as she stood up on her Golem's shoulders. "Come forth!" Corona raised her right hand and snapped her fingers, "Dark Scrander!"

The ground shook as a pair of giant, devil-like wings seemed to flap once before flying upwards and attaching itself to Balmung's back. Corona grinned as she saw just how shiny the black rock was. "Oooh! That'll cut someone up good." She put her hand over her mouth and giggled as more material formed on the back of the Golem, becoming the shape of a rocket thruster. Corona didn't know too much about mechanics, but using her new-found abilities to give her golem both levitation and flight wasn't too hard.

Corona let loose a triumphant yell of glee as she rocketed towards the mountains in the distance. She didn't know what was there, but it felt very similar to the Zannafar Armor in her hands. 'Still...' Her thoughts trailed off as she looked at the armor and grinned as an idea came to her. "Balmung! Set down right there!" She pointed at a field where some animals were grazing. "Let's see now..." Corona threw the armor forward and watched in delight as it rushed towards the nearest animal. "Yes! Consume the animals until you take form!"

"MOOOO!" The cows screamed as their bodies were broken down and absorbed by the armor.

(-)

Back on Mid-Childa, Dieci suddenly shivered and looked around fearfully.

"...What's wrong?" Wendi looked at her sister in worry. "Is Sein trying to grope your butt again?"

"COWS!" Dieci suddenly yelled out before running away screaming.

"...What?"

(-)

"Fufufufufufufufuf... Hahahahahahahahahaha!" Corona put her hand on her head as the armor continued to absorb the cattle. Eventually it started to take form. "A silver... Wolf... Dragon..." Her face lit up in malicious glee as she stared at the form of Zannafar. "Yes! This is what I was feeling from it!"

The legendary Demon Beast could only stare at Corona silently as his body seemed to ripple like water under the wind.

* * *

Corona: Hahahahahaha! I kicked the author out! Now I'm in charge! Hahahahahahaha! Fear me! Fear me! WAAAAHHH! I want a hug! Next time on Blood That Flows Revolution, read it or I'll sick Balmung on you!


	314. Revolution Eleven

Blood That Flows

Revolution Eleven

I own nothing.

* * *

Corona looked at the creature and grinned as she saw its water-like skin reflect and distort the light around it. "Wow... You're..."

**"How is it that you were able to awaken me so easily?"**

Corona pouted as she was interrupted. "Well, you're rude." She crossed her arms and huffed. "And my name's Corona. You're the creature of that armor, huh?"

**"I am Zannafar..."** The beast growled at her. **"You somehow forced me awake. Oh well, I'll find out more when I devour you for your information."**

Corona's red eyes widened and she grinned at the beast. "Go right ahead and try." She giggled as the thing growled and opened its mouth to bite her. Even as the mouth moved closer to her, she never stopped grinning. When the Zannafar stopped just a few inches from her face, the young girl could only giggle at it. "What's the matter?" She sing-songed, "don't you like the spell I put into you to keep you from hurting me?"

Zanafar pulled its head back and growled at Corona. **"How?! I know for a fact that I'm immune to magic, so how are you doing this?!"**

"Immune to magic?" Corona blinked several times. "But that's only magic outside of you, right? It doesn't do anything against magic inside of you, right?" The Zannafar growled at her and she just turned around and walked back to her golem, which picked her up. "So, tell me," she smiled as Balmung started to walk towards the North again, "how much do you hate me?" Zannafar growled at her some more. "Well then, don't you want to see if you can get rid of me?"

Zannafar growled as it got to its feet and followed after her. **"This changes nothing. First chance I get, I'm going to kill you."**

Corona just smiled at it. "You can eat all you want while we make our way there." When Zannafar growled at her, she giggled. "Silly puppy."

**"I AM NOT A PUPPY!"**

Corona frowned as her eyes glowed. "Bad dog." Zannafar's eyes widened as it found itself suddenly cowering for some unknown reason. "That spell I put in you... Yes, you're a good dog, aren't you?" Zannafar growled at her and she giggled again, her eyes going back to normal. "Come on, Zanny! Let's go find that other thing!"

(-)

"There." Lyos nodded to the clerk of the messenger office. "Make sure these get out."

"Of course." The woman smiled at him as she took the messages. "Our trained carrier pigeons will have them delivered in less than three days, no matter where on the continent."

Lyos nodded and walked out of the office. It was late in the afternoon, the sun was almost set and he could smell dinner being made. Still, even if the small village only had a few buildings, and most of them were rather simple structures made out of wood. It had all the definition of a frontier village that was small, hospitable and enjoyable to visit.

Still, as he looked around, Lyos wondered if this place would still be around in a few years.

"Oi! Lyos!" Turning, he saw Nove walking up to him with an annoyed expression on her face. "I've been calling you for a few minutes now."

"Sorry, got distracted." He chuckled at her disbelieving look. "I was just wondering about this town and what's going to happen to it."

Nove shrugged, it was human nature to migrate where the greatest chance to make it in life was at and leave the past behind. "That's all?"

"Well, that and wondering about my life. Living as a wandering hero for a good twelve years doesn't leave much time to do much else." Nove nodded and turned to walk away. "Don't you want to see it?"

"Huh?" The cyborg blinked as she turned around and looked at him. "See what?" Sighing as he just jerked his head towards a building, Nove gave up and started following him. "I swear, if this is just to show me something gross I'm going to kick his well-toned ass from here back to the old man's hut and then to the moon." Nove grumbled to herself as Lyos just smiled at her and jumped up on top of the small building.

Lyos smiled as she jumped up on the building with him. "Glad you joined me."

"And what am I..." Nove trailed off as Lyos pointed out to the horizon. Turning her head, she paused as she watched the sun slowly sink below the horizon. "...A sunset? What about it?"

"I like watching them." Lyos admitted to her as the air seemed to waver while the sun sank. "Mostly because it reminds me that I made it through another day."

"Didn't know you were sentimental."

Lyos laughed at that. "Nah, I just like the simple things, a nice place to sleep, money, food, the company of women..."

"Feh... I bet you've spent a lot of quality time with women, haven't you?" Nove sneered at him.

"If only." Lyos smirked at her. "Why? Jealous?"

Nove twitched and turned around to leave. "Why the hell would I get jealous over you? I hardly know you!"

Lyos sighed as she left and leaned back to look up into the sky. He wasn't trying to be a jerk to her, but he couldn't help but tease her a little bit. Considering his most common female companion was Nila, well, he barely got a conversation out of her and he really didn't like hanging out with guys too often, most of the male clients he had over the years tended to be more than a little annoying. "Man, I forgot what it was like to have people I could just talk to."

His eyes widened as he heard a scream from the other end of town. Getting up, he jumped off the roof, wondering what was going on.

(-)

Several minutes before...

Ixpellia took a few swings with the Blessed Blade and nodded to herself in satisfaction. The blade was heavier than her throwing knives, but not uncomfortably so in her hands. Nila had mentioned to her that it was originally more than twice its current size and mostly used for decorative purposes.

Even so, the sword felt like it was meant to be used.

Ixpellia looked up and smiled as she saw Arashi and Nila walking her way. "Hello." She blinked in confusion as Arashi was holding his arm. "What's wrong?"

"Ah, I hurt it when Nila was showing me this one spell of hers, slipped on some loose rocks and hit the ground." Arashi pouted as Nila chuckled behind him. "It still hurts!"

Ixpellia put her hand over her mouth to keep herself from laughing. "Well, it sounds like fun."

"Shall we?" Nila asked softly as she motioned towards the small hotel they were staying at. The two kids nodded and walked towards the building. Nila suddenly put her arm in front of the two, causing them to stop and wonder what was going on.

They got their answer when a black, thick fog suddenly covered the hotel.

"Dark Mist..." Nila muttered and looked upwards.

There, on the roof, dressed in dark colors that covered his body up to his eyeballs, was a tall, thin man. He had a black bandanna on his forehead, spiky blue hair and gloves that looked like claws.

"I'll deal with you after I'm done with your friends inside." His deep voice resonated as he jumped into the fog.

"Vivio! Einhart! Pokota!" Before she knew what she was doing, Ixpellia was rushing into the building as screams were heard from within.

The famous assassin Zuuma had finally made his move.

(-)

When the dense fog filled the area, Vivio felt every hair on her skin suddenly stand up. There was a soft thump behind her. For her, everything seemed to move in slow motion as a man in dark clothes was there, giving her an intense stare as he thrust his arm forward towards her prone body.

Zuuma's eyes widened as the girl he thought was too shocked to do anything suddenly fell backwards, causing his claws to merely knock a few strands of hair loose from the top of her head. "Missed." He muttered as Vivio rolled away from him. Zuuma's eyes narrowed as he saw her take a combat stance.

"Sacred Heart! Set up!" Vivio called to her device as it floated upwards and started to glow.

"Too slow." Zuuma lunged at her, clawed hands first. Just before his hand made it to Vivio, he stopped and jumped away as a body slammed into where he had been a moment ago. As he landed in a crouch, Zuuma's eyes narrowed as he saw a girl in a very short skirt and long hair standing between him and...

His eyes widened in shock as the small girl he had been trying to kill wasn't so small anymore. "Interesting."

"Vivio!" Einhart yelled as she took stock of what was going on before she lunged a kick towards Zuuma's head. She gasped as he ducked her strike and then thrust his hand right at her body. Unfortunately for Einhart, the fact that she hadn't quite recovered from her kick and the fact that Zuuma was lunging upwards with his hand put her in a very bad and awkard position. Mere centimeters before his claws could sink into her skin, Vivio grabbed his wrist, flipped over his body and threw the assassin over her shoulder at the back wall.

"You okay, Einhart?" Vivio asked as Zuuma disappeared into the dark. Considering she didn't hear a thump after a few seconds told her that her attack only bought them a little bit of time.

"Barely." Einhart shuddered at the thought of those claws piercing her right then and there. She honestly was sure that she would be dead if that happened. "He is good."

"Better than you think." Einhart's eyes widened as Zuuma's voice was just inches from her ear.

"Val Flare!" Pokota's voice was heard as a red ball of flame rushed towards Zuuma's back.

Zuuma spun and let out a sound that was half way between a growl and a yell. Energy suddenly spun around him, deflecting the spell as he cast the Goomueon spell to protect himself.

One thing that no one, other than Zuuma had ever figured out, was how to make Goomueon a useful defensive spell. While useful against Black and Astral magic, it was supposedly next to useless against physical attacks or spells, just like the Val Flare.

However, Zuuma had found a way to turn the spell into something that could deflect almost any magic by combining it with Dark Mist. Though, even he would admit, if someone could ever ask him that he wasn't quite sure how that was possible.

"Fool!" Zuuma growled at Pokota as he rushed forward and grabbed the rabbit by his ears and threw him with great force at Einhart, who was unable to stop in time before Pokota slammed into her face, knocking her off balance. The assassin ran forward at Vivio, who ran towards him as fast as she could and when she got close, she struck at his body with a straight right punch that Zuuma parried, she slapped down his other arm with her left hand and lashed out with a kick that he twisted to avoid before he jabbed her in the stomach with his knee and connected to the back of her knee with his foot before hopping back a couple of inches and drove a kick into her armored stomach, sending Vivio flying away from him.

Zuuma's eyes widened as he heard something soaring through the air, turning, he lashed his clawed hand out and batted away two thin blades that got close to him.

"So, you're an assassin, huh?" A young female's voice said as several soft steps were heard. "I've dealt with your kind since I was a little girl."

"Ixy!" Vivio coughed as she got to her feet. "Be careful! He's really good!"

"My name... Is Ixpellia." The redhead said as she pulled out two more thin blades and walked towards Zuuma, the Blessed Blade in her right hand and two throwing blades in her left.

Zuuma looked at her while keeping Vivio, Einhart and Pokota, the latter two had finally untangled themselves enough to glare at him. "Interesting, fine then." The assassin turned to face Ixpellia and bent his knees, before turning completely around and rocketing towards Vivio, who tried to dodge to the side and found that the assassin could stop in an instant and thrust his hand at her face. Quickly throwing up a barrier, Vivio gasped as his claws pierced her barrier like it wasn't even there, resulting in a shattering glass sound being heard in the hallway.

"Get away!" Einhart kicked Zuuma in the side, sending him sliding towards Ixpellia. "You okay?"

Vivio nodded, panting as she realized just how close to death she had come. She really doubted that her eyes could block claws that could tear through her shields like they weren't even there.

Landing in a crouch, Zuuma was forced to jump to the ceiling to avoid Ixpellia's thrown blades. He quickly twisted and batted the four new blades she sent his way. When his feet lightly touched the ceiling, he lunged at Ixpellia, who threw two more blades at him and shifted the Blessed Blade to meet his clawed hands.

Ixpellia watched as Zuuma batted away her blades and hopped back a couple of steps when he got close, causing his claws to shatter the part of the floor she had been standing on moments ago. Zuuma glared at her as pieces of wood flew in every direction and lashed out with his clawed gloves, Ixpellia was able to swing her sword out to block the strike, but Zuuma's superior reach and strength knocked her off of her feet and onto her back in an instant.

Ixpellia grimaced as she landed on her back. "Darn it!" Her eyes widened as several bolts of pure ice lanced over her head towards Zuuma.

The air seemed to swirl around the assassin, causing the bolts of ice to crash into some sort of wall and fizzle out.

"Another pest?" Zuuma whispered, wondering just why so many maggots were crawling out of the woodwork. Oh well, he was supposed to kill all of them, but he didn't think they'd all show up at once.

"What do we do?" Pokota muttered to himself. He could use a Dragon Slave, but seeing how fast Zuuma broke through barriers had him pause with the idea.

Plus he really wasn't sure that the others could get clear of the blast zone before they got killed.

Behind Nila, Arashi watched and frowned as something seemed to whisper to his mind. "...Darkness... With darkness?" He whispered as words started to form in his mind.

**"Fragment of the Lord of Nightmares.  
Free yourself from Heaven's Bond.  
Become one with my body,"**

Nila spun around and stared at Arashi in shock, even though her face was hidden due to the Dark Mist and her cloak, the surprise was palatable. "What are you...?"

**"One with my power and let us WALK!"**

Arashi stared as black energy started to take shape in his hands. He had no idea what was going on, but the words still came to him and urged him on.

**"The path of destruction together!  
Power that can shatter even the souls of the gods!"**

"What is this?!" Zuuma hissed as a long, black blade formed in the young boy's hands. "What kind of spell is this?!"

**"RAGNA BLAAAAADE!"**

Nila quickly ducked as a black blade of nothingness slashed through the air, cutting the Dark Mist and causing the air around them to suddenly clear up.

"What the heck?!" Vivio yelled as she stared at Arashi in shock. He could barely do a fireball, and he was holding a black sword that just _screamed_ high level, dangerous magic.

Zuuma grimaced, if he stayed he was likely to get killed. "If you wish to find out what's going on, continue to the East, my work here is done."

"Wait!" Ixpellia yelled as Zuuma slashed the wall. "Who was it that sent you, assassin?"

"Head East and you'll find out who sent me." The next thing any of them knew, the air was filled with smoke that lasted for a few moments before Zuuma disappeared.

"Who was that man?" Ixpellia wondered out loud.

Einhart rubbed her head. "He was good, he beat us easily."

"Better than you think." Ixpellia frowned as she put her sword away. "He managed to fight all of us off and survive. I've killed at least three assassins in my life, that man was far better than all of them put together." The former King couldn't believe that someone had the skills to fight them off like this one had.

"Arashi!" Vivio yelled as she ran over to the boy. "How are you doing that?"

"I don't know!" Arashi yelped as he lost focus and the blade disappeared. "I heard these words in my head. And the image came to my mind and I couldn't help myself and..." He scratched the back of his head nervously. "The voice kind of sounded like mom."

"What happened?" Lyos asked as he and Nove finally arrived. "...Okay, better question, are you all okay?"

(-)

"An assassin?" Lyos frowned as the group gathered downstairs to eat and talk about what happened. "And Dark... Mist... Sunnvabitch!"

"What?" Nove frowned, wondering what caused such a reaction from Lyos.

"Zuuma... I've heard of him. Best assassin in the world, gloves that can cut through armor, barriers and parry swords and weaker magic, plus he's fast, always getting in and out without really being noticed." Lyos grimaced, if they had to deal with Zuuma, a bunch of Mazoku, that beastman who could keep up with him and magic tanks... "This just got a whole lot messier."

"But, really, Arashi..." Vivio, back in her child form, looked at her uncle. "How did you..?"

"I don't know, okay?!" He glared at her, frustration on his face. "Like I said, I just heard the words in my mind, then an image formed and then it came out! I don't know!"

"Eh, I don't see the problem." Pokota spoke up. "Even if you don't know how you did it, the fact is, you used a Ragna Blade, it's a the strongest spell I've ever heard of, though I heard it's supposed to be impossible to cast." The rabbit shrugged at the looks he got from the kids. "Hey, it's just what I've heard when looking into it, that's all. Anyway, if you can cast it, that's good, that spell can trash most Mazoku with ease."

"Really?" Einhart asked, getting a nod from Pokota. "Very well then, if they realize that the spell is dangerous, they might target Arashi. So, Vivio..."

"Yes?" The blonde blinked at her friend. "What?"

"You and I shall protect Arashi if he becomes targeted by an attack."

"Hey!" Arashi protested as Vivio thought about it and agreed to it. "Don't I get a say in this?"

"Don't worry." Ixpellia smiled at him. "I'm sure that they'll do a good job, and even I can help out too." She giggled as he groaned and slammed his head on the table, getting chuckles out of everyone.

Lyos frowned as he leaned back. 'Assassin Zuuma, Zannafar Armor wearing Beastmen, magic tanks and Mazoku... Why do I think it's going to get worse quickly?'

* * *

Arashi: Oh sheesh! Things never get easy, I think the author enjoys tormenting us or something.  
Corona: I don't know, let's ask Rio.  
Rio: AHHHHHHH!  
Corona: WAHHH! I'm sad now!  
Arashi: Um, next time on Blood That Flows - Revolution, please read it?


	315. Revolution Twelve

Blood That Flows

Revolution Twelve

I own nothing.

Been a couple of weeks, sorry about that, folks, here's the next part.

* * *

"You know what the funniest thing is, Zanny?" Corona giggled as the Demon Beast growled at her. "I've been up for two days straight and I'm not the least bit tired."

**"Why would I care about that?"** The creature growled at her. He may have been prevented from attacking her, but that didn't mean he had to put up with this.

Corona pouted as she looked at the large creature. "I let you go and eat everything in your way, you got to grow extra large. Do you need more to eat maybe? I think there's some more villages not far from here." When Zannafar growled at her, she sighed and looked away. "Fine then, stupid water doggy."

**"I AM NOT A DOG!"**

Corona turned her head and her eyes lit up, causing Zannafar to stop and shiver. "Bad dog, bad. I create you and this is how you repay me?" The Demon Beast found itself cowering as Corona continued to glare at it. "Good!" She crossed her arms over her chest and turned away from Zannafar as a giant forest came into view. "Huh, what's with this?" Frowning, Corona tilted her head in confusion. "Does it feel like the forest has magic to confuse people?"

Zannafar snorted as it walked forward and opened its mouth, a ball of white energy forming in front of his teeth for a moment. Corona watched as a beam of energy lashed out, striking the forest and disrupting the magic around it. **"Humans are so easily tricked."**

"Yay! Zanny! I knew you were a good doggie!" Corona threw her hands up in the air happily as she giggled.

**"I AM NOT A DOG!"** Zannafar yelled as Corona rode on Balmung's shoulder into the forest and towards the mountains in the distance.

(-)

Milgasia, the current leader of the Golden Dragons that once served under Ragradia, was in his human form and frowned as he felt the disturbance to the field around Dragon's Peak. "What is going on?" He muttered to himself.

"Master?" Milgasia turned to his apprentice, a blonde haired, golden eyed slip of an Elf named Memphis. "You look worried," she frowned and turned her head to look at something in the distance, "perhaps it's that shockwave you felt?"

Milgasia nodded, if even she could feel it, then something bad was coming. The last time something bad had come to Dragon Peak, it had been an absolute horde of Mazoku. Thankfully most of them were low level, if Xellos or a Lord had been involved, he was certain that none of them would be there today, even with the Zennefa Armor that Memphis was wearing. "Let's go meet our guests then."

Memphis nodded and followed Milgasia, who, after getting into a clear spot, transformed into a large Golden Dragon, picked up Memphis and took off towards the forest that surrounded Dragon's Peak. Milgasia frowned deeply as something moved directly towards them through the forest, despite the magical protections that were in place to keep anyone, even most Mazoku, from getting through. "Impossible, even Xellos had to follow the correct path." Even if he didn't like thinking about that Mazoku, it was an undeniable fact that there were less than ten beings in the world that could claim to be as powerful as the Trickster Priest, and that was before Ragradia, Hellmaster and Gaav had been killed years in the past.

Anyone who could kill over a thousand Golden Dragons with a single swipe of their fingers was someone to fear and respect.

Landing near the edge of the forest, Milgasia let Memphis down before turning back into his human form. His white, slightly baggy clothing ruffled as a breeze picked up. "They're here."

Memphis nodded and blinked, wondering if she had her headband on too tightly as she saw what looked like a large wolf-dragon-thing with a body made out of water, a human-sized stone being carrying a young girl with white hair, ashen-colored skin and wearing an unusual black frilly dress. "Halt!" She held up her hand to stop the trio. "Who are you and why are you here?"

"Ara?" The girl blinked as she looked at Memphis. "Ah!" Her eyes widened as she looked at the blue and silver breastplate that the Elf was wearing. "Wow! That is different isn't it? Your chest has those silver notches on it that loop around to your back and make it look like you have some sort of wings, huh?" She turned to the creature and giggled excitedly. "Hey! Zanny! That's a lot different than yours was! I bet she doesn't even need to feed it cows!"

"Excuse me, but what are you doing here?" Milgasia spoke up, frowning as he looked closer at the girl's spirit and felt a rather large amount of Black magic flowing through her. 'But humans shouldn't have this much in them... Could she be a seal of Shabranigdo?' That would make sense, if she had come to some sort of agreement with the Ma-Oh, she probably would try to free the fragment that was sealed in ice in the nearby mountains.

She looked at him in confusion. "Oh!" Her eyes lit up in glee. "Mister, can you help me? See, when I found Zanny, he was just an armor and then I fed him cows and now he's a grumpy puppy, but when I made him I felt something much better here, and..." She got off of the stone creature's shoulder and bounced on the ground a couple of times. "And she has it! Can I have that armor, please? Pretty please?"

"You wish to take the Zennefa Armor?" Milgasia frowned deeply. How did this girl know of the armor? It had just barely been completed a little over a decade ago and even the Mazoku had no idea it existed as far as he knew.

"Zennefa? But that sounds like Zanny's name, Zannafar." The girl crossed her arms and pouted. "Zanny, these people annoy me, I just want the armor."

**"So this is what I was based off of, huh?"**

Milgasia's eyes widened and he took a step back. "The degraded, parasitic copy of the Zennefa?!"

Memphis frowned at the young girl. "You're foolish, even if you were a Mazoku, trying to take on an entire clan of Dragons by yourself is suicide."

Surprisingly, the girl nodded. "Oh no! Why would I try to attack a whole clan of Dragons on my own? I mean, they're big and..." She gasped and pointed at the two. "You're both Dragons?!" Memphis pointed at Milgasia silently and the girl's eyes seemed to sparkle. "Wow! That's so cool! I've never met a Dragon that could turn into a human. Vivio said that Filia could turn into a Dragon, but I've never seen it."

"She's insane." Memphis frowned as she put a hand to her chest. "Now, girl, I'll give you a chance to leave here alive."

The girl tilted her head in confusion. "But I'm going to leave here alive no matter what, right? I mean, I just want the armor, can I have it, lady, please?" When she got a negative answer, the girl sighed and hung her head. "Well..." The excitable energy in her body seemed to disappear as a black aura surrounded her. "That's just not as much fun now..." She lifted her head and both Memphis and Milgasia had to take a step back as her eyes glowed brightly. "Is it?! Balmung! Zannafar! CRUSH ALL OF THEM!" She screamed out as her stone creature suddenly started to glow black.

**"FINALLY!"**

"Master!" Memphis jumped in front of Milgasia as a stream of energy was let loose from Zannafar's mouth. The beam crashed into the two of them, kicking up a dust cloud and obscuring their bodies from view.

Zannafar chuckled and snorted. **"That was pathetically easy. Perhaps you'll think twice about wanting that Zennefa Armor and... Impossible."** Zannafar growled as the dust cleared away, revealing Milgasia holding up his hand and a barrier flickering in front of him.

"Interesting, a breath weapon similar to ours." Milgasia muttered to himself. "Memphis, show them the true power of the Zennefa."

"Of course, master." Memphis narrowed her eyes at the Zannafar as it opened its mouth again. "Zennefa, destroy these fools!"

The girl's eyes widened as Memphis started to glow as she became surrounded in something that looked very similar to Zannafar's body. "Woaaaah!" She took a step back and looked up, her eyes sparkling with desire. "Wow! That's a Zennefa?! I want the Zenny!"

Milgasia narrowed his eyes at the girl. "You are not going to take our Zennefa Armor."

"Aww!" The girl pouted and kicked her feet. "But why? I didn't do anything bad, I just want it! Then I can use it and..." Her eyes lit up as she grinned. "Oh! I know! You're just a meanie!"

Before Milgasia could answer, a spinning fist covered in black flames came rushing at him. Jumping back, he opened his mouth and fired his laser breath at the fist only to find that the spinning black flames caused the laser to bounce off of the fist. "Dammit!" He cursed and transformed into his Dragon form, hoping to fly fast enough to avoid the fist.

"Oh! So that's what he looks like!" The girl grinned as Milgasia turned to glare at her. However, when he turned, a second spinning fist was heading right towards him. Flying backwards, the Golden Dragon mentally cursed as he saw the Golem flying in the air with him.

"By the pits of Nellium! What in the world is this thing?!" He had never seen nor heard of a Golem that could fly or shoot its fists at something or someone.

At least he didn't have to worry about Memphis, seeing as the Zennefa stood to its full height, a glowing giant with six shining wings emerging from its back with Memphis in the center of its chest. It was massive, easily three times his size, and even Zannafar looked small compared to the giant.

**"This? You insult me by existing! DIE!"** Zannafar opened his mouth to fire his laser breath at the Zennefa, only to find the thing's shining wings weren't just shining to look pretty as a powerful beam from the tip of the middle right wing tore through Zannafar's side like he didn't even have defense.

"Mouuu..." The girl pouted as she saw that. "I want it so much. Oh! I know!" She snapped her fingers and giggled as a black circle formed under her feet. "Zanny! Don't worry, I've got a plan!"

Zannafar growled and jumped away from another blast that threatened to tear him apart. He growled as he saw several of the trees in the forest start to move. **"Trees? What foolish plan is that?!"** The Demon Beast went silent as several thousand vines suddenly shot up and started to wrap around the Zennefa.

"Foolish." Memphis was heard as the Zennefa suddenly glowed and all the vines snapped.

"Mouuu.." Corona pouted as more and more trees started pulling themselves out of the ground to defend their new master. "Okay, fine, I'll just..." She trailed off as a thought came to her. "Oooh! I like that idea. Hee hee. Zanny, you and the trees fight the Dragons and the Zenny! I got a new idea!"

"You're not going anywhere!" Memphis yelled as the Zennefa knelt down to grab at Corona. Her eyes widened as the Zannafar suddenly yelled and two small mouths popped out of its back and blasted two holes into the Zennefa's right hand. "Impossible!"

**"Well! It seems that we can hurt each other, huh?"** Zannafar chuckled and jumped away from another blast before running towards the Dragons that were heading his way. Just because he could hurt the thing didn't mean he could beat it.

Doubly so since the thing could fire at least six powerful laser shots to his one at any given time.

Memphis frowned, she had to make sure that the Zannafar didn't start attacking the Golden Dragons or any of the Elves that lived at Dragon's Peak, the tree Golems were mere distractions at best, since they couldn't hurt the Zennefa at all, but that still left the flying Golem, who was, shockingly, keeping Milgasia busy as black fire continued to roll over its body. 'Wait a second...' Her eyes widened and she looked around, trying to find the small girl. "Oh fuck, where did she go?"

(-)

"La la la!" Corona skipped forward as she ignored how her tree Golems were being slaughtered by various Golden Dragons. She really didn't care about them, Balmung's flame aura was an effective barrier against their breath weapons and Zannafar could stay alive for awhile at least. No, she was planning on making the greatest Golem ever!

Climbing up on top of a rock, she giggled as she got a good look at her new objective. "Yes, you'll do! Brunzel!" She smiled as her device, corrupted by her own dark energies, formed in her hand, it was now ebony in color, several inches longer and sharper than any blade had a right to be. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were volcanic glass."

A black circle formed under her feet and she pointed Brunzel away from her body. The black circle started to increase in size as lightning crackled around her before spiraling around her device and turning into a large black sphere that shuddered and wobbled as it threatened to explode in front of her. "Yes... Hee hee... An entire MOUNTAIN! BECOME MINE!"

Idly, she noted that Balmung had just been destroyed as its connection to her seemed to fade. She mentally shrugged that off, what she was going to make would trump everything else ever.

(-)

Milgasia panted softly, using the Zelas Phalanx was a risky move, mostly because casting it on something that could keep up with him while flying was hard. And those wings, despite looking unusual, they were sharp and could cut him stupidly easily. 'When this is over, I'm going to make sure that everyone knows to watch out for any black bladed object.' He groused to himself. Looking around, he frowned, while the Zennefa was holding the Zannafar back from doing any real damage, he found the fact that the Zennefa had several holes punched into it troubling. "Even if a degraded copy, it still has the same type of power."

Even though there were plenty of Golems that were moving, and he grimaced at the thought of facing an army the size of that forest, no they weren't too much to him or any of the Golden Dragons, they couldn't get up high enough to do any real damage, and since the Elves were further away from the forest, they were protected. "This is a waste of time."

Still, why would someone who wanted the Zennefa Armor not try to bring more of those flaming Golems? The older Dragon narrowed his eyes as he looked around in a hurry. "Where did she go?" Suddenly there was a dark flash that he caught in the corner of his eye. Turning his head, he nearly fell out of the sky as a violent rumbling was felt by everyone and everything.

"What's going on?" Memphis yelled as the Zennefa fell backwards and crashed to the ground. "What could..." She trailed off as she looked at the largest mountain that was glowing black. "...Dragon's Peak?! She can't use that as a weapon, can she?!"

That question was answered a moment later as a hand and arm suddenly shot out of the mountain, followed by one on the other side, followed by two longer ones above the first two as the mountain seemed to stand up.

Zannafar growled as he fired a laser breath at the Zennefa, aiming at the annoying Elf that had been trying to kill him all this time. His eyes widened as five powerful laser beams shot through his body at once, causing him to collapse to the ground in pain as his body tried to heal the damage. **"How? So fast..."** He growled and looked up to see shining bits floating in the air before they shattered.

"Wings have feathers, parasite." Memphis sneered at Zannafar as the Zennefa got to its feet and Memphis stared in utter horror at what the little girl had created.

It was huge, there was just no two ways around it. It may have been originally a mountain, but it was now vaguely humanoid. Well, vaguely because it stood on two legs, but it had four arms and four hands, and... Three heads, well, two of them were where the crook of the neck would be if this thing had a neck. And the head on top had horns, except that instead of jutting forward, they curved upwards to a point, looking like a large U. As for the size of the thing...

Memphis could only gulp as she realized that the Zennefa barely came up to this thing's knee.

Corona, the small girl looking like an ant compared to her new Golem, turned and grinned at the Dragons and Zennefa. Sweat was pouring down her face as she thrust her arm out at the battlefield. "I told you, I wanted the Zenny! You wouldn't let me have it, now..." She grinned as a name came to her. "Jörmungandr! I command you! Wipe them all out!"

Memphis could only stare as the thing crossed all four of its arms and black energy formed in front of its mouths. "You brat!" She yelled and the Zennefa started to stand up before a powerful beam tore through the mid-section, missing her by scant inches.

Zannafar glared as strongly as it could. **"Fool, I'm not so easily killed..."** He let out a groan and his head flopped down in exhaustion.

Memphis gasped as the Zennefa disappeared, causing her to fall several feet and gasp as she took stock of the damage her armor had taken. "Impossible!" If the humans had gotten this close to making a Zennefa all those years ago...

Up in the air, Milgasia watched as the Golden Dragons rushed at the Jörmungandr, firing their laser breath at the thing's body. "Useless..." He muttered as the Golem let its arms swing wide, sending a powerful gust of air out at the attacking Dragons before the balls of energy split into powerful beams of black magic that tore through any Dragon that they hit with ease. "RETREAT!" He screamed as loudly as he could as several thousand Dragons were wiped out at once. Flying down to Memphis, he grabbed her and took off, sparing one last look towards his home as the giant Golem swatted at various Dragons that strayed too close. "Damn, what kind of monster are you, girl?"

(-)

Corona pouted, she knew that the Zennefa Armor had disappeared with that. "Darn! I wanted that armor too!" She looked at Zannafar and sighed heavily. "Tree Golems! Help Zanny!" She snapped her fingers and looked around. "Balmung? Oh!" Her eyes widened as she remembered what happened. "Bad mister Dragon!" How _dare_ he blow up her Golem like that? Snapping her fingers again, she nodded as her personal Golem pulled itself out of the ground and several more rocks attached itself to its back. "Yay! You're back!" Running forward, she let Balmung pick her up and she pointed towards where the Dragons had come from. "Come on! I'm sure that there's something over there! Jörmungandr! You keep watch and blow anything up that's not mine!"

She'd find a Zennefa Armor even if it meant going after those Dragons and killing all of them.

(-)

"Master Gram, why did you let that girl go? She's got a super Golem now!"

Turning his attention from the crystal ball that he was using to keep an eye on that girl, Gram looked at Pawra and smirked. "What makes you think I care? This is just perfect." He chuckled loudly, getting a confused sound from his subordinate. "Think, Pawra... The reason I wanted her wasn't for her Golem creation ability."

"But I thought..."

"She can control that Zannafar..." He chuckled loudly. "And I've heard about them, they're supposedly uncontrollable, but she made it listen to her and defend her when she was in trouble."

"Mraw?" Pawra blinked, wondering where that came from. "But, master, why is she acting like this?"

He grinned savagely at her. "You're not used to thinking much, but let me explain for you. She's a young girl, human children are notorious for showing some of the worst traits humanity has to show. Some of the best emotions are those that children produce, since they're so prone to feeling negative emotions more sharply than adults. And when a child who's suffering from depression, sadness, pain and anger suddenly gets so much Black magic that it can make a low-level minor Mazoku like you become a mid-level Mazoku... Well..." Gram threw his head back and laughed. "She's got so much energy flowing through her that she can only go through the motions right now. Not to mention that since Black magic is powered by negative emotions in the first place, what she's doing is all she can do to keep herself alive!"

"Mraw?" Pawra tilted her head in confusion. "You're sure?"

Gram grinned savagely at her, nodding. "Oh yes... And if my guess is right, she'll continue to be this way until the source of her suffering, whatever she decides is the source of it, is gone." His eyes widened as a thought of pure... _Joy_ passed through his spirit. "Oh! OH! I have it! I wonder how she'll be if I find her friend that I killed... Yes, that would work perfectly!"

Pawra just stared in confusion as her master laughed, but decided it was a good thing. Who knew what was going through his head right now anyway?

* * *

Mary: Please?  
Shari: Pretty please?  
Chrono: I am not giving you two authority to go looking for old stars that are turning into Red Giants.  
Mary: Boo.  
Shari: Next time on Blood That Flows, Revolution, we're here!  
Chrono: May whatever gods exist help us all.


	316. Revolution Thirteen

Blood That Flows

Revolution Thirteen

I own nothing.

* * *

As she looked around the deserted village, Corona started pouting, "Aww! Everyone's gone!" She closed her eyes in annoyance as she continued to look for a Zennefa armor. There had to be more than one, right?

After all, if that elf had the only copy, she was going to have to take the Jörmungandr and hunt that Elf and Golden Dragon down. Corona suddenly grinned as she opened a door and found what looked like some sort of workshop. "Well, time to see what's around here." She giggled and walked in. If she had to put an armor together, so what?

It wasn't like she had anything to look forward to anymore. "Rio..." Her eyes started to water up as she felt herself trembling. "Why?" She asked no one in particular as she looked around for what she needed.

A vicious grin came across her face as she saw what she needed.

(-)

Back on Mid-Childa...

"I'm surprised, Fate." Said blonde looked up and smiled as she saw who walked into the room. "I would have thought you'd be working with Nanoha right now."

"Vita." Fate stood up and stretched lightly before glancing at the clock. "Is it that late already?" Shaking her head, Fate grabbed Bardiche and stepped out from behind the desk. "Paper work always has to be done, and right now, working on this makes me feel like I'm doing something. Even if I'd rather find who took Vivio and the others away and stab them Bardiche a few hundred times."

Vita grinned at that. "Only if you let me crush every part of their body first." Fate laughed and nodded in agreement. "Say, wanna go get a bite to eat? Verossa's not going to be home for a couple of days and I've got nothing else I can do."

"Sure." Fate smiled as the two left the office. "Mom made Hayate join her and Nanoha."

"Oh, I know." The busty redhead chuckled as she remembered talking to Signum about it. "Your mom's a real slave driver, huh?" Fate giggled softly as they waited by the elevator.

"How about you, Vita?" Vita looked at her curiously as the elevator opened up. "How's things going for you?" It was a bit surprising to see Vita blush about anything, but all things considered, Fate couldn't hold it against her.

Especially if one looked at her left hand. "Getting excited about the wedding?"

Fate sweat-dropped as Vita, the rough-and-tumble tomboy who had as much fun beating a person up in sparring, training or a fight as she did having sex, started to get all giggly about what was coming. "Wow, you must be..."

"Sorry, I just can't help it." Vita continued to blush as they stepped off the elevator. "Amazing to think that just fourteen years ago we were still just programs of a book."

Fate looked up into the sky and nodded. "Yeah... Vita, do you think they're okay?"

Vita's blush went away as her thoughts turned back to Vivio and the others. "I'm not sure, part of me really wants to say yes..."

"But you don't want to get my hopes up?" Fate sighed as Vita nodded. "It's not your fault, Vita..." She smiled at the other woman. "So, where did you want to eat?"

"I'd say you were taking their disappearance well if I didn't know you as well as I do." Vita smirked as Fate blushed. "So, how much extra work did you give your interns?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about, Vita." Fate huffed as they walked to the car. "It's not like I gave them so much work that the librarians at the Infinity Library would balk at what they have to sort through. And I am surely not using Bureau resources to see if there's a way to scan to mom's old home world in the other universe to see if Vivio, Arashi, Nove, Einhart, Ixpellia, Rio, and Corona are alive, nope not at all."

"...Riiiiiiight." Vita drawled out sarcastically, she knew Fate would and probably did do that.

When they got to Fate's car, she turned to look at her friend. "I'm absolutely terrified that when we finally can get over there, we'll find all of them dead and what that will do to Nanoha and mom."

Vita grimaced, she couldn't even begin to imagine what that would have been like if Zwei had been stuck in another universe without support. Hell, she could just imagine Hayate unisoning with Reinforce and finding a way to blast through the dimensions by brute force. "Fate, I'm going to ask a stupid question here, but why hasn't Nanoha tried to force her way across the dimensions?"

Fate sighed as she started her car up. "Because, despite being worried sick about them, Nanoha knows better than anyone short of mom, Cinque or Dieci just what's there between the dimensions. We've felt it, but..."

Vita nodded and shivered as the memory of a nine-year-old Nanoha popped into her head, glowing gold with black lightning crashing around her and going utterly berserk on her. "I can imagine..."

"That doesn't mean she hasn't wanted to try though. Mom had to smack the idea out of her head a few times." Fate snickered as she drove off.

(-)

Meanwhile...

Mary smiled as she walked into the room. "Admiral Chrono Harlaown, Admiral Lindy Harlaown, General Gaiz, thank you three for listening to me on this proposal."

Lindy waved her off. "You said it was something that concerned the Riot Force, and considering that we three are among the strongest supporters. But why didn't you invite Knight Carim?"

"Well, technically, the Church isn't part of the Bureau," Mary shrugged as she motioned for Shari to join her. "No doubt the three of you remember four years ago during the initial year the Riot Force was started." The three of them nodded. "Well, even though we had success against the Mazoku Levi and her mechanical army of Megahs..."

"The fact is, we still got lucky, as we saw, the Megahs, learned from each encounter and developed abilities they didn't start with." Shari pushed a button on a pop-up screen and a video of a Megah appeared. "This was one of the earliest encounters with the Megah, at the time it had only the ability of its canon," the scene shifted to Mid-Childa with a Megah fighting various members of the Riot Force, "it's possible that Levi unlocked some features with its offensive abilities as it has both a blade for close combat and can shoot some sort of energy arrows for a more concussive ability."

"On top of that," Mary continued as she pointed at the screen as various magics seemed to splash off of something, "they were equipped with several Gadget Drones, gaining what has been called an AMS, or Anti-Magic Shield. Plus, as we learned later, they could fly, become invisible and even anticipate attacks that they had data on."

"A troublesome weapon." Chrono muttered to himself. "However, wasn't it proven that the AMS can be over-come with enough power?"

"Last time we had a conflict, yes." Shari nodded at him, "however," the screen changed again and everyone in the room stared at the screen pensively as they saw several Megah and someone who looked somewhat like Levi, though the quality was very poor, so they couldn't tell exactly, attacking some sort of small village. "This was given to us just over two weeks ago, so it's distinctly possible that that is Levi, and even if it's not, the Megahs are still in operation."

"Do you think that their AMS would be calibrated to deal with any of the Shine weapons?" Regius narrowed his eyes when both scientists nodded. "So, what's your suggestion to deal with this?"

"Well," Mary grinned at him, "we do have information that extends beyond just what we know in science. Anyway, it's not just the Megahs we're concerned about, there's also what happened to Navy Team six on that desert planet..."

"You heard about that?" Chrono frowned as Lindy and Regius looked at him.

"What happened?" Lindy was sure she wasn't going to like what she was going to hear, but she needed to know.

"Apparently criminals are starting to use anti-magic technology." Shari explained, getting a frown from Lindy and Regius. "While the Shine weapons were able to affect the anti-magic technology that's in use now, there's no doubt in my mind that they'll soon improve upon it."

"And increasing the power is out of the question, isn't it?" Regius grimaced as she nodded. "Explosive?"

"Extremely." Shari grinned. "Though, I have to admit, the thought of setting the thing to explode on purpose and watching a miniature Neutron Star explode is something like a wet dream for me, but..." She trailed off at the weird looks she was getting. "You have no idea how awesome it would be to see a Neutron Star go off, do you?"

The others shook their heads and Shari sighed. "Amateurs! Anyway, I'm getting off track. The fact that there's anti-magic technology being developed to combat the Bureau is not exactly something that any of us look forward to. I thought, at first, it was something similar to the AMF, or Anti-Magic Field, that we had known, for now, it is, but..."

"I hate it when someone says but in a conversation," Regius narrowed his eyes, "what's with that look?"

Mary grimaced. "Well, the field generators that were being produced don't work like the AMFs that we had encountered before. Instead of dampening the effects of magic, it's more like..." She looked upwards and tapped her chin as she tried to think how to explain it. "Vibration." Mary snapped her fingers and grinned. "Every type of energy, whether electrical, magical, solar, or whatever, goes along various wavelengths, granted, magic's at a much higher frequency than mundane energy and is damn near impossible to detect with mundane means, but the core principle remains the same. Anyway!" She blushed at the looks of impatience she was getting, "the anti-magic technology seems to be some kind of prismatic lens, if you will that ends up fracturing and destabilizing magic."

"Sounds bad." Lindy sighed as she heard that, it really wasn't a good thing in her book.

"Well..." Shari smiled at the Admiral, "it's not **quite** as bad as Mary's making it sound. So far it only seems to be tailored towards binds, which, if you think about it, makes perfect sense, if you're put into binds when you have little to no magic, you can disrupt them with this technology and then get free when the opportunity arises. However, that's not the big problem right now." She held up a finger as the screen went blank, "the problem comes from the fact that there are those terrorists that are utterly immune to magic. The power that eclipses all others and will purge the world, remember?"

"Well, we've been working on new weapons that could get around that anti-magic abilities..." Mary pouted and sighed heavily. "Sadly, they're in just the development stages, we don't even have a working super prototype yet." She muttered something about blaster modes exploding when Nanoha tried them, but that was quickly ignored. "Anyway, the basic idea is pretty simple. We use magical energy and turn it into a mass-based weapon."

"You're serious?" Chrono frowned deeply. "We worked hard to get away from mass-based weapons, and now you wish to return to that time?"

Mary winced at the question and shook her head. "No, no, no! Not that! We wouldn't want that, this is magic that's being changed into a mass-based attack. However, such a system is still a few years away from even getting prototypes off the ground."

"I see..."

Shari nodded at Regius. "Yes, this still follows the practice of using magic, but we convert the magic into something that can take down criminals using anti-magic."

"So, why run it by us?" Chrono wondered why they hadn't brought it up to the general assembly yet. "I'm pretty sure that you'll get the funds for it. The two of you have come up with some rather impressive technologies."

"Well..." Mary pouted. "We needed a couple of voices to support us before we decided to bring this up, since I doubt we'll get away with just saying 'hey, we can turn magic into mass-based weapons, who wants to fund it?', you know?"

"Well, that and you three are about the only three in power that doesn't look down on us just because I suggested we try and reinforce the frames to the Blaster System we tried to have Nanoha Takamachi test out." Shari grumbled and looked away.

"...Didn't she cause five of them to explode, nearly killing several interns from the shrapnel?" Chrono pointed out, getting an annoyed look from the both of them.

"Please, we took every precaution we could! It's not like we were trying to have her use the Blaster System to out-power a Super Nova and then see what would happen if she fired a full powered blast straight into a White Dwarf." Mary crossed her arms under her breasts in annoyance.

"Yeah! We were going to save that for when we got our hands on a collapsing Neutron Star!" Shari grinned, getting sweat-drops from Lindy, Chrono and Regius.

"Just... Develop those weapons, I'll see about convincing them about this." Regius muttered, wondering how he would need to spin _this_ to make the funding go through.

* * *

Einhart: Wow, so this is... Um. Next time on Blood That Flows - Revolution, um...  
? ? ?: I must know now!  
Vivio: Hee hee, just wait and see.  
Einhart: This isn't funny, Vivio!


	317. Revolution Fourteen

Blood That Flows

Revolution Fourteen

I own nothing.

* * *

"Come on!" Pokota looked at Lyos with worry as he floated in front of him. "We're heading that way anyway, so, why can't we?"

Lyos sighed at the floating rabbit. "Because, Pokota, if we go there, we have a few issues. The first of which is that Zuuma, some Mazoku and that old friend of yours is after us. The second thing is, even if we were able to use this," he looked at the short, thin blade in his hands, "to undo what happened, you still have to cure the bodies, otherwise there's no point. And lastly, if we head there, we leave ourselves a bit target." Seeing Pokota's dejected look, Lyos turned to look at the group. "Well, even though it goes against my better judgement, would any of you be opposed to a stop along the way?"

Nove scratched an itch on her head. "Nah. Worst case scenario we have to fight some sort of small army as we make our way there."

"Um..." Vivio spoke up and pointed ahead of them. "Would a small army include a bunch of green-skinned creatures with clubs that can only growl?"

"Berserkers." Lyos sighed as he looked at them. "Not much of a problem, low level monsters, but they hit hard and keep attacking unless you kill them."

"Well then," Pokota grinned, "let's show them why you shouldn't mess with us!"

(-)

"Duclis..." The Duchess looked at the white tiger beastman with narrowed eyes. "Tell me, what do you think about our current goals?"

Duclis stroked his chin as the two of them walked through the hallway towards the armory. "As far as the magic tank production, it's been going quite well." He chuckled as the guards nodded to them and opened the doors, revealing several animal-like metallic things in the room. "The profits from selling them have greatly exceeded expectations. It's almost too bad you won't sell them to the larger..."

The Duchess shut him up with a glare. "I am not going to repeat my mother's mistake of selling to the highest bidder so that a bunch of war mongering countries can have even more powerful weapons at their disposal." She snorted and snapped her fan closed. "It is why I had her assassinated years ago. I do not mind the Zannafar Armors being made nor the magic tanks, but using that to escalate tensions around the world just isn't what I want."

"What do you want then?" Duclis narrowed his eyes at her.

She smirked at him. "What I want is humanity to really understand how stupidly foolish they are." Stopping in front of a tank that looked like an elephant, the Duchess sighed to herself as she got lost in thought. "Humans are so pathetic, only placing themselves first, ignoring the pain that their actions cause to others." She slapped her fan against her open palm. "If that's the case, then I'll let them all discover it! Let them all have what they want! Even you, Duclis!" She spun on him, "you don't care what I do, so long as I give you a complete Zannafar Armor so you can get your revenge."

He glared at her. "Are you going to stop me?"

"Do what you will." She shrugged. "I've long since come to the opinion that all of our lives have no meaning." Walking away from him, her eyes narrowed as she looked at the newest completed tank, a turtle, "this is the only path, and I have no regrets."

Duclis shook his head and walked away from her, "overly dramatic teenagers." Still, he supposed he had to thank her dead mother. If the woman hadn't been so hateful of her he doubted he'd have the best chance at his revenge. He never understood why Giocanda hated her daughter, only that her hatred drove the young girl over the edge.

(-)

Ixpellia nodded as the last of the Berserkers fell. As Lyos had said, they weren't particularly tough, at least compared to the Mazoku and Golems they had been facing so far, but they were persistent and a fairly large group could be a problem for one or two travelers. It was too bad that they went up against her friends.

Well, that and she was really enjoying the Blessed Blade. It was a sharp blade, which was what she looked for when using a sword, but the fact that it could actually fire potent magical blasts made it even better in her eyes. Though, as she looked at the shining silver blade, she wondered how it could fire a blast if there was no miasma to absorb. 'Did it absorb so much that it no longer needs to?' Or maybe there had been something in the way that it had been rebuilt. The old man did say that he only had fragments of the original blade, which was why this sword wasn't as thick as she had been told the original sword had been.

"Come on." Lyos called out over his shoulder as he sheathed Banisher. "We need to..." He trailed off as he saw a new figure walking towards them. "What the..?"

Vivio and Arashi both tilted their heads in confusion while Ixpellia felt like giggling and Einhart just wondered what the creature in front of them was supposed to be. "Is that a Mermaid or something?" Arashi asked as he looked at the thing. "I thought they had human bodies."

"The bigger question is, how is it walking on the land without suffocating?" Vivio muttered. "But I think it's a Merman, it's blue after all."

"...Yeah."

"Since when are trouts blue?" Nove asked, scratching her head. "And since when do they have arms and legs?"

"I'm a Fishperson!" The creature glared at Nove, Vivio and Arashi. "And just because I have skinny arms and legs doesn't make me less of a person because of it!" The creature crossed its arms and sniffed as it turned away.

"I'm sorry for what they said," the creature turned and stared at the silver-haired girl as she looked at him apologetically, "but none of us have ever seen a Fishperson before." The girl blinked in confusion as the Fishperson got an unusual look on its face. "...Are you okay?"

"Please!" The creature ran up to the girl and knelt in front of her. "What's your name?"

"Ah!" The girl blushed as he grabbed her hand. "E..Einhart Stratos."

Vivio and Arashi both frowned, wondering what the fish thing wanted with their friend.

"Please! Be my bride!"

Lyos, Pokota and, shockingly enough, Nila all slapped their foreheads and groaned in disgust while Vivio, Arashi and Ixpellia suddenly found themselves on the ground in shock.

"Wha... Wha, whaaaa?!" Einhart's eyes were wide and her face completely red at what she heard. "But I'm only twelve!"

"That's perfect!" The Fishperson said, seemingly smiling at her. "That means you can be younger for much longer! Come now! It's not a bad deal, you get to be my wife, have a few of my children and your life will be so much easier."

"Um, how the heck does the biology work for a Fishperson and a human girl to have kids?" Nove asked, sweating heavily as a mental image of Einhart around a bunch of eggs that were hatching in a room popped into her head. "...Eww!"

Einhart was worried that her face would stay permanently red if things kept up the way they were. "Um, what, why me?"

Lyos sighed and shook his head. Honestly, he was sick of it already, but he was curious as to why the Fishperson suddenly took an interest in Einhart.

"When I saw you combating those Berserkers, you were so strong, so fast, so willing to wear such a short skirt!" The Fishperson blinked as Einhart's face started to turn an interesting shade of green to go with her red. "And those incredibly wonderful undergarments you wear! They just drew me in!"

Nove slapped her face and stormed over to Einhart. "Excuse me." She kicked the creature away from Einhart, who, by now, was blushing so hard that her face was glowing. "I TOLD you to stop wearing black panties when fighting!"

"...I find black satin and silk to be comfortable?"

Nove tried, she really did, but that was the final straw. "GAHHHH!" Everyone sweat-dropped as Einhart suddenly found herself bending over while Nove put her in a tight headlock and yanked downwards, forcing the taller girl onto her knees. "Seriously! Black panties just aren't proper to wear when fighting! At least wear biker shorts underneath! Even Teana took to wearing short shorts under her skirt to keep people from seeing her underwear!"

Vivio and Arashi were looking at each other and giggling as they saw Nove holding Einhart in the headlock, just the sight of the short redhead holding the much taller girl was too hilarious to not laugh at. Though, both of them were wondering why the thought of Einhart's black underwear was so interesting to them.

"Come on!" Pokota yelled as he bounced on Lyos' head. "We can talk about underwear later! We need to..."

"NOOOO!" The Fishperson jumped to his feet. "You will not take the future bride of Melcion!"

"Might I suggest you stick to your own species?" Ixpellia suggested as she walked between Einhart, Nove and Melcion. "You've embarrassed my friend long enough, please leave."

"You don't understand!" Melcion protested as he waved his arms up and down and ran around in circles. "Her body is just perfect! The right height, the curve of her legs to her hips, the perfectly round hind quarters! The perfect swell of her chest! Her face, it's so perfect!"

Arashi and Vivio sweat-dropped heavily as they slowly turned to each other. "I agree with what he's saying," Vivio couldn't believe that she was agreeing with a fish of all things, "but isn't that kind of rude?"

"If I didn't know any better, I'd think he was related to Thoth." At his words, Arashi paled, Vivio blanched and Nove stiffened and released Einhart from the headlock. "Bad thoughts! Bad thoughts!"

Really, even if the device was in another universe, the thought of that thing being around would only make the situation worse.

(-)

Back on Mid-Childa...

**"Boss, Miyuki is wearing a black thong today. She must really..."**

"Complete that sentence and I'll have you reprogrammed."

Thoth wisely shut up.

(-)

"Enough!" Melcion hopped up and down as his face turned red. "I will have my future bride and I don't care if you do out-number me! I will..."

There were several thunks and everyone stared at Ixpellia as she slowly lowered her arm. "I do believe that you're pinned to the ground, rather painfully," a cold smile crossed her face as she looked at the long knives that were pinning Melcion's feet, hands and tail to the ground while the Fishperson started howling in pain, "now then," she turned to the others and gave them a sweet smile, "shall we continue?"

Nila smiled as the others nodded rapidly and quickly took off to the East. "Good show." She whispered to herself. Idly, she wondered just how much more interesting this trip was going to become.

After almost an hour, Lyos started chuckling to himself. When Pokota wondered what was so funny, he turned and looked at Einhart. "I have to say, other than that thing being a fish, I have to admit, he's got some good taste."

"Hey!" Nove, Vivio and Arashi all yelled at the same time while Einhart turned a bright red.

"What?" Lyos shrugged, "just being honest."

Ixpellia tapped her chin in thought. "Although, had Einhart taken his offer, it would be interesting to see how another species does marriages." She sweat-dropped at the negative looks she was getting from Vivio and Arashi. "Ah... I was just muttering to myself."

"Can we please drop it?" Einhart asked, wondering if she'd ever get over this humiliation ever.

* * *

Einhart: I never want to go through that again.  
Vivio: Sure thing, though, I wonder...  
Einhart: No, no wondering! Please?  
Nove: Oi vey, next time on Blood That Flows - Revolution, nothing to see here and plot gets in the way.  
Vivio: So no more fun time?

Just thought you'd all like a little comedy break.


	318. Revolution Fifteen

Blood That Flows

Revolution Fifteen

I own nothing.

* * *

"Let's see..." Gram muttered as he looked around the clearing, he was sure it was... "Ah!" He smirked as he walked towards the edge of the cliff and looked down. "Yes, there she..." He trailed off and frowned before disappearing and reappearing at the bottom of the rock face and looking at the river with some annoyance. "Feh..." He snapped his fingers and the water floated upwards, causing him to blink in confusion. "Huh, this is pretty deep." Sure, there was the crater from where his magic attack had struck, but there was no body. Considering that the river had to be at least three meters deep, he wasn't surprised. Still, it would be annoying to have to track down her body.

Gram shrugged as he dropped the river and followed it at a sedate pace. He didn't have any reason to hurry after all. "I wonder how you'll fare with my little gift." He laughed softly to himself while following the river.

This was going to be... Fun.

(-)

Duclis frowned as he leaned against the wall. "You failed." He said to the seemingly empty and dark room. "Couldn't you eliminate even one of those brats?"

"Surprisingly, as things were, no." A male voice spoke up as Zuuma walked out of the shadows. "Those kids were better than I thought in unarmed combat and one of them has a spell I've never seen before."

Duclis nodded to him. "Still, it will be a few more days before they get close to here. Perhaps you should, instead of commenting on their skill, find a way to eliminate one of them?"

Zuuma snorted as he turned away from Duclis. "Please, even your Zannafar armor was no match for that group. Still, there's less than you said there would be. If I'm to be successful, I'll need something."

Duclis raised an eyebrow at that. "And what could the great assassin need from me?"

Zuuma smirked under his mask. "I'll deal with them soon enough, but I think they could use some incentive, don't you?"

Duclis snorted, he was planning on dealing with those kids soon enough. "Just remember, you can deal with whoever you want, but the Sword of Light, even if it is just a replica, must be destroyed." He let loose a soft growl and squeezed his hands into a fist. "The only thing that can truly destroy a Zannafar and stop my plan is that accursed weapon."

Zuuma nodded and stepped back into the shadows, disappearing from view and leaving the Beastman alone.

Duclis closed his eyes and thought back to his past. Even if there was a way to save his people now, it was far too late. Any effort that could be made was just a waste of his time. He was far too dedicated to his current path to be swayed by small things.

(-)

It was hours later when Gram found himself at the end of the river. "The ocean..." He frowned to himself, he couldn't find that girl that he killed no matter how much he looked. "Did she get swept away to this..." His eyes widened and he laughed as he realized just what this ocean was. "A Demon Sea?"

"Not a Demon Sea. The Demon Sea." A female voice spoke up behind Gram. Turning, he bit back the urge to gulp as he saw a woman with long dark hair in some sort of bed sheet around her body look at him coolly. "Or rather, my sea, after all, I am Deep Sea Dolphin."

"Ah..." He nodded, wondering if he stepped over a line and caused the lords of this world to take a more active role in observing him. "May I help you?"

Dolphin crossed her arms under her breasts and pouted. "Not really, I was going home when I noticed you here. Do you have any idea how annoying it is to go to a Toga party and find that everyone was just an insane cultist that killed themselves before you got to show up and do it for them?"

"Not particularly." Gram sweat-dropped, wondering why she was like this. Wasn't she one of the most powerful beings on this planet? Why was she complaining about something like that?

"Anyway, if you'll excuse me, I want to go back home." Dolphin blinked as something occurred to her. "Oh yes. You should be careful with that Zannafar that's running around. If you're thinking about making an army to supplement your forces, you should know that it won't work."

Gram nodded, wondering how she knew about his plans to use the Zannafar. He suddenly found himself wishing he was somewhere else as the air around the two of them suddenly got a lot more ominous and foreboding.

A gleam came to Dolphin's eyes as her long hair floated upwards in the sudden breeze and she grinned at him. "You should know that we have no problem with one or two of those things being around, but do keep in mind that if you let things get out of control, you won't be welcome here anymore. Got it?"

"Perfectly." He nodded and fought the urge to shiver. Sure, he was sure that she knew he was worried about what she could do, but what could he do? They were Mazoku after all.

"Good!" She suddenly grinned and disappeared, leaving him alone.

"That..." He forced himself to stand up and wondered just what he was going to do now. A suddenly flash of inspiration came to him and his shoulders shook as he disappeared. "Yes, that's perfect!"

If everything worked out, not only would his master have his old toys back, but there was a chance he'd have a bunch of new toys to play with.

But first, he needed to do some work.

(-)

Corona frowned as she looked around the work shop. Sure, it had been hours since the attack, but all she had to show for her work was a rather incomplete Zennefa armor. "Did they only have one?" That would be stupid. Why make only one ultimate weapon? Eventually someone was going to come up with a way around or through your weapon, you had to keep making newer and better weapons, or at least upgrade what you had

Then again, Corona did have to admit, upgrading the Zennefa would be hard, considering it was nearly impervious to damage to begin with, plus the fact that it could become a winged giant, she wanted that. Sure, she had Jörmungandr now, but that thing couldn't use its super beam blast very much, plus at its size, it would be hard to sneak up on everyone and show them what she was now. "...Rio..." She muttered as a tear rolled down her ashen skin. "...Nove, why? Why couldn't you just give him the information?"

Corona suddenly gripped her head and groaned as a pulse of power ran through her. "NNNNOOOOO!" She screamed as flashes of memories ran through her head.

_"Oh, I'll let her go." Gram grinned as he dropped Rio. "Straight into hell!"_

"AHHH!" Corona fell to her knees, screaming as her memories seemed distorted, twisted and, for some reason, missing nearly every color but black and white. Sweat started to pour down her face as she panted while memories kept bubbling up to the surface. "GAH! STOP! STOP!" Tears fell from her eyes as her memories of Nove, Vivio, Einhart, Ixpellia and even Rio started to become distorted and warped.

Corona rolled on the floor and groaned as the memories continued to trickle in. "Why... Why did they... Hate me so much?" She cried softly as memories of those she thought were her friends bombarded her mind.

(-)

Outside of the building, a shadow-like creature grinned to itself. "Yes... Feel the hatred... Feel it, let it consume you." The creature continued to grin as Corona threw herself to the ground and started rolling around while kicking her feet up and down to ward off the memories. "I think that's enough for now. Master Gram will be pleased though."

(-)

_"Interesting." A female voice had her looking up in curiosity at who found her. "I've only been here for a few days, but you're the first person I've seen with appreciable magical talent."_

_She tilted her head and blinked at the woman, wondering why she was talking to her._

_The woman narrowed her eyes as something occurred to her. "I see, so that's why. Tell me something, do you have anywhere to go?" She shook her head._

_"...Can you even speak?" She nodded at the strange woman._

_"I don't like to talk." The girl whispered softly. "Who are you?"_

_The woman suddenly smiled and the girl found herself shivering for some unknown reason. "My name? Zelas Metallium, and yes, I'm right, you have a lot of magical potential. Yes, I think I'll put it to good use."_

_The girl blinked as Zelas grabbed her arm. "So, what is your name little one?"_

_The girl tilted her head before answering. "It's..."_

(-)

"Hey, Nila... Nila..." Lyos frowned as his companion seemingly looked lost. "You okay?" She nodded and he looked at her for a few moments more, before looking at the setting sun. "Well, we should set up camp then." He stretched and chuckled as the four kids let out groans and slumped down onto the ground.

"Hmm..." Nove frowned as she looked over the map in her hands. "So, we made some good progress, we're... In Ralteague?"

"Only for a little bit." Lyos walked up behind her and pointed to the tip of the country they were in. "It'll take about an hour, but we'll be in Dills if we keep heading straight East from here."

Nove nodded and smirked as she folded the map up. "You could probably be half way there if we weren't slowing you down, huh?"

Lyos shrugged as Nove went to find some firewood. Maybe he could, but if he hurried too much, everyone would be exhausted, and, well, it was just nice to be with companions again. 'Especially ones that look like her.' He mentally smirked as he watched Nove walk off. He twitched as he was slapped on the back of his head. Turning, he glared at Nila. "I can look." Sighing as Nila frowned at him, he turned and walked away. "Fine, fine, I'll get the firewood for tonight then." He told Nove that he'd go look for the firewood and she could help set up camp.

Nila nodded and went to help Nove set up the sleeping area.

"Um..." Arashi looked at Vivio, who was looking up at the sky as the sky turned red. "You think we'll find our way out of this alive?"

"Yeah." Arashi nodded and gave Vivio a soft grin as she turned to look at him. "I don't think we'll die, we got really strong friends, and I'm finally learning how to use my magic properly."

"I still say that was a fluke." Vivio gave him a flat stare. Still, he did have a point, she felt like she was getting better. She wasn't sure how much better, but she couldn't wait to try out her abilities oon. "I hope Corona's okay."

"She'll be fine." Einhart said as she lay on the ground. Even if she was tougher than most girls her age, it was still hard for her to travel long distances on foot for hours on end. "If she's alive, she'll be fine, we'll find her and save her."

"What makes you say that?" Vivio asked, hoping that Einhart was right, but doubtful that she was at the same time. She knew the stories about what Mazoku were capable of, she had seen, they all had seen Rio get killed in front of their eyes. "Do you really think she'll be okay? I heard Lutecia was under the control of a Mazoku for a long time and got really messed up because of it."

"But that was a long time." Ixpellia spoke up for the first time in awhile. "But still, my life was ruined because of dark power, and I know that Runessa Magnus was also screwed up because of a Mazoku." Then again, she did recall that if not for the Mazoku, Runessa would have been dead.

Life was funny like that sometimes.

Vivio shivered, she didn't remember much when she fought against Nanoha, other than that Mazoku with blue hair doing something to her and causing some really bad memories to surface and cause problems for her. "It doesn't even have to be for a short period of time, you know." She sighed and looked at Sacred Heart as the bunny floated in front of her. "I wish I knew where to go. Then I could just fly there and find Corona and we'd all find a way to go home and..."

"Doubtful." Ixpellia spoke up. "Even though you could probably fly... Wait, do you know how to fly?"

Vivio scratched the back of her head and nodded. "Not very well though. I'm still working on it, mama said that I'm doing better than most people though. Levitation is a major help." Though, at her current rate of magical growth, she'd be able to fly like her parents could in a couple of months.

She just wished that she could learn to do it faster. 'I know that I was flying around and matching mama when I was the Saint Kaiser before, I know I have the armor still, so why can't I fly?'

Part of her wondered if maybe it was because of that Mazoku that controlled her that allowed her to fly like she did before.

"Mraw!" Einhart lifted her head as Tio jumped on her chest and started growling while facing off to the North. "Mraw! Mraw!"

"What?" Einhart sat up slightly and looked to the North, not seeing anything. "Does anyone see or sense anything?"

Ixpellia, Arashi and Vivio all shook their heads. "Sacred Heart?" Vivio looked at her bunny as it twitched and moved several times. "Ah! Something really powerful is North of us?"

"There's a lot of things to the North." Pokota said as he floated down to land on Ixpellia's head. "There's a clan of Golden Dragons, some Elves, a mountain range that's home to a large group of Mazoku. And that's all just in one country." He tilted his head in confusion. "But how do they know about that stuff?" His ears pointed to Tio and Sacred Heart.

"They're devices." Einhart said as she sat up fully and cradled Tio to her. "They have senses beyond what we have, plus they're very sensitive to high levels of power that exist."

Pokota frowned as he saw both the Snow Leopard and the little Bunny get more and more agitated. "Must be a really strong power."

Vivio blanched as Chris continued to twitch to tell her what it was sensing. "Ah... I see... Um, that's bad, huh?"

"What?" Pokota looked at Vivio and Einhart as they glanced at each other with grim expressions on their faces. "What's wrong?"

"Asteon and Sacred Heart," Einhart began, "are detecting dark energies on par with an S plus class mage."

"Uh..." Pokota scratched his head in confusion. "For those of us who don't know, what's this class system?"

"Let me explain." Ixpellia sat down next to Vivio. "Where we're from, we use a classification system that uses letters to identify how powerful someone is. It's just a general system, however and does not mean that someone who is a lower rank cannot defeat someone who is a higher rank in combat ability, plus some high ranking mages are..."

"You're rambling." Arashi interrupted her. "To put it simply, there's several ranks from X down to F rank. F means you have no magical power at all, X is basically the world's about to be destroyed." Nanoha had given him a brief run-down on the rankings awhile ago and the schools did use something similar themselves. "Most people who have magical ability don't get higher than C or B rank, so anyone who's at that rank tend to be average members of the Bureau."

"Bureau?"

"It's a peacekeeping and military unit that spans a whole universe." Vivio spoke up. "They can go to other dimensions like this one, but they need people to fill ranks, most of them are C and B rank. After you get to the higher ranks, well..."

"It gets complicated." Nove said as she walked over. "I'm considered equal to a triple A rank mage, over-all. Big Sis Ginga's considered A plus rank and Subaru somehow managed to become double A rank. By most definitions, we're considered elite magic users, however, you also have the S ranks, which, like the A ranks, are in three groups, S, double S and triple S." She shrugged at Pokota's confused look. "To put it simply, F means you're normal, E and D means that you're weak, C and B means you're average. A are considered to be really good, double and triple A means you're elite while S and double S means you're basically at the top of what's humanly possible. Triple S..." She trailed off and frowned. "Honestly, I'm not sure if anyone's triple S." And even if someone was triple S, that would have been kept completely secret from most of the Bureau. "Well, just don't worry about that too much. Anyway, X rank is so stupidly powerful that no human could ever get that high, I think it's reserved for Mazoku and Shinzoku anyway."

"Okay, I guess... But, what's this about a universe?" Pokota blinked as Nove pointed straight up. Tilting his head upwards, he blinked as he saw some stars in the sky. "...What about the stars?"

"They're technically suns that exist elsewhere off this planet." Nove smirked as Pokota suddenly fell over in shock. "Yeah, it's big."

"I... Uh... I..."

"You broke him." Ixpellia giggled before looking North again. "S plus, huh?" That could be very bad if whatever was that strong came after them. "You think it'll come for us?"

"With our luck, maybe." Nove sighed and ran a hand through her hair. "Dammit, I hate to say it, but I think I liked it better when I fought against the Riot Force, at least I wasn't jumping at every freaking shadow and worried that a random plant would eat me!"

"Actually," Jail's voice spoke up from under Nove's shirt, "from what I've seen in the records, man-eating plants aren't very common around here. And any that show up tend to be created specifically to do that, so it's assumed that such things aren't natural."

"Of course not!" Pokota yelled as he came back to his senses. "Sure, some crazy person might make a bunch of plant monsters to keep out rats, but they're not seen very often and they're easily taken care of."

Nove rubbed her forehead, groaning. "I'm getting a bit of a headache from all of this."

"I told you, Nove," Uno's voice spoke up, "considering the threat level of this place, you should probably get laid soon, just in case something bad happens. You don't want to die a virgin, do you?"

Vivio and Arashi blinked in confusion while Nove's face turned redder than her hair, Einhart was a bit confused, but she was blushing as well while Ixpellia was merely laughing at Nove's plight.

"Still..." Pokota frowned as he looked to the North. "If those devices are feeling the magic from the North, it might be from the mountain ranges up there, and there's a lot of Mazoku up there, plus one of the Lords lives in that area, so maybe that's what's setting them off?"

"That's... Possible." Einhart nodded as she looked at Tio, who was still growling. "Tio, can you keep watch for anything that might get close?"

"Mraw!" The device nodded and jumped off of Einhart and started walking in a circle and growling at the air.

"...That is too adorable." Ixpellia giggled before looking up as Lyos walked into the clearing with... "Is that a dead tiger?"

"Not quite." Lyos chuckled as he threw the dead beast onto the ground. "A general cat beast, they get pretty big, nothing much, but, they're good eating!"

"We're going to eat a cat?" Einhart asked as Tio suddenly growled at Lyos.

"Take what you can get when you get it." Lyos rolled his eyes as he dropped several large pieces of wood down on the ground. "Besides, it attacked me first, might as well make a meal out of it. And, hey, if we skin it just right, we'll have another blanket."

Ixpellia shrugged as she pulled out several knives. "Where should I start cutting then?"

(-)

Corona frowned as she looked over the Zennefa Armor. No matter what she did, it just seemed incomplete, like something was missing. "Grr! If I knew it was going to be this hard, I wouldn't have let them escape with it! Now what am I going to do?" Just slapping the armor together didn't do anything useful as something was still missing. "Darn it! Brunzel!" Her Device snapped into being in her hands. "Can you translate this language at all?"

**"Negative."**

Corona growled and made her device disappear. "This sucks!" She screamed to no one in particular. She had found a book that had some sort of information on it, but she couldn't read the freaking language!

"Having troubles?"

Corona's eyes widened and she spun around to see Gram smirking at her. "What do you want? I thought I was free of you." She growled as Gram's smirk increased in size. "What?"

"My dear, reading this language... It's easy if you're a Mazoku. In fact, things like this, they're child's play for me." He walked forward and flicked his wrist as the book floated towards him. "You are right, this is an instruction manual for making a Zannafar..." Gram's eyes widened as he gave it a second look. "Zennefa? Interesting, close to the name Zannafar and yet..."

Corona crossed her arms over her chest and turned away from him. "So what do you want? You here to taunt me or did you actually come to give me a hand?" When she heard clapping, she spun around, anger in her eyes at the Mazoku. "What's with that?!"

"You said to give you a hand." Gram chuckled as she got angrier.

"Bal..."

"Ah ah ah!" Gram waggled a finger at her. "If you want my help, you'll have to calm down." Corona blinked in confusion as Gram snapped his fingers and a small ring appeared in mid air. "This ring has the ability to let you read any language, no matter how obscure, in moments."

"Really?" Corona gave him a flat stare. "And how do I know this won't kill me?"

"Because," Gram walked up to her and gave her the book, "I want to see what you can do with the Zennefa Armor. And maybe some more Zannafar Armors on top of it. If you can complete the more powerful Zennefa Armor, don't you think you could make more Zannafars?" He looked outside and snorted as he caught sight of the injured Zannafar. "Just dispose of that one, you have your golems now... And, honestly, I'm impressed, I never thought that you could make one the size of a mountain." He started to walk around the young girl. "Really, you are more interesting than your friends were. Even without any sort of Black, Holy or Astral magic, you could still strike a Mazoku. That's impressive."

"I can do more now, thanks to you."

"Of course." He smirked as a black sphere formed in her hands. "Think about it, new worlds of power have opened up for you, simply because I helped you out. I'm merely offering my services to you again. With this, you could make an entire army of Zennefas or even a few more Zannafars... Or maybe fix your pet out there."

Corona faltered, she didn't like seeing her Zannafar hurting like it was, even if the creature was rather irksome at times.

"All you have to do is accept my help again, this ring," the yellow band with tiny red gems studded throughout it floated between them, "will help you achieve things you never thought possible. Just hold out your hand."

"Why?" Corona fought back the urge to cry. "Why did you kill Rio?"

"Kill her? Me?" Gram looked confused. "That girl wouldn't have died if your friends would have just told me the location of those two toys my master lost and wanted back. Really, it's their fault, not mine. I was just trying to get some information and they had to sacrifice your friend for their own life, how... Utterly selfish."

Corona frowned and gripped her head. "But... But you wouldn't... They said that you'd..."

"Kill some of you? Why would I do that? I, personally, just wanted to get my master's toys back. So, believe me, I can help you achieve greater heights... This ring..." His eyes darkened as Corona looked at the floating ring as it glowed. "Put it on... Your right ring finger."

"But..." Corona shivered, she couldn't deny what he said about Rio, could she? Sure, he had blasted Rio, but it was Nove's fault for not telling him what he wanted to know. "Yes... Yes, it's her fault..." With a trembling hand, she reached out and touched the ring, gasping as it seemingly teleported onto her right ring finger. "This..." She groaned as her head throbbed. "Nnnngh!"

Gram chuckled and stood to his full height. "Look at the book, girl."

Corona looked at the book and gasped as the words seemingly shifted and changed into symbols she could understand. "This is..."

"Well, good luck." Gram smirked as he disappeared. 'Go on, complete that armor, my gift will come through soon enough.'

He wondered just what kind of delicious misery she would spread by the time he was finished with her.

'If she survives, I'm sure master will find her... Useful.'

* * *

No preview this time, just hoping you enjoy it.

I don't like info dumps, even if they are, sometimes, needed.


	319. Revolution Sixteen

Blood That Flows

Revolution Sixteen

I own nothing.

Okay, this has been delayed, I'm sorry.

Normally, I won't go political here, but, to everyone who reads this, please keep the brave people of Venezuela, Ukraine and other countries who are in the midst of civil unrest in your hearts. They are fighting for their freedom against governments which are either oppressive or don't listen to their people, or both.

Keep fighting, brave citizens, I only wish I could help more.

* * *

Several days later...

Nove was never more thankful than at that moment for farmers carting stuff across the land. Even if she and the others had to sit on straw it beat having to try and ride with the pigs or cows. "Ugh, I need a bath."

"Um..." Einhart was fidgeting slightly. "I got straw in places that, um..."

Lyos rolled his eyes and pointed to a bush. "Just duck behind there and clean it out." Einhart blushed and ran behind the bushes.

"Um..." Arashi blinked as Ixpellia and Vivio shook their heads. "What?"

"Remember that you and Vivio threw straw on poor Einhart?" Ixpellia elaborated for him. "And then she fought back and you had to take your shirt off because it was itchy?" Arashi nodded, though he remembered some giggling as well. "Well, Einhart has straw in places that she cannot show in public." Ixpellia reached up and scratched her head, sighing as she got an annoying itch out of the way. "Speaking of which, I too need to get straw out of my pants."

"And this is why I wear tight pants." Nove muttered to herself as she looked at the walled city. "So, this is Gyria then?"

"Yep." Lyos nodded to her. "Capital of Dils." He pointed straight North. "If you head in that direction for a few hours, you'll end up in the Kataart Mountains, home of plenty of Mazoku."

"I'd rather not." Nove shivered slightly. "Come on, I wanna take a bath... Please tell me that there's baths here." When Lyos nodded, she threw her hands up in the air in elation.

"You should calm down, Nove, you probably have to jump in a big tub and wash yourself that way, who knows if they can even wash your underwear here." Uno's voice popped out from under Nove's shirt.

"Gah!" Nove pulled out Blitz Calibur and glared at the holographic image of Uno. "Do you have to be like this?"

Uno shrugged at her. "To be honest, it's boring in there. I've already looked over everything in your device and the doctor's programming is sleeping." Nove blinked as Uno rolled her eyes and a holographic image of Jail curled in a ball and snoring popped up. "Get up!" She kicked Jail a few times until the hologram groaned and sat up. "Why the hell do you need to sleep anyway?"

Jail gave Uno a dirty look. "It's either that or try to see if there's anything worthwhile in this device. Really, the porn section doesn't interest me that much."

Nove turned bright red as she heard that. "Dammit! I am **so** finding out who put that on Blitz Calibur and kicking their ass!"

"Well, good luck with that, looks like this was sent anonymously." Uno smirked at Nove as she blushed harder while Lyos fought the urge to laugh at her. "Really, Nove, you've got some really naughty..."

"Not another word." Nove growled as she stormed into the city after Nila, Pokota, Vivio and Arashi.

Lyos chuckled as Ixpellia and Einhart rejoined the group, both of them looked a lot more relaxed after taking care of the straw that was in their clothes. He didn't really care what Uno was talking about, but he didn't care, Nove was kind of funny when she got upset. Oh well, he was going to enjoy a hot meal and a bath for the first time in a several days.

(-)

"Ahhhh!" Nove sighed as she sank into the hot water. "I'm surprised this place has an outdoor bath." She cupped her hands and splashed herself on the face and grinned as she felt the water just roll over her.

"From what I heard," Ixpellia said as she slipped in and sighed, "this was created about four years ago when someone discovered an underground spring."

"Yep." Both girls' eyes widened as they heard Lyos speaking from somewhere. "Behind the rocks, girls."

"What are you doing?!" Nove yelled as she crossed her arms over her breasts and ducked down. "I thought..."

"Calm down!" Lyos yelled at her. "I asked ahead of time, this spring is split in half by these large rocks, I'm on the men's side."

Nove glared at the rocks before relaxing slightly. "So, what? Hoping to get a free show?" She didn't hear what Lyos said as Vivio and Einhart ran into the springs and jumped into the water, well, Vivio jumped in, Einhart just eased herself in. "By the way, what's going on with our laundry?"

"Don't worry, the cleaning staff will wash your clothes for you." Lyos called from over the rocks. "Why do you think I chose this place. There's robes outside when you want to get out."

Nove sighed, well, at least that answered that, she didn't look forward to getting into dirty clothes after finally getting cleaned up again. "That's fine." At least she could relax for now.

So why did she worry that something was going to happen?

(-)

Later that night...

Nove scratched her head as she walked down the hallway. She was still in the bathrobe that the inn had supplied for her. "Damn, kind of sleepy..." Still, she was having trouble sleeping, it had been almost two hours and she still couldn't get to sleep. Maybe getting something to eat could help her out. Granted, going without sleep wouldn't hurt her as much as it would the rest of the party since she could go at least three days without sleep before having problems in what she could do.

As she passed by the outdoor bath, a splashing sound drew her attention. Shrugging, she stepped into the bath and blinked as she saw a rather petite, though fairly curvy woman with hair that just brushed down to her shoulders sitting on the edge of the bath. It might have been kind of dark, but there was enough light to see that the woman had fair skin, but what caught Nove's eyes was the woman's hair, it was bright red, save for the tips, which were blonde in color and reached from her earlobes to her shoulders.

Nove found herself blushing as she looked at the woman's naked body as she leaned back and sighed, putting all of her curves on display. And Nove had to admit, privately, that the woman's rear end, which stuck out slightly and her breasts, which were a touch on the small side, were rather perfect for her frame. The cyborg wouldn't be surprised if the woman had to beat off suitors with a stick on a daily basis.

Stepping out of the room, Nove tried to fight down her blush as she made her way back to her room. That was just unfair.

Back in the room, the woman in the bath blinked as she looked behind her. 'I could have sworn someone was in here.' She shrugged and slid into the water and sighed. 'Surprised we haven't run into much trouble so far.' It was almost too bad, she wanted to smash some bandits.

'I wonder if I should show Lyos and the others my face or not.' She shrugged, it wasn't too important, she guessed.

(-)

Elsewhere...

Corona stretched her arms over her head and yawned as she walked out of the hut. There was dirt and sweat all over her face and arms and her outfit was matted down on her body, still she had a big grin on her face as she turned around and pulled a body armor out of the hut and slipped it on over her head. "Yay! It's finished!" She cheered as she reached for the fasteners. Sure, it was just a basic breastplate that covered her chest and stomach. It was even sleeveless to allow her arms more movement. Once she figured out how to manipulate it more, she was going to make this her new Barrier Jacket.

**"Good for you."** Corona looked up as she finished securing the armor on her body.

"Zanny!" Corona yelled out gleefully as she saw her Zannafar moving around with no problems. "You're better!"

**"I wouldn't have even been in this position if you had not brought me here. How miserable."** The demonic creature growled as Corona walked over to it and sat down next to its leg. **"What are you doing?"**

"Taking a nap. I haven't slept in..." Corona started curling her fingers as she counted off the days silently. "I think almost ten days, and I used a lot of magic making you, Jörmungandr and now this armor." She tapped her chest and giggled. "So, I'm going to sleep, you stay here, I don't wanna curl up on the ground. Balmung! Jörmungandr! You two make sure that we don't get attacked while I'm sleeping."

**"Hey! Don't you dare use me as something to lean against to sleep!"** Zannafar growled as Corona ignored him and leaned against his leg and fell asleep instantly. **"Stupid human! I'm in charge, not you!"**

"Ngh... Bad doggy... No biscuit." Corona mumbled sleepily as she rolled over.

The Zannafar snorted and walked away from Corona, it wasn't like she could control him in her sleep. His eyes widened as he found, to his dismay, that he could only take four steps before finding himself unable to move.**"You!"** The Demon Beast growled and walked back to Corona before sitting down next to her. When she rolled over and hugged him in her sleep, he snorted and lowered his head. **"I can't believe this, me, the Demon Beast Zannafar, being completely controlled by this _child_ like this!"**

Unseen to either of them, the ring around Corona's finger glowed softly.

(-)

Nove was so glad to be back in her normal clothes, doubly so since they were actually clean. "Bleah, wish I had more than just these training pants and shirt."

"Well, at least our clothes weren't destroyed." Vivio pointed out as she sat in the room topless while shaking her shirt, a loud crackling sound was heard filling the room, "wow, this is a lot of static and..." She trailed off as Sacred Heart floated in front of her and twitched several times. "Oh! That would make sense, I guess, but if they don't have driers here, how is there so much static? If I put this on, my hair would turn into an afro!"

"Which would probably look hilarious." Uno commented from the table. "As for the static, it's not surprising, there was a lot of negative ions in the air last night, I'm actually surprised that there was no thunderstorm nor rain last night." Uno rolled her eyes as Sacred Heart twitched several times. "Yes, I know that's what you said, but it seems like Vivio misunderstood you."

"So, what's the plan for today?" Ixpellia asked as she attached her sword to her belt. "I would like to get more durable traveling clothes, I think my shoes are about to fall apart on me."

Nove nodded, that would be a good place to start. "Why not? I'd like to get some new clothes too." Besides, walking around in the same pair of underwear for days on end wasn't pleasant, even if she could just go into her Barrier Jacket to fix that right up.

There was a knock at the door. "Hey! Are you girls ready yet? We're going to get some breakfast!"

"Coming!" Vivio yelled out as she finally put her shirt, socks and shoes on.

Nove smirked as Einhart and Ixpellia followed after Vivio. Grabbing Blitz Calibur, she followed them out of the room and blinked as she saw Nila, her hood over her face as usual, walking her way. "Hey, how come you have your own room?"

"I have my own money." Nila said as she followed after the others.

Nove really couldn't say anything against that.

(-)

Lyos smiled as the women joined him, Pokota and Arashi at the breakfast table. "Nice of you to join us."

Nove rolled her eyes. "Hope you don't mind me asking, but we'd like to get some new clothes, it's been several days and I'd like to have at least more than one pair of pants."

"Sure, just don't spend too much, this place already is costing me about twenty gold pieces." Lyos grimaced, this was going to set him back pretty far for the next few months.

"Gold currency?" Nove blinked, before grimacing. "That's a stupid money system. Gold is, by definition, a rare metal that's highly valued, meaning only the rich really have any and the rest of the populous is lucky to have anything. Paper, cheap metals and electronic currencies are better, so long as they're regulated and issued by a government and not banks, businesses or investors, since such money can be given to more people easier it allows more people to have prosperity, which is good for long-term economic growth and..." Nove trailed off at the confused looks she was getting. "...I study economics in my spare time." She turned away, blushing and went to go see what she could get to eat.

Pokota frowned as he thought about what she said, "cheap metals, huh?"

(-)

"So?"

"Not yet, Duclis." Zuuma said as he looked at the city. "We'll wait until they leave later. They might be heading East, but we need them to come to us." The Assassin stepped out of the shadows. "Let them relax for now, do you have the summoning scroll?"

"It was easy." Duclis held up a rolled up piece of paper. "We'll see how this goes this time."

"Of course." Zuuma said as he stepped back into the shadows and disappeared.

Duclis turned to the city and narrowed his eyes. He still needed to deal with the Sword of Light somehow. After all, it was one of the few things that could hurt even an incomplete Zannafar Armor.

(-)

Nove blinked as she and the other girls walked out of the clothing store. "Um..."

Lyos gave her an annoyed stare. "I don't mind waiting for companions when they need stuff, but did you need to take so long when getting clothes?" He was so bored waiting for them to hurry up.

"We weren't in there that long." Nove looked back at the younger girls, who all blinked in confusion. "I mean, it wasn't..."

"One hour, twenty-three minutes and fourteen seconds." Jail's voice came from Jet Edge. "Before you ask, I was bored, so I kept count."

Nove sweat-dropped, she was a girl, she liked shopping, besides, the clothes weren't especially well designed and she was just looking for a comfortable pair of pants and underwear, darn it!

"Let's just go." Lyos rolled his eyes and blinked as he noticed what Nove was holding. "Bags?"

"Just a few changes of clothes, in case something happens, that's all, besides..." Nove smirked as she let the bags go and they disappeared. "By linking the bags to my device, I can store it with my Barrier Jacket so I don't need to carry them."

"Useful." Lyos stood up and stretched. "Hey, kid..." He shook Arashi, who was sleeping lightly.

"Huh?" Arashi blinked and yawned as he woke up. "We're going?"

"Yeah," Lyos nodded. "From here we'll cross into Kalmaart and then we'll be heading..."

"South." Pokota spoke up as he landed on Nila's head. "Where I want to go is South of Kalmaart."

"I thought you said East?" Vivio pointed out, confused as they started to head towards the East end of the city. "I mean, weren't we going to head to Zefielia or Elmekia?"

"It's not that." Pokota protested, looking flustered, "it's just, Seiryuun is South of here and it's not too far from where I want to go. I'd rather all of you get somewhere safe so we can hurry up and get to where I want to go."

Lyos raised an eyebrow as he looked at Pokota. "Such a change of heart, I'm surprised." Pokota rubbed the back of his head. "Well, fine, if that's the case then, we'll cross into Kalmaart and head South along the boarder until we get into Seiryuun. Shouldn't take more than a couple of days."

"So that's it then? We'll finally be able to get into contact with the Bureau?" Vivio asked, hope evident in her tone of voice. "What about Corona-chan?"

"If I can, I'll find her and save her." Lyos smiled at her lightly. "Come on, we need to get going." The rest nodded as they followed Lyos out of the city.

(-)

Meanwhile...

"Ahhhhh! That was a good nap!"

**"Finally! I thought you'd never wake up, stupid kid."**

"Zanny!" Corona looked at him and pouted as he stood up and started walking away. "Come on, Zanny! I'm not that bad!" When the Demon Beast ignored her, she pouted more as Balmung rushed over to her. "Well then... Shall we all go? South, yes..." A disturbed grin came to the twisted girl's face. "You'll all pay, all of you."

Zannafar snorted and walked with Corona, Balmung and Jörmungandr followed after him. **"Not that it's any of my business, but how are you going to hide a mountain-sized golem from them?"**

Corona's eyes flashed in amusement. "Who says I want to hide it? I want them to know that I'm coming." She flexed her fingers as images came to her mind. "When I'm done with them, I'll take those Mazoku down for taking Rio away, then..." What would she do after she got her revenge? She didn't know. "I'll figure it out! Let's go!"

On a hill some distance away, Pawra frowned as she watched and listened to the girl openly talk about her plans for Gram. Really, the catgirl Mazoku didn't care too much what she had planned for Gram, if he was out of the way it would be easier for her to move up the ladder and gain power as their mutual master would require a new General. And why not her?

Okay, she _did_ fail to capture her targets before, or at least get information, but it wasn't her fault! How was she supposed to know that they could do weird attacks like that?

Still, she was under Gram's orders to give this _thing_ to the girl. "Bah." She snorted and disappeared, this was going to be a pain in her shapely ass, she just knew it.

Corona blinked as a catgirl formed in the air in front of her. "What do you want, Mazoku?" Her face twisted into a scowl as the catgirl grinned at her. "What?"

Pawra chuckled and held up her hands as the Zannafar growled at her. "Hey, calm down. I was just going to give you another Zannafar Armor." Corona blinked in confusion as Pawra held up a breastplate. "Just do whatever you want, but master Gram thought you could use another one."

**"I'm more than enough!"** Zannafar growled and opened his mouth to blast the uppity Mazoku to dust.

Pawra shrugged and tossed the armor to Corona. "Do what you want, I'm out of here." The Mazoku disappeared as a white beam tore through where she had been a moment ago.

Blinking, Corona caught it even as Zannafar howled in anger at the Mazoku who left. "Hmm... Maybe..." She looked at Jörmungandr and grinned. "Oh, Jörmungandr, would you be so kind as to get me something?" Her eyes flashed and the Golem looked around before taking several steps to the West.

**"What are you getting?"**

Corona turned to him and, despite being a nearly invulnerable beast, the creature found itself shrinking back from the crazed look on her face. "Think about it, Zanny, one of you is strong, what could I do with two of you? And maybe I'll have an army of Golems and the Zennefa..."

The Zannafar growled and turned away, snorting. **"Whatever, you slip up once and I shall enjoy your body and soul to further my own abilities."**

Corona grinned, she knew that, she didn't care, at least Zannafar couldn't die easily on her like Rio did. When she heard a loud thump in the distance, Corona grinned as she saw Jörmungandr coming back. "Yay! Now I have more fuel for this armor!"

"MOOOO!"

(-)

"AHHHHHH! COWS!"

Cinque and Lina both sighed as Dieci screamed in the shower. "She really needs to see a therapist about that." Cinque mumbled and wondered if Shamal could help Dieci out.

(-)

Corona grinned as she made the cows become absorbed the armor. "Hmm, I don't want a Zanny that looks like you, I want a new Zanny! Hmm... OOOH! Yeah! That'll work!"

Zannafar stared as the armor changed and a new form quickly emerged. **"...I hate you so much, child. If I could, I would eat you right now."** He growled as Corona just grinned at him. Glaring at the new Zannafar, he wondered just how she could control two Zannafar, even if one of them had three heads and looked like some sort of bi-pedal lizard that could walk on four legs if it chose to instead of a wolf dragon like he did.

Oh well, at least maybe he wouldn't have to suffer the crazy brat all by himself anymore.

(-)

"You have got to be kidding me." Nove groaned as she looked around at the ugly creatures surrounding them. "We're not even an hour out of Gyria and there's... What are these things?" At least they were in an open grassy plain and not surrounded by trees, plenty of room to move freely if things went bad.

"Lesser Demons." Lyos frowned as he looked around. "They're Mazoku so weak that they have to bond with physical objects to even manifest on our plane of reality. Compared to even those Mazoku that Pokota and I killed when we met you, they're pushovers, but..."

"But..." Nove looked at him nervously as she transformed into her Barrier Jacket. "Didn't we fight these things before?"

"The last time you did, they were just in common things, stone, wood, some statues." A deep and unwelcome voice spoke up as a body walked through the parting crowd.

"Duclis!" Pokota hissed as he saw his old friend.

Duclis smirked as he stood a few feet away from the group. "Just so you know, girl, these might be Lesser Demons, but they've got bodies that can actually fight. So..." He pointed at the group. "Kill all of them!"

The Demons let out a scream as they rushed forward, intending to kill the group quickly.

"Be careful, they usually have really tough hides." Lyos warned as he pulled out Banisher.

In the back of the group, Nila nodded and started to prepare a spell, a flash of light was her only warning as she jumped away from two knives that embedded themselves into the ground.

"Not today, Sorceress." Nila spun at that voice and saw Zuuma standing there, his arm still out-stretched from throwing the knives at her. "I'll be taking your life now."

"Knave." Ixpellia frowned as she was forced to use her long throwing knives against the Lesser Demons to keep them from killing her. "Were I not busy, I'd slice your tongue off for being so arrogant."

(-)

Nove frowned as she ducked a fairly clumsy, if fast, punch from one of the Lesser Demons. This... Wasn't going to go well. "Any suggestions?"

"Kick them in the right knee, kick them in the left knee, kick them in the..."

"Doctor, stop being a cheerleader and actually come up with something." Uno sighed, though the thought of kicking one of these things between the legs might be satisfying, it would probably hurt if they were as tough as Lyos said they were.

"Well, if their bodies are stupidly hard to break normally, just make them brittle, you still have a lot of freezing gas left, don't you?"

Nove blinked and nodded. "Yeah, but I was hoping to save that for later though." Even as she jumped onto her Airliner to get above the creatures, Nove could see Jail's point about using the freezing gas, after all, if she wanted to survive another day, she was probably going to need to use the stuff.

She could only hope that it was enough to win.

(-)

"Master..." Pawra frowned as she saw Gram watching Corona and grinning. "Just what are you planning with that human?"

Gram smirked as he turned to look at her. "All will be revealed soon enough. By the way, I need you to start practicing turning into a specific human." The Mazoku general laughed as Pawra looked at him in confusion. "Soon, soon you will know."

Pawra nodded, she wasn't sure about that, but she knew better than to question him.

After all, questioning her superiors was...

Incredibly dangerous to one's health.

* * *

Einhart: Lesser Demons? This does not bode well.  
Jail: Don't worry, I always have a plan.  
Uno: I'm not dressing up like a chicken.  
Jail: Ask you to do that one time and you're never forgiven.  
Uno: Next time on Blood That Flows - Revolution, read it, or...  
Jail: I'll have Uno dress up as a monkey!  
Uno: Excuse me, I need to break his legs.

Hope the update was worth the wait. But, again, I hope that things work out in those areas with civil unrest/civil wars that's going on.


	320. Revolution Seventeen

Blood That Flows

Revolution Seventeen

I own nothing.

* * *

Vivio grunted as she ducked a swing from something that looked like a grey-skinned praying mantis and jumped up to drive a knee into the thing's skull, when it grunted and bent its body to the side, she bent backwards in midair and flipped backwards, kicking the thing in the jaw and knocking it off-balance. "Divine..." She grinned as she hung in the air, upside-down while a multi-colored energy sphere formed in front of her. "BUSTER!"

Landing on her feet, Vivio ducked under a swing for her head, put both hands on the ground and pushed upwards, driving her feet into the skull of the Lesser Demon so hard that the head was knocked clean off. Vivio gawked for a moment. "...I don't know if I should be worried I can do that or thankful." Vivio's eyes widened as a hand grabbed her leg, the next thing she knew, she was spun around a few times before ending up on her back as she was slammed hard onto the ground, the next thing she knew she was flying into the air so fast that her eyes were forced closed. "Nnngh!" Cracking an eye open, she paled as a red ball of energy was flying right at her. "Damn!"

The Lesser Demon grinned as it watched the blonde girl that it was slamming around get engulfed in a firey explosion. "One down." It growled and turned to the other fighters opposing them.

(-)

"Arashi..." Ixpellia frowned as she held three long knives in her left hand while holding the Blessed Blade in her right. "Can you make that black sword again?"

"Yeah, but I need some time."

Ixpellia nodded as Arashi began to chant softly. "Then I shall give you time." She snapped her left arm out, sending the blades flying at the Lesser Demons and nodded as she got 2 in the eye and one in the arm.

"Ha! You think..." The one who was stabbed in the arm started to laugh at her, before its arm started to sizzle and bubble before erupting into flames.

Ixpellia narrowed her eyes as the Demons in front of her started to rush at her. Crouching down, she held the Blessed Blade out to the side as silver energy worked its way up the blade. "You can all perish in one shot... Blessed... Blade!" She pulled the sword against her as she spun to a standing position. As she started to face the Lesser Demons again, she held the blade out as she swung in a large, wide arc, a silver wave of energy erupting from the sword that tore through the oncoming crowd of Lesser Demons with such ease that Ixpellia wondered just what this sword was made out of and how it could fire such energy waves like that.

"Ixy! Look out!"

Ixpellia turned at the sound of Arashi's voice and stared as a claw was descending on her. Narrowing her eyes, her legs tensed to jump to the side when the creature stopped and looked at its chest in shock. Ixpellia blinked in surprise as she saw a thin, pulsating black sword piercing through the creature's chest, a moment later, the creature exploded into mist. "Took you long enough." She smirked as she turned around and more of those throwing blades appeared in her hand. "What happened?"

Arashi grinned as he stepped up next to Ixpellia. "Had to remember the words, that's all." He grimaced slightly and looked at the sword in his hand. "We need to hurry up, I don't know how long I can hold this."

Ixpellia nodded, she figured as much, considering that the Ragna Blade was supposedly a really high-level spell, keeping it active for too long must have been incredibly hard. "Very well then, I shall deal with the ones further away, keep them from getting to me."

"I'll try." Arashi nodded before jumping back with Ixpellia as a few flying demons tried to get them from above. "Take this!" He yelled as he ran forward and slashed one into nothingness, the other two screamed as several Holy-imbued knives embedded themselves into their bodies, causing them to turn into pure ash from the energies within.

Arashi was panting as he swung the Ragna Blade. "This is... Hard."

"You're wasting your energy in those movements, plus your stance is too wide." Ixpellia commented as she got next to him and slashed upwards, sending a vertical wave of energy forward. She blushed at the look she was getting from him. "I spent time watching the knights learn how move, you're only a little better than most of the ones just learning how to use the sword."

Arashi stared at her blankly. "You're only twelve right?"

"When my kingdom fell, yes." Ixpellia nodded as she threw three blades behind her, stabbing another Lesser Demon without even looking. "Why?"

"How the heck did you have time for everything?!"

"When your planet takes almost forty hours to complete one day, you have plenty of time." Ixpellia retorted and frowned as the Ragna Blade disappeared and Arashi fell to his knees. "Are you okay?"

Arashi shook his head, "I feel sick."

"GET 'EM!" The demons yelled as they rushed forward.

Ixpellia narrowed her eyes and frowned heavily. "I promised myself that I would never use my magic because I was worried that I might create another Mariage crisis, but..." Wind started to swirl around her and Arashi looked up, stunned as a large light purple magic triangle formed in the air. "You're threatening my new family and friends! No time for regrets, you can all perish!" She held up her hand as her spell continued to form.

Lesser Demons were not well known for having survival instincts, being minor Mazoku that couldn't even take a natural body outside of the Astral Plane forced them to bond with objects just to truly interact with the real world tended to kill said instincts, however, they could feel the magic coming from the child and when a soft purple light bathed down on them, they could only look up in shock. If they were human, they would have paled at what they saw.

"Fall!" Ixpellia dropped her arm and from the large, light purple, triangle hundreds upon hundreds of the thin blades rained down upon the demon swarm, skewering the creatures around her and Arashi and littering the field with long, thin blades. "Blades of Fury." The blades didn't fall so much as get shot out of the triangle with incredible force that tore through the sky at incredible speeds, leaving no chance for any of the creatures to dodge or block to avoid the attacks.

Arashi stared, wide-eyed as the demons in the near vicinity of them were turned into Swiss-cheese easily. "...Why didn't you do that before? And when did you learn that?"

Sheathing the Blessed Blade, Ixpellia looked around to find the others. "To answer your questions in reverse order, I've had that spell since I was eight years old, but it was supposed to use my normal throwing knives and other sharp objects, I just replaced them with those throwing blades, and," her face turned completely red as she looked away, "I only remembered it this morning."

"...What?" Arashi asked as he pushed himself to his feet. "How..?"

"I haven't needed to use that spell in thousands of years! You think I'm going to remember something like that easily?!" She snapped at him before covering her mouth in shock. "Um, sorry."

Arashi just chuckled and scratched his head. "Heh, don't worry about it, it's kind of cute." He blinked as Ixpellia's face turned even redder, if that was possible and steam seemed to shoot out of her ears. "Um, are you okay?"

"Fine! Fine! Let's just find the others and help them." Ixpellia muttered something under her breath and practically stormed away with Arashi following her, completely confused by what was wrong with her.

(-)

Nove grimaced as her gun knuckle was no longer spraying anymore freezing chemical. "Well, shit, now what?" She drove her body through the most recently frozen Lesser Demon, shattering it completely. When the short redhead landed on the other side, she did a back flip, catching a Lesser Demon by surprise before calling up her Airliner and taking off on it while still upside down. "Doctor, please tell me you have some memories of the real Doctor in you that can give me an edge here."

"Have you tried the green ooze yet?"

Nove blinked as she raced upwards and spun around so she was standing upright on the Airliner. 'At least my speed on this thing is faster than they can fly.' She thought to herself while looking over her shoulder. "What green ooze?"

"The stuff that is basically slime." Uno spoke up, rolling her eyes. "The only thing in your equipment that can barely harm a newspaper, much less a person."

Nove sweat-dropped heavily. "Okay, doc, you better have a good reason for wanting me to use that stuff. Even bugs aren't bothered by it." It might be an irritant if it got into the eyes, but what good was that against a demon? 'Not like I have many other options.' She thought to herself as she adjusted the settings on her Gun Knuckle. "I swear, doc, if this doesn't work, I'm going to find a way to delete your personality if I live through this."

"Well, you have a chance, there's a flying demon just in front of you." Uno pointed out and turned to glare at Jail, who was just grinning at her. "You did something stupidly crazy, didn't you?"

"I wouldn't call it stupid." He laughed at Uno as Nove pointed her Gun Knuckle at the demon, spraying it with some green liquid.

"No, I'll just call you a moronic, idiotic, lunatic holographic program of Jail Scagiletti and..." Uno trailed off as she and Nove stared in shock as the creature suddenly bubbled and disintegrated. "...What the fuck?!"

"Well, I do have to admit, it's one of my better works. It doesn't hurt anything that doesn't have lots of negative energy." Jail was grinning before he finally broke down into maniacal laughter. "HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I AM **SUCH** A GENIUS!"

"Just a dead one." Uno dead-panned and shook her head in disbelief. "How much is needed to kill those things?" Jail shrugged and she felt an urge to throw something at him. "You have no clue, do you?"

"I'm just a mad genius, I never got to test this stuff." Jail rolled his eyes. "Killjoy." He grumbled as Nove spun around and sprayed a few of the Lesser Demons that tried to get her. "Alright, the ideal setting is probably just a few drops here and there. If I was you, and I'm not, but I would race as fast as I could while pointing it straight up and spraying out a bit at a time."

"...Like a fountain?" Nove suddenly grinned as an idea came to her. "Well, I think I have something."

"GET HER!" One of the Lesser Demons bellowed out loudly below.

"Let's see if this works." Nove muttered as she took off as fast as she could go, running around on her Airliner in circles and eight patterns, spraying the liquid everywhere she could.

Hearing the screams from down below was music to her ears. "Okay, doc, I take back every bad thought I had of you a moment ago."

Jail was grinning as he looked at Uno, who could only bury her face in her hands. "Told you that it was good."

"And now he'll never shut up unless I find the mute function in this thing." Uno sighed as she disappeared to look for that function in Jet Edge.

(-)

Einhart frowned as she ducked under a swing from one of the Lesser Demons and drove a fist into its side. "Fire BLAST!" Embers formed around her hand for a moment before a wave of heat and flame erupted outwards, destroying the Lesser Demon and two others behind it. Ducking under a swing towards her head, she responded with an uppercut to the creature's jaw that sent the demon stumbling backwards. "Now!" She held her hands in front of her as a sphere of energy formed in front of her. Winds kicked out of it at high speeds, causing her hair, skirt and ribbons to flap violently behind her. "Wind... Strike... BUSTER!" Letting loose a scream, Einhart punched the sphere of energy and nodded as a tornado as wide as her arm burst free from the energy ball and struck the nearest Lesser Demon, this one was humanoid but had wings on its back, and tore into its chest with the force of a strong drill for all of three seconds before busting through the creature's body and cutting through at least three more Lesser Demons behind it.

Panting, Einhart grimaced and grabbed at her head. "Ngh..." Not only was this hybrid magic harder than she thought it was, it was giving her a major headache and wearing her out faster than she thought possible. Still, there was a lot of Lesser Demons left and she had to keep doing her best otherwise she was going to be in trouble.

Einhart's eyes widened in shock as a hand gripped her leg and lifted her off her feet and flipped her upside down in mid-air, causing her hair to flop down and brush against the ground while her skirt flipped up completely, exposing her underwear to everyone, before she could react, a second hand grabbed her other leg and squeezed. "Now then..!" The Lesser Demon growled out and started to pull, hard, on Einhart's legs.

Einhart's eyes widened as sheer **PAIN** came from her crotch and hips as the Lesser Demon was trying to split her down the middle by pulling her legs in opposite directions. "GAAAAAAAH!" She screamed as she tried to squeeze her legs closed to keep from meeting that grisly end. She screwed her eyes shut as she felt several strong snaps and pops from her hips, causing tears of pain to flow out of her eyes.

The Lesser Demon grunted as it could feel the girl's body starting to give. Any moment now she would be split in half and bloody entrails would litter the ground.

Einhart couldn't even think of that as sheer pain shot through her body. Her eyes snapped open as she felt her body suddenly crack as something gave away.

"This is IT!" The Lesser Demon growled in triumph as he felt it as well. "Now you can, OOOMPH!"

The next thing Einhart knew, she was on the ground and trembling as the pain in her hips continued to assault her. Trying to focus on something other than the pain, she looked to see how she had been saved. "V...Vivio..?" She whimpered, she was certain something was broken, she just knew it.

"Nnnngh... At least I landed on my head." Vivio groaned as she sat up, blinking as she saw a Lesser Demon getting up and growling at her. "Well now..." She jumped to her feet and rushed the Lesser Demon, jumping over it when it made a grab for her. "Freeze... Blaster!" Vivio punched forward and grinned as the creature was instantly frozen. Landing on her feet, Vivio quickly kicked the thing in the middle of the back, shattering it instantly. Vivio let out a sigh as she saw several Lesser Demons and... "EINHART!" She screamed as she saw her friend on the ground, not getting up. Rushing over to her, Vivio touched the girl's legs and got a hiss of pain. "What happened?"

"Vivio... I think that thing pulled my legs out of joint." Einhart was twitching and wincing with each word as she gestured towards her legs. "P...Push them back in."

"But..."

"NOW!" Einhart screamed at her friend.

Vivio nodded and grabbed Einhart's left leg and pushed it towards Einhart's body. The screams that Einhart let out plus the crunching of bone did little to make her feel better. "I'm sorry."

"RAAAAH!"

Vivio paled and turned around to see a Lesser Demon above her. "Oh, right, Demons..." Before she could do anything, three blades suddenly pierced the creature's eyes and throat, causing it to stumble back before turning to dust. "Ixy..." Vivio let out a sigh of relief as she turned to see Arashi, who was using that Ragna Blade of his to cut down the Lesser Demons, and Ixpellia, who was helping him. "Thank you!"

"No problem!" Ixpellia called out to her. "And it's Ixpellia!"

Vivio sweat-dropped heavily, how in the world did she hear that anyway?"

"Vivio..." Einhart whimpered as she looked at the blonde, "my right leg." She hissed in pain as Vivio touched her leg and let out a scream of torture when she pushed it back into place. "GAH!" Einhart wasn't one to cry if she got hurt, it was the nature of being a combatant, but the pain of her legs nearly getting ripped off and the likely-hood of her dying was way too much for her to take. "I'm done... Vivio..."

"Don't worry." Vivio got to her feet and turned around, blinking as the Lesser Demons had some green liquid on their bodies that was dissolving them. "What the?"

"Sorry I'm late." Nove said as she touched down on the ground. "Took a bit longer than I thought." She shook her head and frowned as she saw Einhart on the ground. "What happened?" Considering she had never seen Einhart cry before, the pain must have been intense.

"Her legs were nearly torn off." Vivio said as she looked around as the last of the creatures around them died off.

Nove grimaced, that would have killed the girl right then and there. "We have to get somewhere safe to treat her properly."

"I agree." Ixpellia said as she walked up to them and sheathed her sword. "These things are pretty tough, but they weren't too bad compared to us, huh?" She looked around and frowned, "where is Nila, Pokota and Lyos?"

"...Huh?" Nove looked around and frowned, even with her eye-sight, she didn't see them. "You're right, where are they?"

"How about we help Einhart first?" Arashi suggested to them. "Those three are really strong, they'll be okay, but she's hurting."

"Right." Vivio said as she and Nove grabbed Einhart by her shoulders with one hand and her legs with their other one, getting a groan of pain from the girl. "We got you, Einhart." Vivio did know some healing spells, but they were only basic ones, she just hoped that it was enough to help her friend out.

Ixpellia frowned as she looked around, it was weird, just where _were_ those three anyway?

* * *

Pokota: Duclis! I'm going to get you this time!  
Duclis: Do try, it'll be _interesting_.  
Pokota: Grr! Next time on Blood That Flows - Revolution, I'm going to settle this.  
Duclis: Do try.

And with that, I finally am caught up to where I was when my hard drive crashed, wiping out my original master copy back in July. I personally blame the ungodly heat wave that caused it. Of course, then I had _another_ hard drive crash a month later. And, of course, both happened when it was a holiday weekend, so I had to wait extra days before my computer could get fixed. It was not a fun time for writing for me.


	321. Revolution Eighteen

Blood That Flows

Revolution Eighteen

I own nothing.

* * *

"Duclis!" Pokota yelled as he raced through the trees of the forest to catch up to his old friend. "Get back here!"

Looking back over his shoulder, the Beast man smirked and slid to a stop as he spun to face the rabbit. "Well, well, prince." He said in a slightly mocking tone of voice. "It's been awhile, hasn't it?" Red energy formed and crackled in front of both of his hands before taking the form of energy blades. "But it doesn't matter, does it? We both know that nothing can be done now."

"Just because..." Pokota was cut off as he had to duck an energy blade that nearly bi-sected him. "What?!"

"Oh, I learned how to control this power quite a bit since we last met." Duclis narrowed his eyes as the energy blades in his hands seemed to change. "I can't use magic with this thing on me, but that doesn't mean that I can't tear you apart."

"I had no choice, Duclis! You know that!" Pokota swung his hands out to the side. "If I didn't do that, then who knows what would have happened!?"

"Yes, but it doesn't matter now does it?" Duclis took several steps forward. "This is where it ends, old friend. Taforashia is no more and we'll be nothing more than dust in the footnotes of history."

Pokota took a nervous step backwards as Duclis rushed forward. "Well, fine!" Pulling down the zipper on his front, Pokota pulled out a sword handle. "Light come forth!"

Duclis' eyes widened as the blue-white blade of the Sword of Light hummed into existance and cut through his red blades as if they weren't even there. Leaning back, Duclis growled as he saw some strands of hair float away from his body. "Damn," he slapped his hands together as a ball of energy formed between them, "you!"

Pokota's eyes widened as the energy sphere morphed into a long pole with a spiked tip on the end. "Raywing!"

"Tsk." Duclis growled as his make-shift spear cut through nothing but air. "Don't think that will save you." He growled at the stuffed rabbit, who was floating higher into the air. Before Pokota could react, Duclis swung his energy spear backwards fast enough that a wave of energy erupted upwards, sending up dirt, rocks and even parts of trees up after Pokota.

Grunting and crossing his ears in front of him, Pokota hoped to ward off this eruption of debris and energy long enough to get a clean shot at Duclis. At least the Sword of Light, even if it was just a replica, was able to keep his body from being shredded from the energy as it washed over him. "Stop this!" Pokota yelled after the energy subsided and pointed one ear at Duclis. "Val Flare!" He glared as the sphere of fire roared down towards Duclis, slamming into his body with no visible effects.

"Do you really think that's enough to hurt me?" Duclis chuckled as he continued to rise up at Pokota, an energy sword in each hand. "You know I'm immune to magic with this on me."

"But not this!" Pokota swung the Sword of Light down at Duclis, who stared in shock as the humming blade seemed to descend in slow motion for his body.

"Fool!" Duclis growled and swung his blades up, connecting with the Sword of Light in a clash of red and blue energies.

Pokota's eyes widened, he thought that the Sword of Light would cut through anything that the Zannafar armor could create with ease, but yet those red blades were not only holding off his sword, but keeping him from hitting Duclis' body. "How?!" It shouldn't have been possible for anything created by the Zannafar armor to block his... 'Wait...' To the rabbit's utter shock, he saw that he was destroying the blades, but every time one was destroyed, a new one would form in its place instantly, keeping the Sword of Light away from Duclis.

"So, figured it out?" Duclis grunted as gravity finally aserted itself and pulled him down to the ground where he landed in a crouch before jumping backwards to avoid Pokota's follow-up dive bomb strike. "I've learned quite a bit since we last met."

"You know that armor will kill you, right?" Pokota held his weapon up and pointed at Duclis, who had energy forming around his hands.

"If one has a strong enough will, or enough power, they can force even the mighty Zannafar to bend to their will, regardless if they're a manbeast, a Mazoku or even a little child." Duclis held his hands up and grinned as more and more energy swirled around them. "Would you like to see what else I've managed to learn in the time since we last met?" Letting out a roar, the tiger man thrust his hands forward in rapid motions, sending out dozens upon dozens of red arrows rushing at Pokota.

Twirling the Sword of Light in his hands for a moment, Pokota started swinging in an arcing X pattern, yelling loudly as he deflected and cut through the projectiles as they got near him and causing small explosions which caused a bunch of dust and dirt to get kicked up as a result.

Panting softly as he recovered from the attack, Pokota grinned into the smoke. "Is that it?"

"Not at all." Pokota's eyes widened as Duclis suddenly seemed to form in front of him out of the smoke, a red energy blade swinging down at the rabbit's prone body. "Die!"

(-)

"You!" Zuuma growled as he seemingly melted into a shadow. "Do you think you can stop me this time? Your friends aren't nearby, you're caught in my trap of darkness."

Nila swung her arm to the side, causing a strong wind to kick up as she spun and jumped back. "Dangerous." She whispered, wondering where the assassin was at in all of this.

Zuuma narrowed his eyes as he looked at Nila, he didn't know why she was leaning forward slightly while reaching behind her, but he supposed it didn't matter, he had her now. Holding up his left hand, three blades appeared between his index finger, middle finger and thumb. Bringing his arm down in an arc, he watched in grim satisfaction as they flew silently through the air towards his target. Once she was out of the way, he would go deal with the others, one at a time. Probably that redheaded brat who used that sword of darkness on him last time they met.

His eyes widened in anger and surprise when Nila pulled out a blade from behind her and swung upwards, deflecting his thrown knives with ease. "I see, you're more than I thought."

Nila swung her sword forward, smiling to herself as she cast Blade Haut. She had no doubt Zuuma was already on the move, but Blade Haut was an Earth spell that acted like a shockwave with homing properties. Even if he could avoid it, the shockwave would follow him for some time.

"Clever girl." Zuuma muttered as he dodged to the side and noticed that the spell was following him. He had to admit, whoever taught this sorceress was in a league of their own when it came to magic, he doubted that even some sages could do something like this. 'Still, every spell has a weakness.' Narrowing his eyes, he turned and ran straight at Nila. 'And it's hard to keep a spell going if the caster dies, isn't it?' His bladed gloves seemed to shine in the darkness as his pupils shrank in anticipation for what was to come. 'Prepare yourself...' All he had to do was aim for the head, even the craftiest spellcaster couldn't do much without that.

(-)

There was a scream and a tearing noise that echoed throughout the forest for only a moment.

"Tsk, I missed." Duclis narrowed his eyes as he saw Pokota still alive and mostly well. Mostly well because he was currently missing both of his ears. "Still, you're a lot less dangerous when you're missing those, aren't you, your majesty?"

Pokota could only glare at Duclis as the beastman took a step forward. He might have been able to cast magic without his ears, but it was safer for him to use them, since it kept explosions that could consume him to a minimum. At that moment, however, Duclis, with one glowing red blade, looked like he had glowing red eyes and the sky seemed unnaturally dark.

"Sorry, old friend," Duclis held his blade up, "but I can't have you interfering anymore, so, goodbye." Pokota screwed his eyes closed and tensed up as Duclis brought his blade down again. He couldn't believe he was going to die like this, in this stuffed animal body and not in his real body.

"WHAT?!" Pokota opened his eyes and gaped as the blade was almost touching his face. Leaning his head to the side, he could only stare as Duclis was encased in a thick layer of ice.

"Sorry I'm late." Pokota turned and sighed in relief as Lyos walked out from behind a tree. "Had a hell of a time trying to find you two after dealing with all those Lesser Demons." Narrowing his eyes while holding up Banisher, Lyos stepped forward while Pokota quickly got away from Duclis, who was struggling to get free. "Now then, I wonder if I can shatter that armor if it's frozen solid."

The next thing any of them knew, a powerful wind suddenly picked up and several sharp objects slammed into the ground between Lyos and Duclis, some of them hitting the ice and cracking it in several places and allowing Duclis out of his prison.

"Feathers?" Pokota stared, wondering who could attack with feathers.

"Are you alright, master Duclis?" A voice from above spoke up as a figure descended to the ground.

The figure was thin and wore some sort of black robe with gold trim along the chest and legs, the head was similar to that of a bird's head, but it was just bone, no flesh covering it, and on the back were a giant pair of crow's wings that were bigger than the creature was.

"Mazoku, I assume?" Lyos narrowed his eyes as the creature nodded. "So, which of the three Lords do you belong to? I'd like to know which Lord to send my complaints to after dealing with you."

"I serve under Lord Gram, I have no idea what you're talking about."

Duclis snorted and rubbed his nose. "Melphis, I'll leave them to you." He turned to leave and ignored Pokota as the damaged rabbit yelled at him to stop.

"Melphis, huh?" Lyos held Banisher out to the side. "You're working with that Mazoku who's causing problems for us?"

"My orders were to keep him from being killed, nothing more." Melphis held its arms out to the side as it started to levitate into the air.

"To that, I have to tell you something." Lyos smirked as water spun around his blade quickly. "How about a quick Hyrdo Shower?" Lyos quickly thrust Banisher into the air and grinned as it suddenly started to rain around them.

"GAH!" Melphis screamed in pain as the water caused its feathers and body to boil and burn.

"What the hell?" Pokota stared at Lyos. "What did you do?"

Lyos smirked as he watched Melphis fall to the ground, screaming in pain. "Simple, I just made it rain Holy water." He looked at Pokota and laughed at the rabbit's dumbfounded look. "Hey, it works pretty good, I'd say."

"This..." Lyos spun around in shock as Melphis struggled to its feet, "is not... The END!"

Lyos and Pokota both took a step backwards as Melphis suddenly glowed black and increased in size, going from the size of a thin human to the size of a Dragon.

"That is a big bird." Lyos muttered as he saw the transformation fully. Melphis looked completely like a crow, except for the head, which was still a skull, however its wings were crossed in front of its body for the moment. "Damn, I thought that would have worked."

"Maybe if you used a whip instead of a sword it might have."

Lyos gave Pokota a dirty look. "Is this really the time to make such jokes?" Before Pokota could respond, Melphis threw its wings open, revealing each one was somewhere between three and four meters in length, as well as a face on the stomach.

Oddly enough, the face reminded both Lyos and Pokota of a dog with an underbite.

"Well, I have to admit, you are a pain, but this is the end." The stomach mouth spoke while grinning.

"So says you." Lyos thrust Banisher up into the air again. "Hydro..."

The skull mouth opened up and let out an incredibly loud and high pitched screech that had both Pokota and Lyos staring in shock for a moment before falling to the ground and screaming in pain.

The stomach mouth chuckled as the skull mouth continued to screech loudly. "Hurts, doesn't it? Human bodies are so fragile and foolishly designed, being mostly liquid and if you use the right sound pitch, you can make water boil easily." Oh, he knew they couldn't hear him. "Even that stuffed rabbit is hurting since it hits the right sound to make you have to cover your ears, but what good is it when I can cause the liquid in your ears to boil and burst?"

Even if Melphis wasn't the strongest Mazoku, this ability was quite useful for dealing with the more annoying insects that challenged his master. It was just too bad that Gram made him watch Duclis, that guy wasn't nearly as interesting as he had hoped he would have been.

Oh well, a few more minutes and these fools would both be dead and he could deal with the others properly.

A moment later a tree crashed into Melphis' skull head, causing him to stop screaming as his head jerked to the side. "WHAT?!" The stomach mouth couldn't hold back his shock, both from the tree and the fact that it was able to stop his attack. "Who daregarrrgle!?" It was a bit hard to speak properly when a second uprooted tree trunk slammed into his stomach mouth. Sure, it didn't hurt him, but the shock was so great that he couldn't help but wonder what the hell just happened.

"God, that screaming was annoying!" Nove growled as she rushed to the group.

"Hmm, a sonic attack?" Jail's voice was more subdued than usual. "Interesting, not just any sort of sonic attack, but a microwave attack with the sonic waves, so painful noise and boiling fluids all in one. Impressive."

"You probably wouldn't think it was so impressive if you were flesh and blood again." Uno pointed out to him. "Wait a second, sonic attack and we're in gems..." Even if she had no blood, her face did a good impression of someone suddenly paling. "Wouldn't that destroy us?"

"Oh yes, it would." Jail nodded as Nove grabbed Pokota and rolled up to Lyos to help the man up, despite his pain. "In fact, I guarantee that we'd be erased if not repaired quickly enough from such an attack."

Mephis broke the tree in his stomach mouth and glared at Nove. "That didn't hurt, you know. But, seriously, who in the nine worlds of pain throws a bloody tree at their enemies?!"

Nove glared and pointed her gun knuckle at the Mazoku. "Oh, shut up!" Hundreds of energy bullets flew out through the air, tearing into the Mazoku's body with ease. "Damn."

"Hahahahaha!" Melphis grinned at her. "Do you think that hurts? Now then, how about you join them and die?"

"Hey, Nove?" Jail spoke up. "Look at your gun knuckle for a moment."

"Huh?" Nove blinked as parts of her weapon were flashing blue. "What the?"

Jail grinned at her and looked up as Melphis' skull mouth opened up. "Hurry up and press the lit up areas, otherwise we're all going to die."

"Dunno what this is going to do, but..." Nove quickly complied as Melphis started screaming again. Nove grimaced and pointed her gun knuckle up and fired again. When nothing came out, she thought that she had failed and they were going to die. 'Dammit...'

"IMPOSSIBLE!" Melphis screamed and Nove blinked as she realized something important. "WHAT DID YOU DO?!"

Jail threw his head back and laughed with his arms spread wide. "I prepare for most anything. Including sonic-based attacks. All I had to do was make it so that the sound that Nove's gun knuckle makes is the same sound that you're emitting, but at a slightly out of phase with your attack, and they cancel each other out." A grin threatened to take over his whole face as the Mazoku flapped his wings nervously. "And it seems that your microwave attack is tied to your sonic attack. Do you wish to fight now?"

Melphis growled at the hologram on Nove's ankle. "Tsk, whatever, I've still got more than..." Two pieces of metal suddenly found themselves in his eyes, causing him to scream as they burned his Astral body.

"I'm sorry, I believe the answer you're looking for is, please don't murder me, Lady Ixpellia." Uno nodded as she recognized the blades in Melphis' eyes. "Now then, you can stay here and die, or leave, either way, we win."

"THIS ISN'T OVER!" Melphis screamed as he disappeared.

Nove dropped her arms and sighed as she ended her attack. "Doctor, why didn't you tell me about that one?"

"It never came up." Jail shrugged and looked at Lyos, who was holding his ears and groaning. "But I think your friend is still hurt."

Pokota rubbed his ears and looked up at Nove, who was ignoring him to check on Lyos. Well, he supposed he couldn't blame her. He just couldn't hear, but it looked like Lyos was still in a lot of pain.

Of course, he had another problem, how was he going to get his ears fixed?

He blinked as his ears were suddenly just in front of him. Looking up, he nodded as Ixpellia smiled and picked him up. At least he could see a tailor to get fixed up soon.

Or so he hoped.

"Lyos," Nove shook him lightly. She sighed when he reacted and nodded. "Alright, come on," she helped him to his feet, "let's regroup."

"What?!"

Nove sweat-dropped. Well, she couldn't blame him, that attack that he suffered through probably caused his ear-drums to burst. She just hoped that they could be fixed.

* * *

Zuuma: What? I'm up next, see you in the next Blood That Flows - Revolution.  
Lyos: What?!  
Nove: We're not even a part of the next chapter, for crying out loud!  
Lyos: What?!


	322. Revolution Nineteen

Blood That Flows

Revolution Nineteen

I own nothing.

Sorry guys, between getting used to a new sleep schedule and having to attend a funeral, I haven't been too motivated lately.

* * *

Zuuma's eyes narrowed behind his mask as his hands passed through where Nila's head was supposed to be. But instead of his clawed hands tearing through flesh and bone, he felt the cloak on his hand, but no resistance as a tearing sound was heard. 'I missed?' Zuuma thought to himself as two hands grabbed his outstretched arm and pulled down as two feet drove into his stomach and flipped him over before pushing him away and causing him to flip through the air and send him out of the Dark Mist.

"Dammit!" Zuuma cursed as he put his hands on the ground to flip around and landed on his feet. That sorceress was a lot stronger than he thought, but then again, she was still in his Dark Mist field and he could get back to her at any time. Looking at the brown over-cloak on his clawed gloves, he snarled and tore it off. 'This is why I hate hooded cloaks.' They were just too damn easy to hide things like weapons, how tall you were, and other things if they were loose enough. As he turned to the Dark Mist, Zuuma suddenly felt the urge to step away for some reason. He wasn't sure why until the Dark Mist seemingly tore itself apart revealing Nila Vesnire as she held a black, crackling sword in her hands.

"I must admit," she said softly, so softly that he had to strain to hear her words, "if not for that boy, I would never had thought to use the Ragna Blade to cut through your darkness."

Zuuma didn't answer her as he looked her over. The woman was wearing short boots, red-brown pants that looked pretty tight on her body, a light colored short-sleeved shirt, a sleeveless jacket over it and her hands were covered by the what had to be the weirdest gloves that Zuuma had ever seen in his life. The tips of her thumb, index and pinky fingers were completely exposed while the ring and middle fingers were covered up, and he could see that the gloves left part of the back of her hands exposed. But what really drew his attention was her hair. From behind, it wasn't that long, just barely brushing against her shoulders, though the hair color threw him off, most of it was bright red with the ends of her hair being bright yellow in color. "You..."

She turned to look at him and Zuuma frowned as he saw that her right eye was covered by bangs, preventing him from seeing it clearly, but her left eye was, from what he could see, a bright red color. "Please don't accuse me of being her. I got tired of it after the eighth time that I heard it."

Zuuma snarled as the energy dissipated, revealing her long sword. "Before I kill you, how is it that you can use that spell like you do?"

Nila gave him a light smile. "The Ragna Blade isn't that uncommon. Even that boy can use it, but I'm the only one with enough skill to mold it to this blade without destroying the sword." She grabbed the sword with both hands and narrowed her visible eye at Zuuma.

Zuuma jumped up as Nila's sword glowed for a moment and she stabbed the tip into the ground. "Bephis Bring." The sorceress grimaced as Zuuma avoided the hole that popped up where he had been a second ago.

"Tsk... We shall meet again, sorceress."

Nila could only frown as Zuuma was surrounded by Dark Mist for a few moments before disappearing completely. "Blast."

"Nila! I'm here and..!" Vivio blinked in shock as she saw Nila standing there, completely unharmed. "Um... Where's the..."

"Fled." Nila turned to look at Vivio, who looked at her in surprise. "And, yes, I am aware of who I look like." Sheathing her sword, Nila made her way to the remains of her tattered cloak and grimaced as she picked it up. 'This is going to be a pain to repair.' She thought to herself.

"Um..." Nila turned to look at Vivio. "You just..."

"I know," Nila nodded at the young blonde. "I am tired of being reminded of that fact, even if it is amusing to have bandit groups cry in fear when I run into them and slaughter them."

Still, Nila was bothered by one thing, why did Zuuma flee? From what little she knew of him, he didn't seem the type to flee unless he was completely outmatched.

(–)

Some distance away...

Zuuma glared at Duclis. "If it wasn't for the pay..."

"I know." Duclis nodded as he thought about the last battle. "But you're doing everything right. I don't want anything linked back to me when this is over."

Zuuma snorted as he stood up. "That won't be a problem, that woman, however, must die." Duclis looked at him as he started to walk away. "Seeing her, my blood boils in rage over what happened."

Duclis had no idea what was going through the assassin's head, and he didn't care too much, so long as everything they had planned didn't end up backfiring.

(–)

"That was a GOOD nap!" Corona smiled as she stretched out the kinks in her back. "Hello, Zanny!"

**"Quiet you, I still can't believe you made me do that."**

Corona giggled at the Demon Beast's anger, well, she supposed that she couldn't blame him too much, after all, it had to be boring waiting for her to wake up. "So, do you wanna go kill and destroy now, boy? Huh?"

Zannafar snorted as it stood up and shook its body. **"That you're even still alive annoys me to no end, human."**

Corona put her hand to her lips and giggled. "You have no idea how... Happy that makes me." She turned to see Balmung walking to her and Jörmungandr standing only a bit behind it, looking around. "Good, we're all here and..." She trailed off as some bushes shook. She didn't know why it caught her attention at all. "What is..." She gasped and fell to her knees in shock as she saw who stumbled through the bush. "But... No way... You... That Mazoku killed you... Rio..."

"Corona!" Rio smiled as she hobbled over to the stunned girl, ignoring the flaming golem, towering giant and liquid-like dog. "Oh thank god! I thought I wouldn't see you again. It was so hard to climb out of that chasm."

"You..." Corona shook her head and trembled. "You're dead, I saw you."

"What are you talking about, Corona?" Rio smiled at her while closing her eyes. "I'm perfectly fine." She finally got close enough to Corona and grabbed the girl's hand. "See?"

**"Finally, something to eat."**

"NO!" Corona yelled as she glared at Zannafar, causing it to stop in its tracks and glare at her as it stepped back. "No hurting Rio, ever!"

"See?" Rio smiled as she knelt down next to her friend and took her hand and placed it on her stomach. "There's nothing wrong here. I just wanted you to know..."

Corona's eyes widened as she felt something warm and wet on her hands. Trembling and paling, she looked down to see her hand getting coated in blood.

"My death is your fault. You didn't stop the others from abandoning me."

"R...Rio..?" Corona didn't know if her eyes could get any wider as Rio's body suddenly started to decay rapidly, turning into bones in front of her before turning to dust. "No... no... NOOOOOOOO!"

A circle formed under Corona's body as black lightning crackled outwards, striking at everything around her. "Zanny, Balmung, Jörmungandr," Corona stood up, tears falling from her eyes as they glowed with hate and power, "kill... EVERYTHING!" When Zannafar asked her what to kill, she pointed to the West. "That town, there's one there, we're going to destroy it, and move on, EVERYTHING MUST DIE!"

Zannafar grinned and raised its head to the heavens. **"FINALLY!"**

(–)

"Good work, Pawra." Gram smiled as he watched the events unfold through his scrying glass. "Now we just need to see what they can really do."

This... Was going to be fun.

* * *

I know, very short. This was more of an interlude chapter than anything else.


	323. Revolution Twenty

Blood That Flows

Revolution Twenty

I own nothing.

* * *

In the Blue Universe...

Teana sighed as she saw Subaru packing her clothes. "Are you sure that running away is the best idea?"

"I'm not running away, Tea," Subaru smiled, but to Teana it was void of the usual happiness that her friend had, "Voltz told me to take a vacation and not come back until I could concentrate on my work."

Teana sweat-dropped, remembering the call that she over-heard Quint receive the other day. "I suppose you don't need to destroy any more equipment, huh?" She sighed when Subaru didn't even acknowledge her response. "It's not your fault, you know."

"If I had... I could have..."

"What?!" Subaru gasped as Teana grabbed her by her arms and spun her around to glare at her. "Get warped with Nove and the others? Make everyone worry about you as well!?"

"I don't know!" Subaru looked away, shame on her face. "But at least I could have made sure that they were okay."

"And then we'd be worried sick that you died on us." Teana practically growled as she let go of Subaru and walked out of the room. "Go on! Go take a vacation! Don't even think about how badly the rest of us feel because we couldn't stop what happened. No, it's fine! I'm sure if you had been there you would have been able to make all the difference."

"Tea..." Subaru reached out to her but stopped as Teana turned to glare at her.

"If you think, for one minute that you disappearing would have made your mom or dad rest easier, then whoever gave you cyborg implants gave you a faulty brain." She snorted when Subaru visibly grimaced and walked out of the room. "Baka Subaru..."

"Don't be too hard on her." Teana nearly tripped over one of the toys on the floor when she heard Ginga's voice. "You know how tense things have been..."

Teana nodded as she picked up the toy and tossed it to Ginga. "Tell the kids to pick their toys up." Ginga caught it without even nodding. "How's your parents?"

"Dad wrapped himself up in work and I think mom is trying to not think about what's going on too much." Ginga looked over her shoulder and sighed before turning and walking into the kitchen. "Still, I think Wendi took it the hardest."

Teana winced, yeah, she didn't think that Wendi would take it good when she found out that Nove disappeared. "What about the others?"

"Most of our sisters think Nove will be okay..." Ginga trailed off as she poured herself a glass of water. "I think Tre's upset though."

"What makes you think that?"

Ginga smiled slightly after drinking the water. "Because Sein told me that Tre's been pretty grouchy for the past few days, mumbling something about more training and working harder..."

"Oh..." Teana didn't know what to say to that.

Ginga sighed as she caught Slyph float into the room, a depressed look on her face. "How many times have I told you..."

"I still wish I had been awake."

Teana rubbed her head and sighed, she had honestly tried to explain that it wasn't their fault, but seriously, did anybody think that they could have made a difference in what happened?

A flash of pink entered her mind and Teana sweat-dropped, nodding to herself. If anyone could have made a difference, it would have been Nanoha. "I just hope she's not doing anything stupid." She sighed at the look Ginga gave her and turned around to go talk to Subaru again. As much as Teana hated how stupid Subaru was being, it really wasn't right to make her feel worse about it.

(–)

Hayate gave Vita a small smile as the two of them went over wedding preparations. "It's so nice." Vita blinked and turned to her in confusion. "Seeing you, all grown up, getting engaged and preparing for a wedding." Vita blushed while smiling at her. "You haven't even set an exact date yet." She giggled when Vita looked away, flushed. "I'm the parent, I get to tease you."

"I just want to get the preliminary stuff out of the way first, so that when we finally set a date and everything, it'll go much faster."

Hayate nodded as they went back to looking over designs and trying to get good match ups. "You know that this doesn't have to be super fancy." She blinked when Vita nodded and sighed. "Is something wrong?"

Vita shook her head and stood up before pacing in front of her. "It's just... Arrrgh!" She grabbed her head and started moving her fingers rapidly, mussing her hair up. "It's just, I'm a bit worried, I want something really special, but I don't want it to be too fancy, but I don't want to disappoint Verossa and I just..." She trailed off as she felt Hayate's hands on her shoulder. "Dad?"

Hayate pouted and gave her a flat look. "You still call me that," she sighed before smiling softly, "Vita-chan, I'm pretty sure that he won't be disappointed at all with your plans, well, other than telling him that he couldn't help with this part." She winked at the taller redhead. "After all, I'm sure that if anyone knows how to make a wedding fashionable and fun, it's Verossa."

Vita blinked and smiled as she heard that. "Thanks, dad." She raised an eyebrow in confusion as Hayate suddenly giggled. "Um, what's so funny?"

"I just realized, my future son-in-law is also my honorary brother." Hayate laughed and ran out of the room as Vita yelled at her before giving chase.

"Vita, phone for you." Reinforce held her arm out, offering a cell phone to the aforementioned girl, as Hayate ran behind her, giggling, "and, dear, we talked about this." She gave Hayate a dry look as the brown haired woman tried to look innocent.

"Thanks, mom." Vita took the cell. "Hello? Ah! Verossa! We were just... Oh?" Vita's eyes widened. "Really? Your sister... Alright, thanks. Wait, what? You mean..." Vita gulped and paled as she turned to see Hayate grinning at her evilly. "Uh huh, I guess dad and Carim planned the whole thing, huh? Alright, see you tomorrow then, dear, love you."

Reinforce sweat-dropped as Hayate started giggling. "You and Carim already had everything planned out, didn't you?"

"Well..." Hayate trailed off, smiling as she pivoted and walked towards her room. "Not everything. We still need to get Vita-chan's dress made up, the cake fixed up and a few other small things."

"And I'm going to be a dress up doll tomorrow." Vita deadpanned, getting a wince from Reinforce. "Dad! You could have warned me ahead of time!"

Hayate gave her a flat look. "And give you time to come up with an excuse to escape? Not on your life."

Reinforce held her hands up as Vita looked at her pleadingly. "Don't look at me like that, young lady, you know how your father gets when she's in this kind of mood." When Hayate shot back about not being a man, Reinforce giggled, it was so fun teasing her.

Vita shook her head as she heard Kyouka start crying and sighed, "at least Shamal doesn't have to deal with this."

(–)

Biting back a sneeze and grimacing, Shamal looked up and blinked as someone she didn't expect walked into her office. "Kuma? What are you doing here?"

The man grinned and lifted his shades up to reveal his eyes. "Miss Shymal!"

"It's Shamal," the blonde deadpanned as she narrowed her eyes and sighed in exasperation. "Even after all this time together, you still get my name wrong. Why, I might get the wrong idea and think that you just like to tease your girlfriend for no good reason."

Kuma chuckled as he rubbed the back of his head. "If I started saying your name correctly, then others would expect me to do the same, and some of the reactions I get are hilarious." Suddenly he clapped his hands together and grabbed Shamal's hands. "But enough about my poking fun at overly serious people, I want you to join Ami and Kyrie with me today!"

Shamal blinked slowly. "I would, but I have the two of them scheduled for an appointment today, plus I need to..." Shamal was silenced as Kuma put a finger on her lips, causing her to glare at him.

"One, the girls asked me to ask you to join us, and two, there's this really great place that you need to see, and finally," Kuma pulled his finger away from her lips, "you haven't had a day off in almost three weeks."

Shamal sighed and scratched her head. "Guess Nanoha isn't the only one who works too hard sometimes." When Kuma nodded, she rolled her eyes. "Fine, fine, I'll reschedule with some people." Thankfully she didn't have too many appointments that day. "Just give me about ten minutes."

"Sure, but that's longer than what it'll take us to get to the picnic spot." Kuma laughed as Shamal rolled her eyes. "I'll wait for you in the car with the girls."

Shaking her head, Shamal wondered what she saw in him. "Then again..." She blushed, he was rather pretty and nice, plus those car rides were lots of fun. Though she still wished she could have gotten one of her other family members to join her on the ride at least once. Thinking about that for a moment, Shamal sweat-dropped at the idea of her family riding in any car driven by Kuma. The man could probably kill an elderly person from the stress of his driving alone.

A few minutes later, Shamal was trying to remain calm as Kuma tore through the streets in his pink super car.

"Oh hey! It's the Riot Force building!" Kyrie pointed excitedly in front of her as she rode in the backseat behind Kuma.

"It's times like this that I am glad this car has bucket seats and a divider." Amitie sighed as she leaned back in her seat. Sure, Kuma was going about five times the speed limit and any crash would likely kill all four of them in an instant, but she still felt safe. The car wasn't smoking, on fire, creaking, groaning, strapped with a bomb that would explode if they slowed down below a certain speed, or attacking them with lasers, saw blades or tentacles after all.

"Sometimes you just have to remember that if you try to take in too many details, you can miss the big picture, and even if you don't miss the big picture, you can lose sight of it by being too distracted by little things that come up, so I always try my best to go as fast as I can because reaching the goal as soon as possible leaves me open for more room to get more stuff done, but if you just try to organize all the details as much as possible, you'll never get to the final goal in any reasonable amount of time and sometimes you have to just go and force yourself to go further and further," Kuma grinned as he turned to the left sharply, causing the car to tilt onto the passenger side wheels, eliciting a scream of fear from Shamal and laughter from Kyrie before the car settled back down onto four wheels. "You see? We're fine, and we're almost out of the city."

"I... I see that." Shamal was panting, her hand over her chest. "That was way too sharp."

"Oh please! This car can go twice as fast and still make that turn easily!" Kuma laughed as he shifted gears and drove onto the freeway.

The car jumped and Amitie frowned from the sensations. "Either you just hit a giant hole, or you blew out an axle."

Kuma frowned and looked at his speedometer. "Well, even if I did, it wouldn't be the first time I blew this car up this week, now would it?" Laughing, he drove off, even if he did slow down a little bit.

'At least I'm not seeing plaid anymore.' Shamal thought to herself as she tried to calm down.

(–)

Elsewhere...

_"You seem upset for some reason, Sette."_ Mr. Snuggles said as he rested on the tall cyborg's head as she walked down the street. _"What's the matter?"_

"I was... Talking to Suzuka about you the other day, she said that you were a kitten when she was nine years old." Sette didn't sigh, she was better than that, no, all that she did was shrug her shoulders and let out a small huff of air. "That was... Fourteen, almost fifteen years ago. Even if the doctor extended your life with cybernetics, you are not long for this world are you?"

Mr. Snuggles narrowed his eyes and stood up before leaning forward so that he could look Sette in the eyes. _"Is that what's bothering you?"_ Sette nodded and winced when Mr. Snuggles whacked her on the head with his tail. _"So what?"_

"But... I do not wish to see you die." She reached up to scratch him on the head.

_"I might live to only see tomorrow, I might live another ten years, I don't know."_ Mr. Snuggles slid off of Sette's head and onto her breasts, twisting so that he landed paws first. _"We're born, we eat, breed, live and die, that's what happens to all of us. Though,"_ Mr. Snuggles grinned evilly at Sette, _"some of the animals around the house that I've killed don't even get to do all of that."_

Sette sweat-dropped, remembering the time he brought home a dead squirrel. "Yes, mom was not happy with you."

_"I'm a cat, even if I'm smarter than most."_ Mr. Snuggles rolled his eyes. _"But that's not the point, Sette. One day I'll be gone, I know that, unlike most animals, I actually get to think about that. So, I want you to stop worrying about it, Sette."_ Mr. Snuggles jumped off of Sette's breasts and onto a fence next to the sidewalk. _"After all, you haven't seen all of my tricks yet."_

"I suppose not. By the way, did you ever catch that red dot?" Sette did not smirk, but a small smile did grace her lips as Mr. Snuggles arched his back and hissed.

_"I swear, I shall find that dot and murder it!"_

Sette looked at her cat for a few more moments before grabbing him off of the fence and hugging him against her breasts. "Just promise that you will stay with me."

Mr. Snuggles calmed down and closed his eyes. _"For as long as I can."_

"Thank you." Sette whispered to him.

* * *

What? Sette can't have normal worries?

Nove: Next time on Grand Theft Auto: Revolution. ...Wait.  
Vivio: That's not right.  
Jail: How in the world?  
Uno: Just read it before these three ruin everything.


	324. Revolution Twenty-One

Blood That Flows

Revolution Twenty-One

I own nothing.

Sorry guys, time slipped by without me noticing.

* * *

Back in the Red Universe...

Lyos grimaced as the healing spell worked his ears over. It had taken a bit over an hour to get back to Gyria to get to a healer. "Urgh, I think they're still ringing." It might not have taken as long as it did, but he was having trouble with his balance for some reason. "Still, don't know why I couldn't stand up after that screaming..."

Nove rolled her eyes as she looked at him from across the room. "Because, you dummy, your sense of balance is located in the liquid in your ears behind your eardrums." Well, it was more complex than that, seeing as equilibrium was made up the eyes, ears and sense of space working in perfect harmony, but explaining that would have taken a bit more time than Nove wanted to deal with. "Anyway, stay here, I need to go check on some stuff." She walked past Lyos and patted his knee twice.

As she walked out of the room, she was greeted by Nila, still without her cloak, who held a finger up to her lips and pointed to a room. Looking in, Nove saw Arashi, Ixpellia, Vivio and Einhart all sleeping on one bed and sweat-dropped. "Shouldn't they be on different beds?"

Nila shrugged and motioned for Nove to follow her. "I do not know. But they are young and a nap will not hurt them."

"I suppose not..." Nove conceded, not even bothering to ask where Pokota was, since they dropped him and Nila's torn cloak off at a tailor to get repaired while injuries were being taken care of. Nove frowned and grabbed Nila's shoulder and turned the other redhead to get a good look at her face. "...Oh my god..." Nove's eyes widened as something in her mind clicked.

Nila gave her a flat look. "I am not her, please do not call me her."

"You're the reason those bandits freaked out when they saw me!" Nila blinked in surprise as Nove laughed to herself quietly. "Sorry, when I first arrived here there was this group of bandits that showed up and accused me of being someone else and freaked out before I had Vivio blow them up."

"Ah," Nila nodded and went over to a chair to sit down, "I do go bandit hunting once in awhile. My master once told me that bandits are good practice for using magic."

"Who is your master?"

"Ah, I... Cannot tell you, my master wishes to remain a secret."

Nove nodded and started walking towards the door. "Anyway, Nila, keep watch on them and don't let them wander off until I get back, okay?" Nila nodded as Nove walked outside.

"Now then..." Nove frowned and wondered why she didn't do this before. "I'm such a stupid idiot."

"Not really." Jail's voice came from her wrist where Jet Edge was wrapped around her arm. "You were focused on one thing, so the obvious answer didn't come to you until it nearly ran you over."

Nove nodded and rubbed her eyes. "Mom is going to be [i]so[/i] disappointed in me when she hears about this." That was if she managed to survive the events on this planet, but she didn't want to think about that. "Damn, the Bureau was right to list this planet as a SS class threat, weren't they?"

"Seems so," Jail nodded as Nove made her way through the streets, "so what are you going to do next? The safest bet would be to get to this Seiryuun that Lyos offered to take you to before."

Uno popped up next to Jail and gave Nove a smirk. "I still say you should get laid if you don't want to die a virgin."

Nove blushed and glared at Uno. "Will you STOP bringing that up!?"

Uno put her hand over her mouth and laughed at Nove's expression. "I'm just looking out for the well being of my baby sister, is that so wrong?"

"Urgh, I swear, if you were physical I'd smack you for that." Nove grumbled as Uno laughed at her. "Ah!" Nove's eyes lit up as she finally came upon her target. "Just what I was looking for." Now all she had to do was get some information and she would be set.

(–)

"So," the Duchess turned around to glare at Duclis, "you took Zuuma and several minor demons, among other things, to deal with some interlopers, but you come back here, completely defeated?"

"I admit, it's not my best showing." Duclis conceded to the young Duchess. "The Knight of the Aqua Lord is better than I thought, not to mention that one of them has the Sword of Light."

The Duchess frowned as she processed that information. "The legendary sword that slew the Demon Beast Zannafar hundreds of years ago and freed Mipross Island from a Mazoku's curse, that Sword of Light?" Duclis nodded and she sighed before pointing her fan at Duclis, "and this is why we gather intelligence before rushing off into battle. Is there anything else you wish to discuss with me?"

"The bandit killer," Zumma, who was leaning against a nearby wall with his arms crossed, spoke up, "is with them."

"The bandit killer?" The Duchess raised an eyebrow in disbelief. "Oh please. She died years ago, it's probably someone who looks like her in the stories and using her reputation to appear scarier than she really is." Both Zuuma and Duclis looked at her, shock on their faces. "Don't give me that look," she snorted, "the bandit killer disappears when facing Hellmaster Phibrizzo, then somehow reappears to drive off Dark Star and disappears again, only to reappear to fight off a piece of Shabranigdo?" Putting her hands on her hips, she walked away from them. "Do you take me for a fool?"

"Where are you heading?" Duclis tilted his head in confusion.

"North, I plan on dealing with these interlopers personally with the new magic tanks." She turned and scoffed at the two of them. "Since you two are so incompetent, I might as well do it."

After the Duchess was gone, Zuuma stepped away from the wall. "When she puts it like that, it does seem unbelievable that woman is the Bandit Killer..." His eyes narrowed as his body trembled, "but I know what I saw, I know [b]who[/b] I saw. Even if her hair is a little different, she is still the same person who did that to me."

"Don't you have your other business to attend to?" Duclis asked as he walked out of the room.

"I have it taken care of," Zuuma looked up as Melphis dropped in from the ceiling. "Speaking of taken care of..."

"Those..." Melphis panted hard, "humans are more dangerous than I thought." The bird-like Mazoku looked up as Zuuma put a hand on its shoulder. "I should have no trouble with them the next time though."

"Of course not." Zuuma nodded to the creature. "Tell me something, does your master know that you survived?"

"I have yet to report to him, why?" Melphis wondered why it seemed like Zuuma was grinning at him. The Mazoku's eyes widened as it saw Zuuma pull an item out from his pocket. "That... You can't."

"He can't," Duclis intoned from behind the Mazoku, "but I am, and I will."

The last thing Melphis felt was an energy blade stab him from behind. "Maaaassstttteeeerrrr Gram!" It screeched as Duclis slashed up, cutting the body and forcing the Mazoku's energy to start spilling out.

"Hurry it up, will you?" Duclis frowned at Zuuma as the pendant went to work. "I don't know where you got a pendant to do that."

As the Mazoku's essence was absorbed by the pendant, Zuuma just grinned behind his mask. "Amazing what being a rich businessman on the side can uncover when you hire people to dig around ancient battlefields."

Duclis nodded and walked away, leaving Melphis to be absorbed by that pendant. He never would have thought that an ancient holy relic from a thousand years ago was still able to work. 'Still...' This would give them quite the advantage in what was to come.

(–)

"Master?" Pawra looked at Gram, who frowned suddenly. "What's wrong?" Her tail twitched behind her.

"Nothing," Gram shook his head, "just thought I felt something unusual is all." Looking through his crystal ball, he grinned as he saw his pet project destroy yet another settlement. "I wonder," Gram chuckled as he watched the titanic mountain golem go to work, "how much further will you go, dear?"

Pawra blinked as her master suddenly disappeared. "Mraw?" Shrugging, the catgirl Mazoku walked over towards the window before curling up in a sunbeam and taking a nap.

(–)

"Is this all you can do?" Gram grinned as he materialized behind Corona. The girl turned to glare at him. "Oh my my..." He chuckled as he looked at her. "I can't even tell you're wearing the Zennefa Armor."

Corona's eyes flashed red and her white hair fluttered in the non-existent wind. "Did you come to talk, or die? I can probably kill you now." She narrowed her eyes and held out Brunzel as Gram laughed at her. "Well?"

"Perhaps you can," Gram nodded as her personal golem, Balmung, walked up behind her, "but that's not why I'm here. Surely you would love to have another Zannafar, wouldn't you?"

Corona crossed her arms over her chest and looked away. "I have Zanny, why do I need another one?"

Gram shrugged and turned to leave. "Fine, but your friends are going to leave you. Already they're moving to find a way home without you." A smirk crossed his face when he felt Corona's interest spiking. "Surely you wouldn't want to let them... Leave without paying you back for what happened to your friend, right?"

"But you..." Corona started before Gram whirled on her, glaring as a powerful aura surrounded him.

"You still think that I killed your friend? Are you a fool? It was them! Had they been willing to turn over the information I was after, your friend would still be alive right now and you would have been able to live in peace." His aura disappeared and he faded from sight. "Of course, if you don't care about your friend's death, then I have no more need for you."

Corona took a step forward before clutching at her head and groaning. Images flashed through her mind of Rio being there, smiling at her, encouraging her on, helping her gain confidence in fighting arts even though Rio was much better than she was before the final images of Rio, with a hole in her stomach falling over a cliff and walking up to her and falling apart. "Wait... WAIT! COME BACK!"

"Yes?" Gram smirked as he formed right in front of her. "Did you have a change of heart?"

Corona panted as she fell to her knees. "Please... That other armor..."

**"What are you doing? You have me!"**

Corona turned her head to glare at the Zannafar, who suddenly found itself backing off several steps. "Quiet, Zanny..."

Gram chuckled and held up his hand, above it, another silver breastplate appeared in the air. "This is another completed Zannafar Armor. I wish to see what you can do with this one. Maybe with the two Zannafar, a Zennefa and your golems you could kill me, after you take care of your former friends."

"What friends?" Corona's voice became soft as she held a hand up to touch the armor. "Friends don't let friends die. Friends don't let friends get captured. And friends..." Corona snapped her head up, "don't abandon friends!" She screamed, her eyes blazing with power as she worked over the Zannafar Armor to do her bidding.

Gram disappeared, grinning to himself the whole time. "Of course, little girl." If he was right about her, he wouldn't need his master's previous toys, he could just bring this girl to his master and she could do what was needed.

(–)

Back in Gyria...

Nove nodded at the salesman, an older, fairly robust man who looked to be pretty fit despite his large belly. "Thank you for seeing me."

The man smiled at her. "No problem, miss. So, how can I help you today?"

Nove jerked a thumb at the automobile she was standing next to. "I don't know much about these new things, but I would like to know more."

The man nodded as he and Nove went over to the hood of a truck. "Now then, what is it you wish to know?"

"Well..." Nove clapped her hands together. "How do these things start? Do you need a crank or something?"

The man laughed and motioned for her to follow him to the cab. "A crank? That's silly. I know this technology is new and all that, but it's really simple." He opened the door and revealed the inside, causing Nove to blink as she took it in. "As you can see, this is a two-seater, but anyway, you just take a key, like this," he pulled a random key out of his pocket, "and you put it into this slot here."

"I.. See..." Nove frowned and blinked as she saw something that looked like an arm brace or a pressure cuff to measure blood pressure. "What's that?"

"Ah! A little secret of these things we sell to wizards." The man winked at her. "This is a magic cuff, it allows the wizard to use his or her own magic to make the truck, that's what this is called, go faster than it can normally."

"Normally?" Nove raised an eyebrow as the man pointed to some glass in front of the wheel.

"Normally this can go, at most, as fast as a horse at top speed. However, with that magic cuff, you can go double that speed, depending on how much magic you're willing to give up."

"I... See." Nove nodded slowly and looked down at the pedals. "So, what do those two things do? And what's with those weird things?"

"Those are pedals, you use the long one to accelerate and the short one to brake." Nove nodded in response, "as for those things, why they're what allows magical power to flow through this whole truck. The reason you need a key is so the magic flow can go unimpeded."

"I... See..." Nove frowned. "These things use magic, but how does that work for someone who doesn't have magic?"

"Ah!' The man laughed and reached down to pull on a lever, causing the hood to pop up. "Come, I'll show you."

As the man walked towards the hood, Nove's frown was deepening. 'This is way too coincidental, something's not right here.' As she walked around front to look at the truck's engine, her suspicions only deepened. "Are these moving parts?" The man nodded at her. "But how do they keep from grinding or locking up?"

"Magic." The man winked at her. "See, all vehicles use this new magic engine, it draws upon magical energy to move, power itself up and everything else. It's a wonder that they came out as fast as they have. But they're expensive right now."

"I see..." Nove scratched her chin, "but if they run on magic, wouldn't it be hard for wizards to fight with a bunch of these running around?"

"Not at all." The man shook his head, before tilting it to the side as Nove leaned in to take a closer look at the engine. "Why, engines like these consume so little magic that a first year magic student would only have trouble casting something like a Flare Bit, which is so worthless of a spell no one uses it except to start small fires."

The man had to admit, the redhead was very pleasing to look at, especially from behind.

Nove pushed herself back and raised an eyebrow at him. "Sounds like you were a wizard at one point yourself."

"Guilty," the man nodded as he gestured for Nove to step back so he could close the hood, "was an adventurer in my younger days. Only knew the basics and got into a fight that nearly got me killed. Ended up quitting and settling down here after that. Lucky for me, I've been able to live a decent life like this."

"I see..." Nove's voice sounded a bit on the timid side, which was unusual for her, "so, how much is this?" She winced when she heard the price, "holy damn! I could probably buy a mansion for that price!"

The man shrugged, "probably, but we do offer rental services."

"Do you mind if I look under the truck?"

The man shook his head and grinned as Nove got to her knees and slid forward before flipping over and looking at the underside of the truck. 'This makes no sense at all, how? How is this possible?'

After a few moments, she slid out from under the truck and blinked as the man offered her a hand up. "Is there anything else I can do for you?" The man smiled as Nove nodded at him.

"Yes, how does the engine keep powered if there's no magic around it?"

The man held up a finger and grinned at her. "There's magic runes engraved into the engine and moving parts. It keeps it from locking up and powers it up at the same time."

"I see... So the key makes it so magic flows to the engine and powers the runes?" The man nodded at Nove's assertion.

"Yes! That's it exactly! The runes are rather ingenious! Someone made it so that they generate magic when in use, but absorb magic when not in use." He shrugged at her disbelieving look. "Don't ask me, that's how it works."

Nove was silent for a few moments. "Thank you, do you mind if I look around?"

"Of course not." Nove nodded and walked off, leaving the man to grin as he stared at her retreating form. "Damn, if only I was twenty years younger."

Nove twitched as her cyborg hearing picked that up. "Shit," she grumbled, "does everyone have to ogle my ass or something?"

"Well, I don't know why not..." Uno spoke up and grinned at her. "Sein was always telling me how much she enjoyed groping your rear and breasts."

Nove slapped herself in the face. "Sein gropes little girls who haven't reached puberty yet, if there were more guys around, she'd probably grope their asses and crotches too."

"Nove..." Jail popped up, looking seriously at her. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"That these cars are way too similar to the cars we have on Mid-Childa?" Nove frowned as she looked at several more trucks and cars. "Yeah, this can't be a coincidence. Someone had to have been in our universe and came here and built these things. But the only one who could have done so is Mr. Zelgadis and I don't think he'd do this," nor did she think he had enough skill to do this without years of training.

"Yes, it doesn't make much sense to me either." Jail looked around as Nove moved towards what seemed to be a hybrid between a car and a pickup. "Are you going to do what I think you're going to do? And with a station wagon?"

"Doc, I'm a former terrorist, you taught me to do what I'm about to do." Jail chuckled as Nove took a breath and closed her eyes. [i]"Hey! Nila, are you there?"

"Nove? Why are you contacting me?"

"Is Pokota there?"

"Yes, but what does..."

"Is Lyos okay?"

"Yes, but why are you..."

"Grab everyone and meet me in front of the healer's place."

"Nove, what are you doing?"

"Don't ask questions, just do it and be prepared to move."[/i]

Nila was silent for several moments before sending a reply. [i]"I hope you know what you're doing."

"Trust me, just get ready."

"Very well. How long do you need?"

"I'll be there as soon as possible."[/i] Nove cut the connection before jumping into the station wagon that was parked next to the street.

"Ah! Miss!" The man ran up to her and smiled. "Is that the one you want?"

Nove walked over to him and smiled as she slinked up next to his body, pressing herself against him. "Yeah, it is... And... I'm sorry for what I'm about to do."

The man was gulping, he hadn't thought that the girl in front of him was a harlot, but damn if she didn't have a gorgeous body, he wouldn't mind some time with her. "And that is..?"

"This." The next thing the man knew, Nove's hands slammed onto either side of his head, causing him to black out and fall to the ground in a heap. "Sorry about that." Nove muttered as she got into the car and grabbed the wires. "If this is anything like the trucks back on Mid-Childa..." Nove muttered as she went to work with the wires, pulling a few out and after a few moments of fiddling with them. "Okay, I just hot wired a car the same way I'd do back on Mid-Childa, something is really weird."

"You know, the longer you stay here the longer someone can stop you." Uno pointed out as Nove slammed the door shut and slapped the magic cuff onto her arm. "But you don't..."

"I don't think it needs specific magic, my I.S. still gives off a magical signal, just not a common one, you know." Nove countered as she put the station wagon into drive and took off, leaving the salesman knocked out.

Pokota, his ears sewn back together, frowned as he waited on Nila's head. "What are we waiting for?" Nila didn't have her cloak as it had been, as she had feared, totally unfixable.

Vivio was rubbing her eyes and yawning. "Still sleepy." Even if she was a clone of Olivie, she still was young and needed sleep.

Ixpellia rubbed her eyes to get the sleep out of them. "I am surprised how..." She stopped talking as a car pulled up. "What the?"

"Nove?" Lyos opened the passenger side door as Nove motioned for them to get in. "What's..."

"I stole this station wagon and I think the guards are chasing me and we need to get out of here now!" Nove hissed with urgency. "Unless you want to be left behind, get in and be quiet!"

It took all of twenty seconds to get everyone inside. Vivio and Einhart took the back seat with Arashi sitting between them while Ixpellia and Nila hopped into the trunk area and sat down with Pokota still on Nila's head while Lyos got into the passenger side seat.

A moment later the car was peeling out of Gyria and heading South.

"Do you know where you're going?" Lyos asked her.

"South! I already found out that a road leads from here through Kalmaart and into Saillune before ending in the Coastal Alliance States, that's where you and Pokota were going, right?"

"Well, yes, but..." Lyos trailed off as Nove shook her head. "What's wrong?"

"All of our problems started when we ran into that Mazoku before we met you. If it was just one run-in, that would be one thing, but then he kept focusing on us and the attacks of that guy that beast man and that ninja guy are happening too often. I want to stop this so we can work on finding Corona and then getting back home."

"You think they're in the Coastal Alliance?" Pokota leaned in close as he listened in on the conversation. "But that's crazy! There's lots of places here on the continent."

"Well, crazy or not, it's what I think." Nove sighed as she drove down the road. "All you guys get some rest," she undid the magic cuff and put it down, "I can go at least three days before I need sleep."

"Don't push yourself." Lyos grumbled as he settled down before blinking as Nove squeezed his hand. "What?"

"I need you to stay awake when it gets dark. I need someone who can watch to make sure we don't hit anything while I focus on the road."

Lyos raised an eyebrow and nodded, sure, it was hours from sunset, but she made a point. "Mind if I sleep until then?"

"Sure."

(-)

A few hours later, Arashi woke up from his nap and blinked, before nearly screaming loudly at what he saw. Nearly because a hand snapped around and slapped over his mouth. "MMMPH!?"

"Calm." Nila said softly as she kept Arashi from waking Einhart, Vivio and Ixpellia up from their naps. "It is surprising, but you do not need to scream." She held her hand over his mouth as he nodded and waited until he relaxed. "Better?"

"Yeah." Arashi sighed as he looked down. Vivio using his chest as a pillow didn't really surprise him, she sometimes did that when they were worn out at home. Einhart using his shoulder as a pillow was surprising, he didn't think she would do that. Well, that and she apparently drooled in her sleep, his shoulder was all wet by now. But even that paled in comparison to Ixpellia, who had, sometime in the past few hours, crawled out of the way back and was laying across his, Einhart's and Vivio's laps, sound asleep. "When did..."

"For the past hour." Nove spoke up softly as she tried to stay on the road. "Didn't you know that's what happens to anyone who sleeps in the middle seat of a car?" Arashi shook his head and Nove smirked. "Get used to it if you wanna sit in the middle. Happens to me all the time." Granted, it was Aston and Cecilia that tended to that, though Subaru would sometimes join in, and considering how grabby and clingy the blue haired girl was, it made for a... Very uncomfortable ride some times.

"Urgh, getting hungry." Pokota grumbled as he leaned over the seat. "Are we near a village or something?"

"It is getting late." Lyos spoke up as he saw the sun starting to descend past the mountains to the West. "Well, even if we wanted to eat, we'd have to find something to kill. And, honestly, Nove, I could use a break myself, sitting for hours doesn't suit me well, my body's cramping up."

"Yeah, we'll stretch in a few minutes, seems there's a village just outside of your eyesight." Nove smirked when Lyos confirmed he couldn't see anything head of them. "I've got pretty good eyes."

"Too bad you could never win any stealth games."

Nove twitched as the memories came back to her. "Un-nee, I told you, Sein cheats. I don't have x-ray vision, you know, and she can meld with walls easily."

Uno covered her mouth as she tried to hold back her laughter. "Sein, hide and seek champion three years running now."

"Yes, but if there is a village, there should be a place to eat." Nila spoke up softly. "Shall we stop there for the night?"

"You speak a lot more without the hood on." Pokota grumbled as Nila shrugged. "Seriously, at first I didn't even know if you could talk, how the hell did Lyos ever communicate with you?"

"I've worked with her a lot in the past, Pokota." Lyos rolled his shoulders, "mostly on treasure hunts, raids or some random quest that has us end up in the same area for some reason or another."

Nila shrugged as she moved to sit up on her knees. "I have my secrets, I prefer not to speak if I do not need to." Plus she found most people to be annoying and not worth talking to most of the time.

"Understandable, anyway, Arashi, wanna wake the girls up? We'll be at the village soon and we can get some food."

"Where's the food?" Vivio suddenly sat up, looking around. She blushed as Arashi, Pokota and Nila gave her a funny look. "What? Whenever someone says food, it's usually time for dinner." Plus she was getting hungry now that she thought about it.

"Even sis doesn't jump up that fast when someone says food," Arashi deadpanned, "and she eats a lot." Vivio grumbled but didn't try to refute it, Nanoha-mama [i]did[/i] eat a lot at times.

"Mughl..." Ixpellia tried to speak as she rolled over and blinked while looking up. "Why is my bed moving?" She finally got out after several attempts at talking. Rubbing her eyes, she moved until she was sitting on Arashi's lap. "Where are we?"

"Not far from a village, you'll be able to get out and stretch."

Ixpellia nodded, still looking sleepy before leaning back against Arashi and falling asleep again.

Arashi just twitched as Vivio giggled at him. It wasn't fair, even if Ixy didn't weigh that much, her hip bone was digging into his leg and he could have sworn it was starting to fall asleep. He looked at Einhart when she suddenly grabbed him and squeezed his arm in her sleep. "Numblum."

Vivio giggled as Arashi groaned and latched onto his arm. "Oh please, Arashi-sama, be gentle to us innocent maidens." Arashi would have given her a dirty look if Ixpellia didn't roll slightly and practically bury her face into his neck as she dozed off.

"Stop watching romantic comedies, Vivio." Nove shot back at her, "they're rotting your brain." Vivio just stuck her tongue out in response.

Behind them, Nila fought the urge to laugh as she rolled over so she was sitting down with her legs outstretched and her back against the seat.

(–)

Looking at her latest Zannafar, Corona nodded, sure, she had to wipe out all the fish in a nearby lake, there had even been a few wolves that got caught up in fueling the suit, and what did she care about those villagers for? They attacked her first! Just because she had her first Zannafar and golems trash the town, was that any reason to try and kill her with arrows and pitch forks?

She had to admit, this one was... A bit weird, even to her. "Kind of looks like that King Ghidorah from that movie I saw." Well, other than it looked like it was made out of water and it had no wings, but it had three heads. "Hmm, you need a name, I can't call you Zanny, I have Zanny and Zenny, you need a name though." Frowning, she closed her eyes and tried to think of a name. "Grammy? No, stupid. Dammy?"

**"Bah!"** The wolf Zannafar spoke up as he walked forward. **"This thing isn't even a match for me, much less... WOAH!"** Zannafar growled as he jumped back from one of the heads as it turned to attack him. **"You really want to die!?"**

The three-headed Zannafar let out a loud scream and stomped towards the other one.

"Zanny! Zilla! No fighting!" Corona yelled, her eyes glowing as both Zannafar stopped, shuddered and backed off from one another. "Now, let's go!"

**"Where?"**

Corona opened her mouth, before blinking and sitting down. "...I have no idea." Wasn't the answer supposed to come to her naturally? Where would she go from here? Where was here? A loud stomp distracted her thoughts and she looked up to see Balmung pointing to the South. "Wait... We came from there, right?" The golem nodded as Corona jumped onto its hand before she was put on its back. "Well then..."

Before she could speak more, a loud grumbling sound was heard from her stomach and she pouted. "I need food." Narrowing her eyes, Corona motioned for Balmung to take her to the destroyed village. "First food, then revenge!" After that, she would probably take a nap or something, she wasn't sure.

(–)

As he got out of the car, Arashi stretched and groaned as he felt his muscles, as tight as they were, rebelling with the act. "Finally!" Taking a step forward, he found himself flat on his face and groaned in dismay. "Stupid... Sleeping... Feet."

"I'm sorry." Einhart said she she helped him up. "I didn't mean to..." The girl was blushing, both because she couldn't believe she drooled all over him in her sleep, and because she had been sleeping against him for so long.

"I, too, wish to apologize." Ixpellia helped Arashi to his feet. "I was more exhausted than I thought and you were comfortable." Arashi nodded as they helped him walk feeling back into his legs and feet.

Vivio pouted as Pokota was using her head as rest. "Can't you fly?"

"Yeah, but it's easier to just ride on people's heads." Pokota grinned as he leaned over and looked Vivio in the eye. "Besides, it's only for a couple of minutes, so relax."

Nila nodded to Lyos as he helped her out of the car before grabbing Banisher off the floor of the car. "You could leave it."

"Even if I could call it from anywhere, I feel almost naked without it." Lyos rolled his eyes as Nove killed the engine and stepped out the car. "Anyway, let's get some food and hope they have a place to sleep."

"Sounds good." Nove stretched and winced as her back popped. "Okay, now I remember why I don't like driving for hours at a time." She shook her head and rubbed her eyes. "Forgot about highway hypnosis."

"Huh?" Nila and Lyos asked in confusion.

Nove closed her eyes and waved her hand as she rubbed her eyes. "It's a symptom of driving too much, you tend to focus too much on the road and you end up up either being lulled to sleep or black out."

"...That doesn't sound safe." Lyos muttered, this girl was driving? The way she was talking, it sounded like they were lucky to be alive at that moment.

"It's not, but you don't know how to drive, do you?" Both Nila and Lyos shook their heads. "Thought so." Nove rubbed her eyes again. "Besides, I can just ignore it if I'm in Combat Cyborg mode."

"...Combat what?" Lyos asked, causing Nove to freeze as she realized what she said. "What's that?"

"...Just think of it as a state of mind where I can focus." Both Nila and Lyos nodded and Nove sighed in relief. Explaining how she wasn't completely human would have been a pain.

"Come on!" Vivio yelled back at the three of them. "We're hungry!"

"Coming!" Nove yelled as she ran to catch up with them.

Nila bit her lip and looked at Lyos. "Do you believe that?"

Lyos shrugged and shouldered his blade. "Even if she was lying, she has her reasons, if it keeps her from sending us off a cliff, I won't complain.' Besides, it didn't seem like it was a bad thing, even if it sounded weird.

* * *

Vivio: What the heck?! When did we enter Grand Theft Cars?  
Einhart: Around the time that someone decided it was a good idea to steal a car and hide out at a hotel.  
Vivio: Well, at least we don't have an army after us.  
Einhart: ...Hopefully. Next time on Blood That Flows Revolution, do we have an army after us?  
Nove: Heck if I know.

Before you ask, I got inspired for the car after seeing some of Fairy Tail, where Erza was driving the car to catch up to Natsu. Really early in the series.


	325. Revolution Twenty-Two

Blood That Flows

Revolution Twenty-Two

I own nothing.

I completely forgot to update, life got busy last month.

* * *

Hours later, Nove found herself in the hotel room that she was sharing with Nila. She was just grateful that there were three spare rooms available. If this was some sort of trashy and cheap novel or piece of fiction, she honestly would have expected something along the lines of a honeymoon suite as the only room available. After making sure that the car was secure, Nove had skipped out on a bath, stating she just wanted to go to bed.

But that had been awhile ago and she was still no closer to getting to sleep. "Urgh, this sucks."

"I could find a few music files to play." Jail spoke up from the dresser. "I think I could find something here..."

"Don't bother." Nove grumbled as she threw her arm over her eyes to try and get some rest. "Most of the stuff is rock, pop music or a variant of it."

"What about this stuff?" Jail held a file in his hand and opened it up. "Huh, unnamed music, I wonder..."

Nove groaned as she heard the music coming out of her device. "Okay, I think I'm going to need to talk to Yuuno if I get home about his device hacking into other devices and leaving cheesy porn music behind."

"And just how do you know that it's porn music?" Uno raised an eyebrow as Nove stiffened before her face turned as red as her hair. "My sweet, innocent little sister, leave her alone for a little bit and she's lookiing at porn." Uno wiped a fake tear from her eyes. "They grow up so fast these days, don't they?"

Nove groaned and thumped her head on the bed several times. Sometimes she wondered if Uno's teasing was natural or exaggerated from the programming. "Tell me something, doc, will we make it?"

Jail was silent for several minutes as he thought about the question. "Will we survive, be sane or in one piece?"

"Yes." Nove lifted her arm to look at him. "I lost Rio, Corona was kidnapped... I don't... How can..."

"I don't know, Nove." Jail shook his head. "I honestly don't know. Even if you could get away, I don't know how long it would be for, you and the others caught this Mazoku's attention, and you have other things to worry about too." He sighed as Nove groaned and rolled over to face away from him. Jail was about to speak up when there was a knocking on the door. "Come in!"

"Nila, you didn't need to knock, it's not like I have anything you haven't seen before." Nove muttered as she looked at the wall and tried to find a way to get her mind to relax.

"Maybe, but I don't think you'd want me to see you without clothes on." A male voice spoke up and Nove rolled over and sat up, staring as Lyos walked into her room. "Nila kind of forced me to come in here. So, you seemed pretty distracted when we were eating." At least that's what Nila had told him, he barely noticed, though, if he thought back on it, she had been rather quiet the last few days.

"I'm just..." Nove put her hand to her head and rubbed it. "I don't know."

"Oh?" Lyos put his sword up against the wall and walked over to the bed when she motioned for him to sit near her. "Something getting to you?"

"I don't..." Nove groaned and slapped her forehead. "I'm so fucking sick of this! I'm scared that something bad happened to Corona, I had to watch Rio die in front of me, I'm trying to keep from freaking out and I have to keep Vivio, Einhart, Arashi and Ixy alive, but I've done a bang up job of that, haven't I?" Nove was punctuating each point with various arm thrusts and snarls. "Look at me. I was supposed to be able to fight against Mazoku, I was trained to do so, and I can't do a goddammed thing! What's the point?! Now there's an assassin after all of us, some weird cat person and knowing my luck, the next time we get into a fight, another one of those kids are going to get mangled and then I'll probably just..."

"Calm down." Lyos grabbed her shoulder and she looked at him, anger and confusion in her eyes. "You've done well so far, most people would have been dead already. I've actually done some bodyguard missions in the past that ended up with a lot more people dead than what you've had so far."

"I'm just..." Nove hugged herself. "Scared, okay?" Lyos looked at her in shock as she laughed to herself. "Yeah, look at me, big, bad Nove, someone who fought the Ace of Aces head on is scared of what's happening." The redhead trembled while laughing. "Isn't it funny? I mean, I committed terrorism on Mid-Childa, I helped attack several people, I was even part of an attack that ended up with my sister getting kidnapped and one of her superior officers getting hurt, but this..."

Lyos was silent as he looked at her trembling and fighting the urge to cry. "More than what you're used to?" Nove nodded and sniffled. Lyos awkwardly placed an arm around her shoulder and was surprised when Nove turned and pressed herself against him. "Even around here, dealing with Mazoku can be harsh." He was glad that there was that truce going on right now. Mazoku mostly just caused mischief and grief right now, though he had no doubt if any rumor of Shabranigdo being able to return again that most of those same Mazoku would turn vicious and start civil wars or attack major kingdoms again just because they could.

Nove trembled and looked up at him. "You handle it well, don't you?"

Lyos shrugged, he didn't think he handled much well. "I try my best."

"Better than me, I bet." Nove grumbled softly. What more could she do? It wasn't like she had access to stuff like that Dragon Slave that Pokota could use. She looked at Lyos and bit her lips as he said her name. "Lyos..." She surprised him by pulling him down on top of her. "Just shut up, please? I..."

"Are you sure?" Nove blushed hard but nodded. "Alright then."

(–)

The next morning...

Vivio looked at Nove in confusion as the redhead got the car started. "...Is it me, or does Nove seem more relaxed than usual?"

Sitting next to her, Arashi shook his head. "No, seems that way to me too." Ixpellia, on Arashi's other side, nodded. Between the way Nove was acting and the look that was on Lyos' face, she had a [i]pretty[/i] good idea as to what happened last night.

Behind them, Nila just smirked as the car roared to life. 'I love it when a plan comes together.'

"Alright, let's go!" Nove proclaimed as the car started to take off. After last night, she did feel a lot better.

"So, just a straight shot South from here should take us to the Coastal Alliance states." Lyos pointed out as they pulled out of the village and onto the main road.

Nove nodded, glad to get the show on the road again.

(–)

Near the Northern boarder of the Coastal Alliance states, the Duchess narrowed her eyes as she ordered the tanks and her troops to stop. Moving any further North could be seen as an act of aggression and she didn't need to deal with that. "We'll wait here." There was a rocky outcropping just to the North, but otherwise everything was flat around them. "Move the panzer tanks apart, animal tanks get into spear formation, troops, be ready to move on anyone who comes this way."

"Yes ma'am!"

"I will not fail like those fools did." The Duchess muttered darkly as she turned to wait.

(-)

"Dammit..." Nove grumbled as she pulled the car off the road and parked it. "Everyone get out."

"Huh?" Arashi blinked as he, Vivio and Ixpellia were jostled awake. Some people might think they were sleeping too much, but if there wasn't anything to distract them, they might as well sleep. "What's going on?"

"Seems we got a blockade ahead." Nove answered as she got the car to turn off. Getting out of the car, she stretched and groaned as she felt her muscles stretch with the motion. "I'm not in the mood to let the car get destroyed by what's ahead anyway."

Lyos pulled his sword out of the backseat and shouldered it. "And what are we facing?"

"Looks like two large tanks, some of those weird animal tanks from before and a bunch of soldiers." Nove shook her head and rubbed her eyes. "Anyway..."

"More magic tanks?" Pokota grimaced, wondering why his country had to have that technology in the first place. "Shouldn't be too hard, but what about those new ones?"

"I'm calling them tanks, but they're more like heavily armored boxes on treads." Everyone looked at her in confusion. "You'll see when we get there."

(–)

Corona let out a burp as she finished the food that remained in the village. "That was good, a bit bland, but then again, everything exploded!" She giggled as she looked around the remains of the small village. "Oh wow!" Her eyes lit up as she saw a large green gem in the middle of the room. As she got closer, she realized it wasn't just green, but it had a yellow tint, making it seem like the colors blended together perfectly. "So pretty..."

A sudden image of Rio flashed through her head and she suddenly grabbed her head and took a step back, groaning in pain. "No..." Tears welled up in her eyes as she realized what she was thinking of. "No... NO!" Screaming in pain and suffering, Corona started grabbing random objects and throwing them around. "NO!"

Trembling with rage as she walked out of the remains of the house, she looked at Balmung. "Zanny, Zenny, Balmung! Get on Jörmungandr!"

[b]"What now?"[/b] The wolf Zannafar grumbled as he followed Corona and the Hydra Zannafar towards the mountain sized Golem.

Corona grinned as her eyes glowed scarlet. "They're all going to pay." Her voice was crazed as Balmung lifted her up and flew upwards towards the chest while the Zannafars ascended towards the upper parts of the knees.

(–)

Gram chuckled as he watched Corona. "Her development is coming along nicely, wouldn't you say, Pawra?"

"Mraw?" The catgirl Mazoku tilted her head. "I guess, I mean, if she was being groomed to be turned into a Mazoku, she's doing okay..."

Gram chuckled at the catgirl. "She's a young child, who has pure Black magic poured into her, plus..." He grinned as he held up a ring that matched the one that Corona was wearing. "My own personal twist."

"Oooh!" Pawra jumped up while clapping, her tail swished behind her in excitement. "Can we... Can we keep this one before breaking her?"

"I wonder how she'll react when she realizes that she killed her former friends for nothing." The comment was casual, but the sheer malice in the room was anything but.

"Master Gram, do you need that..." Pawra trailed off as Gram shook his head and smirked while leaning forward. "So, then why?"

"It amuses me, that's all."

(–)

Back at the Coastal Alliance boarder...

"You weren't kidding when you said that it was a giant armored box." Lyos muttered as he and Nove looked over the rocky outcropping to see the battlefield. The non-animal tanks looked like two square boxes stacked on top of one another, except for the front, which reminded Lyos of an exaggerated arrowhead for some reason. "What's with those weird wheels?"

"Treads." Nove frowned as she took a closer look. "This is just absurd."

"Looks like you're right, Nove." Uno spoke up as Nove and Lyos slid back to sit against the rock. "The technology is too similar to ours."

Nove nodded, while it was nice to see technological advancement, this was way too fast in her opinion. "So, I've never been much for planning how to fight this situation, any suggestions?"

"Blow them all up!" Vivio, in her adult mode, thrust her fist into the air. "That way they can't fight back."

"I agree." Nila nodded to the blonde and then looked at the group. "Blowing them up would be the quickest way." She looked at Pokota and a thought came to her. "In fact, Pokota, how about you blow them up from here?"

Pokota grinned and flew over to the rocky outcropping, revealing himself to the Duchess below. "Hey you!" Behind him, Nove slapped her forehead. "For robbing Taforashia, I'm going to make you pay!"

Down below, the Duchess frowned, she knew he was yelling, but she couldn't hear what he was saying. "Get into formation everyone!" She snapped her fan closed and narrowed her eyes as she saw the rabbit doing something. "Magic Tanks, defensive grid, now!"

"Ma'am!"

"Let's see what you've got, rabbit."

Up on the ridge, Pokota grinned as he chanted. 'This will smash them but good.' He thought to himself.

[i]"Darkness Beyond Twilight,

Crimson Beyond Blood That Flows,

Buried in the Stream of Time,

Is Where Your Power Grows.

I Pledge Myself to Darkness

Against the Foes that Stand

Against the Might Gift Bestowed

In my Unworthy Hand.

Let the fools who stand before us be destroyed

By the Power You and I possess!"[/i]

Pokota was chuckling as he thrust his rabbit ears forward, a red sphere of total destruction rushing outwards from his ear-palms as he did so. "DRAGON SLAVE!"

Watching the red sphere of destruction descend on her, the Duchess merely closed her eyes before pointing her fan at one of the tanks. "Increase the defenses, now!"

"Ma'am!"

"Activate the diffusion... Now!" A small smirk came to her face as her soldiers complied with their order. She resisted the urge to laugh, though just barely, this would be... Fun.

Pokota watched in shock as his Dragon Slave slammed into some sort of wall and exploded violently. "WHAT?!" There was no way, nothing could withstand a Dragon Slave, nothing! Even fortified cities exploded when hit with a Dragon Slave, how could something stop it out here in the middle of nowhere?

"Well that's... Disheartening." Lyos muttered, he had seen it, he couldn't believe it. "What the hell?" He openly gawked as the explosion faded and the dirt and dust cleared to reveal a completely unhurt Duchess. "That's total bullshit!"

"So... Who's up for surrendering?" Pokota turned to look at the others as he asked that question.

Jail, meanwhile, was frowning as he looked at the barrier. One of the things he did like about being a program at that moment was the ability to see through things like explosions and zoom in on what he was interested in. "Vivio, dear," the blonde looked down at Nove's foot where Jail's hologram was, "would you go ahead and fire a magic stream at the lady down there?"

"What good would that do?" Vivio asked and looked back at the woman between the tanks as she was turning away to say something to her troops. "Even the Dragon Slave didn't do anything."

"I know, that's why I want you to fire a beam into it, I need to take another look and explosion doesn't last long enough for me to know what happened." Jail looked up and smirked at the girl. "Unless you want to just give up and hope they don't kill us."

Growling, Vivio held up her hand and a multi-colored orb formed in the palm of her hand. "Fine! Sacred Cluster!" Thrusting her palm forward, she watched as the orb shattered into fragments, each one soaring towards the barrier, shattering as it connected with it. "You happy?"

"Interesting..." Jail muttered as he continued to watch the barrage. "Diffusion and absorbtion, I see now."

"Huh?" Nove looked down at him. "What do you see?"

Jail chuckled at the confused looks he was getting. "Well, she's following the laws of thermodynamics, energy, especially that of magic, just can't go away, the shield that's surrounding her seems to disperse magical energy as it gets close, similar to an AMF, but anything that doesn't just scatter hits a barrier that seems to absorb energy and send it somewhere, probably those two tanks to the side."

"AMF?" Lyos scratched his head. "But, how does that work? Even major protection spells can't fully stop a Dragon Slave."

"Well, think of the diffusion that happens as a thick forest and arrows are shot into the forest, trying to hit someone that ran in. Most of them aren't going to get through, but some can. The barrier, however, is like a magnet, pulling the arrows away from the target. In this case, the spell just crashes because it runs out of energy."

"But even an AMF can't stop a really strong spell." Nove pointed out, "But wait, the AMS did, but that was massively amplified by a Unison Device."

Jail chuckled at the question, "yes, but what if the energy that was powering the spells was sent to the Gadget Drones to further power the AMF?" Nove's eyes widened as she realized what he was talking about. "Besides, I'm not surprised this happened."

"How are you not?" Nila frowned as the troops started to move forward. "They come."

Jail smirked at the Sorceress. "Simple, the magi-tech cars and trucks that people use to travel use the same principle, just on a smaller scale."

"Well..." Lyos muttered as he unsheathed his sword, "that's just fun."

* * *

Sorry about the delay, haven't been in a mood to write nearly as much as I'd like to, plus I found some interesting anime and light novels to enjoy.


End file.
